AliamRationem.5172

Generally, you want to start reading from the beginning of a paragraph rather than cropping out one sentence and changing the context to whatever you'd like it to be. I was in agreement with the person I replied to that this game's instanced PvE content is worse than other MMOs. I also explained why. Still confused, champ?

Ranger maces are really nice for open world. It has 2 hard CCs and you can use them twice for 4 total. If untamed you also have a soft CC immobilize on your ambush. Damage is quite good and you hit 5 targets with everything except the AA. They also add barrier, healing, and a slew of defensive boons. Pretty much perfect for open world.

I can see filling in a few slots with dragon to min/max your crit cap. But giving up over 200 power and over 300 ferocity for 6.3k health is never going to be worth it in PvE. There are always going to be more efficient tradeoffs you can make to source sustain.

To offer a different perspective. Vitality as sustain is a weak option. If you look at vitality as extending your time until down state, it works against itself by reducing your damage output. You last a bit longer, but you also take longer to finish fights. Dragon can be useful in cases where you are crit capped and would like to trade some precision for ferocity, but otherwise I would recommend finding higher impact sustain from skills, traits, relics, etc. For example, the Relic of Zakiros works better the more damage you deal, so you get maximum return for using berserker gear with it.

I can't tell you what you're going to find fun, but I never liked ranger until a few months ago when I tried Untamed after watching a video on it by Masel. I ended up going a different way than his build recommendation, but I found the class to be a lot of fun and among the strongest open world builds I've ever played. Here's a clip of the build I use:

While that's true, it's more because of the 3-part map release and weak story content. The OP is correct in observing that major features were released later in the cycle including legendary armor, convergences, etc. It may not have mattered to you if were satisfied with the available content on release, but if you were specifically looking forward to those features I can understand the lack of enthusiasm for SotO.

I feel like the people throwing confused emojis just haven't played anything else. The whole "non-trinity-but-still-sorta-trinity" thing GW2 does is strictly worse than trinity. In standard trinity ranged DPS and healers can be ranged. In GW2's version we all just stack on the boss. All of the mechanics they use in encounter design here exist in every other MMO, too. But since we have no ability to control enemy positionining via tanking and no ability to provide ranged support, the same isn't true in reverse. Encounter design is far more limited in GW2 than it is in trinity games. I just don't see how you can have played other MMOs and end up thinking that GW2 has done anything better with regard to instanced PvE content.

Shame you are stuck on longbow for ranger when all of its melee weapons are so good. Power Untamed with sword/axe and maces is just amazing for open world/story content.

Perhaps if you explained your position instead of insisting there's a problem as if it were self-evident, we might be able to find some common ground. But thus far it sounds more like you just came here to vent some vague frustration with the game. Did you expect a positive response to your temper tantrum? So, let's try again. You're just saying the leveling and power progression is a MASSIVE mess. Okay. So, what does that mean exactly? Are we talking about progression during the leveling process specifically? If so, I think a lot of people would agree the leveling process in this game leaves a lot to be desired. But that's almost every MMO I've ever played because the focus is always on the content that comes after you're done leveling. Are you saying the power progression at endgame is a mess? How exactly? Is it too difficult to improve your character? You seem to be having trouble getting into strikes and other endgame content and suggest that it's difficult to find resources on how to prepare yourself. Is that the problem? The good news is that there isn't much of a progression in terms of equipping your character for endgame. There's exotic which you can purchase from day 1 and there's ascended/legendary gear, which is only 5% higher stats than exotic. So it's very easy to gear your character for all endgame content. The problem then is finding an appropriate build and learning how to play it. For this player resources like snowcrows.com are good. You should be able to take any of their builds, familiarize yourself with how they work, and perform adequately for any normal mode content.

You don't want to ambush in unleashed pet, though. It's a 25% damage hit. Why would you use your highest damage skill in unleashed pet even if you could? I agree on the design of hammer, though. It reminds me of elementalist, where we add extra skills and complexity which ends up being strictly a disadvantage. For example, compare sword/axe to hammer. Sword/axe has two CCs and deals similar damage to hammer. Meanwhile if you want to CC on hammer you cut the damage in half on two of your skills on top of the 25% damage loss in unleashed pet. Then you have traits like enhancing impact. If I want quickness I have to CC, but instead with hammer I get stability which is great if that's what I want, but I don't have the choice when using hammer because unleashed ranger has no CC at all. Meanwhile if I want stability in sword I just go unleashed pet before I CC, but if I want quickness I can still CC at full damage in unleashed ranger. The core weapons work better and are more straightforward than the spec weapon!

I mean, I'm pretty sure I could die of old age soloing a champion on staff mirage. It's a thing!

Lord Hizen's builds are still quite popular and I think his condi vindicator is still one of the highest sustain builds out there. I agree Relic of Zakiros has been a game changer for power builds in solo play, adding a lot of sustain to builds that previously didn't have enough. But the nature of it requires a fast, aggressive play style that produces better results for more experienced players who are comfortable with their builds and the combat system in general. It's the same reason experienced players look at Litany of Wrath and see a short-cooldown pseudo-invuln + full heal while a less experienced player might view it as that weak heal that gets them killed all the time. It's not as foolproof as spamming dodge on a build with tons of extra health and armor while passively healing faster than enemies can damage you. To a lot of players that's worth more than the extra damage of a power DPS build. That and power builds with poor boon access don't even deal any better damage than condi builds.

While that's all true, the OP is specifically inquiring as to how players are one-shotting trash mobs in open world. That is entirely down to build design. The OP has been following open world build guides, many of which recommend condition builds that are incapable of doing this and prioritize sustain over damage. Using a power build like the one in the linked video will give them what they're looking for. While it's beyond the scope of the OP's request and, as you say, will require some practice to achieve best results, this build is also quite strong on sustain and is more than capable of soloing most open world champions.

For Untamed, try this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POABwelnllyOYqsNmLOUL5x7SE+JA-DSRYBxnJcQZlRtpaFVlt3GCSY83ywzAQFA-e Edit: Sorry, forgot this clip didn't have a build link. Added at the top of the post.

Nothing changed recently with mounts. If you're struggling with the skyscale being too fragile, how about you use the skills available to you? You can dodge, reset your endurance and dodge some more. You can temporarily share your health pool with your mount. You can dismount mid-air before you get dismounted and stunned by damage, then use glider stealth and glider boost to get away from enemies before re-mounting. You even get a free in-combat re-mount on the skyscale every few minutes. If you're routinely falling out of the sky you're just doing it wrong.