AlexndrTheGreat.8310

LOL no worries I’m glad my comments are still sparking discussion about this 😂 Yea this is definitely a weak point in my suggestion. Some classes or elite specs benefit vastly differently with their “core” traitline. In a raid/PvE setting Elementalist wouldn’t use Arcane and Engineer usually won’t use Tools, but Berserker, Power Soulbeast, DPS Rev, and Necromancer all greatly benefit from Discipline, Beastmastery, Invocation, and Soul Reaping respectively. It would hit those builds pretty hard and entirely remove some combinations that people have relied on since elite specs were introduced, but hopefully the collective power creep in the game could be brought down and more specific adjustments could be made to the builds that were most affected to not leave them crippled. On the other hand Anet could create entirely new elite specs that maybe double down on what the base class focused on. Maybe a Beastmaster+ specialization that lets Ranger have 2 pets out and Pet Swap lets you temporarily summon a 3rd or something. Things along those lines. But I don’t expect that to be easily done for some classes like Elementalist, what’s the mechanic that base Ele does that a new specialization would focus on and emphasize. In a lot of cases yea, it would be pretty much what the current “core” specialization line already does so it sounds pretty redundant.

I agree, it would be nice being able to see what weapons or skills could be swapped out and what the damage loss for it will be. SnowCrows never would because that’s not what they’re focused on, but it’s something that I’ve really liked about MetaBattle. In the Condi Weaver build they even mention that Staff is an option you can take. Unfortunately they don’t give any number for how much dps you lose or even the rotation you’d use so it’s not very accessible.

I think the build is the exact same as the normal Condi weaver just swapping the weapon for a staff. This is the video from Fennec I copied 6 months ago

My Ele is geared for Condi Weaver using staff for raids. Not quite as good as other Condi weapons (maybe max 10%? Like 4K less dps than an optimal weapon set) but can still bench well over 40k dps. Doesnt do anything different or better than other builds, and can be more difficult, but being able to play a staff Ele rotation in a non-meme way feels very fun so I enjoy it.

I’m not entirely sure what the damage breakdown is, but I think / feel like Blood Moon has the greatest impact and change to your skills to make Condi Druid work. The skill itself doesn’t seem very impactful, but the changing your build to spam a ton of immobilize and daze skills (Jacaranda, Glyph, Spike Trap, Signet of the Wild, Entangle, even Muddy Terrain if you really wanted) seems impactful enough to be a Grandmaster, Akin to Deathly Chill for Reaper having a trait that suddenly causes you to re-look at all your utilities and open up new skills that you never would have used before. Im not sure whether Eclipse would go into tier 1 or if Natural Balance would be demoted to make room in tier 2, but at the very least this combination would result in Eclipse and GotL being taken so going into CA won’t be a damage loss for you as you sit around trying to apply boons to allies. Im not sure what consequences there could be of combining Eclipse with some other support traits that I don’t see, but Blood Moon being the differentiator between a Condi Alac and a Condi DPS Druid would be the most impactful.

The only build I see a 2nd charge of barrage helping is the arrow cart build as you say. But it seems more like a huge QoL increase than actual effectiveness. Having a 2nd charge of Barrage let’s us Barrage to enter combat, followed by swapping to proc quickdraw into another Barrage. Then we can go into the normal quickdraw barrage every 9 seconds. Usually will never have 2 barrages out, but it helps us jumpstart our rotation by letting us engage from any angle, such as in sieges trying to initiate combat below or on top of a wall. For Ranger to actually get a Zerg dps build we will need some ranged weapon that does not rely on projectiles, and maybe some utility skills that let use do stuff from ranged. Currently Storm Spirit is the only ranged utility ability that we have.

For Ranger since that’s what I play: Glad to see greatsword being buffed again. It’s been left in the dust for a while now so good to see that it may be usable again Let Loose giving might was definitely what it needed. Quickness dps Untamed brought nothing outside of damage, so at least they’ll have some other boon support now. Heal Untamed as well, probably don’t need to bring Flame Trap anymore to blast might for the group. Still would like to see other support abilities be added to Untamed to fill in the gaps, notably stability in some way? No comment on Carrion Devourer nerf. Didn’t swap over to it so I don’t know how good/bad it is now. Is nice though to see really niche pets come up in some builds instead of the staple stable we’ve had for years. Another charge on Barrage sounds fun. If only for the meme Arrowcart Ranger build, having a 2nd charge of LB5 to initiate combat can help get you into combat and activate QuickDraw.

Louder for the people in the back: Ranger does not mean ranged. Aragorn is a Ranger. Drizzt is a Ranger. The page does not say it’s a melee class anywhere. Classes in this game are more like “archetypes” or classes in the way that DnD classes are. They aren’t just played one way (ie, Ranger only uses bows and bows are only used by Ranger). You can play this class archetype in multiple different ways and play styles. Probably just a post to bait rage or something. This idea has been refuted countless times in the Ranger forums.

I strongly agree with Anet doing something like this. I think it would help flesh core builds in PvE and maaaybe (but not likely) bring down power creep? Make the Class Mechanic traitline (things like Beastmastery, Arcane, Soul Reaping, etc) mutually exclusive with Elite Specs and only usable in the 3rd slot instead of creating an entirely new elite spec for core would be the simplest way to do that. I also agree with adding a new weapon thats unique for the core classes, although this is sorta out the window with Weaponmaster Training. If it was ever reverted or if Anet never went this direction in the first place, adding a new weapon like they are doing now with Ranger Mace, Guardian Pistol, etc, would have been good, and likely wouldn’t be the same weapons we’re getting now. In addition, either creating a new set of skills to be used strictly with core like what’s done with elite specs, or even choose an existing set of skills that become core only. This could be easier done by fleshing out the heal and elite skills more to fill in the missing gaps (things like heal and elite signet for Ranger). Revenant would likely get a new legend due to the nature of the class. All these together would give the core classes a slew of knobs that Anet could use to tune the core class around and make them more competitive with Elite Specs. One of the originally advertised points of Elites is that they were side-grades to the core class. They simply introduced new capabilities and roles to the classes, but we’re not strictly better than the core classes they were a part of. Its very obvious at this point that that is no longer the case and this is a direction I really wish Anet would have went, especially before EoD. A Core Beastmaster Ranger could have adequately fulfilled the fantasy of a Ranger focused on its pet and allowed us to get a different elite spec (Untamed has grown on me with the introduction of Let Loose, but it’s taken a *long* time to get there). With the direction they’ve been going though and how severely neglected core classes have been for a while now, this is seeming increasingly unlikely. At a minimum it would be nice to see small parts of this get piecemeal added, such as starting off with fleshing out missing heal and elite skill types.

Outside of Druid in raids / strikes spirits were pretty crap, overall unfun to play, were really difficult to get a use out of them and generally not worth running in most other scenarios.

Yea basically my personal view on it. I already have all 3 raid armors, raids themselves are still pretty good money for only needing to do them once a week, and I just like the activity of raiding in MMOs in general. I’m going to play it anyway because it’s fun to me and I enjoy it, regardless if I’m getting LI that I have no use for anymore 🤷‍♂️

The role rifle would fulfill is already covered. It would essentially be a reskinned Longbow 2.0. Other weapons are able to give us new play styles and roles we wouldn’t have had before. Sure we can probably get rifle eventually, but right now there’s other stuff that would be way more helpful and beneficial.

It’s intended for the people who *dont* have legendary armor and are working toward it. Not really useless.

Nothing so far has indicated that that ability was the ambush.

Good ol Ranger forums, love seeing posts devolve into anarchy like this.