Gotejjeken.1267

Won't happen without a population increase or removal of duo Q. As right now, Duo Q is out of control with the smurfing--and the smurfing isn't to randomly carry some low ELO player either---from investigating it sounds like people are actively paying for it to happen. Not speculation either, got a few confirmations after asking various low AP accounts in whisper--they basically told me they throw and smurf other accounts for gold. This is also why Top 250 is literally at 1405 right now, when even earlier in the year it was 1500+ at minimum. If I played up to the 1490 it took to get my Dame title back in Jan/Feb I'd literally be top 100--back then, would have had to be at least 1560+. You see a drop because less real people play, more alts--so leaderboards get messed up as someone doesn't need 2-3 alts on the board and/or is doing as I said above and leaving them low to get into gold / silver games.

DH - Take the area denial out of the traps--in fact remove area denial as a thing in general, and this would include the untamed cantrip too. Area denial is too low effort, only made sense on things like guard when they moved slow, but with fast pace of game it's ridiculous to have to dodge invisible walls among all the clutter. They also took out ancient seeds for this reason, it was 'unfun' to be immob'd for long periods of time off random CC's (i.e. mindless tether into DH trap puke that also prevents you from leaving without stab, etc; and no I don't care you can stunbreak the tether--you could stunbreak out of ancient seeds too.). Mesmer - Distortions need looking at, and Moa has never belonged in a competitive environment--it's the ultimate no-skill 'I win' for Virt as they can just Moa then condi burst down with no repercussions--even a time shave would work to 2-3s instead of friggin' 6. Reaper - Do the opposite of what they are about to with sword and address the mobility; reaper was balanced when it was slow, now two HP bars, a pistol, chilled to the bone, etc. etc. makes it a fast spec that's also super low effort. If Mechanist can get shaved because it's low effort, then so should reaper. Scourge/Core Guard - Adjust the barrier spam and mitigations to make them more thoughtful to play like Specter is. As specter can still well bomb but needs to use mobility to stay alive, not block/invuln/barrier. Soulbeast (surprise!) - Rethink how Dolyak stance works--can add more to the burst again, but need to make Doylak into an elite or rework it somehow so you can't just spam it YOLO offensively. Ranger has too much mobility for this and too much potential damage for this, and it's also detrimental to every other ranger spec that can't compete with one button that does 4 things.

Not at all. Swear grouping fallacies on these forums is almost as rampant as gambler's fallacy is in real life. For a sports example, look at the Pro Bowl--it's literally alliances. You have players from different teams allied and they play against each other--it is not one big new team, the 'team' is a temporary grouping of the best players from different teams.

The 'alliances is a big mega guild' stance is the biggest cop out ever. The hand waving and responses here rivals most of those dudes you see on TV that do kicks and the crowd all falls over 😂. Look, alliances at a core has an organization structure that isn't present in guilds, and that's...grouping more than one guild together. This is not the same as just joining a bunch of guilds, because multiple guilds have multiple leaders--a big guild effectively has one. There are no tools in current guild making to set a subsection as PvE, WvW, or sPvP--it's all one big blob. Not to mention physically spawning new guilds instead of just effectively using a linked list to group them is asinine. It is really no wonder the sPvP portion of the game failed because if they can't get basic groupings right there's no way to create an e-sports scene. As for world restructuring, it's just a bad idea. It's the same thing we have now with a worse coat of paint--because we don't control the groupings. We just control who we want to be grouped with by joining guilds, but as far as creating teams from alliances, that's not happening. It's literally six years of dev for the same thing they've been doing, but this time maybe a portion is automated instead of hand linking. Problem is, the automation has to be just as good as the manual or we've waited six years for a downgrade.

Remember when you could fall off Skyhammer? 😂

I don't want to hear anyone speak on Discord--haven't since the days of TF2 and Teamspeak lol. I also understand this means I stick to my guild tag who does not use voice or roam. OP, WvW may be a prison experiment, but voice comms isn't the reason lol.

Ah--so these types are who I keep getting matched with in sPvP...it all makes sense now.

"Toxic" enough to make people switch to necro I guess 😂. FF and OWP nerfs were just hatchet fixes to small issues that devs don't want to take the time to whiteboard to fix. Both were egregious as they eliminated a certain playstyle that had been cultivated for years (burst slb--all modes, and power untamed--in PvE), and gave nothing in return. Right now is a bad time to play ranger, so I don't blame OP for dusting off the necro. Every necro spec has a place at the moment--only one or two ranger specs does lol.

Use the Metabattle Untamed one. Don't take traps...I know the skill floor is at bottom right now, but they are visible to the enemy and most functioning people won't walk into them. You try getting close and dropping them, you will get CC'd out of your boots very quickly as several specs are super strong in melee right now (reaper, scourge, Hammer DH, willbender, etc.). I would trade out Drake for Polar Bear, as the stun is very good atm; can still use smokescale for the stealth as not a ton of better options. Maybe Gazelle for the CC as it can do some damage but it's even IMO. Can probably trade out marksmanship for Wilderness Survival so you have some condi clear, at least until you get more used to the spec. I say that as Untamed isn't burst like SLB used to be so not taking any condi clear outside cleansing sigil / mutate conditions still isn't enough in my book. Can take the stab on swap trait, WK, and LR over Protect Me (or Mutate Conditions) and then Troll Unguent over WHaO. I'd say you can take Healing Spring too but that one's trickier to use as you have to stand in it to get benefit, and that's hard with the ground puke going on. Don't really recommend it with longbow as you need to be moving a lot more than say if you were going full melee (Sw/Wh + GS) or using a hybrid weapon like axe.

Sorta does, by spec. Like: Support - Core Guard, Scourge, Specter, FB, most Druids Tank/Stall - The non-support Druids, some Untamed's, Warrior (in general), most Rev's, most Mesmer, Mech DPS - Willbender, any non-Specter thief, Soulbeast, Reaper It can definitely get muddy, like Ele can play any role--but in general I find Tempest's are pretty much support, Weaver DPS, and Cata Tank Worse for me is persistently running far but dying to a 1v1 and dying in ~5-10 seconds at that. Then to top it off, if someone is getting bodied far but you win mid, 90% chance the rest of your team leaves mid anyway, goes far and all dies. This leads to a 2-node backcap by the enemy then they all flood home...to which the team...feeds home and you lose! Second most encountered is having to ping pong ball everywhere because people legit will get a kill and run right by a neutral node. So, you have to go over and cap the node, and repeat for literally every node...sometimes even mid.

Had an account named 'Why Report Me' (not exact don't worry) straight up tell the chat they were being paid to throw games. My rating atm is I think 1380ish so not even in g3 is this happening. This isn't really unique anymore, and they do nothing to stop it. Between blatant throwing and duos, no wonder people are going nuts.

How in the world has Scourge not been mentioned yet

What is an 'offensive teleport'? You mean teleports that actually require a target and are not ground targeted (i.e. are not shadowsteps)? Really, then what's the difference between something like JI and Crashing Courage? One requires target, one doesn't...both hit hard, and both teleport/shadowstep.

Okay, so Nades hit harder than Maul 😂. Anyway, I'll let the DH's and Engi fight now....

Maul doesn't hit harder than Grenade Barrage 😂. Also, slow moving telegraphed bear that anyone with eyesight is dodging vs. nades thrown behind an engi running away with superspeed--not the same ballpark there. My point is your logic of 'slow moving telegraphed melee skill hits harder' doesn't hold up for vast majority of cases. Not really. I'm sure you know how to compare classes, and I also know you know that trapper DH has always been better than trapper ranger. If disagree, please let me know next time you run into at trapper ranger in actual ranked, and actually die to it so I can have a good laugh.

You seem to really want ranger GS Maul to get buffed. As it's a highly telegraphed melee skill, and by this logic it should hit harder than engi nades--so 10k+? DH's problem is the traps which should retain the dmg but lose the area denial, and also true shot which hits way too hard. The pull wouldn't even matter if the traps didn't have area denial and by time you break out, they are across the map true shotting. Guard LB/Traps are just straight upgrades to rangers...so to balance need to either bring guard traps and LB down or ranger's up.

Thought the grandfathering was either 5 runs of explorable or 1 run of story prior to the consolidation change? As I solo'd all the story modes prior to the change for some Tyria Masteries and have never done explorable on them, but can buy everything from the vendors.

How does any of this make the combo less stupid? Just because Moa's a meme on engi doesn't make OPs complaint any less valid. Have yet to see in this thread a reason why a transform + CC combo should exist, only goal post moving. Regardless, since you quoted me--meme builds more than anything are going to get BM from me if they miss, because I find all of them stupid and not funny stupid, it's dreamer level annoying sound stupid.

Wow, like Squid Games? Amazing.

I usually PvP in G3+ so, yes. Don't even need to be high level PvP to hate Signet of Renewal though--even if you are slotting this in WvW I can say with confidence you have not met many decent roamers. It just lacks all value, same category as Empathic Bond. Oh, and Lighting Reflexes cleanses two conditions with WK traited. Dolyak Stance also cleanses three specific conditions with no investment. Hell, 'Protect Me!' used to cleanse conditions with Trooper runes before the great useless 'command' rework--but in the here and now you are right in that it doesn't cleanse conditions; provides a ton of barrier though. Healing Spring may not be in the same slot, but point being it's a water field and blasting it with anything with cleanse way more conditions than Signet of Renewal, not to mention just standing in it. The point there is you can take anything else instead of Signet of Renewal for your stunbreak and take Healing Spring if you are that scared of a condition burst. Already explained it. Dolyak is literally free to use whenever with no downside, and not even as a stunbreak--I mean it can be used to clear aformentioned movement condis (again chill being a huge one), for the damage reduction, or lastly as an actual stunbreak. Too loaded, no amount of spin is changing my mind on that. Forest Fortification you have to use offensively to get the CD down, you actually must hit something or be stuck with a 75-80s elite skill on CD. If you just pop it defensively, you are kitten out of luck for a long time. This shouldn't happen. If someone pops Dolyak it should literally be defensively, like almost all of the other stunbreaks are besides Glyph of Equality (I pop that one offensively a lot). Forest Fortification shouldn't require hits to reduce CD, should just be 60-70s and then can use it actually defensively instead of having to put yourself in great danger to use it a lot of times. Not my bent, anet's. Every one of the elites IS sustain based besides Entangle and OWP right now. Three of them provide stability (SoTP, FF, and Glyph of Stars), and Spirit of Nature's whole point is (badly) cleansing conditions, regen, and a revive--sustain. OWP got not just nerfed but nuked in WvW and PvP as recently as a month ago and has been nuked in PvE for 6+ months--that should be crystal clear on the balancing direction here. If it isn't crystal clear, then look no further than maces and google how many times they use 'bruiser' in sentence pertaining to ranger since EoD. This is two years of balance direction away from offensive / burst playstyle. Anyway, 10% dmg increase may be 'boring' but it's all we're getting--again, look at how relics work, they are all rather bland increases based on situation. They absolutely will not add something to rez a pet or do anything with it; devs have hated pets from the outset--to go so far as taking away a majority of the functionality you are suggesting here. We had pulsing stability, had a way to rez pets if we were OOC, etc. they removed literally all of it. So, we're not disagreeing that something needs to update SoTP from 2012-2015 standards, I'm just trying to put any changes in a more sensible light based on the direction they are balancing towards.

Depends on time of day and also sPvP seems more active on weekends. Some of it might be the matchmaker--if you go over estimated time, just requeue; it's probably superstition, but doing that has not only gotten me faster games but also better matches. Seems if you leave the matchmaker to go way past its estimated it starts taking 'supplements' and comes up with some rather uniquely frustrating team comps. Finally, sPvP isn't really hugely popular in GW2 to begin with as GW2 is kind of casual by nature. So, a lot of your wait is probably due to that, especially if you are going to compare it to FPS like Destiny. My overall suggestion is only Q as ranked and don't worry about your actual ranking. Get better rewards and the same sweats from ranked also play unranked anyway, so if you are going to face them better at least be in an environment where they have to pretend to try.

From the responses going to assume you are mainly talking from PvE perspective...I'll try to respond with that in mind, but I play very little PvE outside of open world stuff. Not sure how to respond to this if you think a forced pet swap is the same as necro entering shroud. Forced swap is not solving anything, in any game mode. Forcing a merge to get rid of conditions isn't solving anything either...when you could just take any other condition removal option that isn't a detriment. Even in PvE if you are in a group setting, you are running Druid for cleansing. If you do not, it's just detrimental to everyone involved. Support Druids are going to take things like frost spirit and heal trap along with CA abilities to cleanse + give group alac without killing them or their pet. When I compared signet with mutate conditions, I probably wasn't clear--it was more a selfish comparison from a roamer perspective than talking about group play, as I do not associate either untamed or slb with group play / support. Untamed has group quickness (in PvE) and Soulbeast has meager stance share, but that's about it. So, from my perspective, the only time Mutate Conditions is really used is in roamer builds where you don't have cleanse from others--and from that perspective it vastly outclasses the signet--even if you straight up ignore the vuln and just kite instead of cleanse it. As far as the two stunbreaks, for any spec (in competitive) you can have two stunbreaks on ranger that will outclass the signet (Mutate Condition + Protect Me, LR + Protect Me, LR + Glyph Of Equality, Dolyak Stance + anything, etc. etc.). For the rest, SoTP does indeed provide fury, and thus offense with it is implied more than defense; as at the time it was made swiftness would allow gap closing, stability and fury for damage and providing might to a pet was a thing since pets actually did damage. It was meant like Troll Unguent where you precast it as you start an encounter. To top that off, the bright red glow was an indicator of 'offense', as the ranger a vast majority of time was running toward something after popping it, not away. In contrast, Dolyak and FF are purely defensive utilities--it's just that Dolyak is too high value for what it is (in competitive). It's probably too high value in PvE too, but the amount of group stunbreaks, boons, facetanking mechanics, etc. there it doesn't even matter...as it isn't used in the first place. As for niche, SoTP still has that over FF because it provides fury and so makes it offensive. The problem is with the power creep in the game, fury and swiftness don't seem like much when you have defensive boons + superspeed. For it to work as you'd want, then they'd need to do something like 10% increase in damage while it's active (instead of providing might to the pet), make it a shout again (as no amount of theorycraft on commands makes sense at the moment), and reduce cast time to something befitting a shout (either none or like 1/4 second). Reason I suggest swapping Dolyak to elite and SoTP as a stunbreak option is the way balancing for ranger is going--towards bruiser and not burst. In that light SoTP has no niche as using it for defense IS outclassed by FF, CA form, and merged beast abilities (stoic archetypes). So, why not just move Dolyak to where it should be as an elite and instead make SoTP compete with Protect Me! etc. for stun break ability, as that's the only thing going for it if you take away the burst potential.

Don't disagree buuut.... The five mesmers left in PvP would probably quit if they actually fix this...

Signet is dogwater as it doesn't work when your pet is dead, and when it does work you are condi bombing your own pet. The resistance also does nothing to poison since it's a damaging condition and thus healing your pet out of it is a non-option, not that directly healing your pet is a good idea anyway; least that signet does is force a pet swap, which is direct detriment to the ranger. Mutate conditions is a full clear, which you can then: dodge roll (nature magic), unleash/leash (cleansing unleash) or swap weapons on literally any spec (cleansing sigil) to instantly remove the vuln. It is second only to Druid's Celestial Avatar for condi clearing, and only second because they nerfed the full clear trait. Doylak stance is a 40s CD in competitive, a stun break, movement impar remover (chill being the big one here as chill / fear duration can easily outlast resistance), and no requirement to hit to reduce CD. FF is a 90s Elite skill that is a good defensive burst, but if you don't hit anything in that ~3s window it's 75+ second CD. The parallel here is both can be used offensively where they shouldn't be...Dolyak is a free pass to as no downside to just hit whenever, and FF you have to put yourself in danger or have an elite that is on longer CD than any other elite. My original point was no other utility compares to Dolyak Stance, it's literally an elite on a 40s CD...much like Entangle. The problem is Dolyak stance ISN'T an elite, so swap the functionality of it and SoTP and you fix two issues at once.

Yes, you can still get teamed with them--the only thing blocking does is prevent communication. But yeah, blacklist is too easy to abuse if you just block everyone with lower ELO than you--would essentially create super teams and we already have double duo teams that mysteriously are put together--don't need that fifth slot being a smurf too. It's on anet to do a better job policing serial afk, but they never expand the report options very much so think we are stuck with that. Also seems a lot of people afk because of bad comps or if you have a team that ignores all nodes and doesn't communicate. That is, lot of AFK out of frustration. I've had matches where before they even start people Jerry Springer with each other from previous games and was still able to win just by playing well--if a team is winning rarely are they going to suddenly tank outside of top x% throwing situations.