Oct 2nd patch

[Dragana.1497]

Call of the Wild: Increased the radius of this skill from 750 to 900.

Ambidexterity: The condition damage gained from this trait is now split between game modes. It now grants a base of 80 condition damage (120 in PvP and WvW) and an additional 80 condition damage (120 in PvP and WvW) when the ranger wields a torch or dagger.

Clarion Bond: The skill triggered by this trait, Lesser Call of the Wild, has had its radius increased from 750 to 900.

Honed Axes: The ferocity gained from this trait is now split. It now grants a base of 120 ferocity and an additional 120 ferocity when rangers are wielding an axe.

Lead the Wind: The attack speed when using the longbow is no longer increased. Piercing is now applied to harpoon gun skills, in addition to the current piercing functionality. Gain swiftness when using a projectile combo finisher.

Strider's Defense: This trait no longer requires rangers to wield a sword to gain quickness when evading.

Two-Handed Training: This trait no longer has a 50% chance to grant fury when striking with a greatsword or spear. Rangers now gain fury whenever they disable a foe.

Windborne Notes: This trait now grants regeneration to allies within a radius of 900 of the ranger's target, and it heals the ranger once they've gained the regeneration effect.

[b ranger b.9348]

pretty hilarious really they nerf lead the wind i have not used it in over 2 years, guess the best thing they can for ranger is nothing at all :D

[Krispera.5087]

They really did dirty for the Ranger.

They nerfed Honed Axes and still doesn't unsplit Splitblade and all their other skills. Were Axes that problematic to deserve this ? I'm livid.Ambidexterity and Strider's Defense will still not change a thing.LBow and GS trait nerf.

Only good thing is Warhorn buff.

Edit : Honed Axes and Ambidexterity gives stats and more stats when wielding the weapon.

[ChartFish.1308]

NO UNSPLIT TO SPLITbLADE BOIShow long has it been? my weary heart still wonders if the day will come. is this some cruel joke? a cruel pun? splitblade, forever split

also lead the wind, what. the attack speed was barely noticeable so it's not gonna be a big impact, but you gain swiftness from projectile combo finishers now??!?!as if ranger was lacking in swiftness! at least make it something useful, like fury. why swiftness of all things!

other changes just tbh usual stuff. nothing that'll really impact anything, aside from warhorn maybe.

[Kiba.9231]

I can't believe they nerfed longbow EVEN MORE in pve when its already trash :(

[Lynnie.7213]

Anet balance team is a joke, there is no other word for that.

[PzTnT.7198]

Well this sucks build unfortunately. I really don't get why they'd nerf longbow and greatsword as neither were all that good to start with. The longbow is just painfully slow in comparison to before. Guess its condi or sword/axe that works these days, with no AOE whatsoever.

[Kolisch.4691]

Rangers need more swiftness. Change WI.. make it deal 50% dmg but grant swiftness (5 seconds) on hit to allies within a 900 radius.

Greatsword 3 skill will no longer perform a leap. It will give you and your pet swiftness as long as you are not in combat.

[Levetty.1279]

Axe nerfs, Longbow nerfs, no skill/trait unsplits, I think I want to return to the patches where they just forgot Ranger existed, at least that was funny.

[Kylden Ar.3724]

Everyone in this thread must only play PvE... Power LB/GS Soulbeast was common in WvW and annoying to the whiners cause picking off slow/downed zerglings.

This is a WvW whiner reaction.

[Kiba.9231]

@Kylden Ar.3724 said:Everyone in this thread must only play PvE... Power LB/GS Soulbeast was common in WvW and annoying to the whiners cause picking off slow/downed zerglings.

This is a WvW whiner reaction.

So, split the skills? You know, the reason they have that tech in the first place?

[Lydia.7913]

• Ranged class is good at dealing ranged damage
• ANET nerfs this

wat

[Swoll.1483]

The only nerf is to longbow attack speed? The splits for axe and dagger/torch still provide the same stats if you use those weapons and now provide stats if you have the talent but not the weapon equipped? That’s what I’m reading.

[Diak Atoli.2085]

@Swoll.1483 said:The only nerf is to longbow attack speed? The splits for axe and dagger/torch still provide the same stats if you use those weapons and now provide stats if you have the talent but not the weapon equipped? That’s what I’m reading.

Two-Handed Training also grants Fury when you a disable a foe with any weapon.

[Lazze.9870]

I know the reason for the longbow trait was to make weapon traits useful when not wearing the weapon, but even Anet can't be so mind-bogglingly out of touch that they don't realize how incredibly BAD gaining swiftness is compared to attack speed. We don't lack swiftness, our latest elite spec even grants us swiftness for free if we run BM too. There is literally a pet swap trait in the adept tier of marksmanship that already gives us swiftness. We got swiftness tacked onto everything when they don't know what to do. And we don't even have a trait that gives us a benefit from having swiftness, like some other professions.

If they want the trait to do anything when swapping out of longbow, take two birds with one stone and make stealth refresh opening strike (the fact that they just reworked a MM GM trait without addressing the issue with only one them refreshing the minor traits just confirms to me that they're not even thinking about it). And btw, keep the attack speed. No, don't just keep it, add it to the harpoon gun aswell, like they did with the piercing efffect.

All the other changes are perfectly fine. Good even. Honed Axes lost 10 ferocity when wielding an axe (120*2 =/= 250), but having 120 while not wearing it is worth the trade.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

uh two handed training is a buff people. overall meh changes.

[Levetty.1279]

@Kylden Ar.3724 said:Everyone in this thread must only play PvE... Power LB/GS Soulbeast was common in WvW and annoying to the whiners cause picking off slow/downed zerglings.

This is a WvW whiner reaction.

Maybe we play PvE only because Rangers only role in WvW is to pick off stragglers.

[Celeste.9135]

I honestly just don't see the point in changing lead the wind to gaining swiftness on projectile combos... like at all. Not without some sort of compensation to longbow untraited.

[DuckDuckBOOM.4097]

@Diak Atoli.2085 said:

@Swoll.1483 said:The only nerf is to longbow attack speed? The splits for axe and dagger/torch still provide the same stats if you use those weapons and now provide stats if you have the talent but not the weapon equipped? That’s what I’m reading.

Two-Handed Training also grants Fury when you a disable a foe with

any

weapon.

Yeah I really don't get all the negativity.

1) 250 ferocity with only axes vs 240 ferocity with axes and 120 ferocity with all other weapons is a buff. Only way it's a nerf to someone is if you only camp axes. That's 120 ferocity to longbow, GS, S/wh combos.2) Ambidexterity used to be 150 condi dmg in PvE and 240 in WvW/PvP. Now it's 160/80 in PvE and 240/120 in WvW/PvP depending on weapon. That is a straight upgrade.3) WH changes are all straight buffs. I'll have to see how much bonus healing it does but it sounds like both wh 4 and 5 give regen then heal the ranger.4) GS change goes from a 10 second ICD RNG effect to fury on CC with ANY weapon. That's merged gazelle F2 or smokescale F1. GS5 and 4 or longbow 4, axe 4, beastly warden taunt etc... This is huge buff to remorseless builds as you also bring MoC. CC gives fury --> opening strike/remoresless and moc all proc on the next attack. WS/survival isn't required for this.5) Striders defense is 3 seconds of quickness on evade with any weapon. 5 second ICD. Synergizes perfectly with essence of speed.

So yeah longbow trait doesn't have faster attack speed. I rarely picked that trait for faster attack speed because those type of traits never stacked with quickness and if I was sniping with MM/BM/SB then I had QZ for quickness. Now I can get fury on longbow 4 with the GS trait . Now I can get 120 extra ferocity on longbow if I pick the axe trait. If you decide to bring skirmishing, that's approaching perma quickness, which did not stack with the old longbow trait, on any weapon so long as you time dodges. All of this on a bonus balance patch. Why are ranger complaining?

[apocalypso.4895]

Overall these changes are a lot better than the ones made in the last patch. I actually like the synergies it created in every game mode.

[Euthymias.7984]

It took a bit of thinking for me to take a stance on the changes here, but they're not really -bad- aside from the headscratcher that's Lead the Wind. At the very least, a lot of these open up some interesting possibilities.

[jcbroe.4329]

@Euthymias.7984 said:It took a bit of thinking for me to take a stance on the changes here, but they're not really -bad- aside from the headscratcher that's Lead the Wind. At the very least, a lot of these open up some interesting possibilities.

Exactly this.

I don't know how other classes got trait changes that made sense to the theme of the trait and we ended up with random Longbow Swiftness.More damage when shooting through combo fields maybe? Vulnerability application? Anything would be less confusing than what we got.

[Substance E.4852]

@"Kylden Ar.3724" said:Everyone in this thread must only play PvE... Power LB/GS Soulbeast was common in WvW and annoying to the whiners cause picking off slow/downed zerglings.

This is a WvW whiner reaction.

"Make a class worse to appease people who play a dead game mode"

Sounds like the hot garbage I'd expect from Anet.

@"Stand The Wall.6987" said:uh two handed training is a buff people. overall meh changes.

Implying this was intended and won't be "oops lemee just adjust that" hot fixed within a week.

This is basically the same as that time they borked 2-handed training and it was giving any weapon fury application.

[Substance E.4852]

hit wrong button, can't delete posts

[Levetty.1279]

@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:1) 250 ferocity with only axes vs 240 ferocity with axes and 120 ferocity with all other weapons is a buff. Only way it's a nerf to someone is if you only camp axes. That's 120 ferocity to longbow, GS, S/wh combos.Its only a nerf if you use the weapon the trait is for. Great logic there.Axe is a mess and they need to sort it out, they can start by unsplitting the skills, making winter's bite aoe by default and revert this nerf and then give it the buff it needed in the first place.4) GS change goes from a 10 second ICD RNG effect to fury on CC with ANY weapon. That's merged gazelle F2 or smokescale F1. GS5 and 4 or longbow 4, axe 4, beastly warden taunt etc... This is huge buff to remorseless builds as you also bring MoC. CC gives fury --> opening strike/remoresless and moc all proc on the next attack. WS/survival isn't required for this.ITs still a 10 sec icd for a tiny amount of fury. Nobody cares about your Remorseless meme builds for roaming.

So yeah longbow trait doesn't have faster attack speed.Its is a terribly designed trait. Ignoring that Ranger can fart out swiftness without trying and already has a swiftness trait in that line, Ranger's combo fields are all tied to condi skills. Condi ranger's aren't going to go into MM for this trait even if they wanted the swiftness and Power builds aren't going to take combo fields.

Why are ranger complaining?Because the class is clunky and unfun. Its builds have degenerated into piling a load of passive buffs on yourself and hitting a big burst with 0 interesting gameplay mechanics involved and 0 interaction with the pet. Even if people don't realise on a conscious level they still realise it unconsciously and that is why everybody is complaining and unhappy about its state even though it technically has 'good' builds in all modes.