Gotejjeken.1267

I know that obviously raid rotations do not track exactly to WvW (as real people move most times), but why is there no DPS related golem in WvW somewhere? At the moment to be 'safe' I have to check my build on the Special Forces golem and then kinda guess if it's going to be as effective in WvW due to number changes and the like. Also don't really want to install something like Arc because even though it's 'gray accepted', I have this fear that my account will get flagged as soon as I use anything third party. So...can we get a DPS golem in WvW somewhere, even if paid access like Armistice Bastion?

The ridiculous part is they are balancing around third party DPS meters. It'd be one thing if this stuff was easily accessible and open through in-game means, but so much of GW2 has always been 'accepted' third party (TACO, Arc, etc. etc.). It's an obvious internal conflict; you have dev's wanting LI builds to take precedence but then other forces balancing around raids and DPS.

Raiders and sPvP, the bane of GW2.

Light on Your Feet is taken due to piercing, pretty sure the actual effect is ignored most times. The rest of shortbow is actually solid aside from crippling shot being a bit on the weak side. Maybe add torment to it if you get the immob or something.

If you're outnumbered, you still shouldn't run out the front door and get farmed because you're outnumbered. Also, Maguuma can't hurt you if you leave EBG. Finally, not much can be expected from a game mode where most build as tanky as possible to survive, can't think on their own, and have no idea what CC is. Finally, the number of plat+ players that have no idea how to pull an EWP, have no idea what tricks are, and again, have no idea what CC is, is frankly astounding. It's not a new player thing.

There's like one snowcrow's build that includes untamed because of Fervent Force and Alacrity--but the hardest strike clear was done using a soulbeast. So that tells me in general, you're going to be asked to run Soulbeast over anything for high end content (and it has been my personal experience too). I've seen maybe two untamed in WvW roaming. You may be right about PvP as I don't play that mode. And ya I think FF would become class identity of sorts, very much like Chrono was. If they move away from that to 'everyone can do everything' people will continue taking the Guard/Nec/Engi because they were built to be supporting classes in the first place.

What content is Untamed welcomed in currently? It surely isn't organized PvE (open world metas or endgame) because the pet nets you a loss of DPS and does all kinds of other unwelcome things in terms of aggro, etc. It surely isn't WvW for same reasons. Maybe it has a niche use in sPvP if the player is highly skilled? Also, shared FF is no different than shared OWP, except shared FF actually would take CC'ing something (i.e. effort). The share duration obviously wouldn't be 100%, so allies would get maybe 1-2s CD on their skills per ranger CC, as it doesn't even apply to the pet CC's. Finally, let's not forget the topic is started by someone with 7 posts that has contributed nothing to it since, and most likely has never played ranger....

How is the CC system built for PvE when originally you had classes like Warriors doing most of it? That tells me it was a comped decision (i.e. the old GWEN). So were boons, but they started adding new ones / changing them / making them spammable so it became a problem (and obvious direction to LI builds).

😂 2s of boons...how about perma 25 stacks of might and actually perma boons if you run the right pet. In addition to a lot of vitality and what 2.7k toughness? Celebeast is a bad, bad example here because it's one of the worst offenders (I know because I've ran one and fought them constantly). The CC discussion is ironic as I rarely run across players that can break a bar, so how are people getting stunlocked? I've rarely, and I mean rarely come across a few players that have done it to me (spellbreaker and good eles mostly); you can't say you are getting stunlocked by groups as that's just focusing. If you are trying to chase big groups you literally know what you are getting into. Devs are too focused on easy play though, especially with Steam release coming up. Otherwise its easy, just add more ways to remove/corrupt boons and more unblockables. And bump up the damage on CC skills from 0 to maybe half of what they were before. Then it wouldn't matter if a bad player runs a gear set as they'd just get out skilled.

Staff changes would probably be a bit overtuned for the condi bunker druids. Wisp being ground targeted and creating some kind of field would be nice though. I also too hate ICD's because there is no visual indicator. Just easier to have these line up with CA and just have astral force passively generate no matter what and also not be emptied upon death. It's pretty easy to maintain otherwise; CD on it should be 10s for all gamemodes though.

The OWP change is also nonsensical because a majority of ranger weapons are built around burst--Rapid Fire, Whirling Defense, Maul, and for the most part Winter's Bite. That's four different weapons all with one skill that is meant to be a burst in some way or another (either channeled or all at once). Heck, you could even extend it to torch and OH dagger because they have bonfire for condi burst and stalker's strike for hybrid burst. So, they raise coefficients to make sustained damage more important, but our sustained damage weapons (MH dagger, MH sword, and I'd say hammer) are mostly lacking. The other sustained damage weapon being staff is essentially a kiting tool, so leaving that out altogether. In the end, these changes end up as a nerf because they haven't fixed the weapon skills themselves. The worst part isn't the numbers it's the reasoning. They are balancing around burst windows being to hard to hit, which makes no sense because ranger always has been a mobile / medium armor class that should be bursty. We don't have sustained damage in the form of ground target AoE, and even our traps are literally all burst oriented. Also on commands, I'd like to think they were converted from shouts to work with untamed--but they then somewhere along the line scrapped that entire idea and went with cantrips. So, it just dev disagreement and eventually limbo that has caused this. Which yes, is annoying as trooper runes at least made NM somewhat bearable, because you could take another DPS line. Instead, you have to take WS for WK cleanse (don't get me started on empathetic bond lol) or have even more careful play and only use bear stance / cleansing sigils. At the end of the day, I fear soulbeast will keep seeing these nerfs though until most of us outright quit. As they don't seem to want to fix untamed in any meaningful way or revert the druid nerfs. That just makes soulbeast top choice in all regards, so the path of least resistance is keep hitting it until all our builds suck.

I've seen all of zero people use Lingering Light in WvW over Ancient Seeds. Positive zero is...still zero. Also, you kinda contradicted your previous 'don't talk across game modes' with this post where you...talk across game modes...🤔

Just want to post here before this blows up as not sure how many pages get read. Anyway, for Ranger..."In addition, Rangers and Revenants can choose to tap into Fury with reworked versions of Spotter..."; just curious the rationale behind this? As spotter is in a trait tree where you literally have to tap into Fury with Furious Grip. So if it's not about the ranger tapping into fury, it would be about group source of fury--but you already changed spirits to provide this if somehow its lacking. So other than a nerf on precision access, what is the real reason for the Spotter change? And if it is a nerf to precision access, that kinda goes against "When playing a power build, a major component of your damage output is in getting your critical chance capped at 100%"---doesn't it? I mean I can't wrap my head around this even from a pure design standpoint regardless of personal feelings. It literally contradicts the design notes either way.

True, shift signet should have the WHaO treatement and only copy on active use and also not direct copy but rather copy a static amount. I'm unsure why this hasn't been implemented yet--WHaO only direct copied boons for a few days before they changed it to what it is now. I mean, I don't care if they make it work exactly like WHaO where active shift signet use gives a copy of mech and engis boons to eachother--its just the passive as right now seems a bit too much.

Rangers wouldn't need to flank if they left spotter alone. Regardless, I don't think 100% crit chance should be achievable for all without some investment. Most other things have an imbalance by class whether its thieves and stealth access or certain classes disproportionate access to things like blocks or stability. Otherwise, may as well just get rid of ferocity and tie crit damage to power--then you'd have your two-stat to match condition builds without needing to alter how precision is gained.

But without shift signet do mechs 'steal' boons like ranger pets? If not, I don't see why they can't just rework it so pets only get boons if you take Fortifying Bond. Stealth seems to work the same way on mech then as ranger pets, so why don't people complain about unstealthed mechs , or mechs ruining the target cap?

There are myriad ways to tell someone is new...the biggest being they don't have a warclaw. As usually by time they get one of those they're just experienced enough to know how the general mode works. Then from there it's just figuring out their build which leads into the above discussion of high rank button mashers vs. medium/low ranking 'skill/roaming/xv1/duel' oriented players.

Since mechanist is being brought up, how does boonshare work with the mech? Or stealth? I like the idea of whatever the ranger gets the pet innately gets, but I don't think they'll ever do it. I mean, in the current state of the game they should just roll beastmastery into default behavior (pets are faster, more damage, etc. without using BM). A breakbar on a pet would be a great idea for WvW too because most people don't use CC anyway so they'd survive way longer, and at least it'd require some amount of CC'ing before just being pinballed everywhere.

I have no clue, but you end up agreeing with me later in your rant. Ok...

From WvW perspective...they need to rework it entirely. For soulbeast specifically, need either slam or preferably hunker down added, because right now the merged skills provide neither CC or mobility, which is bad. In addition the jade cannon is awful compared to something like call lightning. Unmerged, guess the F2 is fine if it'd actually respond in a timely manner. Never going to fix the damage skills as whatever is in the path is just going to move long before they're hit. The CC/slam I guess is ok if you are on untamed and can control it, but otherwise pet never going to land that on its own either.

What part of WvW is designed around GvG? Oh that's right--none. Only now with the alliances would GvG become of importance, but for the past decade it's server vs. server. So it's a fallacy to say 'as designed' as none of it is designed deathmatch style. The keeps, lords, sentries, random wildlife, skritt, jumping puzzles, vets...all of this is very PvE. Even the balance closely mirrors PvE instead of sPvP. That's not to say that pk's shouldn't reward points--they should, and more reward should be given for that. Just not so much reward that the capture/hold aspect of WvW is lost because that's the whole point whether people want to admit that or not.

Bubbles make ranged weapons entirely useless whereas unblockable piercing through bubbles only makes a portion of that players defense useless. Still have reflect, evade, stealth, superspeed...lots of other defensive measures. I guess using gap closers or commissioning dedicated gankers to take out those pesky longbow rangers is too much for the current playerbase to do. Because that's the only threat here--axe and shortbow are both 900 range so easy to LoS or move out of range of it--this unblockable/bubble discussion eternally centers around lb specifically.

Don't want to get in the weeds with this, but just taking Signet of Resolve it has a base heal of 8,150 and removes 3 condis. One of them passively every 5 sec and 2 active. As a core skill. Closest ranger has is healing spring for a core skill, with a base heal of nearly half at 4,920. It'll clear two condis, and usually you have to trait it for it to be useful as otherwise the radius is super small. You also have to stand in it, no passive clearing of condis so if get interrupted while using it no condi clear. My overall point is ranger skills in general are too lackluster to have such high casting times. If they do have lower ones like bear stance, it's coupled with awful direct healing, so if you aren't getting hit with condis you just die.

Usually, other classes get something for longer heal times--reflecting or blocking projectiles (or entire attacks like guards' shelter). Or other auxiliary effects like stealth with thiefs hide in shadows. Ranger gets nothing on any of its heals aside from the boon swapping of WHaO. Which is fine IMO..if they'd shorten the casts just a tad.

Usually the death threats and such are from people way older than 12. Also, PvE players are nuts about their DPS meters so I think they complain even more than this subforum does 😂