Guild Wars 2

So like many people, i dusted off my ranger in light of the buffage and took her roaming as well as zerging in the BLs.

Now. While I can see a bit of an improvement in zerker LB’s usefulness in countering increasingly zerky ranged light armour classes (hello Eles) to the point that my guild might consider allowing them into our regular WVW raids, rangers are still very sucky in the AOE department, and pets are still more of an impediment than a benefit.

Taken together, I think rangers still have a way to go in terms of improvements to AOE and/or support capability in order to be even remotely accepted in the GWEN fold of WVW-viable classes. Certainly not “OP” as some are claiming anyway.

Barrage in particular deserves a change due to the relatively low amount of damage it does compared to how much retaliation damage is typically taken due to the numerous small hits. Pets could (should?) potentially provide the necessary support capability, but without something like baseline 50% AOE damage reduction, I just can’t see it ever happening, even a bear and maxxed pet traits gets melted in seconds in a zerg-v-zerg clash, and pet-swapping as a pet survival mechanic doesn’t really cut it.

They suck in sieges (especially if attacking). But they are awesome in anything else.
They are basically as good as a thief, with more damage, more range and more safety.
You are there just for one thing: single target damage.

Zord.6130:

They suck in sieges (especially if attacking). But they are awesome in anything else.
They are basically as good as a thief, with more damage, more range and more safety.
You are there just for one thing: single target damage.

More damage?
More safety?

If either were true they’d be welcome on GvGs and in WvW outside of a roaming role. They still aren’t. RF likely is a ‘tad’ too much and SotW is severely over budget for a signet. But that doesn’t magically make Rangers wanted unfortunately.

It’s still been less than a week though so we’ll see what happens as more people try and use Rangers in GvG’s and their organized guild groups for WvW. I’m not expected miracles though.

I think they’re in a pretty good spot at the moment, frankly. Further buffs, especially in AOE’s when piercing is an option, would warrant them overly-useful in medium sized groups. I could only see barrage buffed if RF would be nerfed since the burst would just be too crazy to handle if it were to be without any negatives.

And no Zord, thieves have substantially better DPS – around three times the DPS, actually, of LB when optimized for damage on both classes.

DeceiverX.8361:

I think they’re in a pretty good spot at the moment, frankly. Further buffs, especially in AOE’s when piercing is an option, would warrant them overly-useful in medium sized groups. I could only see barrage buffed if RF would be nerfed since the burst would just be too crazy to handle if it were to be without any negatives.

And no Zord, thieves have substantially better DPS – around three times the DPS, actually, of LB when optimized for damage on both classes.

I play with a 6 5 3 0 0 build on my Ranger, and my rapid fire deals way more damage than my thief’s backstab (6 0 2 0 6).
Both classes are full zerk.
Also, some guilds have already started running rangers in focus parties

Well you lack more than an 11% damage modifier by not using Critical Strikes.
Yes the baseline scaling is higher on the skill, but the thief has access to way better damage modifiers which ultimately ramp the skill damage way higher than any ranger’s RF. Not to mention Mug + CnD will net the thief way more damage scaling when combined with the stab.

This screen is on an 80 guardian (ultimately edited the build out but I have since revealed it to the public), the first target idk what, but neither CnD critted (they would have been 10k+ each by comparing the mug damage which cannot crit), either (it is post-ferocity nerf since RT is in the screenshot):