DuckDuckBOOM.4097

But it is a 20 sec cd stun break. Can't sum up the bad without the good. Oh absolutely that's a great aspect of it. I was mostly focused on the offensive aspect due to the claim "no one gets hit by it anyways."

Sure that 10x damage was PvE but it still tells the bigger story of a huge player skill gap which is definitely there in PvP. I know you can double cast the gs evade if you cancel it at the right time. I know you can jump with GS 4 and other counter attacks to keep channeling blocks. I also usually screw those up and/or don't always bother with it. I also doubt that the vast majority of players even know you can do those things because of that "10x" skill gap. I 100% understand why top ranger players would be pissed and I feel bad for you but I'm not upset. That 15 endurance helps me with my next dodge and I can time that dodge when I want to. That's also a bit more healing/prot uptime because of an active dodge instead of evade frames. Making GS4 a full channeled block is a buff to my defenses that isn't randomly wasted on a clone etc when I mess up a jump. You lose an evade and damage on GS auto but you gain an evade and damage on GS4.2. I don't like the argument that no one gets hit by bandit's defense. I can say that about any skill to try to trivialize anyone's argument. I'll do it now. GS auto is only an evade and not pressure since no one ever gets hit by GS auto. /s. 3 second channel block followed by a 5 second window to evade & CC on a 12 second CD is a lot better than bandits defense taking up a utility slot. Bandit's defense also doesn't have an evade on that kick so it can be interrupted. Again, I understand your loss but it's 100% a gain for me.

@"Stand The Wall.6987"I don't think you should propose a bunch of seemingly random AoE buffs which as you mentioned are lazy but also won't fix the problem. I think it's better to first think about at baseline, what is the closest ranger currently has to a meta build, why it doesn't work and then propose the minimum number of buffs that would push it into at least being viable in zergs without breaking other game modes. What builds do we have that are closest to viable?1) Druid as a healer.2) Group stability front line SB3) Back line DPS with longbow What is lacking/how to buff them in WvW without breaking PvP?1.1) Rather than have Druid try to beat FB or scrapper at their own game, I think Druid needs its own niche which could be a CC healer as Druid does have decent amount of CC on glyphs, CA and the staff trait. Aside from generic boon removal/corruption, there is currently only 1 anti-stability trait in the game: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Brutality What if you could move while casting CA5 and it stripped 1-2 stack of stability per pulse? Druid doesn't completely steal scourge or spell breakers spot for boon removal but it fills an anti-stability niche which would allow it to utilize a lot of the CC built into Druid. It also enables your zerg to time CC spikes in specific areas. 1.2) Explosive seeds (Ancient seeds rework): (Lesser) seeds of life now instantly detonates. + When you interrupt a foe, immobilize them and drop a lesser seed of life (no ICD). Nobody has time to wait for a seed to blossom in mobile zerg fights after already waiting for a glyph cast time. It removes the ability to blast light fields via CA 2/3. Interrupts with glyph tides/equality, CA3 or primal echo, give bonus heals. 1.3) Changing staff 1 to heal independent of a target would help a lot on the heal side in zergs when not in CA. 2.1) Group stab is extremely rare for not guardians. Shared Dolyak stance is actually really good. Only 1 change is "required." Rework unflinching fortitude to group stability instead of personal damage reduction. Having two abilities that share stability and also make your allies immune to cripple, chill and immob is a niche that SB could fill. Alternatively, if that's too scary for the balance team to change unflinching fortitude, add a new pet family to the game. Have a merged F2 skill from that new pet give AoE stability. Fail sure, but I don't think Druid and SB are not salvageable for zerg support. Salvaging would be easier than a new 3rd elite spec for sure. See above. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMNlRw2YasHmJOyLWPxSWwcA-zVJYiRF/h0kCoCRQMTBbNLTssB-wMM/Skrim/SB quick draw Double longbow with jacaranda. This is an idea I've had in the back of my head after the longbow 5 buff that I haven't tested yet. I think it's the closest to a viable back line DPS build that avoids projectile hate. Longbow is a coeff of 6 on a 9 second CD in this build at 1500 range. Merged jacaranda F1 is a coeff of 2.5 on a 15 second CD at 1200 range. Neither of these is stopped by projectile hate. For comparison, well of suffering is a coeff of 6 on a 30 second CD at 900 range. Well of corruption is a coeff of 3 on a 40 second CD at 900 range. I would say that SB has that easy massive damage AoEs like necro. In fact, SB have better damage, cool downs and range than power scourge. Is there a reason why scourge is meta? Yeah! Barrier and boon corruption on top of those wells. Barrage procs retal 60 times instead of 30 times per cast. If needed Necros also have life steal to negate retal. How to fix this:3.1 Make barrage a 1.0 x 6 instead of 0.5 x 12 coeff. Both yield a final coeff of 6. One might actually be viable in zergs!3.2 Make vulture stance apply AoE poison. This+predators cunning could negate a lot of the damage retal would do. It's an ideal oh shit button. Cast barrage. Realize retal is too much. Activate vulture stance.

What are you talking about? Well of suffering has a coeff of 3 over 6 hits. That is only 0.5 coeff per pulse. Meanwhile longbow auto is 0.7-0.9. Power soul beast has way more modifiers than necro. How the heck would necro hit 15k-20k per pulse without sic'em? Also wells are 900 range. So are shades. Longbow is "1500" but actually is closer to 1800 range. That's almost double the range of necro wells/shades. A MAX dps power reaper vs a golem is only doing maybe 10k per tick with the power well and the power well does twice as much damage as the condi well. There is no way a necro hits you for 15k with well of suffering unless you are naked. Anyhow, if they want to give ranger a spot in WvW Zergs, I think the best shot is to buff SB group stability to be a contender in replacing FB in some subgroups. The only other group stability right now aside from guardian is either mantra of concentration mesmer (not long enough duration) or dwarven road on rev (which just sucks at 1 stack). Shared Dolyak stance is actually good and almost comparable to stand your ground (especially after it gets nerfed next patch). 6 second base stability, 5-6 stacks each. Stand your ground is 10 targets but will be nerfed to 3 stacks soon. So SB has the only real contender for group stab for WvW. SB just needs 1 more source of group stability. I would do this by basically copy-pasting shared Dolyak stance onto Unflinching Fortitude. Remove the 100% dmg reduction and make it aoe stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize. So only SB (not core ranger which makes it easier to balance), only when merged with a stout pet (easy to balance again) has two sources of group stability. Furthermore, the stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize give SB an "unstoppable movement" niche. I could see this version of SB being useful to WvW zerg subgroups that melee push. So it wouldn't even completely replace FB in all subgroups but just a melee groups. Giving a second class group stability that competes with FB would significantly shake up the WvW meta and give ranger a spot in zergs. Traits. I've been hit by necro wells at the same distance that i'm firing my longbow. If i'm being hit by a kitten necro well at the max distance at as my Longbow, I really don't know what to tell yah, other than some kitten would seriously be messed up. Then again, i'm not the fool programmer trying to hide things behind my boss' back in the programmers office.There is no trait that does that.

The comp being good is different than the Druid being good. That's the point I'm trying to make. Druid isn't number 1. It's Chrono that is number 1 (at least in some fights)! Druid is just tacked on there because of spirits. Staff 2, as I mentioned also heals 10 targets and is far more valuable at ~700 x 10 target heal every 2 seconds. Water spirit itself is bad. 863 healing every 10 seconds is nothing (not affected by Druid healing power/outgoing healing). Water spirit is just for the 50% up time on 10 target regen to the other 5 ppl not in your subgroup since you already have perma regen from WH on the 5 in your subgroup. If you have 2 healers, water spirit is useless as the other healer with bring their own regen. I'm not saying it's impossible for Druid to heal 10 ppl but the majority of the healing is only towards 3-5 at a time and most groups I've healed need a second healer. I disagree on it being easier. I've played both. It's a lot easier keeping ppl alive with FB than Druid. The general boons/might is also easier on FB as long as your teammates group up near you.

1) I never said I was for or against that nerf. I was pointing out the absurd lie that @KeyOrion.9506 told when they claimed necro wells do 15k-20k per pulse at the same range as ranger. That is objectively false on both the range and the damage. If you cant get those numbers in optimal max PvE buff scenarios, you won't get those numbers in WvW unless you are hitting a naked.2) If you think someone killing me in WvW means I have the honor breathing because that makes me less than them, you need help. It's a game. Nothing you accomplish in this game gives you honor.

What are you talking about? Well of suffering has a coeff of 3 over 6 hits. That is only 0.5 coeff per pulse. Meanwhile longbow auto is 0.7-0.9. Power soul beast has way more modifiers than necro. How the heck would necro hit 15k-20k per pulse without sic'em? Also wells are 900 range. So are shades. Longbow is "1500" but actually is closer to 1800 range. That's almost double the range of necro wells/shades. A MAX dps power reaper vs a golem is only doing maybe 10k per tick with the power well and the power well does twice as much damage as the condi well. There is no way a necro hits you for 15k with well of suffering unless you are naked.Anyhow, if they want to give ranger a spot in WvW Zergs, I think the best shot is to buff SB group stability to be a contender in replacing FB in some subgroups. The only other group stability right now aside from guardian is either mantra of concentration mesmer (not long enough duration) or dwarven road on rev (which just sucks at 1 stack). Shared Dolyak stance is actually good and almost comparable to stand your ground (especially after it gets nerfed next patch). 6 second base stability, 5-6 stacks each. Stand your ground is 10 targets but will be nerfed to 3 stacks soon. So SB has the only real contender for group stab for WvW. SB just needs 1 more source of group stability. I would do this by basically copy-pasting shared Dolyak stance onto Unflinching Fortitude. Remove the 100% dmg reduction and make it aoe stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize. So only SB (not core ranger which makes it easier to balance), only when merged with a stout pet (easy to balance again) has two sources of group stability. Furthermore, the stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize give SB an "unstoppable movement" niche. I could see this version of SB being useful to WvW zerg subgroups that melee push. So it wouldn't even completely replace FB in all subgroups but just a melee groups. Giving a second class group stability that competes with FB would significantly shake up the WvW meta and give ranger a spot in zergs.

1) The spirit change made spirits extra reliable (actual up time in the DPS meters were higher) if you position them well2) If you want to complain about staff 1... those FB mantras are even worst for supplying your important boons. While they have a small radius around you, the cone is what you hit most ppl with. When you have allies that orbit, your boon up time on them suffers a lot.3) The one thing about playing Druid that I actually miss is staff 1 and 2 for the consistent heals (1&2) and the 10 target heals (just 2). Aside from that, I agree that FB healing is much better than druid. Overall our group has been much happier and have had higher group DPS with 2x FB+ 1 ren. I haven't personally seen anyone praise druid in a while. So I'm not sure what the OP is talking about here. In fact, I've never been cheered at or seen other ppl cheer a druid in raids ever. Just because might is applied to 10 players with gotl, doesn't mean druid solo heals/supports 10 ppl. The comp you list requires 4 support spots. Calling Druid solo heal/alone support isn't fair when you have 4 support (I'm not counting BS). 2x FB (tank/off-heal) + 1 ren requires 3 support. It's the comp my groups been using for a while. Even without spirits, our group DPS went up because that extra DPS slot > spirits. Double DPS spirit is also over rated. Comps tend to go full power or full condi. 5% power buff to 7 condi dps is nothing compared to a full extra DPS. Sun spirit is only worth 2k DPS total (not per person but total group) to 10 power DPS if it's 100% up time. Sun spirit is worth it for druid since it has nothing else to bring. 2k DPS doesn't make it worth it to bring a Druid especially since a power or condi SB can easily slot in 1 spirit. Despite having 2 druid mains, we quickly adapted to 2 x FB for VG. It's better than Druid. We use shield 5 to push orbs or staff 5 to prevent orbs from hitting the group. No entangle or nature spirit required. Healing is good enough that we usually don't get downed by green. Ppl go down maybe 1-3 times max in an entire fight and that isn't always due to greens but ppl missing blues. Samarag, use axe 3, shield 5 and F1 (3). SH, add a 4th support which is druid. We haven't done dhuum in a while due to time constraints but same as SH, just add a 4th support. So there are only two fights were druid is "better" than FB from my personal experience but it's used as a 4th slot not a replacement for FB. Also, I don't get how you can claim that "speedruns" are better with Druid and ppl not face tanking. Actual speed runs have your DPS go full DPS and not dodge because of aegis/stab (or the old mesmer distortion share). Dodging, especially to cancel a big DPS skill is a DPS loss. Aegis is the biggest utility FB brings. Agreed. I think what bothers me is that when you look at group comps in general, it's either Chrono/Druid or FB/Ren or 1 of each. However, it's never that you want the Druid. It's just that if you bring chrono, druid just vestigially fits in their. I agree that in your comp, druid is bad. That beeing said some encounters are better with minimum 1 chrono and that means druid is required. Oh absolutely. That's why I wrote the last two sentences in my post. When you need chrono, druid is there to fill in the gaps that chrono lacks. It's not that druid is great.

As someone that has played both healers in raids and fotm, I'll toss in my 2 cents. 1) The spirit change made spirits extra reliable (actual up time in the DPS meters were higher) if you position them well2) If you want to complain about staff 1... those FB mantras are even worst for supplying your important boons. While they have a small radius around you, the cone is what you hit most ppl with. When you have allies that orbit, your boon up time on them suffers a lot.3) The one thing about playing Druid that I actually miss is staff 1 and 2 for the consistent heals (1&2) and the 10 target heals (just 2). Aside from that, I agree that FB healing is much better than druid. Overall our group has been much happier and have had higher group DPS with 2x FB+ 1 ren. I haven't personally seen anyone praise druid in a while. So I'm not sure what the OP is talking about here. In fact, I've never been cheered at or seen other ppl cheer a druid in raids ever. Just because might is applied to 10 players with gotl, doesn't mean druid solo heals/supports 10 ppl. The comp you list requires 4 support spots. Calling Druid solo heal/alone support isn't fair when you have 4 support (I'm not counting BS). 2x FB (tank/off-heal) + 1 ren requires 3 support. It's the comp my groups been using for a while. Even without spirits, our group DPS went up because that extra DPS slot > spirits. Double DPS spirit is also over rated. Comps tend to go full power or full condi. 5% power buff to 7 condi dps is nothing compared to a full extra DPS. Sun spirit is only worth 2k DPS total (not per person but total group) to 10 power DPS if it's 100% up time. Sun spirit is worth it for druid since it has nothing else to bring. 2k DPS doesn't make it worth it to bring a Druid especially since a power or condi SB can easily slot in 1 spirit. Despite having 2 druid mains, we quickly adapted to 2 x FB for VG. It's better than Druid. We use shield 5 to push orbs or staff 5 to prevent orbs from hitting the group. No entangle or nature spirit required. Healing is good enough that we usually don't get downed by green. Ppl go down maybe 1-3 times max in an entire fight and that isn't always due to greens but ppl missing blues. Samarag, use axe 3, shield 5 and F1 (3). SH, add a 4th support which is druid. We haven't done dhuum in a while due to time constraints but same as SH, just add a 4th support. So there are only two fights were druid is "better" than FB from my personal experience but it's used as a 4th slot not a replacement for FB. Also, I don't get how you can claim that "speedruns" are better with Druid and ppl not face tanking. Actual speed runs have your DPS go full DPS and not dodge because of aegis/stab (or the old mesmer distortion share). Dodging, especially to cancel a big DPS skill is a DPS loss. Aegis is the biggest utility FB brings. Agreed. I think what bothers me is that when you look at group comps in general, it's either Chrono/Druid or FB/Ren or 1 of each. However, it's never that you want the Druid. It's just that if you bring chrono, druid just vestigially fits in their.

No I'm not overestimating the ambush. I just talked about the ambush+blurred frenzy with a reductionist approach in the first section. I then later mention that you can use an off-hand like pistol. Bring a utility like MoD. You still have F3 too. The Sw/P mirage is obviously going to be a small scale PvP setup where retal isn't as big a problem. The low CD evade is potent though. Or don't spam blurred frenzy. Just use pistol 5, 4, MoD and F3. With DD+CI, you can spam those two pistol skills. To clarify, I don't mean mindlessly spam. Thoughtfully use your interrupts but almost consider pistol 4-5 also really low CD abilities instead of 20-25 second CDs. Is an entire zerg trying to dodge Tides? No. Can you even use Tides with sword ambush? No. Is shield 5 an illusion or melee range? No. The shield 5 stuff is obviously about WvW zerging. Mesmer illusions are already a non factor in WvW. The new CI lets you ignore your illusion skills and double down on the skills that don't require illusions (like shield 5). I have never been in a zerg where I have actually had permanent stability on my necro (of whatever variety). I'm also able to land corrupts and fear plenty of times. WoD is also a thing. The proposed changes also have guardian stability going from 5 to 3 stacks of aoe stab. The nerf to anti-toxin runes means cover boons are going to be harder to come by from scrapper boon conversion. You also don't need to interrupt 20+ ppl when you hit 20+ ppl. You only need to interrupt 6 to have an instant recast of shield 5. If you interrupt 5 ppl, you still have improved alacrity to bring ToT down to a 3 second CD. ToT is also applying quickness and alacrity to your zerg too. You also have MoD and gravity well and chaos storm on heal for more interrupts to recharge ToT. So I disagree: mesmer weapon skills can be good considering game play in WvW already has illusions being a non-factor. The main problem was CD and CI negates that problem. Wut? Is the enemy not casting so you don't interrupt or are they doing two action while you ambush? Only 1 of these happens at a time. Either way it's good for this build. Either you free cast or your interrupt. Also how did you proc CI before it was disabled? Could you never land an interrupt? Then CI was already useless for you. You still have MoD and F3 to instant interrupt people too. Your heal with be an AoE interrupt with the new staff 5 on heal. If clones die to aoe and IH is useless, why does the meta build take IH and DE? Basically take the old meta builds with CI+MoD and keep playing it. Now you have to skillfully land interrupts instead of RNG staff 5 procs. CI won't hold ppl down anymore but your enemies will burn through their defenses slower than your skills with come on CD now. So by your second burst they are "softly" held down. At least it gives your enemies time to realize they are screwed and have a chance of running instead of feeling powerless with a CC+Immob combo from RNG. Or take Dune cloak Sw/P and try to go ham with an interrupt build that strips stability with Dune Cloak in PvP. Or go to WvW and just spam shield 5 and interrupts. I'm not saying this will be actually OP but for once I'm looking forward to a mesmer patch and I'm going to try to have fun with this trait and I think it'll be really strong in a good way.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/86662/future-potential-wvw-centric-balance-changes-september-6th-2019/p1"Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities that is already on cooldown by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe." So you don't have to worry about the 3 of 4 skills (auto attacks don't have CD so it's not out of 5) randomly recharging. If you spam 1 skill and only 1 skill + interrupts, you can start to get insane spam on it. Consider Sword mirage. Use blurred frenzy. Then ambush to interrupt. This brings sword 2 CD down to (8-5) = 3 seconds. 1 of those 3 seconds is spent ambushing anyways. Don't use any other weapon skill. You can now spam evades and blurred frenzy like crazy. That's tactical spam. Then consider the next part... I don't think it will have an ICD and berserkers will likely be the least interesting combo.https://giphy.com/gifs/Vhv8cB0LDs5BPeCdcfDuelist discipline doesn't have an ICD and has a similar function but only for pistol skills. Gif shows me interrupting 2 targets at the same time with MoD to reduce pistol 5 CD by 12 seconds (25 second CD -50% CD from 2 x 25% CD reduction of DD). Assuming DD stays as is, DD and CI will likely stack. So interrupting 1 target with DD+CI = 11 second CDR on pistol skills. So now try to combine sword+pistol mirage with DD and CI. Don't bother using sword 3 at all, it'll get in the way of CI. Just sword 2, pistol 4 and 5. There is some insane spam potential of those 3 skills if you keep landing your interrupts. The versatility of CI is kind of akin to quick draw on ranger: pick 1 skill that you need and use it more than balance intended it to be used. Shield 5 and torch 5 are going to be the aoe interrupts that are able to recharge themselves since the interrupts happen after the skill goes on CD. Torch 5 won't work well in zerg fights but shield 5 will be a decent source of aoe blind, confusion, slow. Just a quick test on golems in PvP and shield 5 can hit 20+ times in 1 cast. That is a lot of potential interrupts. If you do nothing but spam shield 5, there is a pretty good chance it will instantly recharge itself. MoD and gravity well are just icing on the cake to help keep your shield 5 spam going. You can also swap to Dom, Chaos, Chrono instead of Duel, chaos, chrono for power interrupts instead of condi. ToT, Lost time and power block can do 60 pockets of damage. That's a lot of retal procs! However, sigil of draining (~1k life steal) has no ICD. Sigil of absorption also steals 3 boons with no ICD. It cant steal stab but constantly keeping enemies low on boons from stealing them will make it easier for your allies corrupts/boon removal to get rid of stab. What else does shield 5 spam do? Give your entire zerg quickness and alacrity. Who needs illusions now? If they give CI an ICD, it'll be not nearly as good in WvW but will still have major potential for sword mirage. Then again, if you look at all the mesmer interrupt traits, only 1/7 has an ICD in PvP/WvW. We'll see.

Overall the changes look promising. The new CI has me really exited to play mesmer again but I have major balance concerns. 1) Would CI work similarly to improvisation (recharge 1 random skill 2-5 regardless of whether or not it is actually on CD?) or would it only attempt to recharge skills already on CD.1b) If I unequipped my main hand weapon (or offhand). Will it only recharge skill 4/5 (or 2/3)?2) Would there be an ICD on it?3) Do successful AoE interrupts proc it multiple times?4) Would a skill be able to recharge itself with CI procs? Staff 5, GS5, shield 5, torch 5 and pistol 5 come to mind. Pistol 5 cannot. I "know" this because duelist discipline doesn't let pistol 5 recharge itself: skill interrupts before it technically goes on CD. I suspect GS5 and the new staff 5 would be similar. Torch 5 should be able to recharge itself potentially 2-10 times with chronophantasma and aoe. Unlike every other skill here, it's a phantasm which makes it less problematic in WvW but I still see a potential "toxic" build interaction for PvP with CP, CS and SotE. Shield 5 would be able to recharge itself: it starts the CD before the CC happens. Would it change the way I play? Yes. I would try to make a full dire rune of perplexity chrono on day 1 of that patch. Run off-hand shield (and maybe no sword/scepter) full on captain america shield tossing. Dueling/Chaos/Chrono. Spam that shield 5 for interrupts and blind, slow, confusion procs and shield 4 blocks with a very low CD.Would it actually be good? Really depends on how you answer those questions.

You forgot to mentionhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_SmokescaleSmoke assault on the pet came out at the same time rev did. I could just as easily and uselessly claim that rev copied a ranger pet. This! Why can firebrand use minstrel stats? Why can any pof spec use rune of durability or leadership? Why can pof specs use viper or trailblazer gear? All the best heal builds are elite specs but rune of the monk is a core dungeon rune. I demand that only core pve healers are allowed to use those runes. /s There has been 7 years of power creep, partially through gear but also skill and trait balance and new elite specs. Most of those don't buff pets enough to keep up with that power creep. I vaguely recall a dev mentioning that updating core pets is extremely difficult due to the fact that they are also open world mobs which causes problems when they try to change pet animations. Expansion pets are how they upgrade a core mechanic to keep up with power creep without actually buffing core pets. And yet Lynx is still go to pet for some versions of condition soulbeast. Not all of those pets are uselessLynx or warthog are meta. True, but I'd argue that proves my point. They are only meta for their merged abilities and not the core pet itself. You're never supposed to unmerge. In contrast, the pof iboga is also meta for condi sb and you intentionally unmerge with the iboga during your rotation for a dps increase.

You forgot to mentionhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_SmokescaleSmoke assault on the pet came out at the same time rev did. I could just as easily and uselessly claim that rev copied a ranger pet. This! Why can firebrand use minstrel stats? Why can any pof spec use rune of durability or leadership? Why can pof specs use viper or trailblazer gear? All the best heal builds are elite specs but rune of the monk is a core dungeon rune. I demand that only core pve healers are allowed to use those runes. /s There has been 7 years of power creep, partially through gear but also skill and trait balance and new elite specs. Most of those don't buff pets enough to keep up with that power creep. I vaguely recall a dev mentioning that updating core pets is extremely difficult due to the fact that they are also open world mobs which causes problems when they try to change pet animations. Expansion pets are how they upgrade a core mechanic to keep up with power creep without actually buffing core pets.

Sure, I can understand and accept synergy, but lb/gs builds are already very effective and pretty common. Condi based builds need more help outside of pve, and so does the Shortbow. Even if the traits aren’t swapped, the daze and stun buff would be more useful in skirmishing for any type of shortbow builds. Unfortunately it still wouldn't make it viable. Buff shortbow up 3s daze/stun and it still wouldn't be viable because shortbow has no follow up for damage. You'd just swap weapons for more dmg... And gs doesn’t need it considering the potential damage output. But the daze and stun buff doesn’t need to be in the longbow line. Maybe not, but the damage buff on interrupt is definitely good with longbow, and the fact GS is easily paired with LB, makes the damage buff on interrupt pair very well with GS and so does the stun and daze duration for GS... In a way it's like because you're using longbow and invested in marskmanship, you should use GS too. Which is kind of cool from a synergy point for view. Because your have marksmanship traits essentially just for longbow with that other master trait that gives 5% to 10% more damage and lead the wind.... but you also have the option to run these trait lines of moment of Claire and remorseless that not only help longbow but also GS because you will have to go into melee range and thats cool... Now skirmishing does have some of the coolest traits in this game. Quickness on dodge. Quick draw is the coolest trait there is... yet there are to date no builds (for PvP) that can make use of skirmishing. Personally, I don't think moment of clarity should be move but instead, skirmishing should get some kind of trait for Condi clear on swiftness or quickness gain or something so that we can be freed from the shackles of wilderness survival, hopefully grab the Shortbow trait too. And then maybe we can actually have a skirmishing shortbow build, or at least, hope for skirmishing. Point is this, and I’m not trying to be rude in any way, a trait function that buffs stun and daze doesn’t belong, or make sense, in a trait line devoted to a weapon devoid of any stun or daze period. Shortbow builds are far behind in any wvw or pvp play, unlike the common, and highly effective, lb/gs “me too” builds you see. Lb and gs aren’t underperforming weapons compared to some others, and those others need some extra help where they can get it. Look at the link you posted.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Moment_of_Clarity50% stun/daze duration was added later in the game. It's main purpose is NOT to extend the duration of CCs like you claim. It's main purpose was and still is increasing your and your pets next hit after interrupt by 50%. This trait is exactly where it belongs: the power/burst trait line. MM is not just a LB traitline. The extra stun/daze duration is a nice bonus to GS but also Druid Dazes, SB Gazelle F2 and any daze/stun on a future elite spec that, fingers crossed, might be announced soon. Short bow and skrim need some love but stun/daze duration MoC is not it. Pets don’t get the buff.You mean this one?https://imgur.com/a/v722TckWhere my Tiger F2 does 50% more dmg when I actually land an interrupt?Also at @Eurantien.4632If you are talking about my Gazelle comment, I was referring to the merged soul beast F2 being a daze not the pet F2. So you are going by the wiki description? Really? Those don't even come from in game. They are just what someone decided to write. I can go an edit that wiki to include enhances CC too. MM is not only about longbow. No single trait line should be dedicated to a single weapon. That is bad design because every build needs at least 3 trait lines. 50% stun/daze duration fits along with the main purpose of the trait, bonus power damage after interrupts. The slightly longer CC helps land the following bonus hit. Also, since I do occasionally run power Druid (PvE), the stun/daze duration would be missed. That's 50% less on break bars in PvE on glyph of equality, storm spirit active, CA3, GS5 and primal echoes. Listen, 50% stun/daze duration isn't helping condi builds outside of PvE. Best case scenario, the 50% bonus to short bow 5, only if you get a flanking stun, gives you 2 more auto attacks into someones back. Ranger condi builds have easy access to immobilize and condition duration. Since immob also prevents rotating your character, buffing immob or giving shortbow better capacity to flank is a much better buff than 50% stun/daze duration. Basically replace short bow 3 withhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Earthen_Rushand you probably have a much better chance of condi ranger working in PvP/WvW because it can get into position and hold an enemy down for a flanking shot. You would still be able to about face to run away with it too. Give sword 3/dagger 4 bonus conditions if you hit an enemies flank (bonus immob/more poison stacks). Change 10% crit while flanking to 2 stacks of poison when you hit an enemy flank (~3 second ICD).

Sure, I can understand and accept synergy, but lb/gs builds are already very effective and pretty common. Condi based builds need more help outside of pve, and so does the Shortbow. Even if the traits aren’t swapped, the daze and stun buff would be more useful in skirmishing for any type of shortbow builds. Unfortunately it still wouldn't make it viable. Buff shortbow up 3s daze/stun and it still wouldn't be viable because shortbow has no follow up for damage. You'd just swap weapons for more dmg... And gs doesn’t need it considering the potential damage output. But the daze and stun buff doesn’t need to be in the longbow line. Maybe not, but the damage buff on interrupt is definitely good with longbow, and the fact GS is easily paired with LB, makes the damage buff on interrupt pair very well with GS and so does the stun and daze duration for GS... In a way it's like because you're using longbow and invested in marskmanship, you should use GS too. Which is kind of cool from a synergy point for view. Because your have marksmanship traits essentially just for longbow with that other master trait that gives 5% to 10% more damage and lead the wind.... but you also have the option to run these trait lines of moment of Claire and remorseless that not only help longbow but also GS because you will have to go into melee range and thats cool... Now skirmishing does have some of the coolest traits in this game. Quickness on dodge. Quick draw is the coolest trait there is... yet there are to date no builds (for PvP) that can make use of skirmishing. Personally, I don't think moment of clarity should be move but instead, skirmishing should get some kind of trait for Condi clear on swiftness or quickness gain or something so that we can be freed from the shackles of wilderness survival, hopefully grab the Shortbow trait too. And then maybe we can actually have a skirmishing shortbow build, or at least, hope for skirmishing. Point is this, and I’m not trying to be rude in any way, a trait function that buffs stun and daze doesn’t belong, or make sense, in a trait line devoted to a weapon devoid of any stun or daze period. Shortbow builds are far behind in any wvw or pvp play, unlike the common, and highly effective, lb/gs “me too” builds you see. Lb and gs aren’t underperforming weapons compared to some others, and those others need some extra help where they can get it. Look at the link you posted.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Moment_of_Clarity50% stun/daze duration was added later in the game. It's main purpose is NOT to extend the duration of CCs like you claim. It's main purpose was and still is increasing your and your pets next hit after interrupt by 50%. This trait is exactly where it belongs: the power/burst trait line. MM is not just a LB traitline. The extra stun/daze duration is a nice bonus to GS but also Druid Dazes, SB Gazelle F2 and any daze/stun on a future elite spec that, fingers crossed, might be announced soon. Short bow and skrim need some love but stun/daze duration MoC is not it.

It's functional. Adept and minors are good (I'd make Furious Strength apply to condition damage aswell), but the master tier has 2 out of 3 traits that are complete filler traits, Eternal Bond is dead weight (probably going for syngergy with Second Skin which is good, but the actual functionality of the trait is bland and doesn't promote fun gameplay), and the stance trait doesn't serve the purpose it was clearly designed for like you're pointing out. Would I see myself running a different line if the merge mechanic still carried over? Definetely, which is something I don't feel like I'd say for other elite specs. I also think only having two traits that are build defining (Fresh Reinforcement and Leader of the Pack) is slightly lackluster. Doesn't need a rework, but I'd happily take a couple of changes to some of the traits. And the dagger, obviously. Mainhand dagger is the meta weapon for power and condition soulbeast (yes the 'condition weapon' deals more power damage than sword).New melee weapons in PvP have it really hard because greatsword is just everything you ever want. Burst, mobility, block/evade and CC. And most of the time you are better off with a ranged option than a second melee weapon. But stance share could use a slightly larger radius like 480. Apparently you have to put out an asterix every time you critisize the dagger and make a remark on how it is the meta weapon in pve. Yes, I know it is. But why is that? Is it because the dagger is particularly good, or because it replaces a weapon that was never designed for doing a lot of damage (sword, power), and another weapon that still has a hybrid identity crises (axe, condi)? The latter. Besides, the first thing I'd do with it is to make the leap more fluid. That above anything else is what I hate about the dagger.One more * is that dagger isn't better than sword. Both are actually meta. It just depends on how quick the fight is and how many phases there are. I'd like to see the poison shifted around. Not to increase the total DPS but to make predator's cunning procs feel more deliberate instead of a worst regen on auto attack. Bonus poison stacks on sword 3 if you hit an enemies flank with it. Swap the poison and bleed stacks on dagger 2. Both would feel a bit more like decisive and deliberate heals. See change to guardian GS3 and GS trait from the most recent patch for a similar change. With the increased duration on twice as vicious, I don't think CC on dagger 3 is "needed" as much but dagger 3 still feels lacking in utility. Double leap finisher and quickness actually make it ok but I think it's actually just the lack of good leap combo fields. Smoke scale is obviously good for stealth but I rarely see SB make use of the double leap for stealth. It's just not needed. They could make call lighting a lighting field for merged jacaranda. Then having a double leap finisher on dagger 3 would give a daze to dagger 3 on a 15 second CD. It would be easier to balance because it's balanced around a pet. Lighting wyvern F2 is a lighting field but its wonky with the aim so much harder to combo. It's also a CC skill in and of itself so leaping into a daze seems unnecessary. Healing spring is the only option for water field on soul beast. Merged jellyfish also has water and smoke but you can't use dagger underwater. Maybe add one more water field on a merged land pet ability. Or maybe reduce the base healing a bit on spiritual reprieve but give it a 3-5 second water field.

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.

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?

I really hope that this is a sign that elite specs are coming a lot sooner that I expected. Otherwise, why couldn't they just make this change when the new elite spec came out? If that's not the case, then they thought these runes were so OP for only ranger. I cant believe that. For PvP Druid isn't viable. Core isn't really viable. Because the pet dies too easily with the amount of damage in the game (especially with the stat nerf on Druid). The problem is build diversity and viability. To be viable we need some Condi clear, you can't have none and expect to be in plat 2 or maybe even play 1. That means we can run what you say or wilderness survival. This is where diversity comes into play too... If I run wilderness survival, I get Condi clear and survival skills and get rugged growth and arguably rangers best heal, troll ungüent, due to the sustain it gives. The sustain from WS is amazing. On the other hand, If i want to run without survival skills and WS. Then I have bear stance, healing spring, evasive purity, or something like leadership runes, and signet of renewal. These two heals simply do not provide enough healing to sustain in the current game with the amount of damages out there. If I need to save my heal for Condi clear... i am in trouble. That means If i want to sustain and use these heals? I need WS for rugged growth... which nullifies the point in using these heals. +healing spring doesn't cleanse fast enough. A scourge can insta put 4 condis on you, now what? You cant afford to stay in that area in your spring in PvP. Runes and signet of renewal? Both have too high cool downs (60s) to be able to be effective for Condi clear. There just too much reapplication for that to be viable. + signet of renewal can easily fail, or kitten up your merge and unmerge since it doesn't work while merged. Evasive purity? Not enough. Why is this a big deal? Shouts gave just enough reactive Condi clear that you could get by. It wasn't optimal but it was viable. Something that these other cleanses just aren't. What this means?Now for PvP we have to run soulbeast. We have to run wilderness survival. Then what? The next traitline with the most synergy is beastmastery. We now have one build. With shouts... we could at least run MM or NM instead of WS. So that's the problem. Changing this kills build diversity because other cleanse skills arent good enough to compensate for this change. We should not be forced to run wilderness survival. I've been having a lot of success with rune of antitoxin in WvW for condi clear. If a stun break clears taunt or fear, extra condi cleared. Dolyak stance, if it stun breaks a fear or taunt or clears chill, cripple or immob also clears another condi. This works great vs necro condi spikes. Same for merged F3... and as I type I realize that I don't think they are available in PvP =/. Only other weird combo I could think of is rune of (any that reduces condi duration), emphatic bond and natural stride. Without WvW food, still probably meh. I think I was around plat 1 with just bear and dolyak stance + sigil of escape/cleansing + rune of leadership. Also not traited lighting reflexes vs immob fear etc. That was MM/BM/SB zerker sic'em glass. I'm just rambling at this point. I hope you find something that works for you. I've never relied on that combo but this change sucks.

I don't think you are starting with the right builds. When I tried looking into this, I started with these two:MM with force/accuracy and some assassin:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR8XnE8CtCiVsA2rAs8il8AbJAUAOdP1hlQGI/9Wf7vj4N-jxBBAB5pbIgnAwoqXg1+jyPAuIAnpEsSVUCAcAQ1Xf9AkCIiJbA-eSkrim with force/impact and full zerker:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR8XnE8CtCiVsA2rAs8ilCBjZC0uSdPdhZQAI/62dLvj4N-jhRBABXt/o8z4LCgZKBpU9HAeCA4pbIAwBAVf91DQKgImsB-e Both were optimized to reach 100% crit chance in a group and with raid group buffs. I had frost trap in them as I was looking into bursting stuff (vulture stance is better for sustained damage). The MM build was 8% (1% with impractical 100% up time on impact) better than the skrim build. I don't think it's worth the change. For fotm, sword with impact and frost spirit (not trap) are still the go to burst build. You have fotm potions that give you a lot of crit chance which negates the major benefit of skrim. For raids, dagger/axe with rune of the thief is meta now. Those runes give 300 precision which again, negates the usefulness of skrim. This basically negates the builds I show above which are raid focused with rune of scholar. Skrim is even worst of a pick now for hard core stuff but I use skrim when doing casual solo stuff. Sharpened edges (even with hidden barbs) is maybe a 150 DPS when you have 25 might. If frost trap was buffed significantly, then skrim might be worth it for trapper's expertise and having sic'em and frost trap's CD line up.

Maul is a 1.75 coeff and frost trap is a 2 so Maul is weaker according to the wiki. However maul it's clearly doing more damage. Either the wiki is wrong or the trap isn't using ascended weapon strength. This might be the more reasonable change request. Frost is a viable 3rd utility option for raids/fotm fights that have short burst phases. That being said, I would definitely be ok with a buff to frost traps damage. Or storm spirit scaling with the rangers power and not the spirit.

It's not just the raw power but also the modifiers for PvE and capping crit chance. In general, after the recent balance patch:Raids: Force/Impact+Thief runes (10% flanking bonus)Fotm: Force/Accuracy+Scholar runes. Both builds mix in assassin's gear to hit 100% crit chance with fury and banner (maybe spotter depending on team comp). So you are shooting for around 70-75% crit chance now. So precision and modifiers drive the sigil/rune changes and are more important than power up to a point. This is a spvp discussion, which means whatever set of runes you slot into your character's armor doesn't matter. The rune in spvp is entirely controlled by the rune set you select in your pvp equipment screen (accessed by clicking on the helmet icon at the top-center of your screen when you enter the pvp lobby). As to your actual question, I haven't tested it myself, but Eagle runes should outperform Scholar if you have trouble remaining above the 90% threshold for the Scholar buff. It would of course depend on how good you are at recovering/resetting fights. I get that just figured I was here and would still get a solid answer from long time rangers lol just always see scholars on power builds but figured in most scenarios eagle would be solid as well and way cheaper. Thanks for taking the time to reply ,I think ur right and gonna save my 30 gold lol.If you only have 1 armor set and also casually play open world, don't get thief even though it's meta in raids. The flanking bonus won't work without a tank holding constant aggro. However, I don't think eagle is worth it for open world PvE since you will be able to 1 hit KO a lot of mobs. Even if you don't 1 hit KO mobs, a single Maul will bring most enemies down to 25% health. This means the lower than 50% health bonus damage rarely kicks in. While the 90% health threshold is annoying, you are playing power SB already so you have loud whistle and oppressive superiority for those health thresholds. Get used to avoiding damage. If you want a cheap alternative, I think rune of the spellbreaker might serve you better in PvE. 7% vs enemies with no boons with power and precision.

I'm not sure radiance is the way to go for pure damage. When I was doing this with DH, the main reason for DH was for the cripple/vuln spam as cover conditions. I know SoJ applies those two but DH means all F1 procs apply them. Now you can also chill spam at 1200 range with the new glacial heart trait for a 3rd cover condition. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJATWlsAhqgYzQwXIwPELyDWVEILFAkHg7vDYWYoJFjA-jFiAQBzUJYCOCAA4RAQhLAAA1FAj9H+k6PeU5XAgEAaTBgUAbtsC-wA lot more toughness/vit since it's no downed state and I'm feeling the need for them. Maybe add some sinister in for crit chance. The stats aren't optimized but whatever. 100% burn duration is what really matters. Glacial heart does damage when you CC so it should be more damage ticks for F1. I haven't confirmed this but I will test this later. LB 3 pierces... it doesn't actually list how many targets it hits. Let's assume 5. 5 targets of damage and 5 more procs of glacial blow. So potential for 5 targets chilled, 3.33 procs of passive F1, cripple and 3 stacks of vuln from 1 skill.LB5 hits 20 times at 1200 range + maybe more glacial blow procs for more F1 procs.LB4 hits 25 times and the symbol burns as a baseline. For maxing damage Scepter/Shield or scepter torch is probably better as a second weapon than staff but staff has that 1200 range symbol and CC. LB is where it's at for maxing out that ranged burning.

where have you found that reflects scale on the enemy power? everything i've tried doesn't support that The power is also to bump up retaliation damage. if you're trying to get maximum damage out, stick with carrion or sinister over grieving i got much better damage that way. losing boon duration hurts too much since you can't keep up quickness and imbued haste as effectively, losing out on 450 stat points. upkeeping quickness is better than having an extra weapon's worth of stats, and toughness is really hard to come by in the first place without losing a lot of either damage or boon duration to get it. try sword of justice out, each cast hits 20x for 6 PW procs in addition to burning on each hit. 1 cast on a stack has the potential to put out 150s of burning. x4 casts is 600s of burning, compared to the dh trap procession of blades that can only put out 240s and requires you to be in melee to use. reflect damage is great in chokes, but loses steam quickly in open field fights. It's a nice tool to have, but doesn't define the build Back when cheesing dungeons with reflects was a thing, Mesmers would use assassin instead of zerker to max out reflect damage. Now that i think about it, I guess technically it's power coeff. Idk about enemy power. However, assuming nothing changed since then, what i should have said is that reflects don't use the reflectors power although it uses the reflectors % modifiers including criticals. That's how you get lupi etc to ko themselves. I definitely plan on trying the new ground target soj. I guess my mind went towards a more dps focused build than hybrid.