A note on Thunderclap in CA...

Well, I took the ol' ranger into the CA specifically looking for Thunderclap abuse, and gave up one of my attacks for Winter. Sure as the bear poop in the woods, every 4 out of 5 groups I went against had at least one thunderclapper. Oddly enough... the four or so groups I was in never had one. Which was a good thing, btw.

So, every time I dropped winter just outside the spawn point and we all stayed in it's range. Every time the E/x or x/E would be firing off Thunderclap. Every time, it failed to do what they hoped.

What was real fun (and surprising) was the Korean team we faced in the CA... again, clappers (2 I think...), and again once combat began no one thought to hunt the spirit... they just kept trying thunderclap. That was my team of three rangers and a W/Mo, no healer.

We beat 'em.

If you're going into the CA as a ranger, take winter until the bug's fixed. ftw. People are making the mistake of relying on clap instead of simply using it as a part of their build.

They must had been n00bs because you see Winter Spirit icon on your effects monitor so you know all elemental damage is cold damage until the spirit is dead but they still try to use Thunderclap again and again?

True brainless mimics. They don't have a clue how things work but they know something is bugged and think it is über skill in every situation.

Does anyone use this to an advantage in PvE?
like perhaps a certain Monk boss around the Ring of fire...
hmm constant knockdowns would help everyone during one of those missions...
hmm how about GLINT; are there any Glint groups with Thunderclap?

Exactly... no one made any attempts to kill the spirit. Granted, I tried to keep it behind a wall or something, but it's like once combat starts they forget.

Although... I suspect that's more true than we realize. Someone may see the spirit, start moving towards the spirit to kill it and get hit by poison arrow/ dual shot with kindle up. Suddenly life drops, turns green and degens... what spirit?

Zomg, you genius. I need that bonus.

[Changes ranger secondary to Ele and goes to DL]

Ah, no TC on ranger yet... /doh

I don't think Glint can be knocked down, can she?

From my experience, giant-size monsters can't be knocked down.

Not to mention you'd only get about 10 seconds worth of hex time on her due to the boss hex duration penalty.

Why would a ranger need Thunderclap to beat Glint? Get a decent group, and Distracting Shot on Crystal Hibernation, you win.

I used thunderclap on Tombs, was funny to keep knocking down certien heroes from "claiming resource". But then I quit cause a team of W/E all used thunderclapping -_-

same with everything that warriors do in the tombs, whatever they do.

I'd agree with this. Most of the people using it don't know what they're doing, so Winter is an excellent counter.

As far as other classes, I would advise Monks bringing Holy Veil and running it on themself at the start of combat. As well as killing Backfire it will turn any Thunderclapper into a wussy Ranger/Warrior with minimal energy and no Knockdown hex.

Mesmers are another good counter - I went into CA with my Mesmer bringing Inspired Hex and Soothing Images - killed that W/Es hex, then prevented his all-adrenaline damage with a hex of my own that he couldn't remove. Good times.

heh theres the new repleacement for IWAY, thunderclaping warriors...

I'd imagine six of them, even with the bug fixed could be a bit annoying if they cycled who was casting it well enough, and if counters weren't packed.

I wouldn't run such a build, just on matter of principle. In fact... I haven't done any PvP since this bug was discovered. It's just not fun right now.

See, I like this. They think they can exploit a bug, but then you exploit the exploiters. LOL

Man, I never noticed that until I played a Necromancer. I hate it. :P

As stated before, they'll just whack your winter spirit 3-4 times to kill it and go on their merry way. =]

But... they didn't.

Another reason could be that they saw it show up in their bar and went "Oh look, a gay ranger spirit, who cares, the ranger will be on his ass in no time and the spirit's effects won't matter."

There are still many people out there that have no idea what the majority of ranger spirits do because they never bother to take a second to hover over with their mouse and read the desc.

And in CA at least... they usually won't. Very few people think in those terms in the random arenas. Now in TA you'd see more coordination. You'd have someone detailed to find Winter's and take them out.