Atronach.8520

They should somehow make this Hornet's sting buff - either full animation evade, make it hit all enemies along the way( 3 target cap), or some range improvement. I would actually think that the loss of on-demand evade( Serpent's now gated behind leap) would be reasonable then. Atm SW3 is highly situational, has long cd for such a skill and not fluid at all.

Sword change feels even worse than GS change to me. The loss of on demand evade hurts duels a lot more than expected. You're forced to use leap in so you can use Serpent's, but you wont even use it at the opportune moment cause it's so clunky now and gated behind the leap. And then you need to hit new Hornet's so you can even attempt to disengage. GS lost it's utility but at least the dmg is somewhat there. On sword you don't even have dmg nor disengage now. Bummer.I'd really like some of the more known rangers to come up with some new build, cause I don't feel any of the existing ones are even 3/5 rating now.

Skirmishing has no place in any ranger build. Beastmastery, Survival, Nature Magic even Marksmanship offer more.On BoonBeast, you already have those boons that the traitline provides through Survival skills, which are necessary for condi clear.On GS/LB Soulbeast, you need BM to do dmg and for lower pet CD and QoL in general. The other traitline is either MM for oneshots or Survival for more staying power and condi clear again.Core ranger is the only one who could use Skirm if torch, traps and/or shortbow get reworked anytime soon.Right now Skirm it is the worst traitline as its uses are very niche and the only things it provides are boons( vigor, fury and swiftness which are all covered). Situational Grandmaster trait doesn't warrant use of the whole traitline.

doesn't bother with GS evade on auto attack says that he has never been a 1H sword user himself use terms "dagger" and "pressure" ??? better than expected

Better to nerf ranger GS Power Stab as it's skill abuse but this isn't :confused:

Hornet Sting itself, even on a 8s CD, never mind almost double that (15s) is a poor skill. It's hard to hit with, has low range (130 in front and just 400 backwards), strange evade frame and non existent dmg.As I mentioned above, it would make a lot more sense to chain Hornet Sting with Serpent Strike. Make so that successful hit of Serpent's Strike recharges Monarch's Leap or something. Right now it's attempt to make it more dps-ish is just not enough as no Sword skill does actual dmg.I'm not against sword or other ranger weapon changes, I think we need them, but as it stands now it's not really an upgrade indeed.

The things that's bothers me here is it's easier to use on paper, but limits the potential. You previously had Hornet Sting/Monarch leap on 8s CD, and Serpent's Strike on 15s. Now CDs are basically swapped, but you don't have that instant evade of Serpent's Strike. SS lasts 1s and has first 0.75s evade, with the dmg part of 0.25s at the end of animation plus the aftercast. HS has also evade frame which lasts 0.5s BUT it isn't the first 0.5s it's more like after the sword swing and the roll starts. It is harder to evade the dmg with it.So if you wanted to avoid pressure you needed to SW3, dodge, then SW2/2 and Owl1 yeet away. How it's going to be now is that you won't have that on demand evade from SS, and HS isn't that reliable at all to evade. Disengaging will be tougher for the most part. Using SS after you leap away is kinda wasted. And you can't use it on demand in fight as it's locked behind the leap.The combination of the above makes it a lot more situational use.I would like a lot more if we had SS+HS on the same skill bar, as you could chain evade a lot more reliably. Make CD recharge on Monarch's leap be on either SS dmg or HS dmg.

That's exactly what it is. Both GS and Sword changes are nerfs to skilled higher ceiling plays on ranger.In case of sword it was previously clunkier to use but offered more, now its just a 'feel good' version of it while bumping up every CD on it.This "QoL" change makes it even more funny considering GS5 and Axe5 are still rooting us and much clunker than Sw skills were. Both of those are instumental in getting kill setups btw.I guess they wanted to make it more offensive, but as I just mentioned ranger melee just keeps getting toned down. I don't think you will be able to do better pressure now even with the buffed dagger. There will be maybe more shenanigans with Sw/D with Griffon Stance to troll people 1v2 on far, but when it comes to pressure its just not there.

My only advice( since people above mentioned some of the stuff already) is do not box yourself into using one set of weapons. Each game mode has it's weapon flavors. Also, GW2 implementation of weapons means your weapon skills change too, which means different playstyles. Just bear in mind do you want power or condi route, as it is somehow harder to readjust later.

What's the worst about them(never mind jumping and showing some siege love) is their ignorance. I usually wanna help my fellow roamers..this is just an example. So from my experience, totally agree with OP