Truth to previewed Ranger changes

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

Ranger:

1. I'll go into detail on this one because I am a Ragner main. So about those Druid changes. Most of them look promising, I can roll with that. However there are a few things to note that Arenanet really needs to pay attention to. 1) Even with these new changes that are clearly meant to bolster Druid Support capabilities, Druid will still not be a viable support when set next to a Tempest or a Core Guardian or a Firebrand in wvw. This is mainly because the other supports can simultaneously use instant cast no-animation support skills on-demand while also utilizing their DPS/CC skills for offensive pressure. Druid on the other hand, everything it does is dedicated animation dependent active skill use and when it goes into CA Kit it has no offensive pressure and offensive pressure is worth defense. 2) Everything a Druid has for support actually requires aiming whereas Tempest/Guardian Supports just click a skill and it touches everything in a large radius. Druid Support is actually much more difficult to wield for this reason and often misses its mark. 3) Druid is all reactive heal/cleanse it has no damage mitigation support like Tempest/Guard. IE: Aegis/Auras/Resistance/Resolution/mass anti-projectile effects, things that prevent damage to begin with. Druid Support is weak due to this. 4) Druid Support in general is still pumping far less numbers in terms of heal/cleanse than even a Core Guardian. What Druid needed was straight buffs to its support capabilities, no alterations, no tradeoff reworks, no nerfs, just straight buffing. If you seriously want Druid to take a support role, it needs straight buffing with no nerfing to anything. One big error that was made, guarantee you this won't pan out well, was lowering Druidic Clarity 13 self cleanse down to 3 cleanse for party. This sounds like a great idea on paper but in application this isn't going to pan out well. That 13 full cleanse was like the one thing that gave Druid a niche purpose for use, being good vs. condi, and even with that full 13 cleanse and 5x wilderness utilities for 4 cleanse on heal and 2 cleanses on each utility, it still struggles to survive in the face of something like a Harbinger. When this full 13 clear is removed, the Druid won't have the kind of self-sustain it needs to actually alleviate enough pressure off itself to be able to use its team support skills, because remember, everything it does requires actual aim and it loses all offensive pressure while in CA Kit. In fact, the Druid would be able to better utilize its support skills if Druid Clarity stayed a personal 13 clear. A support can't support if it can't survive and is always focused on keeping itself alive. This will be especially true on a Druid Support who actually has dedicated animation times and requirement to aim skills, unlike Tempest/Guardian where all effects just happen in a massive radius with no aiming or travel times. Fair warning -> Keep Druidic Clarity the way it is now and Druid will be a better support with these new changes than if you change it to 3 clear for the party. Oh and one more thing, CA Kit needs to be on a 10s ICD just like it is in wvw and pve. The elongated ICD in spvp is not frequent enough of use to make a viable support that can wade into a team fight and stay without needing to kite.
2. Soulbeast will be a god of destruction with pet swap while in merge.
3. No nerfs to Untamed? Weird man. Even as a Ranger main, I have to say that this class has 1) Too much teleburst potential. The 50% ICD reduction for if the tele hits needs to be removed. 40s CD is already leniant enough. It does not need to be generating teleburst downstates every 20s. 2) It has too much anti-projectile bubble spam. The fact that the bubble is centered on the pet which follows people, is quite powerful, quite problematic, and it happens too often. That bubble is also massive, both length and height wise. You can be in Temple way up on a ledge trying to fire over an Untamed's bubble at a different player and that bubble will block projectiles that are like 800+ range above the pet on the ground. That's too much. IMO that bubble could afford to have a longer ICD and should be decreased in size. Don't worry about reducing Untamed damage, there is no way to do it without harming other Ranger specs. It just needs less frequent telebursting and less frequent/smaller bubble.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Trevor Boyer.6524

[Mell.4873]

My God format this better my Dude.

18 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

1. This is mainly because the other supports can simultaneously use instant cast no-animation support skills on-demand while also utilizing their DPS/CC skills for offensive pressure. Druid on the other hand, everything it does is dedicated animation dependent active skill use and when it goes into CA Kit it has no offensive pressure and offensive pressure is worth defense.
2. Everything a Druid has for support actually requires aiming whereas Tempest/Guardian Supports just click a skill and it touches everything in a large radius. Druid Support is actually much more difficult to wield for this reason and often misses its mark.

Most if not all WvW Meta builds are only used by the top guilds so playing Druid as a support in Zerg is fine. In my personally use of Druid I play it heavily offensive Ancestral Gracing into fights then using Natural Convergence. The idea the Celestial Avatar has to be a defensive mechanic is wrong.

The main advantage Druid has over any other healer is the simple fact it can switch between being very offensive (glyphs mostly) to being very defensive. For an organized Zerg a Druid can turn the tide of the fight in the right hands.

18 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Soulbeast changes won't do much. Removing pet swap drawback is great but most Soulbeast play revolves around the use of the favored pet Smokescale. It doesn't really need to swap because the Smokescale revives every time it merges anyway. If you wanted to give Soulbeast a little buff, give it back some form of an unblockable. It needs it now that everything in the game is a 90% anti-projectile machine.

Smokescale might be the most used pet but it is not the best in slot for Soulbeast, It entirely depends on what you are doing. For me the Rock Gazelle was always my favorite due to the CC and mobility. In terms of WvW I prefer the spiders since it comes with an Immobilize and Venom.

18 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

No nerfs to Untamed? Weird man. Even as a Ranger main, I have to say that this class has 1) Too much teleburst potential. The 50% ICD reduction for if the tele hits needs to be removed. 40s CD is already leniant enough. It does not need to be generating teleburst downstates every 20s. 2) It has too much anti-projectile bubble spam. The fact that the bubble is centered on the pet which follows people, is quite powerful, quite problematic, and it happens too often. That bubble is also massive, both length and height wise. You can be in Temple way up on a ledge trying to fire over an Untamed's bubble at a different player and that bubble will block projectiles that are like 800+ range above the pet on the ground. That's too much. IMO that bubble could afford to have a longer ICD and should be decreased in size. Don't worry about reducing Untamed damage, there is no way to do it without harming other Ranger specs. It just needs less frequent telebursting and less frequent/smaller bubble.

I think most people want buffs but i think Untamed is fine, i guess the devs think so to.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

35 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

My God format this better my Dude.

As if my post didn't detail the very crux of Druid's problem as a support, perfectly.

If you can do a better job, by all means, let's see it.

36 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

Most if not all WvW Meta builds are only used by the top guilds so playing Druid as a support in Zerg is fine. In my personally use of Druid I play it heavily offensive Ancestral Gracing into fights then using Natural Convergence. The idea the Celestial Avatar has to be a defensive mechanic is wrong.

The main advantage Druid has over any other healer is the simple fact it can switch between being very offensive (glyphs mostly) to being very defensive. For an organized Zerg a Druid can turn the tide of the fight in the right hands.

Natural Convergence is an ultimate attack skill. This is true wizardry.

38 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

Smokescale might be the most used pet but it is not the best in slot for Soulbeast, It entirely depends on what you are doing. For me the Rock Gazelle was always my favorite due to the CC and mobility. In terms of WvW I prefer the spiders since it comes with an Immobilize and Venom.

Because smoke fields for stealthing and Smoke Assault merge skill isn't a quintessential kit for Soulbeast.

But them Spiders boy, secret meta for sure. So useful. Def better than Smokescale.

41 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

I think most people want buffs but i thing Untamed is fine as it no need for any changes and i guess the devs think so to.

Yeah the devs think a lot of things.

So do newer players with steam join level experience.

[Mell.4873]

You know what this game is highly subjective to what you want to play. I play Soulbeast WvW with two Longbow so I can lower the cooldown of barrage to 10 seconds with quick draw. I literally can't use smokescale since I don't have any leap finishers (I hate Greatsword in general). 

Druid is the same when I play it I use celestial and full Bleed duration and root everyone in sight. I don't think there a single class that can output as many roots as I can(at range). It is very powerful vs organised zergs since they tend to have stragglers which I can root and pick off.

Anyway this forum is normally in contradiction to what gets implemented. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Gotejjeken.1267]

I agree with the extreme need for paragraphs.  

Only iffy change for Druid is Druidic Clarity, only because Harbinger wasn't tuned at all to either not be able to dump as many conditions or cut on the boon spam.  If they'd bring the PvP Harbinger to WvW I think the DC change is fine because a full 13 clear is pretty overkill--I probably would have halved it to 6 instead of quartering it, but whatever.

Support Druid could be interesting though now with the change to stability on Glyph of Stars and how Staff #2 works--will have to see how well the Ally Targeting works there.  

The Soulbeast changes I see being reverted, so not getting too attached to them.  On one hand it makes Sic' Em meme harder to pull off, but on the other the flexibility is just too much for most people to stand for.  At the moment have topics in sPvP complaining about the buggy Untamed teleport and Maul damage....no way Soulbeast being able to switch archetypes on the fly while also retaining all the pet CC is going to stick. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Gotejjeken.1267

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Actually, just read your last paragraph on Untamed..and lol.  I'm not sure what a 'teleburst' is other than if you are calling our buggy teleport => Maul 'OP', then thieves must be in a horrendous place at the moment.  Which literally only applies to sPvP which is filled with glass egos anyway, so it's a moot point.

As for the bubble, that's a new complaint for sure.  Should they also delete Siege Turtle because you can get DOUBLE bubble? 😂    

This is what I mean about Soulbeast.  Once the changes are implemented the salt is going to pour from double swoops into maul, or swoop into KD into maul, or double swoop into prelude lash into axe #5...and then after all that using GS to swoop back out.  Literal crisis mode will be happening over on our favorite sub.   

Edited September 18, 2022 by Gotejjeken.1267

[anduriell.6280]

3 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Most if not all WvW Meta builds are only used by the top guilds so playing Druid as a support in Zerg is fine. In my personally use of Druid I play it heavily offensive Ancestral Gracing into fights then using Natural Convergence. The idea the Celestial Avatar has to be a defensive mechanic is wrong.

The main advantage Druid has over any other healer is the simple fact it can switch between being very offensive (glyphs mostly) to being very defensive. For an organized Zerg a Druid can turn the tide of the fight in the right hands.

43 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

You know what this game is highly subjective to what you want to play. I play Soulbeast WvW with two Longbow so I can lower the cooldown of barrage to 10 seconds with quick draw.

Ahhh the famous dual longbow ranger build... And that explains how we get this inputs: the two longbow players. 

2 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Natural Convergence is an ultimate attack skill. This is true wizardry.

Whirling attack is much better than Natural Convergence for any purpose. And all that only works because Ancient seeds, a trait which i rather see deleted. 

@Trevor Boyer.6524 Druid is not getting an spot yet because no actual mechanic changes has taken place. In fact Anet has nerfed the cleansing output from the Druid by reworking Verdant Etching, a change nobody asked for. Because Anet has nerfed every single buff the Druid could share with the team (original Grace of the Land and Glyph of Empowerment) Druid is a much worse tempest right now. So i can say this balance patch is FAIL regarding the druid. 

Soulbeast is in a  weird  position now: the devs opted to listen and added the swapping pets while merged. But at the same time instead add it baseline to the Soulbeast, they add it to a GM taking soulbeast builds further away from team builds, because no player would take Leader of the pack over the Eternal Bond now. So i can say Soulbeast changes are a FAIL too. 

UnWanted is a FAIL dude, That you can gank a PvE player walking around in WvW while trying to get the gift  of battle it is not an indicative of anything. 

[Mell.4873]

13 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Ahhh the famous dual longbow ranger build... And that explains how we get this inputs: the two longbow players. 

Whirling attack is much better than Natural Convergence for any purpose. And all that only works because Ancient seeds, a trait which i rather see deleted. 

Duel longbow with a skilled player is very strong, I can line of sight enemy zergs and just rain arrows down on them. Me and my wife would time them and down multiple people every 10 seconds. 

You mean whirling defence?

I think you are behind in your skill descriptions, Natural Convergence doesn't trigger Ancient Seed. That skill in reality is really OP since with just staff 1 an aoe channel you can root anyone stunned. 

13 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Soulbeast is in a  weird  position now: the devs opted to listen and added the swapping pets while merged. But at the same time instead add it baseline to the Soulbeast, they add it to a GM taking soulbeast builds further away from team builds, because no player would take Leader of the pack over the Eternal Bond now. So i can say Soulbeast changes are a FAIL too. 

UnWanted is a FAIL dude, That you can gank a PvE player walking around in WvW while trying to get the gift  of battle it is not an indicative of anything. 

I kind of agree with your Soulbeast comments. 

Untamed is okay in WvW its a bit like druid but without the healing so you need a good team to keep you alive. Hmm if they had easier access to stealth maybe they could be stronger. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Mell.4873

[anduriell.6280]

5 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

You mean whirling defence?

I think you are behind in your skill descriptions, Natural Convergence doesn't trigger Ancient Seed. That skill in reality is really OP since with just staff 1 an aoe channel you can root anyone stunned. 

Yes thank you, that's it.  

Obviously what you do is this: Ancestral grace, Glyph of equality with signet, axe thing. Neither convergence or "spinning while standing still" did ever CC but you used the glyph to root people. It works a couple of times until they catch up and burst you down. You can use SoS to delay it a bit longer thou. 

8 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

Duel longbow with a skilled player is very strong,

It is not, it is just a gimmick build. Good to clear ACs and just that. The 2.5s rooted chanelling leaves you very vulnerable to enemy bursts and makes you a clear objective for the vulture thieves ( the ones roaming around the zergs picking on anything vulnerable) . 

If you want a double bow build i posted some time ago a Shortbow/Longbow Soulbeast  build with traps which is much better for what you want to achieve. But most of the damage comes from the shortbow.  Just check in my history. 

[Khenzy.9348]

The problem with Druid is the Celestial Avatar skills are just flat out bad. They are not competitive in a highly mobile and dynamic enviroment such as WvW (or even sPvP) group fights. All the skills are either too slow, not heal enough or just feel completely disjointed and not synergistic at all, some are stationary or channeled, some are PBAoE, some have a slow cast time... they are all over the place, no cohesion whatsoever. They also feel completely outdated, I donno how the terrible Solar Ray still exists in its current iteration. Natural Convergence should not be channeled either anymore, period. Ally targeted Solar Beam from Staff is incredibly undertuned as well.

 

I may be in the minority here but Druidic Clarity should have never cleansed 13 conditions in the first place, and yes, Celestial Shadow should also get the shaft, those traits pack too much power and promote very unhealthy gameplay regardless of context, class or whatever. Yeah the Druidic Clarity change is a nerf to solo roam (hence why you may not like it) but it's a buff in group play which is sorely needed for druid. It's supposed to be, mainly, a support group oriented spec after all. 

 

In regards to condition cleansing, I think you are underestimating the buff to Seed of Life being made instant and like twice as fast to proc, this should have made it vastly more reliable and should break the horrible habit of some druids that always casted it, stayed inside of it, then blasted it with Lunar Impact, while remaining static and vulnerable for like 2 seconds... while it's better to cast Lunar Impact on your foes most of the time to daze and stop thier momentum. Instant and way faster Seed of Life seems to be a really good change at first glance. All the other Avatar skills should take this direction and be made more viable and responsive.

In WvW with double cleansing sigils, the only spec in the game a Druid can't realistically keep up with condi pressure is Harbinger, but that's not a Druid problem or even a Druidic Clarity nerf problem, it's a Harbinger being stupidly and absurdly overpowered problem. It's possbily the strongest roaming spec in WvW this game has ever seen maybe alongside D/D ele and perplexity condi dire mesmer from Core Gw2 all those years ago.

 

I already talked about Souldbeast in another thread. If Soulbeast is getting pet swap back, it makes sense that traits that were designed with pet swap in mind go back to that mechanic instead of merge/unmerge. In spite of Smokescale being too good of a pet, you're not losing that playstyle, you're gaining other more juicy options now, it's a significant buff as a whole, time to readapt that playstyle yet again. I already have some nasty new combos in mind.

 

Untamed should lose the teleport. Enough with the mobility creep already. It also promotes very unhealthy gameplay with long range teleported one shot combos with very little tell, this kind of gameplay is just not good for the PvP of this game.

Projectile denial/reflects should be significantly reduced across the board, not just the Untamed bubble. For instance, weapons that rely on projectiles to do any kind of damage are completely unviable in WvW group fights due to this reason alone. Ask how Mesmers feel about their new Dagger in this regard.

[Mell.4873]

9 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Obviously what you do is this: Ancestral grace, Glyph of equality with signet, axe thing. Neither convergence or "spinning while standing still" did ever CC but you used the glyph to root people. It works a couple of times until they catch up and burst you down. You can use SoS to delay it a bit longer thou.

I do something very similar,  Minus the axe part. Generally I'm just spamming roots/stuns against a group once someone goes down Natural Convergence them.

9 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

It is not, it is just a gimmick build. Good to clear ACs and just that. The 2.5s rooted chanelling leaves you very vulnerable to enemy bursts and makes you a clear objective for the vulture thieves ( the ones roaming around the zergs picking on anything vulnerable) . 

If you want a double bow build i posted some time ago a Shortbow/Longbow Soulbeast  build with traps which is much better for what you want to achieve. But most of the damage comes from the shortbow.  Just check in my history. 

True it is a gimmick but there is a thing called gear/elite swap so I only bring it out in a siege. Most of the time I use something else like Druid. 

Funny thing is I think you recommended that build to me before which I used as the as basis for my Druid. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Mell.4873

[InsaneQR.7412]

Tbh i dislike that they added the petswap back into soulbeast. The petswap traits felt so much better when executed through merging and merging felt really good. The gameplay was just smoother that way.

I really like the eternal bond trait change, this will allow for real petless ranger which is great for zergs. But it is directly compeeting with a trait which is wanted on zergs, leader of the pack.

IMO they should redesign soulbeasts mechanic a bit. Instead of making it permanent make it a fixed duration but allow for petswap in and outside of beastmode. The GMs could then augment this. Eternal bond could make merge permanent. Leader of the pack should no longer be a stance share trait (i would move that one to a master slot tbh) but instead you will be merged with one pet while other one is out. And oppressive superiority could give you more stats from your chosen pt but you will lose petswap in combat (basically as we have it now).

Ofc these are just sustions but generally i want GMmtraots that change how we play. The holosmith or bladeswonr GMs are great examples.

[Gorem.8104]

-see's OP

AHHHH MY EYES. 

 

Just wanna say though, if we can swap while merged, do we get 2 sets of skills to use, as different pets have different skills (as SB was made during a time they actually cared, unlike Untamed) that could lead to quite a few nice combinations, as we can get access to two beast skills while merged 

[Mell.4873]

1 hour ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

The problem with Druid is the Celestial Avatar skills are just flat out bad. They are not competitive in a highly mobile and dynamic enviroment such as WvW (or even sPvP) group fights. All the skills are either too slow, not heal enough or just feel completely disjointed and not synergistic at all, some are stationary or channeled, some are PBAoE, some have a slow cast time... they are all over the place, no cohesion whatsoever. They also feel completely outdated, I donno how the terrible Solar Ray still exists in its current iteration. Natural Convergence should not be channeled either anymore, period. Ally targeted Solar Beam from Staff is incredibly undertuned as well.

 

I may be in the minority here but Druidic Clarity should have never cleansed 13 conditions in the first place, and yes, Celestial Shadow should also get the shaft, those traits pack too much power and promote very unhealthy gameplay regardless of context, class or whatever. Yeah the Druidic Clarity change is a nerf to solo roam (hence why you may not like it) but it's a buff in group play which is sorely needed for druid. It's supposed to be, mainly, a support group oriented spec after all. 

 

In regards to condition cleansing, I think you are underestimating the buff to Seed of Life being made instant and like twice as fast to proc, this should have made it vastly more reliable and should break the horrible habit of some druids that always casted it, stayed inside of it, then blasted it with Lunar Impact, while remaining static and vulnerable for like 2 seconds... while it's better to cast Lunar Impact on your foes most of the time to daze and stop thier momentum. Instant and way faster Seed of Life seems to be a really good change at first glance. All the other Avatar skills should take this direction and be made more viable and responsive.

In WvW with double cleansing sigils, the only spec in the game a Druid can't realistically keep up with condi pressure is Harbinger, but that's not a Druid problem or even a Druidic Clarity nerf problem, it's a Harbinger being stupidly and absurdly overpowered problem. It's possbily the strongest roaming spec in WvW this game has ever seen maybe alongside D/D ele and perplexity condi dire mesmer from Core Gw2 all those years ago.

 

Honestly I think the correct response here is you don't have to play it if you don't like it. I mean I like all the stationary attacks since it takes skill and timing to use the correctly (normally when people go down).

1 hour ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

Untamed should lose the teleport. Enough with the mobility creep already. It also promotes very unhealthy gameplay with long range teleported one shot combos with very little tell, this kind of gameplay is just not good for the PvP of this game.

Projectile denial/reflects should be significantly reduced across the board, not just the Untamed bubble. For instance, weapons that rely on projectiles to do any kind of damage are completely unviable in WvW group fights due to this reason alone. Ask how Mesmers feel about their new Dagger in this regard.

Literally no one uses Untamed for both of these features in WvW. The pet dies right away so you would never get the projectile denial off (I guess only if the pet is on Avoid Combat then you F3). Teleport where, into the enemy Zerg and die....

[Khenzy.9348]

4 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Literally no one uses Untamed for both of these features in WvW. The pet dies right away so you would never get the projectile denial off (I guess only if the pet is on Avoid Combat then you F3). Teleport where, into the enemy Zerg and die....

Whan talking about about Untamed, I think it's clear both @Trevor Boyer.6524 and I were refering to sPvP in specific where Untamed is really strong. Untamed is never going to be played in WvW group fights for the reason you just mentioned, I already said this in several posts in the past. I just took the chance to say projectile block/reflect uptime is too much in this game, even on specs that are not as used in WvW such as Untamed, yet another projectile hate bubble to the mix is not good.

[Arheundel.6451]

9 minutes ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

Whan talking about about Untamed, I think it's clear both @Trevor Boyer.6524 and I were refering to sPvP in specific where Untamed is really strong. Untamed is never going to be played in WvW group fights for the reason you just mentioned, I already said this in several posts in the past. I just took the chance to say projectile block/reflect uptime is too much in this game, even on specs that are not as used in WvW such as Untamed, yet another projectile hate bubble to the mix is not good.

You forget that Projectile denial got increased over the years as the ranged burst become more and more oppressive, if one goes down..the other must follow not too far behind. If people dream of sitting on a ledge with their pewpew build without having to worry about a thing in the world...then they will keep dreaming for a very long long time.

And they are increasing grenade dmg in PvP, while giving distortion to virtuoso with more to come...your "concern" for mesmers is unnecessary.

That bubble gives Untamed a small room to breath between a ranged spike and another , and it's a god send to rangers.

And I really tired of these threads...the same "projectile denial is OP pls nerf" , just how many of these threads the OP makes per week?, this is the 3rd one with the same pretext and content, just different forum

"Paper is fine, rock is OP, signed Scissors"

Edited September 18, 2022 by Arheundel.6451

[Levetty.1279]

12 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

1. No nerfs to Untamed? Weird man. Even as a Ranger main, I have to say that this class has 1) Too much teleburst potential. The 50% ICD reduction for if the tele hits needs to be removed. 40s CD is already leniant enough. It does not need to be generating teleburst downstates every 20s. 2) It has too much anti-projectile bubble spam. The fact that the bubble is centered on the pet which follows people, is quite powerful, quite problematic, and it happens too often. That bubble is also massive, both length and height wise. You can be in Temple way up on a ledge trying to fire over an Untamed's bubble at a different player and that bubble will block projectiles that are like 800+ range above the pet on the ground. That's too much. IMO that bubble could afford to have a longer ICD and should be decreased in size. Don't worry about reducing Untamed damage, there is no way to do it without harming other Ranger specs. It just needs less frequent telebursting and less frequent/smaller bubble.

Next time can you put this part first so I don't get tricked into reading a troll post.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

9 hours ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

This is what I mean about Soulbeast.  Once the changes are implemented the salt is going to pour from double swoops into maul, or swoop into KD into maul, or double swoop into prelude lash into axe #5...and then after all that using GS to swoop back out.  Literal crisis mode will be happening over on our favorite sub.

Yup, just noticed where it confirms it in patch notes. Soulbeast will be able to swap while in merge.

9 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Ahhh the famous dual longbow ranger build... And that explains how we get this inputs: the two longbow players. 

Yeah this guy. Every time I make a serious discussion thread, he shows up and argues/acts like I have no idea what I'm talking about, and then supports his claims with visions of dual longbow use and all forms of anti-meta illogical Ranger play that would 100% without a doubt, immediately get a person killed vs. anything plat+. I try not to be rude but it gets old.

9 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Whirling attack is much better than Natural Convergence for any purpose.

lol yeah, I was being sarcastic because this guy was trying to tell me CA Kit was a fat offensive tool.

9 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Duel longbow with a skilled player is very strong,

This is where you're catching ridicule. You don't seem to realize that dual longbow is not increasing the frequency of your use of Barrage. First of all, when you put the same weapon on both weapon sets, the CDs carry over. So if you use Barrage on LB#1 and it goes on full CD, if you swap to LB#2 the Barrage will still have the full CD. Secondly, even with the use of Quickdraw, that trait only triggers once per use of a skill, not per weapon swap. So regardless of if you have two LBs or one LB, your Barrage will only ever be benefitting 66% ICD reduction, and your wait to use the skill Barrage is the same with one LB or two LB. Using two LBs is doing absolutely nothing to enhance the frequency of your Barrage casting or any of the other LB skills for that matter. All it's doing is handicapping you out of the great benefits that come with Greatsword, which there are many.

8 hours ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

I already talked about Souldbeast in another thread. If Soulbeast is getting pet swap back, it makes sense that traits that were designed with pet swap in mind go back to that mechanic instead of merge/unmerge. In spite of Smokescale being too good of a pet, you're not losing that playstyle, you're gaining other more juicy options now, it's a significant buff as a whole, time to readapt that playstyle yet again. I already have some nasty new combos in mind.

Mark my words, people will complain about it within a week after the patch, when they realize what it has done to Soulbeast play dynamic.

8 hours ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

Untamed should lose the teleport. Enough with the mobility creep already. It also promotes very unhealthy gameplay with long range teleported one shot combos with very little tell, this kind of gameplay is just not good for the PvP of this game.

Projectile denial/reflects should be significantly reduced across the board, not just the Untamed bubble. For instance, weapons that rely on projectiles to do any kind of damage are completely unviable in WvW group fights due to this reason alone. Ask how Mesmers feel about their new Dagger in this regard.

Agreed, 200%

8 hours ago, InsaneQR.7412 said:

Tbh i dislike that they added the petswap back into soulbeast. The petswap traits felt so much better when executed through merging and merging felt really good. The gameplay was just smoother that way.

Actually, it will be a good change. It will be able to swap pet while merged. This will be an overall huge buff.

7 hours ago, Gorem.8104 said:

Just wanna say though, if we can swap while merged, do we get 2 sets of skills to use, as different pets have different skills (as SB was made during a time they actually cared, unlike Untamed) that could lead to quite a few nice combinations, as we can get access to two beast skills while merged 

People keep assuming pet swap while in merge but the notes did not mention this at all.

If that is somehow actually true, it will be an enormous buff to Soulbeast. I'm talking mega-buff, to the point that you'll see all use of Untamed halt immediately.

2 hours ago, Arheundel.6451 said:

You forget that Projectile denial got increased over the years as the ranged burst become more and more oppressive, if one goes down..the other must follow not too far behind. If people dream of sitting on a ledge with their pewpew build without having to worry about a thing in the world...then they will keep dreaming for a very long long time.

And they are increasing grenade dmg in PvP, while giving distortion to virtuoso with more to come...your "concern" for mesmers is unnecessary.

That bubble gives Untamed a small room to breath between a ranged spike and another , and it's a god send to rangers

Nah man, this game is full of WAY too much anti-projectile at this point. Half the classes are virtually invulnerable to projectiles at this point. Not to mention mobility creep, everything has LOS ignoring instant gap closer telebursts now.

They need to start getting rid of some of this anti-projectile spam.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Trevor Boyer.6524

[Levetty.1279]

15 minutes ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

People seem to think you'll be able to swap pets while in merge form.

The notes mentioned nothing about this.

Maybe you should read the notes.

 

Quote

Eternal Bond: This trait has been reworked. It now grants healing when using a merged skill. You can swap pets while merged.

 

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

15 minutes ago, Levetty.1279 said:

Maybe you should read the notes.

 

 

Oh I see, thanks for pointing this out.

I have nothing more to say here.

This is very good news.

[Arheundel.6451]

1 hour ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

..stuff

The only reason you can keep your "pewpew from the ledge " gameplay is because there is counterplay, once you remove the counterplay, there will be zero reason to keep your longbow gameplay in the game. I pray you don't really think longbow ranger would remain the same as it is now if they start nerfing projectile denial....which all it does.. it's forcing some basic reasonining rather than leave mindless 2222222 spam. What you still don't realize is that your GS/Lb would be the first casualty would the devs team ever start really considering the balance suggested on the forum...luckily for us all (including you)..the GW2 forum is largely ignored

Edited September 18, 2022 by Arheundel.6451

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

@Arheundel.6451

Question for you:

At what point does following someone around in a forum and saying the exact same thing to them over and over, turn into plain fanboy clout riding?

[Mell.4873]

3 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Yeah this guy. Every time I make a serious discussion thread, he shows up and argues/acts like I have no idea what I'm talking about, and then supports his claims with visions of dual longbow use and all forms of anti-meta illogical Ranger play that would 100% without a doubt, immediately get a person killed vs. anything plat+. I try not to be rude but it gets old..

I only use this build in WvW, I'm pretty sure I stated that. Not every PvP build get played in every game mode.

My point is you can literally play anything as long as you are good, for sPvP I use a CC Untamed build which I run almost every Stun the Ranger has plus CC pets. I think i showed @anduriell.6280 one time. I'm gold 3 by the way in the 250 players.

3 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

This is where you're catching ridicule. You don't seem to realize that dual longbow is not increasing the frequency of your use of Barrage. First of all, when you put the same weapon on both weapon sets, the CDs carry over. So if you use Barrage on LB#1 and it goes on full CD, if you swap to LB#2 the Barrage will still have the full CD. Secondly, even with the use of Quickdraw, that trait only triggers once per use of a skill, not per weapon swap. So regardless of if you have two LBs or one LB, your Barrage will only ever be benefitting 66% ICD reduction, and your wait to use the skill Barrage is the same with one LB or two LB. Using two LBs is doing absolutely nothing to enhance the frequency of your Barrage casting or any of the other LB skills for that matter. All it's doing is handicapping you out of the great benefits that come with Greatsword, which there are many.

What are you talking about. Its simple every time you weapon swap the next skill you use goes on a 66% cooldown so the 16 seconds cooldown (traited longbow) now takes 10 seconds to come off cooldown just like the weapon swap.

The combo is *in combat*, weapon swap, Barrage, weapon swap, Barrage, so on and so on.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Mell.4873]

6 hours ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

Whan talking about about Untamed, I think it's clear both @Trevor Boyer.6524 and I were refering to sPvP in specific where Untamed is really strong. Untamed is never going to be played in WvW group fights for the reason you just mentioned, I already said this in several posts in the past. I just took the chance to say projectile block/reflect uptime is too much in this game, even on specs that are not as used in WvW such as Untamed, yet another projectile hate bubble to the mix is not good.

His post was in no way clear (he never mentioned either), I now know what he means which honestly makes even less sense since Druid never supported in sPvP. Projectile block/reflect is really strong at the moment only because of the Ranger Longbow and Engineer Rifle Spam.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

1 hour ago, Mell.4873 said:

I only use this build in WvW, I'm pretty sure I stated that. Not every PvP build get played in every game mode.

My point is you can literally play anything as long as you are good, for sPvP I use a CC Untamed build which I run almost every Stun the Ranger has plus CC pets. I think i showed @anduriell.6280 one time. I'm gold 3 by the way in the 250 players.

What are you talking about. Its simple every time you weapon swap the next skill you use goes on a 66% cooldown so the 16 seconds cooldown (traited longbow) now takes 10 seconds to come off cooldown just like the weapon swap.

The combo is *in combat*, weapon swap, Barrage, weapon swap, Barrage, so on and so on.

It actually lowers Barrage down to a 6 second recharge. You have to stay on each swap for 9 seconds. So the Barrage's CD is essentially 9s to 10s realistically.

So you can use Barrage on swap, wait 9s for swap, swap and use Barrage again after the swap triggers Quick Draw, so on and so forth, I get it.

You're right, the use of it this way allows a consistent flow of Barrage about once per 9s to 10s due to how low the Quick Draw puts the ICD. I however, would still never use double LB even in the back lines of a zerg for 101 reasons that I'm not going to get into in this thread.