Choppy.4183

As above, lb3 for the stealth plus quick mobility skills are key, as is lb4 if it's up. Note that the most competent players are trying to stay in your flank spots to negate your bow, so you outsmart them to keep them in front of you so you can land lb3 or lb4. Lighting Reflexes can help (as noted by Ayssisis, but I don't have it on my bar so it's not mandatory (great skill though). Even a backwards dodge can do it, sometimes. But you also have tools to hang in melee in a lot of cases. Your gs4 can allow you to weather a lot of their burst (if blockable), and then you can counter pressure with Mauls. Or they may not have stab or blindness up, in which case you may just be able to stun them with a quick gs5 to change the tide. If you're running sword, you can use your evade attacks to attack and counter at the same time, and axe offhand can provide you with the counterpressure to make them flee out of melee or suffer huge losses. Necros have limited porting potential, but, yeah, they have to have the tools to port, pull, freeze, fear to stand a chance against you. Otherwise they're just a long fight with an inevitable conclusion. Learn the tells and then dodge the big ones, but keep something like Lighting Reflexes handy in case you screw up and can see you're about to eat a serious burst. A good condi clear too, since they're going to try to bury you in chill and other nasty things. I don't find necros to be the most difficult fights if I have unlimited time and space, but they can be a big threat when one or both of those windows are closed, assuming the necro knows what s/he's doing. Like you seem to be trying to do, keep them at range as much as you can, and only close (or hang in melee) as long as you have an exit strategy. Basically, play like a thief when in melee. That's what I do, anyway.

I miss the old days when stability just meant you couldn't be cc'd, and strips/corrupts/steals weren't as wide spread (I can't even remember if stab could be taken, it happened so rarely). Sure, individual stab didn't necessarily last as long as it might now, but it allowed skilled groups of 10-15 take on 40-50 person blobs like mighty heroes. Also, RIP hammer warrior.... :(

I've been denied stomping eles so often because of that... I used to play a build where I'd put a 4s immob on downed eles near gates just before they mIst formed. Boy, were they surprised when they just hovered in place, only to reappear right where they were downed. XD Yeah, I've done that before as well, but I don't always carry throw bolas with me.I was using a sword, so it was actually Flurry. Fun times....

I've been denied stomping eles so often because of that... I used to play a build where I'd put a 4s immob on downed eles near gates just before they mIst formed. Boy, were they surprised when they just hovered in place, only to reappear right where they were downed. XD

I presume that's all good advice. I don't know the class well, but to the OP, try the above. I fought a necro recently who had outstanding life force generation. It was a 1v1 with nobody else around, and I dropped him to zero life-force twice, but he still won the fight with about 25% left (health was near gone). Even sent him a whisper remarking on his amazing life force generation. So it's definitely possible.

Lmao. This thread started out with me thinking, "what a bizarre request to address a non-problem" and ended with, "oooooooohhhhhhh..... lololol".

Why not just neuter the specific things causing meme-level hilarity (if you're so inclined) rather than making a change that will obliterate perfectly reasonable builds and require future class reworks (that will never happen) just to undo the unintended consequences?

Pretty hilarious stuff, but doesn't look fun to play.

Seems to me a gap ranger has is boon hate and aoe skills. Not sure how you'd make rifle work with that, but the weapon type is more just a skin anyway, isn't it? Function over form, I say.

Hilarious for sure, but I'm sure you realize it won't happen.

I always just buy siege disablers or supply traps. EVERYONE should be using those....

If you still die to oneshot meme builds , you have to improve....because that type of builds is easy to counter and it's here to stay i didn't say anything about one shot meme builds, i'm talking about the coefficients themselves which has no bearing on what gear the player is using. but yeah lets talk about risk vs reward and how some one shot "meme builds" aren't meme at all. 1) You can't complain about dmg coefficients on ranger while using some bruiser spec because ranger has as many dmg coefficients as everybody else when not using one shot builds aka : running sb+ws+x in that case you have max 22% dmg modifier where a reaper bruiser, for example, can have with Spite-soul reaping a whopping 50% dmg modifier without any utility investment 2) Ranger has to use sic'em and MM to reach burst one shot level and jn that case you run sb+MM...either traitline left to pick will offers either sustain or condi removal and the again against decent players, they'd dodge the 1s you start RF on them, so now you must use 60s CD elite + zephyr's quickness....basically a single burst available every 30s+ and a burst which can be easily negated by simple LoS, block or..dodge. Risk vs reward?.... this kind of builds doesn't work against average players , simple as that so yeah, deadeye isn't even worth talking about. one shot potential on a ranged build with perma cripple and teleports for escapes. neither is soulbeast, since one auto attack can take half or more of someones health. big lol, this is well documented and still possible. go ahead and live in denial its ok.Soulbeast can take half health on a single auto attack? Go on.....

Consider this dmg coefficient.....https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ghastly_Clawshttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soul_Spiral None of the high dmg hitting skills of ranger has the same high power coefficient as the example of skills above:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maul_(ranger_greatsword_skill)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Backstab Look at thief and ranger...without damage multipliers they would hit like a wet noodle, fascinating how the vast majority of dmg multipliers require specific situations and fulfil predetermined requirements to be active...still a single ghastly_Claws can eat 70% of my DPS ele build for example in a single instance...but somehow that's balanced compared to ranger and thief I can almost laugh at while using the same DPS build......... there is no reason soulbeast and deadeye should be hitting with +100% damage modifiers from +1500 range, case closed If you still die to oneshot meme builds , you have to improve....because that type of builds is easy to counter and it's here to stayYou didn't adequately present the absurdity. He's talking about dying to one shot meme builds... at 1500 range. In gw2, where just moving back and forth makes range attacks miss more the further away you are....

Consider this dmg coefficient.....https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ghastly_Clawshttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soul_Spiral None of the high dmg hitting skills of ranger has the same high power coefficient as the example of skills above:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maul_(ranger_greatsword_skill)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Backstab Look at thief and ranger...without damage multipliers they would hit like a wet noodle, fascinating how the vast majority of dmg multipliers require specific situations and fulfil predetermined requirements to be active...still a single ghastly_Claws can eat 70% of my DPS ele build for example in a single instance...but somehow that's balanced compared to ranger and thief I can almost laugh at while using the same DPS build......... there is no reason soulbeast and deadeye should be hitting with +100% damage modifiers from +1500 range, case closedWell, that's true. Who let's themselves get hit by something at 1500 range?

I'm surprised more people aren't going with pistol, tbh. Staff may bring some conceptual archetypes (like a quarterstaff or pseudo spear), but pistol brings in medium range potential on main and/or offhand, which has always been a gap for warrior. A bruiser/thug or even pirate (Yarr!) could couple with that. Alternatively, make it a cop spec to tie in with the Cantha city theme with skills that are especially useful vs thieves.

Not sure the arena you're talking about, but sb/a+t (or d) on core makes for a plenty viable condi build. Maybe not optimal, but certainly viable. Splitblade coupled with Sharpening Stones puts out a nice burst that most people don't see coming too.

I'm having a great laugh with the gimmick, but I really don't think any class should be able to this tbh =) Yeah, I may come to eat my words there. Came across 3-4 of them today alone on a pretty empty map, with two roaming around together. Still, I'd like to come across more so I can see if I just need to l2p to better counter the, before nerfs. More than 1 chucking tuned up nades around sure makes positioning hard though!

Thanks for that. I actually started with condi builds on ranger, but found thieves ate my lunch pretty quickly, and the lack of mobility prevented escapes when things got hot. I can see how the extra stealth from Trapper runes could help with that though. My latest jam has been a super glassy build, and it's been pretty fun. True, if you get focused, it gets rough, but the stealth I do have, plus mobility, evades, and eventually damage pressure (when I shake some heat) make it worthwhile. Druid remains the one line I haven't really explored yet. I mostly solo roam, and I just don't like what is has to offer for what I'm giving up. And yet, I can't deny the three selectable traits are yummy.

Lol, I came across something like this yesterday, but the person added stealth to the mix. So you wouldn't even know that someone was there, and then you were dead. It was hilarious. But the other part of what you said is true too. I caught the guy deleting another guy's account with that burst, and I burned him down with one rapid fire. Thieves aren't even that glassy most of the time. That all being said, there are slightly lower tuned grenade builds that are super deadly while having some decent defense. I come across maybe one or two a week, and the only skill that probably needs a little shave (if anything) is Grenade Barrage. Maybe removing two grenades to reduce the up close shenanigans but tightening the spread to improve the ranged value? Dunno... you engineers would know better than me. That all said, I haven't found the problem to be a huge issue on balance overall just because of how few people run it. More of a dramatic meme level issue.

I'm referring to the ability to right click on a players portrait and click block. Most normal options aren't there, but block and report are. Seeing as you can't normally hear or talk to this person, block shouldn't be needed. Instead, ironically, block allows for the very action that would warrant a block. A block can still be done on that player via chat, if needed. That said, if block is remove from portrait, it won't ever be needed in wvw for players from other worlds. Anet has also made it clear they don't show names so that people can't contact each other. Having block allows for something they don't actually want. You've missed the point we both made. Quite a lot of people, myself included, have used this feature for years to have perfectly friendly and productive conversations with people on other servers. You got some salt thrown at you, which happens, so why don't you the same block feature they're using to initiate conversations with you to stop them from being able to do so? That will keep people from giving you grief without taking away a good feature for the rest of us.

You know you can use the feature you're talking about to stop anyone abusing you, on an opposing server or otherwise, right? Maybe do that instead of calling for the removal of everybody's ability to talk to people on different servers.

I don't know your class well, but isn't cc basically the only way to put down the super tanky condi heavy variants? I guess, put another way, there are some super lethal and/or tanky necro builds out there and I wonder if slotting more stunbreaks to deal with all the cc is possible, even if it would rightly come with a cost of reduced lethality or general sustain.

Great that's all we need. Another gank group running around targeting solo players and dropping c a n c e r on them. That's perfectly healthy for wvw. Why would you assume s/he's doing that? Wvw has always had room for a lot of playstyles and different sized groups doing a range of things. Just yesterday I heard about a 12 person group running around ebg just flipping camps... and nothing else. I don't get it, but whatever floats their boat. You obv don't spend much time in wvw either that or youre always in a zerg. I almost exclusively solo roam, and have for the last eight years or so (with a couple year hiatus in the middle). So, now that we've established that you jump to conclusions, perhaps it's worth reconsidering your assumption about the OP.

This isn't helpful. Everyone knows this. I'm just trying to get an idea about any major balance changes over the last year. Although few balance changes occurred, it seems that solo roaming is dead-er than it was. So i'll be looking to organize a slippery gank squad with a few friends. I disappeared for a couple of years and came back a few months ago. The advice is pretty solid, even if experienced roamers know it anyway. I mostly solo roam, which can limit your options a bit. But I've seen solo roamers of just about every class doing well when they know their build and the builds they're facing. Running with 3-4 friends adds in the additional dimension of your group comp. Here I've seen every class have a place and do really well, including the builds you asked about (team support is great, aoe pressure is great, coordinated burst is great, etc, etc). Sounds like you have some experience with wvw, so just know the game hasn't changed so much that what you know is obsolete. If your group is organized and knows their stuff, you'll dominate most of the people out there, even if they're using the freshest and most overturned builds and you're not.

This thread turned out to be a lot less exciting than the Rambo-inspired automatic trebuchet I imagined when I read the title..... ?