Big Big Problem With March 19 Patch - It's Gonna Cripple Ranger Builds

[Mell.4873]

On 2/26/2024 at 12:01 AM, Lazze.9870 said:

Shared Anguish in its current state would be an absolute HORRID GM trait.

It's already meh. A minor bit of stab on pet swap is overrated.

What about introducing core ranger stab options that aren't awful to begin with? Strength of the pack is a glorified 60s CD stab skill. To think they thought leaving it on 75 was fair back when they removed CD reduction from the command trait is laughable.

Atleast you can somewhat time the use of Strength of the Pack. They should remove the cast time but having one stability on pet swap is pretty much useless like you say. 

Most of the time I let them CC me for a second then stun break after they blow their load. 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

10 hours ago, Zyreva.1078 said:

Shared anguish is used, but it is not mandatory. Especially for soulbeast, which has by far the best access to stability among all ranger specs. defensive trait line.

I'm surprised Dolyak Stance has lasted this long without a nerf.  It's the most overloaded ranger skill by far and I suspect they don't touch it as they use it for LI entry into ranger, and doubly avoid it now they made sure soulbeast is nowhere near any competitive meta.  

Which is why I'm so confused at people saying no one uses Shared Anguish when every Soulbeast uses Dolyak Stance, and  a good amount of the time offensively to get stability on demand.  Not just stability but SIX stacks of it, unlike the mere one Shared Anguish gave.  

They should have just buffed SA to 2 stacks or something and changed Empathic Bond to be condi clear on pet swap in beastmastery.  As it could easily replace Natural Healing, and sort of belongs in BM anyway because of the pet swap CD reduction.  

Then you can still put Carnivore in EB's GM spot without damaging ranger in the way they are right now. 

Edited February 27 by Gotejjeken.1267

[CETheLucid.3964]

43 minutes ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

I'm surprised Dolyak Stance has lasted this long without a nerf.  It's the most overloaded ranger skill by far and I suspect they don't touch it as they use it for LI entry into ranger, and doubly avoid it now they made sure soulbeast is nowhere near any competitive meta.  

Which is why I'm so confused at people saying no one uses Shared Anguish when every Soulbeast uses Dolyak Stance, and  a good amount of the time offensively to get stability on demand.  Not just stability but SIX stacks of it, unlike the mere one Shared Anguish gave.  

They should have just buffed SA to 2 stacks or something and changed Empathic Bond to be condi clear on pet swap in beastmastery.  As it could easily replace Natural Healing, and sort of belongs in BM anyway because of the pet swap CD reduction.  

Then you can still put Carnivore in EB's GM spot without damaging ranger in the way they are right now. 

They probably did it the way they're doing it to account for Mace fixing to be a major and readily available source of stability regardless of spec. Core ranger and druid will lean hard on mace for stab. Soulbeast and Untamed will have a much easier time. The actual balance update is still a few weeks out though so everyone has a chance to prove these things.

[Arheundel.6451]

5 hours ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

I'm surprised Dolyak Stance has lasted this long without a nerf.  It's the most overloaded ranger skill by far and I suspect they don't touch it as they use it for LI entry into ranger, and doubly avoid it now they made sure soulbeast is nowhere near any competitive meta.  

Which is why I'm so confused at people saying no one uses Shared Anguish when every Soulbeast uses Dolyak Stance, and  a good amount of the time offensively to get stability on demand.  Not just stability but SIX stacks of it, unlike the mere one Shared Anguish gave.  

They should have just buffed SA to 2 stacks or something and changed Empathic Bond to be condi clear on pet swap in beastmastery.  As it could easily replace Natural Healing, and sort of belongs in BM anyway because of the pet swap CD reduction.  

Then you can still put Carnivore in EB's GM spot without damaging ranger in the way they are right now. 

Can't disagree with the reasoning that Dolyak's stance has been left alone because Anet feels SB is nowhere near as strong as it was at the launch, furthermore, there are no competitive SB condi build, and that is a big take, if there'd be even a single seriously competitive sb condi build...dolyak would have been hit a long time.

They keep hitting every single condi aspect of Ranger as long as it is competitive, and they leave only after a fringe element has been left instead, something people would use in PvE or some failure type of build for T5 server level of roaming at 3 am against blue gear noobs

Also, there are several utilities similar/or better than Dolyak's stance:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectrum_Shield

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Balanced_Stance

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_of_Earth

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/"Stand_Your_Ground!"

 

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

3 hours ago, Arheundel.6451 said:

Also, there are several utilities similar/or better than Dolyak's stance:

if you really look into it. Core Ranger has zero normal utility (not counting Elites or Heals) , and it makes me sad :c. I brought it up that every class generally has some form of core stability generation... I think the only one that doesn't have it is Necromancer..... but I'd have to double check.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

On 2/17/2024 at 1:35 PM, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Arenanet, all you have to do is drop this idea of "Carnivore" and just simply move "Shared Anguish" into GM tier. That's all you have to do. Try doing the right thing for once. Maybe your fanbase will praise you instead of giving you a ratio 10 confused faces to 1 like.

Ah this is wrong. This won't fix the problem. We'll still need to use Wilderness Knowledge for fury/cleanse in the GM tier.

Changing Anti-toxin is w/e, but Shared Anguish should stay the same and where it is. In fact, Shared Anguish should just be buffed in general, not recycled and repositioned.

Empathic Bond itself should be upgraded into some kind of alternative boost that can compete with the option of Wilderness Knowledge.

[Dadnir.5038]

On 2/27/2024 at 4:03 PM, Oahkahmewolf.6210 said:

if you really look into it. Core Ranger has zero normal utility (not counting Elites or Heals) , and it makes me sad :c. I brought it up that every class generally has some form of core stability generation... I think the only one that doesn't have it is Necromancer..... but I'd have to double check.

That isn't accurate. The necromancer do have a core utility skill that grant him stability. That said, the core skills providing stability to the necromancer and the thief only have this stability because they are stunbreak with a cast time.

Core ranger is the only one that do not have stability on a core utility skill but at the same time, none of it's stunbreak have a cast time. Now, ranger do have core weapon with an inbuilt "block" feature that can prevent him from being CC'd, just like necromancer and thief have access to blind to prevent CCs as well.

The game offer various answers to each situation, there is no point in being fixated one the one answer you don't have.

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

12 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

have this stability because they are stunbreak with a cast time.

it still help them to get out of a situation when it calls for it, especially if they see a stun coming.

 

12 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

The game offer various answers to each situation, there is no point in being fixated one the one answer you don't have.

Not necessarily, not every weapon has a block or evade to negate a CC, but in some extent you are correct that the game has some other way to solve its issue. It just means gotta use that one relic for stability on heal if I ever want to use a weapon they don't have a way to mitigate or avoid the CC.

It still quite annoying they're getting rid of the stab that core has, or they could of thrown it somewhere else is what I was trying to point into. 

Like man, Imagine having stability on lightning reflex so I wouldn't get stunned by a shock aura?  I'd Love that so I don't get screwed from an evade., wouldn't you?

[Strider.7849]

On 2/21/2024 at 3:51 PM, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

The one on metabattle? 

If so, that one is going to get you killed vs. condi bursts in outnumbered for starters.  You also don't need to take ambidexterity because condi damage is already almost 2k with just trapper runes...

Anyway, in that light, you can use Shortbow and Refined Toxins over Axe/Dagger and Shared Anguish in WvW if you still want to secure stomps using CA form instead of pet swap.  

I take it and I enjoy outnumbered fights. Shared Anguish is only 1 stack of stab, can't rely on that to Stomp while outnumbered. Blind/daze/turtle bubble are much more effective defensively while applying poison and area damage to the downed body and keep damage up on nearby opponents.  Relic of the demon queens reduced healing is very useful as well.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

38 minutes ago, Strider.7849 said:

I take it and I enjoy outnumbered fights. Shared Anguish is only 1 stack of stab, can't rely on that to Stomp while outnumbered. Blind/daze/turtle bubble are much more effective defensively while applying poison and area damage to the downed body and keep damage up on nearby opponents.  Relic of the demon queens reduced healing is very useful as well.

Running Druid? Demon Queen in outnumbered? Assuming WvW...yes?

How does not having extra stab on swap, not taking antitoxin, centaur, nayos, or speed help you in outnumbered? Why would you even want ambidexterity in outnumbered? How are you running D/D in outnumbered and not dying fairly easily to literally anything with mobility? 

I mean, it is really, really easy to see when you can CC a ranger.  On core, it's always unless they pop RaO and have super Saiyan red glow, on SB you listen for the Dolyak noise and wait out the bar icon, on Druid just wait for them to be done with CA #5.  Untamed is the only sightlier tricky one as you can get stab on disable, but in general it's just kite the elite and watch them cry as they wait 80+ seconds for it to be on CD.  

That was the power of Shared Anguish, as while yes it should be at least 2 stacks of stab and not one, it wasn't even remotely close to 'useless'.  The opponent has no idea when you will pet swap, and when you do the stab only enhances your turtle bubbles and whatnot.