Choppy.4183

I didn't even know those existed. While more superspeed looks fun, I'm not sure it could compete with permanent +66% speed. Better for bursts, I suppose, and cheaper runes too. I think speed rune got nerfed to 50% might be pvp onlyYep, just pvp. Remains to be seen if they extend that to wvw, but fingers crossed that they don't.

I didn't even know those existed. While more superspeed looks fun, I'm not sure it could compete with permanent +66% speed. Better for bursts, I suppose, and cheaper runes too.

...and then there's the mysterious Quaggan Tonic.

There's another thread asking about changes to improve roaming. Making everyone petrified to be in a group ought to do it....

Could be. But that tower in particular is easy to hide in, which might lead someone to conclude that an enemy within the intact tower must have cheated their way in.

You're not seriously raising an objection about lack of realism, are you? How about unlimited projectiles? Healing out of combat? Magic? Your physics have no place here.... Good day, sir.

Man, not for nothing, but it's super simple to avoid ranger pew pew. I roamed on all melee builds for years (full zerk gear too) and I only ate a full rapid fire if I was outplayed or had nothing left in the tank because I was fighting someone else. Now I'm on the other side of that lb and people avoid my burst all the time. Dodge through it, block it, reflect it, break line of sight, or just tangle them up in melee. It's a channeled multi hit skill, so if you're eating the whole thing you might need to adjust your response. Fwiw, and since you brought it up, vallun's got a whole video on how to counter rangers (and most classes, really. He's a treasure).

What was the exploit? Because it might have just been a matter of your side not properly clearing the tower when they took it, which is fair play if he took advantage of it.

Wait...don't you play ranger? At least, I thought you did.

Thanks for these. Your comments about pets also reminded me of another key thing I've learned, which is to ummerge (I've been running soulbeast mostly) when I don't need or can't use the merge skills. Like when I want to pressure people breaking LoS, to tag downs when I'm too vulnerable to close, or when I just need to counter pressure while focusing my attention on avoiding their pressure. Fair points about ele. I don't know them well, but I appreciate their big tells. I tend to range fire attuned eles, while preferring to melee air eles. Speed Runes is one of the things I've been experimenting with, which has helped my mobility a lot. Haven't come across solid eles since I started playing with Durability Runes though.

For sure. My goal is more improving my skill to put myself in the best possible position, rather than fooling myself into thinking every match will be balanced or to my advantage. Cuts the other way too in that I'm still a bit scrubby with ranger but I've been able to put people down who are more skilled with their classes, just because of build advantage. What you described notwithstanding, even good players can be outplayed if they stick to a routine and you don't. Let's face it, especially when roaming around in wvw, we don't always bring our best play to the start of a random fight. If I can develop some good counters to common openers, I may be able to squeak out some wins by punishing lazy game play (and I have, in fact). And, even if I can only delay long enough for a friendly lb ranger or thief to +1 the fight to my advantage and secure the win, I'll take it. ?

Indeed. I've been watching some videos about them, especially the one from Vallun's helpful series, "How to fight _____" to identify common opening behavior and build tells that will help me a counter them better. Positioning myself on or near their port circles (where they'll return), better estimating when they'll steal (daredevils have to be closer), moving through them in melee to mess up their pistol attacks (like how they mess up our ranged attacks), standing on spaces they can't port to, putting terrain to my back, keeping distance from condi thieves (they need to come in close to do much burst, and they have mobility contraints), have all helped a bunch. A couple ranger specific things I've picked up include not using Sic Em and rapid fire at the same time unless it seems like an inexperienced thief or one that's blown some defenses. Instead, it's better to use rapid fire when they're about to stealth so it tracks through it (may need to precast stab in case they try to interrupt you as defense) and then use sic em afterwards to further limit their stealth time. I've also found s+a more useful than gs against them in melee. I just slotted durability runes, and that helps take some of the bite out of the initial burst too. (Nature Magic would do the same, I guess, but I'm not running it). That all said, it's still a learning curve, and also dependent in the skill of the thieves I'm fighting. Since we're on the subject of things that give/gave me trouble, eles are less of a problem now. Picking up on FrownyClown's advice above (and Vallun's video about them), I save my burst for when they're attuned to fire or air, especially if they just left water. Though I haven't tried it, if I was duelling or dealing with an especially annoying ele, I might slot Signet of the Hunt and/or warhorn to ruin their reflects. Fresh Air eles remain the exciting challenge they should be, and I don't mind a bit if they roast me because I know they're taking risks to get that damage, and I can (and have) make them pay for it if I play well.

That's a good point, that the lethality of condis isn't restricted to just the damage. But it must be noted that the non-damage benefits work just as well on power builds (with the exception of duration boosts through expertise, etc). For example, I'm currently running an all zerk gear build that takes advantage of poisons heal suppression, and movement impairment through cripple and immob. I've more than once been ruined by necros burying me in chill, fear, and poison before unleashing unholy power damahe while doing almost no condi damage. Given that, it makes more sense to just focus on the damage side when comparing the state of condi vs power builds, no?

That used to be the way a long time ago, but honestly, some condi builds can burst harder than some power builds, and often with less risk. I don't really have a dog in the fight though.... I've traditionally gravitated toward full zerk power builds, but have played around with condi too and had fun doing it. I regularly kill (and am killed by) both power and condi builds all the time. Both have counterplay, and how much the deck is stacked towards one or the other seems to depend more on the circumstances of the fight (e.g. how many on each side, builds in play, use of terrain, and just how trash I am relative to the other player(s)).

It's fine because their core mechanic is tied up with it (traits and abilities) and the penalty was already applied (restricting them to one pet while in combat). I do think there's a case for lowering the penalty for non soulbeasts (e.g. cutting the lockout by 50% or so).

For the most part, condis don't cause me too much grief mostly due to damage pressure and mobility. If my heal (which drops 4 condis and can be precast to counter condi damage for a time) and switching to/from beastmode (drops another 2) isn't cutting it, I can stack protection and dolyaks to get -66% condi damage for a time. The latter is really the main play, because it increases the window to apply damage pressure, which puts people on the back foot and reduces pressure on me. Keep in mind that I'm (solo) roaming around most of the time, so if I need to cut and run I will. As bigo noted, I still have stealth from lb3, plenty of dodges, and a block/evade from gs4, plus I have decent cc. That combined with the mobility, pressure, and cc, I can handle condi heavy builds of most types through careful planning. Thieves still cause trouble, though. I tried something like it last night but couldn't make it work as well as my earlier build. Just couldn't get the burst where I wanted it (may need more tweaking), and the loss of mobility and other perks was hard to get past. May be the build I cooked up, or may be that I just don't know how to play it well yet. I might go back to it, but I've got another build idea that will still use lb plus sword with either warhorn or axe in the offhand. It's even weaker to condis, but it's fun to just explore these things.

Haha, thanks! I know the HART tag well too. Double thanks if you were one of the rangers who's kindly given me tips in the field as I make my way through every variation of the class I can beg, borrow, steal, or dream up. <3 I think my next round of experiments is going to focus on modified boonbeast builds, similar to what I saw in the video above. Though I have some ideas of how to make it fit best with how I like to roam. Maybe see you out there. ;)

Man, every subgroup gets this. Doesn't matter if a class is the current apex predator or the bottom of the trash heap, there will always be someone calling for nerves (and someone else calling for buffs). The hard part is figuring out when the cries are objectivelt warranted.

I wish I could take credit for being so witty, but I sadly have no idea what you might be referring to (that's how new I am to ranger). Regardless.....

Just experienced exactly this. Cleared all NPEs down to just the Supervisor. Unloaded a Rapid Fire burst into him only to see "Obstructed" the whole time while in fairly close range, on level, visually unobstructed ground. Other times this has happened with allies nearby, and I thought maybe necro minions were somehow obstructing. Guess not? Did this happen on the SEC on one of the alpine BLs? I got that problem too, and had to hit in melee range in order to attack. It was the south middle camp on one of the Alpine Borderlands.And I most recently experienced it 10 feat away from the Supervisor in swc. It's annoying, but manageable.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I started out with Marksmanship when I began exploring power ranger, but it was before I appreciated how the attack of opportunity and opening strike mechanics worked, and it could be that I chose the wrong traits. The glass canon build i used (using the gear in my original link) actually used Skirmishing. It's got some nice damage, but I'll try out your build. I did notice you've got more defense built into your gear than I do though. Guess we'll have to see how good my positioning is using my gear on your build, or do you think I'd be a fool if I didn't use tankier runes and consumables to deal with condi pressure? On a related note, I stumbled across some #MRGA videos using a variety of builds that feature a+a/s+wh, or a similar combination. It looks to me like it's usually using WS, SB, and BM at least so,e of the time, but the gear isn't glassy. Is this likely some boonbeast variant? If so, do you have any thoughts on it? Link below (it's a super fun video), and thanks again!

I get the frustration and admit to feeling it too when otherwise good fights keep getting interrupted, but it's honestly been part of #roamerlife since launch. You can usually pull some duels in the usual spots (some servers are better for this than others), but you'll get more mileage managing your own expectations than hoping other people will adjust their behaviors. That being said, the risk of people bombing into my fights, and having to keep an eye out for it, is one of the charms that's kept me roaming instead of spvp for years.

Heya ranger forum, I recently switched to ranger after a lot of years roaming as a core warrior, and I have to say, it's a great class you've got. I'm currently running a WS lb/gs soulbeast, but I've experimented with several power and condi builds and just love how many viable options there seem to be to do a variety of things. So far, I've only explored core and soulbeast, but I'll get to druid eventually. Anyway, I was hoping some of you would be willing to share some tips to help me learn the class better, and in particular when facing particular classes and/or 1vx situations. I'm not really struggling or anything, rather just looking for ways to improve and otherwise squeeze even more fun out of the class. First, the build I'm currently running:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMFlFwAZhsHmJeSXrvzSm2bA-zVIYRU9fKtpAyUI0rEolRgaOIhxfLVZGB-w Second, the opponents I often struggle with (looking for any tips when using the build linked above, or other builds that might be more suited to the task): ThievesMost types, unless I catch them at range with the lb. For them, I've learned not to blow everything at once (which only catches poor or distracted thieves), preferring to let lb2 track them if go into stealth, and then using sic'em after that to really pressure. But I find decent thieves can wreck me pretty hard if they tie me up in melee. This is true with the condi builds I've tried too. ElementalistsMore the really tanky ones that can lead to prolonged fights, but also Fresh Air eles. I have better luck with the latter and enjoy the fights more, but a well played Fresh Air ele can still be beastly. I suspect what I probably need here is a better understanding of ele than of ranger, but any tips you have on putting either type down would be more than welcome. Third, just anything about the ranger generally that you've found especially fun or effective while roaming around in wvw. Anyway, this is already a long post. Thanks in advance for anything you're able to share.

Dude/Chick, don't worry about it. There's some big time whiny millennial's in this game, those who can't stand the thought of losing a fight. Forgive them as they didn't grow up playing the old school atari or Nintendo games, those games turned us old school players into freaking tigers! The new kids on the block are use to getting cheat codes, their meta builds giving them love/kisses, and their get out of jail free cards. Let AVGN break it down for you. Anets JP ain't got nothing on castlevania. Oh man, those bloody eagles in Ninja Gaiden were the worst. Especially that part he mentioned.