Guild Wars 2

Is it just me or does it make no sense that the Ranger class can not use rifles. This is a class designed to be the experts with ranged weapons, they should be all about Longbow and Rifles, yet they can’t use rifles at all while Warrior, a predominantly melee centered class can, it makes no sense. I for one really want to see Rangers be able to use rifles.

2H rifles are great, I know what you mean a ranger being an inherently missle based class it makes sense that it should be able to use all types of missle weapon. I can say from a warriors point of view the 2h rifle is awesome!

The ranger is not supposed to be a master with ranged weapons, he is supposed to be a master with bows. (Unless I am mistaken, that is in the ranger description).

This discussion came up during the beta as well.

In the end, the ranger is supposed to be ‘one’ with nature. Rifles aren’t really one with nature, rifles are loud and such. So, this would kinda go against the rangers ‘attitude’.

Yet, a ranger fits most closely to the idea of a sniper, and many of the rifle models have scopes. That’s hardly a warrior persona. A ranger is a highly skilled marksman/sharpshooter. Think of Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohican’s. He’s a sharpshooting musket wielding man that was raised by native americans. Rifles can fit well with the idea of being one with nature and still fit well with the idea of being a marksman.

On the other hand it makes sense to give gigantic 2 handed swords to tiny mesmer girls and asura, magic based class, rather then this?

As for rifles being loud, there are several rifle models with silencers on them.

Reaper.5314:

Yet, a ranger fits most closely to the idea of a sniper, and many of the rifle models have scopes. That’s hardly a warrior persona. A ranger is a highly skilled marksman/sharpshooter. Think of Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohican’s. He’s a sharpshooting musket wielding man that was raised by native americans. Rifles can fit well with the idea of being one with nature and still fit well with the idea of being a marksman.

Too may films and computer games i think. Thats the answer tho, role-playing games have the meta that rangers are always ranged with a bow etc and warriors close range. GW2 hs changed it for the better though.

Like someone said, rangers are one with nature…living and surviving alone in the wild and akin with many animals. Firearms are far too loud and unnatural for a ranger…plus it would scare the animals (lol), alerting all sorts of people to their location…Leaving all sorts of evidence like carbon and gunpowder around. Rifles and ammunition cannot be created off the land alone either.

Im only talkin all this “lore” if you wanna call it that because u pointed out that because rifles have scopes rangers need to be snipers. I think less pew pew on battlefield lol.

I thought they swung and missed on the rifle. They should have called it a shotgun. A rifle is a deadly weapon at range. Most of the skills for the GW2 rifle are close range (overcharged shot, net shot, etc…). If the GW2 rifle was a severely ranged weapon, I’d agree the Ranger should have it.

I would actually prefer to see Rangers get crossbows added instead of rifles. I just think it would work better for them. Charr rangers with crossbows would fit them perfectly too, not to mention being awesome for all the other races too. =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_

Not just the GW2 part…but everything about that wiki page is basically the reason that rangers wouldn’t/shouldn’t use firearms.

;)

Huntsmen crafts rifles. Huntsmen is a craft one would believe goes hand in hand with rangers no? So why can’t rangers use rifles?

Rangers are, in most fiction and gaming (I said ‘most’ not ‘all’), are more into nature than technology. They’re closer to magic even if you want to go that far – which further puts them away from technology.

They don’t hate technology, metalurgy, guns, etc. but it’s not their style. In GW2, we have gun-wielding range characters – Engineer.

It’s not weird, that’s how it should be.

Balancing has to come into account here also guys
keep that in mind before you argue from lore

jus’ saying

Rangers have a close affinity to nature.

Rifles are more technological advancements.

Its like oil and water.

Tarque Sinister.9032:

I thought they swung and missed on the rifle. They should have called it a shotgun. A rifle is a deadly weapon at range. Most of the skills for the GW2 rifle are close range (overcharged shot, net shot, etc…). If the GW2 rifle was a severely ranged weapon, I’d agree the Ranger should have it.

When I first started reading in this thread I thought: Of course rangers should have rifles! However, you sir, are completely right. The “rifles” in this game aren’t actually rifles (at least that’s the way I’ve come to understand what a rifle is, and this is more of a shotgun to me, as well) so it makes sense that the Warriors should have it and the Rangers shouldn’t.

I though that rifles are great for ranger, but on the other hand, ranger is the master of survival in the wilderness, a hunter, not a warrior, so I think that rifles would ruin his that. First thing when comes to my mind when I mention ranger is a person with a bow without any fancy weapons such as guns, it’s just you and your bow.

Yeah I can definitely say Rangers is much better fit for rifle and pistols than greatsword, but also a ranger is more about nature.

Reaper.5314:

Huntsmen crafts rifles. Huntsmen is a craft one would believe goes hand in hand with rangers no? So why can’t rangers use rifles?

Huntsman is simply a term used for someone that hunts creatures etc. They do it for a living IRL and would use any means necessary. They are however nothing like rangers from fantasy mmo’s etc. Rangers not only hunt, but track, hide their tracks, survive in the wild and off the wild for extended periods of time.

If you really think about it and the lore behind these rangers its quite obvious that they wouldn’t use the most unnatural, loudest, high maintenance, evidence leaving weapons. If somone has used a firearm both they and the area it was used in could easily be tracked so in terms of lore, they just wouldn’t use them.

Yeah I just figured anything that was a Range weapon would be usable by a Ranger…
Especially anything used for hunting.

Thiefs should get sniper rifles, not Rangers, we don’t even have that much to choose from for weapons…

Daecollo.9578:

Thiefs should get sniper rifles, not Rangers, we don’t even have that much to choose from for weapons…

Thieves (& guardians & engineers) should have crossbow – that’s a stealth weapon in RL and much more in keeping with the thief idea than a rifle.

Rangers use bows of course – if they want to add more weapons for rangers they can have different types of bow as in Guild Wars 1. Rangers using rifles is contradiction – a different profession altogether.

Ranger is very close to nature in this game.
Guns on the other hand are a symbol of industry and thus contradict with the Ranger’s theme.

It’s kind of like giving a focus to a warrior.

Have any of you saying guns can’t fit rangers due to being “technologial” thought about a few things in the GW Lore and World…

First: Asura – These little guys are all about technology, so an asuran ranger would scoff at the assertion that they wouldn’t use a more “advanced” weapon.

Second: Sylvari weapons – Go ahead take a look at them, Rifles and Pistols grown from plants. Seems in GW we do have some “natural” firearms after all.

Those two points asside… the assertion of “rangers wouldn’t use firearms because they give away location” this very logic sais that the Theif shouldn’t be allowed to use a Pistol, yet the class known for stealth combat gets to use pistols.

Also, were Ranger’s opposed to “technology” they wouldn’t be using the Harpoongun in underwater combat but rather instead be throwing harpoons by hand or use another weapon entirely.

These notions that Rangers can’t use firearms because they are technological, load, and not in tune with nature are absurd. Out of those 3 the only one that even has any basis to it is the last one, but even that one is dismiss-able by aspects already in the GW world and Lore

No. Rangers have been always ‘naturists’ that tend to avoid guns and such. It’s not that they can’t, it’s that they won’t.

Instead, they should get crossbows to snipe (like Half Life’scrossbows), and their underwater gun should also be replaced by either also crossbows or underwater crossbows (keeping the same skills, just replacing the weapon).

I can see ranger as more of hunter with his hunting riffle and dog (which would be awesome).
But if ranger is more of Nature guardian spiritual shaman then we need freaking staff for him (as in my suggestion to fight in melee range with nature based spells on 2-5 skills if sb interested here it is https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Shaman-Druid-suggestions/first#post125676 )

Freshwater Kangaroo.8962:

I thought: Of course rangers should have rifles! However, you sir, are completely right. The “rifles” in this game aren’t actually rifles (at least that’s the way I’ve come to understand what a rifle is, and this is more of a shotgun to me, as well) so it makes sense that the Warriors should have it and the Rangers shouldn’t.

Well if you give rifle to ranger it would need different skill set then warrior or engi. then i do not see problem with making them long range skills.
Sorry for double post.

There’s one problem with the notion that rangers shouldn’t get rifles, because in every other game setting they’re supposedly about bows, not rifles: The vast majority of these are traditional fantasy settings in which handheld firearms do not exist, or are crude and uncommon… while in GW2, they are a perfectly equal and common weapons, so we’re working with different premises.

(Edit) Addendum: Warriors have 4 of 5 rifle skills with a range of 1200, which is the standard maximum distance that rangers share as well. So it seems long range rifles are already in.
Though to be fair, Rangers already have two 2-handed ranged weapons, with the shortbow already covering the mostly-single-target-condition-inflicting aspect. Adding a rifle would make the class stand out in the field of large ranged weapons, but given they’re a _Range_r, this might be fair. In such a case, though, the rifle could maybe work as weapon with spread to make up for the Ranger’s lack of ranged AE skills.

This definitely would be a nice option for us rangers.