Gotejjeken.1267

Again, it's just this most basic line of thinking that gets me. I say 'why is it always longbow' and immediately get linked to the wiki (lol) and then also replies telling me about the two most well known functions of longbow (rapid fire and barrage). There's still a 5-target cap on barrage, and rapid fire is on a 10-sec CD without investment. What I'm saying is you could more optimally invest in shortbow or even axe and destroy bubbles way faster. Really, the only reason I came in to highlight ranger specifically is any time these topics are brought up, it always devolves back to longbow. Thankfully mech's get some of the noob-hate now, but I feel longbow is always going to be #1 in the mind of people who love blocks / evades / etc.

Why is it always a longbow mention... If 'blockable count' were a thing you wouldn't see longbow rangers denting zergs, it'd be shortbow rangers with piercing arrows destroying the 'block count' of bubbles. This is why it isn't a thing.

Which is why we get topics like this. It's noobs eating noobs--no one competent cares about engineer, but there are very few competent people in PvP it seems. So, get these nerf requests for something that for the most part is a serious L2P issue. Like, Mechanist is literally the entry LI build specifically kept intact to get new people into PvP...then those new people want it nerfed 😂. I've never played Mechanist btw, so I have no horse in the race to defend it.

Ranger is literally in a very good spot, and we still get rework pitches like this. Not going point by point, but the biggest issue from the OP seems to be pathing, which is probably also the only issue keeping ranger in a somewhat viable competitive state. Sounds counter-intuitive, but if you fixed ranger pets to have an abundance of teleports or perfect tracking, the sPvP forum would have the class removed from the game. The rest, is fine IMO. I personally don't want more reliance on the pet itself--no more commands given to it or no more responsibilities for it. The pet AI is a mess and at best should be used as a CC/distraction device. If you don't believe me on any of this, head over to the profession forum, pvp forum, or even engi forum (really most of them) and see the complaints about mech doing too much. Because people HATE getting killed by an AI even if mech is objectively terrible in 2/3 game modes, and only passable in PvE because of rifle + mech. I don't want this for ranger---over the years had enough complaints and nerfs to an AI that can barely find its way up stairs and cannot cross simple gaps without taking the scenic route. Rather not alter that so the pet becomes too good, and we're stuck on meme builds like engineers.

Reference: https://imgur.com/a/pQAkL9E Sitting at 1,428 skill and a 70% winrate, but people with 1,600 MMR have 68% or less winrate? Do I dare ask how the ranking system actually works? I could go on a 10 winning streak and barely break 1,500 MMR at the +10 per win it gives. This is AFTER climbing from Gold 1, and I won 7/10 games in placement so same 70% winrate. I could see if it was somehow a gameplay issue, but I get top stats nearly every game. In the end guess it doesn't matter much, just curious to see if I could break into this illustrious 'platinum / top 250 club' with Solo Q, but it would be a hell of a road because at some point I'm going to get the 1 win / 1 loss deal to preserve 50% rate. Even if I managed to avoid it, as above it'd take 20 or so straight wins to get to 1,600 which I doubt is feasible without some major luck.

That's great, but if you re-read the OP it specifically mentions small group / roaming which is why I mentioned nothing of zergs.

Noticed this as well doing map completion in HoT for Astralia--in sPvP Spectre is a nightmare, really good support if the team pays attention. In PvE...I'm glad I have a skyscale and only really had to do one meta (DS) for completion because it was an awful time.

Right, but also want to separate the theory here from the rank. So called 'silver' players will be near a node but like I mentioned before it will be useless pew pew'ing from somewhere and not contesting anything or contributing anything as you can just LoS and they're neutralized. So that's why they scream to be on the node as anything more advanced at that rank costs you the game. Same for the beasts because below low gold really no one is rotating, no one is decaping, and most people are at mid--you just want to make sure they are on the actual node fighting and not on steps while enemies stand on node and range / get points. I basically think we agree but want to emphasize that trying to teach advanced skill to a low rank player is something that will just give you a headache. Best to keep simple directions or advance to a rank where people already understand the mechanics of the mode.

The baffling thing about this is that you will also get yelled at as support if you come over to a node your teammate is on--even though it's literally your job to support +1... I have way more success and fun playing as a ranger or warrior than thief for this reason, as I like to run support Spectre and the amount of times I get 'you do no dmg lolol' is astounding. The point is not damage its me swinging the game by putting down the wells and puking out the barrier everyone ignores lol

I'm speaking only from SoloQ perspective here... Maybe if you get all supports / core necros on your team and have zero mobility. Then going beast makes no sense and it is a higher return rate to try to get over to home and bully them at spawn. If you have a theif, ranger, mesmer, warrior, etc. they should be able to down the beast and possibly contest the other one in short order. Also, why would you not fight on point? How you tell noobs from non-noobs is like the mech players that stand off point and try to rifle you while you just stand behind a wall and keep a fully capped point. Like sure, you're going to have side-noders who will be off point most of the time as they exist to decap, but the vast majority should be on or near a node at pretty much all times.

Yeah, I think it brings enough damage--not quite the spike you find on Soulbeast but for small / medium fights it works. What you get with Untamed that Druid doesn't have (at the moment at least) is sustain--to play immob Druid effectively you have to keep moving because CC lock is a very real possibility, and often the only way to actually lose if you aren't outnumbered. Untamed has enough defenses through hate bubble, the elite, the teleport, your normal ones through gs, and then other things such as CC'ing giving you quickness or stab through traits. I also find it easier to chain CC someone with the full pet control of Untamed then with Druid--because after Ancient Seeds kicks off you have to be careful with your CC options, and some of the 'on demand' ones are a bit contrived like Lunar Impact.

Yeah...the 'no rewards on loss' would make this issue far worse. Sure the AFK person gets no rewards, but the actual team suffers as well. I honestly have been fortunate not to run into any AFK unless the match is going so badly that continuing to play is pointless (like 50-500 stuff).

I've seen map hacks and downstate hacks (teleporting scourges), but not the rest of it.

Power works fine; outclasses condi Druid, but will be outclassed by Soulbeast though, especially after upcoming patch. Build is pretty similar to what you'd run in sPvP with Unnatural Traversal x/gs (axe and something or lb) and I personally use Ferocious Symbiosis over Fervent Force as the speed/damage is more important to me than the CD reduction esp. with CC's being far harder to land in competitive than PvE.

Druidic Clarity 3 => 6 conditions clear (half of OG one) CA form 15s => 10s in sPvP Untamed: 33% personal move speed increase while Ranger is Unleashed

Right, talking actually useful uses here though. For instance, if I see someone running with a spider in any competitive environment, it's a free bag. If I see someone trying to take on a zerg with a poison field, I'm going to whisper and ask what they're on.

Yeah, research of Jormag on the wiki is interesting--up to mid-2011 the dragon was referred to as 'it', then from mid-2011 to 2013 referred to as 'he' and from then on 'it' again. Due to wiki being fan edited and in-game being subject to retconning we probably will never know. Story direction has always been ideological though, just more pronounced in EoD because of Cantha's obvious isolation for so many years. Back before it ranges from obvious things like Balthazar being an evil male god of war to a bit more tin foil hatty nature of all the zombies in Orr sounding male. In conjunction even the side stories back then like Malchor being obsessive over a female and creating an entire map from that premise (could say it was ahed of its time on simping though...).

So, for one, the pet skills are affected by alacrity / fervent force which creates a balancing issue if you were to make them stronger (as CD doesn't really matter here). For another, some of those aren't damage skills--hounds crippling leap for instance. Just for a tip, that skill is very, very good for merged soulbeast mobility. Not that they can't fix up some of the weird things. Hyena was mentioned where it's F2 is useless, some of the field skills like spider poison gas is difficult to get any effectiveness from, Moas frenzied attack...

Yeah, the new team seems to at least make changes that are sensical even if only based on a portion of what the community would like. The old team for lack of a better term was pretty much operating off a compass with a strong magnet next to it.

The more I read, the more I believe you have never stepped foot outside of open world PvE...

Idea is mostly impossible as they'd have to rework the entire game to be very class / role specific. Think old class based / turn based games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre--you'd literally have to have one job do one thing and then combine them into a team. For GW2 opposite has been true and as of late extremely true when they give all boons to all classes in some form or another. This means unless you are mic'd up and extremely careful you would absolutely ruin any game mode (not just sPvP or competitive, but end-game PvE as well). The answer for GW2 has been stated, we need more access to strips/corrupts. Somewhere between the buried and old Disco scourge levels. Counterplay is needed, same with unblockable and current access to mass active defense through block/evade/invuln spam.

I'm unsure what this topic is even about anymore. Yes, you can solo OW content with a Soulbeast--I do it all the time on a glass melee; it's my preferred to run metas like Dragons Stand because no pet to worry about during some of the more difficult parts like the circling deal. Yes, Untamed is very good in sPvP and soloing instance content--I've just soloed Urban Battleground this evening with an Untamed build. No, Snowcrows isn't needed for anything but Raids with super specific comps you probably aren't in anyway. Yes, Longbow is good for tagging trash--not sure anything that beats it, and only axe equals it if you want to play a little harder and not just spam barrage from 1500.

Balancing around PUGs is somehow worse than balancing around a stationary golem. If your group isn't utilizing your sharing...find a different group.

Plasma gives stability. Also, literally getting stability on pet swap with a trait in a week so why is this a topic...

Not seeing many Untamed's in this 3v3 season, so tells me they're fine.