Guild Wars 2

Rangers will be receiving some good updates in the upcoming balance patch, but it seems as though other professions are overstating them and then having high hopes for what the skillbar will hold for their profession.

The thing is, Rangers needed these buffs the most out of all professions just to bring them up to par with how the other professions are performing in all aspects of the game. This is the key point that a lot of people seem to be forgetting. The Ranger profession came out miles ahead of the others in the vote for “who needs the most help?” so it should have been expected.

In reality, while these updates are undeniably good, they have only really scratched the surface of the Ranger problems. One key aspect of this update was making the longbow a more viable weapon for power-based builds (which will remain very few and far between until this patch). Although we do get an increase in DPS ability using rapid fire and a slight increase in attack speed with RtW, this simultaneously boosts the potential for counterplay (e.g. 1-dodge-damage-avoid and projectile reflect) from other professions by an equal amount.

However, our skillbar preview:

- only touched on pets briefly with 2 fairly insignificant fixes – no mention of any plans to implement brand new pet mechanics like the “aspect of the pet” that took off well in the CDI. Given that pets are one of our biggest flaws, this is looking a little disappointing

- Only 2 utilities mentioned and no signs of new additions or upgrades for others (particularly nothing for traps and spirits)

- No improvements for the torch, shortbow (which will be officially dead post-patch!) and sword

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not moaning about the voids in the balance preview. The devs can’t do everything all at once (…even though cough one balance patch every nine months cough….), but the point I’m trying to make is that people shouldn’t be getting so fired up about the Ranger updates when it’s exactly what everyone agreed was needed in the first place.

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

Sigh… incredibly overstated, you obviously don’t play zerk longbow builds on a Ranger. The average ranger at 900+ range will get up to 3k crits on squishy targets only. 4k crits are possible but only when under intermittent buffs, mostly those from other players too. The AA is too slow for this to concern most players, and especially given the fact that 900+ range HAS to be maintained AND zerk Rangers will go down quicker than felix baumgartner in zerg situations (which is the only place the snipe-based builds you’re referring to are useful). Furthermore, considering the meta across all professions in WvW is heavily drawn towards tankier builds, the most you will see rangers maxing out on most players with AA is 2-2.2k. In PvP AA is almost redundant. Rapid fire, the skill that is supposed to be the longbow’s “damage spike” skill, is out-DPSed by the AA. Rapid fire is only a threat to thieves entering stealth, and even then not a game-breaker as it’s incredibly weak – hence the update.

vincecontix.1264:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

So now people are straight up lying about what Rangers can currently do. You people are ridiculous.

3/4 of a 24k health pool is 18k health. You’re saying that a Ranger’s rapid fire took EIGHTEEN THOUSAND HP off a 3k armor build in 2 seconds?

First of all, a Ranger’s rapid fire hits on average up to 10-11k on a standard zerk build if there are a good number of crits in there. This can potentially be boosted to around 14-15k if might-stacked from other players and other power buffs and assuming most attacks crit. And this only on total glass players.

Second of all, Rapid fire has a 5 second cast time, so I’m not sure where you pulled that 2 second figure from (though I have a very good idea…). And finally, most players dodge during a Ranger’s rapid fire, which makes almost half the shots miss.

You are simply proving the point I made in my original post.

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

this^

when i’m bored i’ll play a sniper in hotjoin, camp somewhere high where i can cover a capture point with my lovely 1500 range, i’ll then nuke down anyone that is brave/stupid enough to get within my range,
it hits like a truck, squishies are dead in 4-5 shots!
and now it’ll:
attack 10% faster, get access to signet effects like 150% damage on next attack, 25% increased damage for 8 seconds, and rapid fire will now be more busty and less sustain.

this is going to be lethal!

Bryzy.2719:

vincecontix.1264:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

So now people are straight up lying about what Rangers can currently do. You people are ridiculous.

3/4 of a 24k health pool is 18k health. You’re saying that a Ranger’s rapid fire took EIGHTEEN THOUSAND HP off a 3k armor build in 2 seconds?

First of all, a Ranger’s rapid fire hits on average up to 10-11k on a standard zerk build if there are a good number of crits in there. This can potentially be boosted to around 14-15k if might-stacked from other players and other power buffs and assuming most attacks crit. And this only on total glass players.

Second of all, Rapid fire has a 5 second cast time, so I’m not sure where you pulled that 2 second figure from (though I have a very good idea…). And finally, most players dodge during a Ranger’s rapid fire, which makes almost half the shots miss.

You are simply proving the point I made in my original post.

In Spvp I’ve seen experienced rangers running zerker longbow, position is key, and most I’ve fought most of the time used quickness which made me eat crapton of damage.

Bryzy.2719:

vincecontix.1264:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

So now people are straight up lying about what Rangers can currently do. You people are ridiculous.

3/4 of a 24k health pool is 18k health. You’re saying that a Ranger’s rapid fire took EIGHTEEN THOUSAND HP off a 3k armor build in 2 seconds?

First of all, a Ranger’s rapid fire hits on average up to 10-11k on a standard zerk build if there are a good number of crits in there. This can potentially be boosted to around 14-15k if might-stacked from other players and other power buffs and assuming most attacks crit. And this only on total glass players.

Second of all, Rapid fire has a 5 second cast time, so I’m not sure where you pulled that 2 second figure from (though I have a very good idea…). And finally, most players dodge during a Ranger’s rapid fire, which makes almost half the shots miss.

You are simply proving the point I made in my original post.

I did say I was in wvw. The ranger did have full guards stacks, food, bloodlust stacks, used quickness and I did see sigil of air proc, but yes i did receive around 18k damage in a matter of seconds.

Bryzy.2719:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

Sigh… incredibly overstated, you obviously don’t play zerk longbow builds on a Ranger. The average ranger at 900+ range will get up to 3k crits on squishy targets only. 4k crits are possible but only when under intermittent buffs, mostly those from other players too. The AA is too slow for this to concern most players, and especially given the fact that 900+ range HAS to be maintained AND zerk Rangers will go down quicker than felix baumgartner in zerg situations (which is the only place the snipe-based builds you’re referring to are useful). Furthermore, considering the meta across all professions in WvW is heavily drawn towards tankier builds, the most you will see rangers maxing out on most players with AA is 2-2.2k. In PvP AA is almost redundant. Rapid fire, the skill that is supposed to be the longbow’s “damage spike” skill, is out-DPSed by the AA. Rapid fire is only a threat to thieves entering stealth, and even then not a game-breaker as it’s incredibly weak – hence the update.

On necro I get 3 – 4k lifeblasts on squishy targets. And that’s in a single attack, but frankly it’s needed for necros to be competitive and only at 600 range or less.

Anyway as for this thread I do agree for the most part and I wish they had done more with making the pets less suicidal abused winnie the poohs. And this is much more constructive that the mesmer moaning thread you made a while back… so my respect for you has been restored.

Liewec.2896:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

this^

when i’m bored i’ll play a sniper in hotjoin, camp somewhere high where i can cover a capture point with my lovely 1500 range, i’ll then nuke down anyone that is brave/stupid enough to get within my range,
it hits like a truck, squishies are dead in 4-5 shots!
and now it’ll:
attack 10% faster, get access to signet effects like 150% damage on next attack, 25% increased damage for 8 seconds, and rapid fire will now be more busty and less sustain.

this is going to be lethal!

It just doesn’t work like this in most scenarios! Most other PvPers or people you encounter in WvW can gap-close incredibly quickly, and a glass longbow Ranger vs someone up close is dead in an instant.

This is what people don’t understand, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think you’d be willing to admit even if you did understand because you can stand the fact that another profession is getting more buffs than yours. Even if it’s the profession that people actively kick out of dungeons and shun in most aspects of the game. This is ridiculous, but ah well, we’re the ones with the buffs so I’m still happy. Whatever.

nearlight.3064:

Bryzy.2719:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

Sigh… incredibly overstated, you obviously don’t play zerk longbow builds on a Ranger. The average ranger at 900+ range will get up to 3k crits on squishy targets only. 4k crits are possible but only when under intermittent buffs, mostly those from other players too. The AA is too slow for this to concern most players, and especially given the fact that 900+ range HAS to be maintained AND zerk Rangers will go down quicker than felix baumgartner in zerg situations (which is the only place the snipe-based builds you’re referring to are useful). Furthermore, considering the meta across all professions in WvW is heavily drawn towards tankier builds, the most you will see rangers maxing out on most players with AA is 2-2.2k. In PvP AA is almost redundant. Rapid fire, the skill that is supposed to be the longbow’s “damage spike” skill, is out-DPSed by the AA. Rapid fire is only a threat to thieves entering stealth, and even then not a game-breaker as it’s incredibly weak – hence the update.

On necro I get 3 – 4k lifeblasts on squishy targets. And that’s in a single attack, but frankly it’s needed for necros to be competitive and only at 600 range or less.

Anyway as for this thread I do agree for the most part and I wish they had done more with making the pets less suicidal abused winnie the poohs. And this is much more constructive that the mesmer moaning thread you made a while back… so my respect for you has been restored.

I’ll be interested to see what happens in the necro skillbar. I never play my necro so I don’t know a lot about their mechanics but… I am getting the impression they’re in need of a few tweaks or buffs here and there.

Bryzy.2719:

nearlight.3064:

Bryzy.2719:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

Sigh… incredibly overstated, you obviously don’t play zerk longbow builds on a Ranger. The average ranger at 900+ range will get up to 3k crits on squishy targets only. 4k crits are possible but only when under intermittent buffs, mostly those from other players too. The AA is too slow for this to concern most players, and especially given the fact that 900+ range HAS to be maintained AND zerk Rangers will go down quicker than felix baumgartner in zerg situations (which is the only place the snipe-based builds you’re referring to are useful). Furthermore, considering the meta across all professions in WvW is heavily drawn towards tankier builds, the most you will see rangers maxing out on most players with AA is 2-2.2k. In PvP AA is almost redundant. Rapid fire, the skill that is supposed to be the longbow’s “damage spike” skill, is out-DPSed by the AA. Rapid fire is only a threat to thieves entering stealth, and even then not a game-breaker as it’s incredibly weak – hence the update.

On necro I get 3 – 4k lifeblasts on squishy targets. And that’s in a single attack, but frankly it’s needed for necros to be competitive and only at 600 range or less.

Anyway as for this thread I do agree for the most part and I wish they had done more with making the pets less suicidal abused winnie the poohs. And this is much more constructive that the mesmer moaning thread you made a while back… so my respect for you has been restored.

I’ll be interested to see what happens in the necro skillbar. I never play my necro so I don’t know a lot about their mechanics but… I am getting the impression they’re in need of a few tweaks or buffs here and there.

Yeah if you think pug discrimination towards rangers are bad, it’s even worse for necros in PvE. And that’s because people run staff minion builds or condition builds and while the zerker builds have DPS equal to warrior roughly, it’s almost all single target since they have no cleaving weapon. They also don’t have any meaningful support options compared to frostspotter (most might buffing) or any reflects or blasts or anything like that. Necromancers are roughly in the same boat in terms of pvp representation (the last spot for a competitive team is a usually shatter portal mesme (Eu more), necro, or condition ranger). In WvW necros are very good and are almost perfect there… just better stability or some type of axe buff is all that’s really needed because the AoE spike damage of wells is so good.

Anyway I hope that dagger for necro gets a cleave similar to what they’re doing with thief dagger if only a little bit.

vincecontix.1264:

Bryzy.2719:

vincecontix.1264:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

So now people are straight up lying about what Rangers can currently do. You people are ridiculous.

3/4 of a 24k health pool is 18k health. You’re saying that a Ranger’s rapid fire took EIGHTEEN THOUSAND HP off a 3k armor build in 2 seconds?

First of all, a Ranger’s rapid fire hits on average up to 10-11k on a standard zerk build if there are a good number of crits in there. This can potentially be boosted to around 14-15k if might-stacked from other players and other power buffs and assuming most attacks crit. And this only on total glass players.

Second of all, Rapid fire has a 5 second cast time, so I’m not sure where you pulled that 2 second figure from (though I have a very good idea…). And finally, most players dodge during a Ranger’s rapid fire, which makes almost half the shots miss.

You are simply proving the point I made in my original post.

I did say I was in wvw. The ranger did have full guards stacks, food, bloodlust stacks, used quickness and I did see sigil of air proc, but yes i did receive around 18k damage in a matter of seconds.

So you’re saying that a ranger who plays full berserker and who blows all his cooldowns at once is strong? One single dodge whould’ve cut almost all the damage. Or do you also complain about 100b being too strong if you don’t want to dodge out of it?

And I’ve downed some light armor classes within 2 AA’s, however that is very uncommon.

Bryzy #1 the ranger can have a teammate protect him and #2 the longbow dmg won’t be garbage up close now. We are talking about ranger as a DPS roamer… Anybody that can close on you from 1500 range, take 1-2 opening strikes and not be in serious hurt is probably somebody you can just run from til help arrives

ens.9854:

Bryzy #1 the ranger can have a teammate protect him and #2 the longbow dmg won’t be garbage up close now. We are talking about ranger as a DPS roamer… Anybody that can close on you from 1500 range, take 1-2 opening strikes and not be in serious hurt is probably somebody you can just run from til help arrives

The longbow DPS will be better post-patch. But no, we’re not talking about ranger as a DPS roamer. They will still get eaten alive by thieves and other glass builds in 1v1 or group situations. The longbow ranger will simply be more efficient in a team DPS-support role. “somebody you can just run from til help arrives”…. yeah you have definitely not played longbow Ranger! There is no “running” if you’re a longbow Ranger. The only chance you might have of disengaging/escaping from a fight is if you’re running sword and greatsword. Rangers have terrible disengaging/escaping ability otherwise.

I have played enough to know that I don’t wait until I need to ‘disengage’ to avoid a fight.

ens.9854:

I have played enough to know that I don’t wait until I need to ‘disengage’ to avoid a fight.

Good luck trying to run away from a GvG.

I saw one person mentioning the idea of longbow ranger in a GvG gank squad. Basically it would be a one trick pony, highly effective for killing periphs for one round, but the next round the enemy would learn and their gank group would elminate the ranger easily.

What people overestimate are the longbow changes. The ranger changes in total are huge, but this is down to the signet and entangle changes mostly. The rest are qol changes, but signets will open up options. The new GM trait will also be great for pve.

nearlight.3064:

ens.9854:

I have played enough to know that I don’t wait until I need to ‘disengage’ to avoid a fight.

Good luck trying to run away from a GvG.

I saw one person mentioning the idea of longbow ranger in a GvG gank squad. Basically it would be a one trick pony, highly effective for killing periphs for one round, but the next round the enemy would learn and their gank group would elminate the ranger easily.

WvW Guilds that have even any clue what they are doing dropped the GWEN requirement and started allowing Rangers in months ago. A few rangers with Piercing Arrows targeting enemy commander means dead enemy commander, and that means “Win.”

Bryzy.2719:

Sigh… incredibly overstated,

Which was clever in a way, because your entire original post is overstated the very same way, just in the opposite direction.

I don’t know how you can say the new GM trait will be good for PvE when most bosses are immune to roots and cripple. The GM trait won’t be used. Rangers will take piercing arrows, spotter, and probably might on signet use or the % modifier when at full endurance.

What will happen with most rangers is that now most of them will take signet of stone. Power builds will be able to go 20 points for spotter and then dump the rest of the points on wilderness survival and nature magic, which are the only lines with not completely garbage trait lines.

Ranger damage will still be pretty bad. A 10% boost to the GS final attack won’t make up for the fact that it does around 20% less damage than mainhand sword, and mainhand sword brings the burst and control of path of scars or an additional evade and poison to counter healing.

Maul will still have an obvious telegraph and long windup that makes it easier to dodge than even Eviscerate or Fire Grab.

Pets will still miserably die to AoE since they have no aoe resistance, and the only pet that can cleave is the drake.

Barrage will still tickle compared to necro marks, engineer grenades, and ele meteor shower.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, ranger stunbreakers will still suck. You’ll still have your only non-traited condi cleanse in a 60 second cooldown stunbreaker.

Every defensive tool the ranger has is still on really large cooldowns, on a class that has poor, delayed burst.

Don’t think this will change anything. It will just be BM bunkers with signet of stone roaming. And you’ll still be a weaker roamer compared to a thief or warrior or D/D ele.

Power based rangers will still be weak because their power coefficients SUCK, while their conditions don’t pay the same pet tax that their power attacks do. Rangers are stuck with conditions until their power based attacks get the handicap removed.

And they will still bring weak CC and no group utility outside spirits that die immediately in group combat and need 30 points worth of traits to make them usable.

It’ll still be warrior/guardian/ele group meta and thief/mesmer/warrior supremacy for solo roaming.

Bryzy.2719:

vincecontix.1264:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

So now people are straight up lying about what Rangers can currently do. You people are ridiculous.

3/4 of a 24k health pool is 18k health. You’re saying that a Ranger’s rapid fire took EIGHTEEN THOUSAND HP off a 3k armor build in 2 seconds?

First of all, a Ranger’s rapid fire hits on average up to 10-11k on a standard zerk build if there are a good number of crits in there. This can potentially be boosted to around 14-15k if might-stacked from other players and other power buffs and assuming most attacks crit. And this only on total glass players.

Second of all, Rapid fire has a 5 second cast time, so I’m not sure where you pulled that 2 second figure from (though I have a very good idea…). And finally, most players dodge during a Ranger’s rapid fire, which makes almost half the shots miss.

You are simply proving the point I made in my original post.

I met two rangers the other day that where quite coordinated and fairly decent at rangering in WvW. My Mesmer has 2.2K toughness and around 21K HP when buffed.

When both did rapid fire against me and setting both animals on me, I died in seconds. Didnt stand a chance. Stealth? HA! Rapid fire track through stealth. The only thing to do was either dodge like crazy or pop evade skills but when everything is on cooldown you end up a pretty corpse.

The longbow/shortbow ranger is not that weak. The Ranger just suffer the same problem Mesmer does – AI is broken and beside a few niche skills (in rangers case, pretty much only entangle) they’re pointless at everything, bringing a guardian/warrior is always better. Even despite this, there’s like twice as many Rangers as there are Mesmers, lol.

Zenith.7301:

I don’t know how you can say the new GM trait will be good for PvE when most bosses are immune to roots and cripple. The GM trait won’t be used. Rangers will take piercing arrows, spotter, and probably might on signet use or the % modifier when at full endurance.

What are you talking about? Are you talking about normal PvE where noone ever cares what you take as weapon? Or do you talk about competitive PvE, aka. Dungeons or Fractals, where LB will still be way too weak to compete with the melee options the ranger has?

Bryzy.2719:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

Sigh… incredibly overstated, you obviously don’t play zerk longbow builds on a Ranger. The average ranger at 900+ range will get up to 3k crits on squishy targets only. 4k crits are possible but only when under intermittent buffs, mostly those from other players too. The AA is too slow for this to concern most players, and especially given the fact that 900+ range HAS to be maintained AND zerk Rangers will go down quicker than felix baumgartner in zerg situations (which is the only place the snipe-based builds you’re referring to are useful). Furthermore, considering the meta across all professions in WvW is heavily drawn towards tankier builds, the most you will see rangers maxing out on most players with AA is 2-2.2k. In PvP AA is almost redundant. Rapid fire, the skill that is supposed to be the longbow’s “damage spike” skill, is out-DPSed by the AA. Rapid fire is only a threat to thieves entering stealth, and even then not a game-breaker as it’s incredibly weak – hence the update.

Quickness, Read the wind, Rapid Fire (in literally 1s), then auto the rest. It’s not overstated. Thieves who get seen by a Ranger first should be afraid.

And that’s not even the best part. What beastmasters will be able to do without needing to spec those extra 10points in Marksmanship is something I’m waiting to see.

I believe the Ranger changes are not enough.
They made Longbow OP, but all the rest still sucks about the ranger.

These changes have directly buffed power ranger and indirectly buffed both trapper and BM.
Pet AI and some kittened traits(opening strike, oakheart salve,etc..) remain crap, but the signet change is huge and it can not be stressed enough.

Chokolata.1870:

These changes have directly buffed power ranger and indirectly buffed both trapper and BM.
Pet AI and some kittened traits(opening strike, oakheart salve,etc..) remain crap, but the signet change is huge and it can not be stressed enough.

Well these changes might happen as they were shown later…. or not. Nothing happened yet.

Rasalhague.8270:

I believe the Ranger changes are not enough.
They made Longbow OP, but all the rest still sucks about the ranger.

How did they make longbow OP? Please elaborate. If it is due to damage, then every class is OP, because they can all pull significant damage. Except most have a zerker build that is better at surviving then LB ranger. For now at least.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

vincecontix.1264:

Bryzy.2719:

vincecontix.1264:

ens.9854:

The current longbow can wreck face and get 3-4k auto attacks and is borderline abusive with some clever positioning.

The new longbow is, quite frankly, scary.

+1 lost almost 3/4 of my health in like 2secs from glassy rangers rapid fire and thats was with 3k armor 24k health.

Edit: I was in wvw.

So now people are straight up lying about what Rangers can currently do. You people are ridiculous.

3/4 of a 24k health pool is 18k health. You’re saying that a Ranger’s rapid fire took EIGHTEEN THOUSAND HP off a 3k armor build in 2 seconds?

First of all, a Ranger’s rapid fire hits on average up to 10-11k on a standard zerk build if there are a good number of crits in there. This can potentially be boosted to around 14-15k if might-stacked from other players and other power buffs and assuming most attacks crit. And this only on total glass players.

Second of all, Rapid fire has a 5 second cast time, so I’m not sure where you pulled that 2 second figure from (though I have a very good idea…). And finally, most players dodge during a Ranger’s rapid fire, which makes almost half the shots miss.

You are simply proving the point I made in my original post.

I did say I was in wvw. The ranger did have full guards stacks, food, bloodlust stacks, used quickness and I did see sigil of air proc, but yes i did receive around 18k damage in a matter of seconds.

So you’re saying that a ranger who plays full berserker and who blows all his cooldowns at once is strong? One single dodge whould’ve cut almost all the damage. Or do you also complain about 100b being too strong if you don’t want to dodge out of it?

And I’ve downed some light armor classes within 2 AA’s, however that is very uncommon.

Well wolf did fear me first and he didnt blow all his cooldowns(Rampage as one,QZephyr+rapidfire). That kind of damage from 1500 ranger is quite strong even the AA hurts alot. Especially considering the effort and the distance from which that damage originated. After ranger buffs I would prob rather fight a gs war if I had to choose.

longbow is terrible.. the damage sucks..

most people are forgetting that Rangers are the WORST dps class in game.

a riffle Warrior hits harder at 1200 ranger with 20k instant crits.

STOP MOANING.

learn to dodge the rapid fire and GG ranger is dead.

Rifle warriors hit harder.. and with new Rifle Buffs.. you will see the big difference.

Warrior Rifle > longbow Ranger

Carighan.6758:

Bryzy.2719:

Sigh… incredibly overstated,

Which was clever in a way, because your entire original post is overstated the very same way, just in the opposite direction.

So you mean “understated”?

How, exactly, when I haven’t denied that the updates are good? They’re just what we needed – a boost to our DPS so we too can have a good power build like all the other professions. The signet change is also something that should have been in place since day 1. And also, since you’re a mesmer, you should be happy with the fact that you will be able to run reflect and destroy longbow power Rangers when they decide to use rapid fire + QZ against you. In that sense, the updates to rapid fire are very much a double-edged sword.

This really gets to me. The profession lagging behind the most in the game gets updates it’s needed since day 1, and people start moaning about it. It’s ridiculously childish and selfish. Even as a Ranger, the current worse class in the game, I would be happy to see other profs such as elementalist and necro get buffed as I know they need it. Mesmer I think needs fixes more than buffs but w/e. The point is, this community has become very orientated towards selfish “balance”, and it’s people like you who need to snap out of it.

Some of these changes make me want to dust off my mule ranger, especially long needed signet changes.

Bryzy.2719:

The point is, this community has become very orientated towards selfish “balance”, and it’s people like you who need to snap out of it.

And this.

Bryzy.2719:

Carighan.6758:

Bryzy.2719:

Sigh… incredibly overstated,

Which was clever in a way, because your entire original post is overstated the very same way, just in the opposite direction.

This really gets to me. The profession lagging behind the most in the game gets updates it’s needed since day 1, and people start moaning about it. It’s ridiculously childish and selfish. Even as a Ranger, the current worse class in the game, I would be happy to see other profs such as elementalist and necro get buffed as I know they need it. Mesmer I think needs fixes more than buffs but w/e. The point is, this community has become very orientated towards selfish “balance”, and it’s people like you who need to snap out of it.

Elementalists do not need major buffs. The only thing for them I would buff would be scepter for PvE/WvW as it’s a glass cannon burst weapon with boat loads of blast finishers but the worse autoattacks in the game. And I kinda want to make metorlogicus (or frostfang) next.

As for ranger, it’s not at all the worst class in PvE or PvP. It’s just a bit outclassed by an ele in those team compositions (2nd ele with staff for speed runs, but a ranger wouldn’t make a huge difference).

Anyway I just wish people would get the idea that Rangers are bad out of their heads. It’s the only way the community can evolve beyond many of their childish thoughts.

nearlight.3064:

Bryzy.2719:

Carighan.6758:

Bryzy.2719:

Sigh… incredibly overstated,

Which was clever in a way, because your entire original post is overstated the very same way, just in the opposite direction.

This really gets to me. The profession lagging behind the most in the game gets updates it’s needed since day 1, and people start moaning about it. It’s ridiculously childish and selfish. Even as a Ranger, the current worse class in the game, I would be happy to see other profs such as elementalist and necro get buffed as I know they need it. Mesmer I think needs fixes more than buffs but w/e. The point is, this community has become very orientated towards selfish “balance”, and it’s people like you who need to snap out of it.

Elementalists do not need major buffs. The only thing for them I would buff would be scepter for PvE/WvW as it’s a glass cannon burst weapon with boat loads of blast finishers but the worse autoattacks in the game. And I kinda want to make metorlogicus (or frostfang) next.

As for ranger, it’s not at all the worst class in PvE or PvP. It’s just a bit outclassed by an ele in those team compositions (2nd ele with staff for speed runs, but a ranger wouldn’t make a huge difference).

Anyway I just wish people would get the idea that Rangers are bad out of their heads. It’s the only way the community can evolve beyond many of their childish thoughts.

Waiting for the day so i can make my cavailer WvW ranger , to also apply lots of CC is a dream come true waiting those 150secs was godly painfull without a source of stabilty, now the signets are changing i can Zerg with Full CC.

broken signet of the beastmaster made us loose pretty much all of our large CC utlity and really hampered our trait set up too .

this is going to be wonderful.

Rangers are now getting far too much damage. The act like thieves + pets. ANET way overbuffed them.

Ithilwen.1529:

Rangers are now getting far too much damage. The act like thieves + pets. ANET way overbuffed them.

pffff lulwut?

Not even close. Anyone who has ever actually tried to fight a power build ranger would know this.

There’s also a slight nerf to rapid fire:
-Following stealthed targets, since it’s faster you can’t track movement of a thief as well as before.
-With a shorter cast time, one dodge roll will negate most of the damages and vuln stack.

People that get killed by LB rangers are bad.

Luimes.4281:

People that get killed by LB rangers are bad.

no, their dead. Just a minor difference, so let’s not stress the technicalities too much.

Haha, that’s nice to see people who never played ranger moaning about how a ranger will be OP.
The mesmer who got himself killed by a longbow ranger made me laugh. It’s not like he could have blinked close to the ranger or reflect everything in the face. And guess what? Blink and decoy are stunbreakers do counter the fear. Ranger are pretty good against mesmer, actually, but certainly not with a longbow.

Also, how are power ranger OP when our pet won’t even share the power we gain with our stuff, and our skills are balanced with our pet? Longbow AA is too powerful? Seriously? A longbow AA hits far less than a sword, even at max range, and any class with a gap closer will catch him in 2 seconds. Also, to be able to use LB, we have to use a GM trait. I’m not saying “making LB better”, but usuable.

Rapid fire is a burst? Our only burst is Maul, on GS, this is our one and only burst, which is more telegraphed than an evicerate (you know, when there is a bear on the head on the ranger for about one second before the hit). With every other weapon, our best dps skill is the AA, which doesn’t even do more damage than the AA on other class (well more than mesmer, but that’s not really hard to outdps a mesmer with AA).

You’re going to say “But rapid fire will be faster!”. Good deal when we mainly used it to track a thief. Now, that’s a 2 sec track nearly completly negated by a dodge. And the anti-stealth that nobody will even take… Well, only Power Ranger (wich sucks thanks to our pet) will be enough unused utility to take it, so i guess it may be useful, somtimes.

I’m not saying we were not buffed. The buff in axe will make trap ranger better, the change with the signets was really good, entangle will be much more useful, the new trait wich boost damage against crippled targets is amazing on swords, etc… But ranger will still be far from OP. I’m not even sure if they will be considered “great”. So, when i see people moaning about how powerful the ranger will be, i can’t help but scream “Get real, man!” As long as we keep a flawed pet, we will never be great.
I will add something, every class has weaknesses, keep in mind that our main weakness is ou pet, only used as a utility, but eating a good part of our damage output, making only condition based or hybrid builds decent to good.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Zenith.7301:

I don’t know how you can say the new GM trait will be good for PvE when most bosses are immune to roots and cripple. The GM trait won’t be used. Rangers will take piercing arrows, spotter, and probably might on signet use or the % modifier when at full endurance.

What are you talking about? Are you talking about normal PvE where noone ever cares what you take as weapon? Or do you talk about competitive PvE, aka. Dungeons or Fractals, where LB will still be way too weak to compete with the melee options the ranger has?

Which is why I said more than 3 traits in that line…piercing shots for wvw and might on signet+10% full endurance+spotter for pve.

It doesn’t matter anyways you’ll carry a longbow as a secondary for fights like fractal 50 mossman when you get low and can’t take his cleaves or archdiviner when you’re out of endurance.

Luimes.4281:

People that get killed by LB rangers are bad.

I don’t know, with these upcoming longbow buffs that may not be the case anymore…

Bryzy.2719:

It just doesn’t work like this in most scenarios! Most other PvPers or people you encounter in WvW can gap-close incredibly quickly, and a glass longbow Ranger vs someone up close is dead in an instant.

This is what people don’t understand

i’m rank 72, i think i know a little bit about pvp XD

you position yourself somewhere high up and difficult to get to, where if you start taking too much damage you can simply step back and be obstructed.
but from experience they are usually low on health by the time they get to land a single hit.

also keep checking the route up, and have wolf as a secondary pet so if the enemy makes it near you you can knockback/fear them off the edge

also ranger isn’t “my class” its just a fun build i like to play on occasion when i’m less focused on holding points but just wanting some dakka dakka fun

Liewec.2896:

Bryzy.2719:

It just doesn’t work like this in most scenarios! Most other PvPers or people you encounter in WvW can gap-close incredibly quickly, and a glass longbow Ranger vs someone up close is dead in an instant.

This is what people don’t understand

i’m rank 72, i think i know a little bit about pvp XD

you position yourself somewhere high up and difficult to get to, where if you start taking too much damage you can simply step back and be obstructed.
but from experience they are usually low on health by the time they get to land a single hit.

also keep checking the route up, and have wolf as a secondary pet so if the enemy makes it near you you can knockback/fear them off the edge

also ranger isn’t “my class” its just a fun build i like to play on occasion when i’m less focused on holding points but just wanting some dakka dakka fun

So what you’re essentially saying is, stay away from everyone and make sure nobody gets near you else you’re basically dead. Longbow gameplay is limited to this. Now that we have these buffs we might finally be able to hold our own with the longbow in more close-up encounters. Then again, it might make close encounter fights even worse considering it will take just 1 dodge to avoid most of the damage this time.

Bryzy.2719:

Liewec.2896:

Bryzy.2719:

It just doesn’t work like this in most scenarios! Most other PvPers or people you encounter in WvW can gap-close incredibly quickly, and a glass longbow Ranger vs someone up close is dead in an instant.

This is what people don’t understand

i’m rank 72, i think i know a little bit about pvp XD

you position yourself somewhere high up and difficult to get to, where if you start taking too much damage you can simply step back and be obstructed.
but from experience they are usually low on health by the time they get to land a single hit.

also keep checking the route up, and have wolf as a secondary pet so if the enemy makes it near you you can knockback/fear them off the edge

also ranger isn’t “my class” its just a fun build i like to play on occasion when i’m less focused on holding points but just wanting some dakka dakka fun

So what you’re essentially saying is, stay away from everyone and make sure nobody gets near you else you’re basically dead. Longbow gameplay is limited to this. Now that we have these buffs we might finally be able to hold our own with the longbow in more close-up encounters. Then again, it might make close encounter fights even worse considering it will take just 1 dodge to avoid most of the damage this time.

You realize that’s why people take a 2nd weapon set to get away/build distance usually GS. Maybe stop long-bowing someone who is in front of your face if you don’t have point blank shot up?

Sure a thief will still own you but with the upcoming changes ranger will have endure pain for free. Moment of clarity stacks with the signet of hunt+wild (325% Dmg 50% move speed and stability) and allows you to hit someone for 8k with an auto attack on a zerker no teammate buffs required… You can also do the same setup using maul to hit 10k+ So yes rangers have the potential to be scary after the update.

Stinja.9612:

You realize that’s why people take a 2nd weapon set to get away/build distance usually GS. Maybe stop long-bowing someone who is in front of your face if you don’t have point blank shot up?

Sure a thief will still own you but with the upcoming changes ranger will have endure pain for free. Moment of clarity stacks with the signet of hunt+wild (325% Dmg 50% move speed and stability) and allows you to hit someone for 8k with an auto attack on a zerker no teammate buffs required… You can also do the same setup using maul to hit 10k+ So yes rangers have the potential to be scary after the update.

effects that grant moment of clarity, like the trait or signet of the hunt, do not stack. you can only have 1 active “attack of opportunity” at a time.

it does stack with enlargement from SotW though.

To whoever that thought rifle warr is better dps then ranger – yes, at melee range it is. Beyond 600 range ranger + pet is far more dps. Beyond 900 range, ranger without pet just oblitterates warrior dps.
Warrior can hit for 20k in one shot. That shot takes nearly 15 seconds to fire off, in the mean time, warrior rifle aa maxes out around 1900 – 2400. In comparison ranger aa is 2200-3000. As is, ranger aa is the best dps. Ignoring air fire sigils. Ranger will have killed the warrior by the time the killshot has been charged. If you wanna discuss invulns – ranger has the too, so endure pain is nothing special. Killshot is also ridiculously easy to evade or interrupt while as ranger dps is purely sheer AA damage. You dodge a shot and it makes near no difference.

If you have problem with ranger lingbow: side step and it will miss. Move behind the ranger and that will cancel the skill. Dodge it, easy to count: 1 second, 1 shot

What most of you seems to overlook is the fact they do hurt alot from afar but once you closed the gab its like free bags. We are speaking about full glass ranger here! Which means no survivability at all. The only threat they can pose is if they are skilled.

Personnally i run almost full zerker armor and i can only hit about 2k7 on squishy (uplvl), for #1. Thats at 1k2 range.

I think you should try LB before saying anything wrong about it. Its a hard weapon that have huge flaws.