Gotejjeken.1267

How fast can Mesmer's regenerate clones again? Is it 60 seconds untraited? The shatter is also literally part of the class, voluntarily killing our ranger pets is most definitely not. I'm not sure how long you've been playing, but F2 skills on down were literally designed into the game. It was to help prevent stomps and also help enemy pressure in PvE; we had things like wolf fear for this exact situation. It's a zero balance issue because the pet itself is involved in the downstate inherently--the #3 skill is for it to rez the ranger. It may be a news flash to you, but you can stop the rez the same way you can stop the CC--by downing the pet. Which usually happens instantly because if the ranger goes down people tend to spam AoE skills on you anyway, and the pet is either off fighting and is way too late to come back or is downed in the AoE. If you down the pet and they swap to another pet, you've firstly taken WAY too long to stomp and any class could have avoided this--ele would have mistformed somewhere safe, necro would have feared you off a cliff or outright killed you with condi, warrior would have gotten up and started fighting again, etc. And secondly the pet swap is now on CD so there is no chance for a third swap. Also I will keep saying this, for all saying swap is a 'bug' on Soulbeast you have to compensate (based on Anet's design philosophy) so that means giving SB merge on down. Because merge literally IS a pet swap for Soulbeast when they are in combat. Finally, if we're to the point of nitpicking downstates then people must be worse at playing the game then I thought. I personally have never once been defeated by someone in downstate unless I was +1'd or I was very close to downed myself and we had a downstate battle.

Firstly, if you want to be clear I'd not use 'attack' for the pet F2 skill, it makes it sound like you don't want the pet to do anything. Semantics aside, I love the 'no other class can' argument; you realize 'no other class' suffers like non-soulbeast ranger does when the pet is downed? Ranger has literally been suffering since the game started for losing pets, with zero tradeoff. You seem fine with this, because you don't play ranger. So since ranger operates differently and loses half its DPS / utility / everything when the pet goes down (on a 60s cooldown no less untraited), and 'no other class' has this happen to them, then yes it should keep its swap on downstate and yes soulbeast should be able to merge with pet while downed.

From these statements it sounds like you want the pet to stand idle, so it may as well disappear. Also, even if you disable the F2, pets can CC you on their own, so you'd still be getting owned by pets. Also for the SB stuff, everyone realizes if you take away pet swap on down then the ranger should really be able to merge with the pet while downed? That could give us a whole host of options--like bird swoop into doors like eles can do. So yeah, please give us that tradeoff I'd take it any day.

Unblockable was fine before they started removing it from everything--the recent changes to WH / Clarion Bond come to mind as the most egregious example. Also, that change to SB is so rooted around combating Ancient Seeds it isn't even funny lol. Trust me, the problem you are facing with SB isn't Ancient Seeds and buffing it like that to spread bleeds to 5 people in splinters is definitely not a path you want to go down. Also if you gain unblockable on LB everytime you projectile combo you are just buffing the ever loving hell outta SB because a LOT of them run smokescale and have arguably the best field in the game at disposal at all times. So you'd literally get unblockable blinds at 12-1500 range lol. This isn't counting all the other ideas--have a E. Wyvern do a knockdown (which creates a field) and you have both hard CC and unblockable if they try to mash buttons on recover. Anyway, for bows, the fix seems simple to me, for SB just make crippling shot do something useful and add unblockable to it. For LB, making hunter's shot unblockable is enough--still have to time it as it is so easy to LoS or dodge it. Not sure what to do with MH axe really as I personally don't find unblockable a big deal on it as you aren't missing an escape / burst (LB #2 or #3) or a CC (SB #5) due to it.

Basically this. People that are bad at the game will literally look at any build they died to and call it 'OP'. For one, Pets are slow with the good condi-Druid build (WS/NM/Druid) as you have no Beastmastery--so it often requires swapping at inopportune times to get the pet to CC. If you take other traitlines you are just hampering yourself. So to even CC you have to most likely enter CA and try for a Lunar Impact, when you can just be CC'd out of that really easy yourself. Essentially it boils down to a spec that is good at pinning straggler targets with well timed concussion shots, but that can fail easy enough with defenses (reflect, block, etc.). For roaming, you cannot down a good Holosmith or Deadeye with this build, and you will stalemate good thieves, weavers, and bunkers in general (due to cleanse). You will also straight lose to something like a power soulbeast because of the range it has. Also the build loses ALL effectiveness in group settings.

Try backing up? Also, if you are getting chain CC'd and cannot apply a boon, stealth, or dodge, how do you stomp necro's then when they have extremely strong condi pressure in downstate? They can also fear you while in downstate which is a very long CC. I'm sorry, but as long as thief 'invis stomp' remains in the game, this is nothing. Thematically it makes sense as well as the ranger is downed, not the pet.

There's an option (which should be enabled by default) to have your pet 'guard'--use it. The option to have your pet on standby / ignore what is attacking you is mostly for desynch strategies (attack something, command your pet to attack something else) but I'm not sure who ever does this outside of me lol. Also Druid may be a bit advanced for you atm; there certainly is synergy with the pet--use pets that CC to trigger ancient seeds is the biggest one. I'd say learn the core mechanics of the Ranger: how to command your pet, what pet skills do, what the function of the actual weapons are...THEN move on to the forums and topic making.

A boss fight that's boring but killed you '180 times'--misnomer much? Also, it's Dry Top...if you are geared (like at all) you shouldn't be capable of getting downed, let alone dying.

Well the DH/GoM link must have done well last time for whatever method anet uses to make each server a main...

They need to increase guard damage to mounts by a lot. That way if you ride into the guards you are pretty much going to be dismounted--it's not my preferred solution but it's something. This would help on both taps and going into keeps and pretty much ignoring all guard attacks because you can ride by on a mount with no penalty. WvW honestly worked far better pre-HoT when you didn't have all this mobility from gliding, mounts, boon spam, etc. The BL's (outside of Desert) are far too small for this. I've never heard of someone perma-tapping Desert because it takes so long to get from one keep to another, whereas Alpine and EBG everything is so crammed it's just too easy to do. WP's used to mean something as everyone was far slower and the run seemed to take forever from one keep to the next. WP's really have never been the issue, it's Anet's 'feature creep' and lack of updating the BLs in any meaningful way to accommodate it. The mode is based off RTS after all, and anyone who has ever played RTS knows that map design is the number 1 most important thing.

Should need to do some damage to a wall or gate before the WP is contested. This riding mount past the structure and aggro'ing guards to contest is ridiculous as it's pretty much unpunishable.

Probably should learn to play Druid then. You can't call shortbow 'melee' because it has quick shot, a cripple, and a stun lol. Longbow has at 1500 range, a knockback, a stealth, and an AoE cripple. Staff has a ranged root, ranged projectile barrier, etc. See where I'm going with this? MH axe literally has one chill that is very, very slow and easy to dodge unless you are well within 900. I maintain that you can't play MH axe well unless you are in the 400-600 unit range, at which point calling that 'ranged' is semantics only.

Yeah, I believe your instinct about double melee is correct. It is my experience as well that not running at least one ranged weapon (either bow or staff) leaves you far too open to being focused. I don't count mainhand axe as a ranged weapon because it's too slow and doesn't have any escape tools (stealth on LB, swiftness on SB, movement skill on staff). So you can stand at range with axe and do less than nothing or get in melee range where splitblade becomes effective. Anyway, I found in WvW as a ranger you need to play like a thief and pretty much always be on the periphery of battles or looking for an out. I mention both parts as if you don't run LB and run something like SB Druid, you can play tanky and be pretty much in the middle of things, but you also have no sustain so you need to look for an out or just get CC'd to death. If you DO play LB then periphery is pretty much your entire deal, melee is for kiting or for chasedowns (LB + S/A with runes of speed is very fun for this). The tldr; is if you are an aware ranger and especially if you like to theorycraft, it is going to be very hard to bring you down in WvW despite the obvious weaknesses of the class.

Also, even if this were 1.5k - 2k damage a hit you have to literally be soaking up damage and be in melee(ish) range to do it. Meanwhile, a power soulbeast on longbow can do this (and up to a whole lot more depending on how glass you want to go) with barrage at 1500 range. But really, this proves people will find literally anything to complain about regarding ranger. Like, think about it--if this topic is accurate, for maximum effect you have to be STANDING in the enemy bomb and hope to down a few people. Who signs up for this? 😂

I usually run with a build that has ZERO sustain and not even I want pulls removed. In my experience, if you get pulled you (in order from most to least likely): Are standing on a wall, far, FAR too close to the edge Are running in a straight line Are standing in the back of a group trying not to be noticed (but they can smell your lack of confidence) Are being focused because you are a threat

Yeah gonna call BS on this unless someone provides a vid.

I mean, is it though? I've never stepped foot in sPvP but from the leagues and stuff I watched (early on when it was supposed to be a thing like on Twitch) it does seem all about rotating between points to get the most strategic advantage. No one like goes off and duels 1v1 for the hell of it like in WvW (that would be seemingly very counterproductive lol). Since sPvP lost nearly all of its audience I would say if it IS about the fights it doesn't have a good way of showing that.

Please tell me you do not call these 'roaming'--if so, are you a Fastcar alt?

You don't roam do you?

A build doesn't make someone good--a zergling can run a 'roaming build' all they want and still not be any good. Zerglings don't roam anyway, if there is no tag they afk at spawn (recapping the nearest camp every 4 min) until one shows up. I hate to say it but I feel no remorse for part of the group losing 'bags'--roamer's never get bags because we don't see another living person unless a 'roaming group' comes by that we have to fight 1vX or we hover around a structure that has zergs fighting over it. Even worse is WXP, as I've been playing WvW myself for almost 9 years and and up until the last 4 months only hit rank 500 because all I did was roam.

This isn't my experience. I've supported a random commander plenty of times by doing just that--protecting against enemy gankers means those who are lagging behind the tag can get back to it without getting downed. Can also stall objectives super easily and / or be a distraction long enough for reinforcements to show up. I also tend to get invited to squads a lot if I'm not running with a guild, so that has to count for something. Essentially, underestimating the flanking game is a bad idea, because it undermines people's need to chase things. That urge alone can unravel some of the better groups if you do it well enough. Double down on people think "ranger = free bag" and you have struck gold when they can't down you and waste too much time trying to do so instead of focusing. From my understanding, Ranger isn't wanted in traditional zerg vs. zerg as it's too easy in a way. You don't need to flank a lot of times or do anything fancy as it's all about boons and sustain, so just get a bunch of feints until one ball runs over the other.

This will most likely get moved, but I use Apothecary and Staff. Your main drivers of CA are going to be regen and TU ticks.

Just make the timer longer on cap so that a single person can take the ruins if they wanted to. That way even if you are the only roamer on you can still take back your BL's bloodlust.

I don't run SB at all for the aforementioned reasons of it being too one-dimensional for anyone's liking; thus the reason for this topic existing in the first place.

Staff isn't melee lol. MH dagger may be the biggest abomination of a weapon we have; I think he means more like the old days of Sword/Warhorn and Axe/Axe, or Sword / Axe and Axe / Warhorn (both 'partial' melee but not involving arrow spam) or Sword / Warhorn + GS (actual melee). When pets didn't suck and could draw some aggro (and live for more than 5 seconds) so that ranger could get in close and do a lot of damage.