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Guild Wars 2 |OT4| The only subscription you need is this thread.

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A

Anno

Member
irfaanator said:
in ffxiv once you get a job crystal, you usually just play as the job due to the skills you get as the job
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My friend always played as the base class of Paladin in everything but tanking situations because it had some additional offensive cross-class skills for easy stuff like soloing or farmable group content. Maybe that's not normal or the same for other classes? I dunno.
 
V

VanillaCakeIsBurning

Member
Anno said:
My friend always played as the base class of Paladin in everything but tanking situations because it had some additional offensive cross-class skills for easy stuff like soloing or farmable group content. Maybe that's not normal or the same for other classes? I dunno.
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Never heard of that before. In general Jobs add abilities that make your class better than they are without. Like the PLD's maximum damage output is reached with Sword Oath active which you can't use as a Gladiator (Paladin base class).
 
T

Thorgal

Member
Reposting this since someone in GC wanted to learn more about rangers . just remeber that that this post was before the september patch which gave the rangers Steroids . :p

Levyne said:
Hi. I play Ranger.

I used to be split pretty evenly between PVE/PVP/WvW but recently am mostly just sticking to PVE in limited time. So that's the mindset where my tips are coming from. I'll start with the basics like your weapon and utility skill selection, and will mention the pet mechanic a bit.

If your goal is to do a lot of damage at range...well...that's tricky. "Melee is king", some might say. I don't mean that as strictly as it sounds but hear me out. You can do a lot of damage with something like a longbow. However, how the Ranger longbow works is that it does more damage the farther away you are. This means in a lot of situations, it isn't ideal. You'll likely be away from your party boons and won't be able to support/res them (nor they to you). The longbow (and shortbow) are also largely single target weapons (outside of a long cooldown barrage skill on the longbow and a shorter cooldown arrow spread skill on the shortbow) meaning that your actual output is more limited compared to a melee weapon that can cleave. Obviously, sometimes single target is all you need, but it's something to be aware of. You can also trait to have your arrows pierce or outfit your bow so that it does and aoe fire effect or such on a percentage of your critical hits. So the longbow is good for....loosely following a WvW commander to get tags from far away or to defend positions. Or lazily tagging enemies in a pve world event. In most dungeons and such, it's not really useful. I don't like the shortbow as much as some other rangers. It used to have the same range as the longbow, but that was corrected so that it only have 3/4ths the range. Understandable, but it was a bummer of a nerf. However, the damage done by the shortbow is not dependent on target range. The shortbow is a better skirmishing weapon, it has a nice weapon evade and works okay with condition builds since the auto attack can stack bleeds fairly quickly. Your last ranged option is an axe, actually. Main-hand axe is a weapon of equal range to the shortbow. It's also a lazy weapon because the axe will riccochet between 3 enemies each time you throw. So unlike a bow, the axe naturally does something sort of analogous to cleaving. The damage output is only moderate, but I like to have it since it's nice to keep a ranged option and I like to have my off-hand available so I avoid bows (which are two handed).

So, the Melee options are Greatsword and Sword. Both of these are great weapons. The greatsword is super versatile and there's very few situations where it's inappropriate. The damage is good and the auto attack gives you periodic evasion frames. Maul is a fairly low cooldown spike damage attack that applies vulnerability, swoop is great for a gap closer or a chaser, the 4th and 5th skills give you moderate cc ability with a block/counterattack and a hilt bash. So basically the greatsword is a handy weapon in a lot of situations. The sword is more specialized. One key way the sword differs from the greatsword is that it *snaps* you to your target. This is somewhat weird and is a tricky thing to get used to. While the greatsword allows you you maintain free control over your character (except for the swooping attack...which obviously swoops you forward), the sword's attack chain will continuously pounce you to your target. Thus, it's best to turn the auto attack off so that you have as much control as possible. The sword provides higher damage than the greatsword but is trickier to use. The 2nd and 3rd skills on sword are evasive attack techniques, but each of them has a sort of wind-up so you have to use them more carefully than your dodge roll evade. I like sword because it also allows you to use an offhand weapon:

Ranger has some really nifty offhands to choose from.The dagger is an evasive weapon that I hardly ever use for pve...so I'm going to skip that one. The torch I also don't use much, but it does good damage and provides a fire field for combos and might stacking, which is always useful. The warhorn gives you a 16 hit ranged attack and a blast finisher party support call. The warhorn is the Ranger's only real reliable blast finisher, and you'll learn why those are so important as you become familiar with the game. So I almost always have a warhorn on me. The off-hand axe is by far my favorite. It gives you a highly damaging and piercing single directional pull attack and an attack that roots you while reflecting incoming attacks and dealing damage. The pull attack is super useful because it 1. does a lot of damage 2. pulls enemies together for cleave/spell aoe 3. interupts the enemy action. It's awesome, basically.

So what to take from that? Basically, even though the tempation is high (this is how I started out too), I would not make your 2 weapons sets to be longbow and shortbow. Even though you are a "ranger". At least make sure to try out the other sets.

Ranger utility skills come in 5 flavors: traps, spirits, survival, shouts, and signets. I don't want to just list every single one or anything so I will sort of trim the fat and just give the digest version. The most popular of the spirits is the frost spirit, which gives you and nearby allies a damage boost. There are other spirits for other boons. Traps are basically how you imagine they would be. Shouts are mostly underpowered skills that relate to your pet, but Sic Em is one of the most popular shouts that really ups your pet's damage for a duration. Survival skills are varied, but lightning reflexes is a great defensive utlite that gives you another evade and quickening zephyr is a great offensive survival utility that increases your attack/activation speed. Signets give you (if traited) and your pets various effects, one of my favorites is Signet of the Wild, which gives you a lot of boons and buffs, it's a nice skill. A ranger heal skill of note is the Healing Spring, which cleanses conditions every two seconds and gives the party a water field to blast for more healing.

The Pet mechanic of the ranger is...difficult. Each ranger gets a pet that has their own abilities along with one ability you initiate. Pets families each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and specific pet species within a family have unique specific skills. For instance, the Feline pets do the most damage to a single target, where within that family, the Jungle Stalker can provide the party Might while the Jaguar can stealth itself. Drakes can cleave and have a tail swipe blase finisher, the Ice Drake has an ice breath attack, etc. I personally try to rely on the pet very little. I do not trait at all into the pet-based trait line and I do not use shouts like Sic Em which are purely pet buffs. You can micromanage your pets somewhat with some basic inputs but it's not super robust. Pets can often die to aoe you knew you avoid but their AI pathing didn't. You can mitigate this by knowing which pets to bring to which places, but it's always a bit of a struggle. That said, if you swap pets frequently and keep them healed, then generally you won't have too much down time with your pets being dead.

Generally, when playing a ranger you just have to know that you do not have the health or armor of a warrior. So you have to learn to use you sword/shortbow evades, your gs block, trait into "Natural Vigor" for faster endurance regeneration, etc.

Lastly, I want to just say that even though I say something like "I don't like the shortbow", nothing I am saying is universal. For instance, a shortbow was the perfect weapon choice for killing a recent boss named Liadri. I know that doesn't mean much to a new player but I'm just trying to say that there's a place for every sort of weapon set or playstyle.
Click to expand...
 
I

irfaanator

Banned
Anno said:
My friend always played as the base class of Paladin in everything but tanking situations because it had some additional offensive cross-class skills for easy stuff like soloing or farmable group content. Maybe that's not normal or the same for other classes? I dunno.
Click to expand...

it's the same, you lose out on a lot of cross class abilities when you turn into a paladin, but you also lose out on stat increases. If he was soloing I guess it's fine. It probably is better for some dungeons
 
L

LumpOfCole

Member
I think Anet is working to categorize all the new class skills as being under 'specializations' to avoid future balancing nightmares. Anet introduced a shitload of new skills over the course of Guild Wars 1, the sum of which probably became really difficult to properly balance in the end.

With specializations, Anet will be able to have players choose skills from the base game and then Expansion 1, or skills from the base game and then Expansion 2, but not skills from both Expansion 1 and 2 at the same time. This will make it a lot easier to balance everything as more GW2 content eventually comes out.
 
J

Jira

Member
LumpOfCole said:
I think Anet is working to categorize all the new class skills as being under 'specializations' to avoid future balancing nightmares. Anet introduced a shitload of new skills over the course of Guild Wars 1, the sum of which probably became really difficult to properly balance in the end.

With specializations, Anet will be able to have players choose skills from the base game and then Expansion 1, or skills from the base game and then Expansion 2, but not skills from both Expansion 1 and 2 at the same time. This will make it a lot easier to balance everything as more GW2 content eventually comes out.
Click to expand...

This is a very good point and yeah they did say balancing the amount of skills in GW1 was a nightmare they never wanted to repeat. They said they've run the numbers for GW2 and can add skills for a very long time without destroying balance.
 
T

TrounceX

Member
Moondrop said:
So I've returned to playing WvW with my T1 guild. Our illustrious leader requested everyone run team builds, whereas I've been secretly running as a cleric warrior all along. I decided to be a team player despite my love of clericity (full ascended), so I rolled and geared a necro. The early returns were fun but it's not the role I want to be playing in WvW; I'm meant to crack skulls on the frontline. Therefore I am giving up cleric gear in WvW for the foreseeable future. The best part is I now have a whole new, separate look for my main. This one is more fitting thematically to WvW; pics to follow when I obtain the last superficial component.
Click to expand...

SF right?

How about I'll let you play cleric warrior if you join my guild instead! Jk but I've been trying hard to get FEAR off the ground again on JQ and it's rough. In order to compete in t1 these days you basically need a map blob, and I got like 15 people max. That's basically a havoc these days ffs. About to go back to TW at this point.

I had the same experience with necro btw after maining a guard for years. The dps is addictive but I miss the intensity of the front line.
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
Still no response on my support ticket from Saturday.

Gattsby is saddened.

irfaanator said:
just want a legit spear class as long as it's not ranger
Click to expand...

It will totes be Rangers who get exclusive access to spears.

Nemesis121 said:
But i love my Longbow Ranger, and my Leeeroy Meat Tank Bear, I solo Champs of all levels with no problems...
Click to expand...

Longbow Ranger is a great spec to play if you have to do homework or laundry or you knit while playing.
 
J

Jira

Member
My guess is with them running out of keys, the support staff is absolutely swamped with tickets. Not to mention all the stuff like reset passwords from returning players and random stuff from new ones too.
 
M

Moondrop

Banned
TrounceX said:
SF right?

How about I'll let you play cleric warrior if you join my guild instead! Jk but I've been trying hard to get FEAR off the ground again on JQ and it's rough. In order to compete in t1 these days you basically need a map blob, and I got like 15 people max. That's basically a havoc these days ffs. About to go back to TW at this point.

I had the same experience with necro btw after maining a guard for years. The dps is addictive but I miss the intensity of the front line.
Click to expand...
Yeah, SF. I've dodged your trash talk in the past but really it's because I don't keep up with the server politics (and good lord, WvW generates a lot of politics). I'm just a humble foot soldier following the pin, and I certainly do not speak on behalf of SF in any way.

I hear you, it is indeed intoxicating to melt zergs into puddles with wells and pick off stragglers with life blasts; my thief weeps at the base 4-5k shots. But it goes against all of my instincts to sit back and drop bombs on pin rather than charge through the enemy front. And thus I resume my rightful role.
 
J

Jira

Member
I was thinking about this a bit ago and I think there's a couple reasons ANet didn't talk as much about details as people were hoping. So we obviously got a high level look at all the features. At PAX, you have a set amount of time to be on stage, in this case the pre show stuff and presentation took up 90 min (presentation was 60 or so). So in that time, they really couldn't have possibly detailed everything in a sufficient manner and not run out of time. I think that they want to detail the hell out of the blog posts as Colin referred to them as "deep dives". I think they want to put all their efforts into the blogs with screens/videos there so that way there's no question as to how everything works.
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
I think they should change WvW so it's 4 maps (EB, EotM, New Map and 1 borderland map (where if you take garrison for an hour you start spawning from citadel))

I think it having 3 maps that are all set up without any advantage would be very cool.
 
U

UltimateIke

Member
Did a CoE P2 duo with Zeroth for the first time.

Disabling the lasers with two people takes some practice (and temporary profession swapping).


The rest of the dungeon is pretty easy though.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Jira said:
I was thinking about this a bit ago and I think there's a couple reasons ANet didn't talk as much about details as people were hoping. So we obviously got a high level look at all the features. At PAX, you have a set amount of time to be on stage, in this case the pre show stuff and presentation took up 90 min (presentation was 60 or so). So in that time, they really couldn't have possibly detailed everything in a sufficient manner and not run out of time. I think that they want to detail the hell out of the blog posts as Colin referred to them as "deep dives". I think they want to put all their efforts into the blogs with screens/videos there so that way there's no question as to how everything works.
Click to expand...

They had time to show stuff other than concept art. They just, for whatever reason, weren't able to, most likely because the content isn't ready yet.

While they couldn't go into every single detail, video or a live demo would have gone way farther to show what he was talking about. It was just an awkward presentation.
 
N

nataku

Member
I have no issue with just a high level overview of what they're doing. In a short presentation like that it's really all you can do.

My only issues with the reveal are that there was a ton of talking with little to no visual representation of what they were talking about. Blizzcon did this well the couple times I've seen it. That, and I feel like they should have had a detailed look at something ready to go within the next few days. A couple weeks is killer.
 
J

Jira

Member
nataku said:
I have no issue with just a high level overview of what they're doing. In a short presentation like that it's really all you can do.

My only issues with the reveal are that there was a ton of talking with little to no visual representation of what they were talking about. Blizzcon did this well the couple times I've seen it. That, and I feel like they should have had a detailed look at something ready to go within the next few days. A couple weeks is killer.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm somewhat confused as to how they'll have it playable at PAX in 6 weeks but couldn't show anything beyond the trailer. My guess is they'll have one zone open and the Revenant playable.
 
T

theMrCravens

Member
Kos Luftar said:
I think they should change WvW so it's 4 maps (EB, EotM, New Map and 1 borderland map (where if you take garrison for an hour you start spawning from citadel))

I think it having 3 maps that are all set up without any advantage would be very cool.
Click to expand...
Was EotM a success though ?

I still feel like it's diluting the playerbase from the real battlegrounds.

I know why they added it (complaints about queues), but now it's on constant farm mode and feels like a useless WvW map.
 
J

Jira

Member
theMrCravens said:
Was EotM a success though ?

I still feel like it's diluting the playerbase from the real battlegrounds.

I know why they added it (complaints about queues), but now it's on constant farm mode and feels like a useless WvW map.
Click to expand...

Honestly, EOTM is better designed in every way over the existing Borderlands. It's a shame to see such a great map wasted. What's gonna suck is when the new BL comes in with HoT, that you know it's going to be even better than EOTM so when you go from the new BL back to the old one, it's gonna feel ancient. I do know they're going to make overall general changes to WvW to help out the old BL, but I don't know how much they could do without changing the actual layout.
 
J

Jira

Member
V

Vinci

Danish
Regarding Rangers, following up Levyne's post on the subject...

My main is a ranger. Like Levyne, I find pets to be largely useless decorations - though I do often use their F2 skills for buffs or condition application. To put it bluntly: If ANet were to offer an option to permanently stow your pet and get something in return - even something slight - I would potentially take them up on it. That's how useless I find them. Worst profession mechanic in the game.

My favorite weapon on a ranger is Greatsword. All day, every day. Healing Spring is the only healing skill, especially when fighting in a party or large group. Spirits suck. Virtually anything is better than a spirit taking up one of your slots in my experience. Also don't like the Beastmaster builds for obvious reasons (again: I hate pets).

The best utilities are Survival skills, particularly for WvW. Signets are a close second.

All that said, my advice would be to figure out what combination of things works for you. I'm so sick of the Meta-focus and would need far more hands than I presently own in order to count the number of people I've fought with Meta builds and destroyed because they clearly didn't 'get it'.

My ranger build is not a Meta, but he works exceptionally well for me. I don't die often and I kill lots of people. I can roam, be in groups, zergs, whatever. I have not found an occasion in which he failed to be effective and useful to a group, at least once I had figured out my 'persona', my character's attitude and approach to fights using that build.

My suggestion would be to find that build and 'persona' for you. It makes battles far more engaging and enjoyable, even when you lose. It helps to make your character truly a character, even without the roleplaying that such a comment would usually indicate.

EDIT: For what it's worth, if someone can create a 'persona' and build that emphasizes spirits and legitimately is something to be feared, I will eat crow on that comment. I've watched Youtube videos and tried it out myself, and nothing ever struck me as particularly effective.
 
V

Vinci

Danish
Levyne said:
Yeah, I run GS more than sword whatever. I dunno how I could live without counterattack. It's so satisfying.
Click to expand...

Also: I really appreciate your comments about off-hand Axe. It's a very underutilized weapon and it's great. That said, I tend to use longbow as a secondary simply due to the need for a ranged option.
 
S

spiritfox

Member
I like the pets. They're a good DPS addition in PvE and their conditions are useful in PvP. They're too squishy for their own good though, and I would like more options for controlling them.

Regarding spirits, Frost is good in stop and pop situations like dungeons. Otherwise, they're kinda iffy, even if you waste a trait slot to make them move. I hope Druids get something to boost their health or utility.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
Damn, I like what I play but it's barely playable on my Macbook Air. I'm going to have to put off seriously playing this until March/April and my PC is built. Shitty, since I was looking forward to spending the next few months playing this.
 
V

Vinci

Danish
spiritfox said:
I like the pets. They're a good DPS addition in PvE and their conditions are useful in PvP. They're too squishy for their own good though, and I would like more options for controlling them.
Click to expand...

Problem is, I spend the vast majority of my time playing WvW - either roaming or in a group. Pets just die so fast, even in BM builds. For PvE, you have a point though; I just don't often spend my time doing PvE. For WvW, I would argue that two of the best pets are actually Forest Stalker and Red Moa - one for Might, the other for Fury. I set them on passive and have them hang out at my side for the buffs. Conditions are too unreliable in WvW, IMO.

Regarding spirits, Frost is good in stop and pop situations like dungeons. Otherwise, they're kinda iffy, even if you waste a trait slot to make them move. I hope Druids get something to boost their health or utility.
Click to expand...

I like the concept of Spirits. That's what bothers me the most, I think. The premise is interesting. Somehow they just seem to proc too infrequently to be truly useful to me, even if you trait to improve the frequency.
 
S

spiritfox

Member
I don't WvW on my Ranger, so I don't know how good they are there. But in the less populated PvP arenas, pets do survive well enough that they can pull off a fear or immob which can stop an enemy party in its tracks.

Also, I love reading trinity threads in the OF. It's like a car crash, you just can't look away.
 
J

Jira

Member
spiritfox said:
I don't WvW on my Ranger, so I don't know how good they are there. But in the less populated PvP arenas, pets do survive well enough that they can pull off a fear or immob which can stop an enemy party in its tracks.

Also, I love reading trinity threads in the OF. It's like a car crash, you just can't look away.
Click to expand...

Oh official forums...why would you subject yourself to that cesspool?
 
R

Retro

Member
Excellent dungeon runs with Levyne, Zeroth, Apple and Zyra. Hope I didn't force anyone to kill too much trash =p.

Pollux said:
Damn, I like what I play but it's barely playable on my Macbook Air. I'm going to have to put off seriously playing this until March/April and my PC is built. Shitty, since I was looking forward to spending the next few months playing this.
Click to expand...

If the Living Story kicks up again between now and then, at least log in once every episode to unlock it for free, then you can play them when you get your PC set up.
 
M

Mordeccai

Member
I'm trying to install the 360 controller support but my god, the instruction.txt is a mess. o_O Scrolls horizontally forever long. I'll try to work my way through it but I've never seen anything like it lol

edit: the magic of notepad++ comes to the rescue. Default windows notepad was a complete mess haha.
 
R

Retro

Member
pyros said:
anyone know when the reduction in might stack is happening?
Click to expand...

Tomorrow's update. No idea when it will drop (they seem to be pushing it earlier and earlier in the day lately), but it should definitely be before tomorrow evening on the east coast.
 
pyros

pyros

Member
Retro said:
Tomorrow's update. No idea when it will drop (they seem to be pushing it earlier and earlier in the day lately), but it should definitely be before tomorrow evening on the east coast.
Click to expand...

Thanks retro, I'm rebuilding my warrior and want to test out the changes before committing to expensive equipment
 
U

UltimateIke

Member
Tonight I managed to beat Giganticus Lupicus in 7:36. Not a great time, but not a bad time compared to my first successful kill six weeks ago (which took just over 10 minutes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CK5N1he5fw

This was my fourth or fifth time soloing Arah P2 past Alphard and up to Brie, and it's still a lot of fun. Making it to the end alone requires using a few skills and traits that I don't often carry elsewhere, so it's an interesting way to learn more about what my profession is capable of.
 
S

Shengar

Member
Finally I just 100% the starting. Last night before went to sleep I just want to gain 1 level but ended up exploring almost half of the area and gain 3 levels lol
Could I join the GAF guild? My character name is Kumni and I'm sure I just saw three GAF member around metrica 8 hours ago.
 
U

UltimateIke

Member
Shengar said:
Finally I just 100% the starting. Last night before went to sleep I just want to gain 1 level but ended up exploring almost half of the area and gain 3 levels lol
Could I join the GAF guild? My character name is Kumni and I'm sure I just saw three GAF member around metrica 8 hours ago.
Click to expand...

I sent you an invite. Push "G" to open the guild panel, and click the accept button to join, and click "Represent" to gain access to the guild chat and all that good stuff.
 
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