Guild Wars 2

Vote your best (1) to worst (8) downed skill profession.
Include reasons beside your vote if you must
(Just for fun, to see your opinion on it)
(Don’t have to include all profession if you don’t play it, you can just state down the profession you play)

Here’s mine;
1 – Elementalist (Dust, run away…..)
2 – Guardian (I love how the AOE healing effect heals not only you but everyone)
3 – Warrior (Vengence is only useful if you select the trait where you get to continue living after you kill some enemy)
4 – Ranger (Pet heal can save you from plenty of deaths)
5 – Thief (Smoke screen, controlled teleport to location)
6 – Necromancer (Used to start with 75% HP but for some reason after the patch, you downed with 50% HP instead -_-)
7 – Mesmer (Can’t control where you’ll end up in when you create the illusion and have your real body end up in a magma most of the time -_-. Out of the frying pan and into the fire)
8 – Engineer (Sure! The 1st thing I wanna do when I’m downed is to pull an enemy CLOSER to me -_-)

==========================
Result will be posted here;
The least the better, the more the worst.
From the numbers, you can see the pattern of which is the best and which is the worst.
Do take into account as well that some classes has less votes due to players not playing 8 classes.

[Out of 3 people so far]
[Vote calculated until ‘Rauderi.8706’]

Guardian
2 2 4 4 3 3

Elementalist
1 4 1 2 2 1

Warrior
3 7 3 6 6

Mesmer
7 6 3 7 5

Ranger
4 1 4 1 2

Thief
5 3 2 1 4 4

Necromancer
6 5 5 5 7

Engineer
8 8 8 8

==========================

Ranger
Guardian
Thief
Elementalist
Necromancer
Mesmer
Warrior (vengeance, especially at lower levels)
Engineer (agree totally)

Edit: To swap thief and guardian. Also to note that I play PvE content pretty much exclusively, so that’s where my ranking is coming from.

1-Ele
2-Thief
3-Warrior
4-Guardian

i only played with 4 professions, mostly for pve., warrior and guardian can’t move when they are downed, thats why they are at bottom of my list.

Vengeance is actually pretty awesome imo.

The only bad one is the ranger’s. Because it can’t be stopped. It should be stopped by killing or pushing the pet away, but that often won’t stop it. Most of the time, the pet just keeps reviving, and underwater, it always does.

Engineer 2 can be used to interrupt a finisher, and to pull an enemy close enough for the explosion to push them away. It’s not that bad.

All of them have their uses. But the ranger one works too well, despite what the enemy can do.

MithranArkanere.8957:

The only bad one is the ranger’s. Because it can’t be stopped. It should be stopped by killing or pushing the pet away, but that often won’t stop it. Most of the time, the pet just keeps reviving, and underwater, it always does.

Engineer 2 can be used to interrupt a finisher, and to pull an enemy close enough for the explosion to push them away. It’s not that bad.

All of them have their uses. But the ranger one works too well, despite what the enemy can do.

Agreed. I quite like the engineer’s downed skills. The challenge, though, is to stay alive until the explosion skill charges, since you can’t use it right away. That said, I think there are worse professions for being downed.

Stalvros.9217:

6 – Necromancer (Used to start with 75% HP but for some reason after the patch, you downed with 50% HP instead >_<)

in fact, necro had 66% less downed HP than every other class until anet fixed it.

8 – Engineer (Sure! The 1st thing I wanna do when I’m downed is to pull an enemy CLOSER to me -_-)

you want to rupt a stomp with it. in that case the enemy is next to you already, so i dont see what your problem with this skill is.

1.thief: it’s incredible how often i was downed but somehow managed to avoid stomps long enough to rally in WvW. both #2 and #3 are amazing.
2.ele: cause of that mist form
3.mesmer: it sucks to blink and get stomped anyway, but other than that it’s pretty good too.
4.guard/ranger: both have an AoE-rupt and a pretty good #3
5.necro: you cant do kitten against stealth/stability. fear isnt AoE, needs a target and it takes ages to cast.. damage on #3 is pretty good tho.

i dont play engi that much and im not sure how to rate warriors vengeance, so i wont comment them.

Everyone voting for ele mist form must not PvP. It’s probably the most useless of all the downed skills, maybe next to guardian knockback.

Warrior’s vengeance I think is most useful in PvP.

The problem with the engi down skills is that yes, interrupting a stomp works, but the bomb takes 6 seconds to charge which is never ever enough time. 39 out of 40 times you get stomped long before that skill becomes available, even after interrupting once, so I nominate Engi #3 as the uselessest of down skills.

Mesmer is the worst. You can’t push anything away, you can’t hide for very long, about 75% of the time you move closer to the danger you’re trying to escape making it even harder for people to help you.

captainteemo.6537:

Mesmer is the worst. You can’t push anything away, you can’t hide for very long, about 75% of the time you move closer to the danger you’re trying to escape making it even harder for people to help you.

Agree Mesmer 2 is horrible and I never even use it anymore. Most of the time I end up in a worse place than if I didn’t use it at all. Then you have the Mesmers in group events/party that don’t know better and spam it when you are rezzing them from down state. It drives me nuts.

The engineer’s one is the worst mainly for two issues. One is due of a simple timing problem.
If you’re downed, usually the enemy is already near you. Thus you’ll have to use the #2 skill immediatly to stop a stomp. By pulling the enemy to you, he’s certain to stomp you before the 3rd skill can charge.
Other downed skills usually either drive the enemy away (fear) or to stop him for a short time by other means, thus giving time to charge the third skill.
The other problem is in being a targeted pull, thus either stealth or stability is enough to deny it. Whereas other skills (like ele’s mist form), by working on the user, bypass said restrictions.

If Engineer’s #3 wasn’t on such a long timer, the pull would make sense. Interrupt a stomp or pull a target to you, then ‘splode em. That’d be alright. Also, #1 needs better conditions or no conditions and more damage.

Ranger
Elementalist
Guardian
Thief
Necromancer
Warrior
Mesmer
Engineer

1 Elementalist (Mist form, yes!)
2 Ranger (Pet resurrect)
3 Guardian (Extra heal)
4 Thief (Targeted teleport in big battles is very handy, solo, not so much)
5 Mesmer (kinda 50/50, but the teleport OUT of a bad situation can help, too bad enemies will still aggro ME instead of my clone)
6 Warrior (15 seconds to MAYBE kill a mob with a 50% chance to revive isn’t that great, and during a boss, you might as well just die to the mob of things that brought you down the first time)
7 Necromancer
8 Engineer (Just, bah)

Mesmer’s downed state deals a LOT of damage.

Personally, when playing solo, I find guardian’s downed state very underwhelming. It takes too long to kill anythnig.

Anytime I go down with my thief, if an enemy is over 50% health, I’m lucky if I can put out enough damage to kill it before I end up dying. And if there’s more than 1 enemy I get ready to pick a WP, because I’m not getting up.

This is speaking from a PvE perspective. I haven’t done any PvP in so long. I would imagine my teleport and stealth abilities while down ROCK in PvP.

I really think that you need to specify which game mode you are rating for the profession.

wvw:
I find that the best downed skills are the ones that you can use quickly and allow you to move, or bide time to either get your third skill off, get a rally, or get a rez. The Thief, Elementalist, and Mesmer tend to be really slippery, the Thief and Elementalist especially for their ability to get inside a tower even when downed. The last 5 are all kind of equal in my mind, with the ranger being a little better because they have access to their pets while downed.

1. Thief
2. Elementalist
3. Mesmer
4. Ranger
5. Necromancer
6. Warrior
7. Engineer
8. Guardian

pve:
I find that the best downed states are the ones where you can take the foe that you nearly killed and can kill them inorder to rally yourself. You tend to live long enough to use your third skill as well. Ranger wins by a mile, due to its ability to rez itsself and the fact that they still have access to their pets while downed. I can try to organize what i think are the weaker downed states in pve, but they are all not that great when compared to the ranger.

1. Ranger

2. Necromancer
3. Elementalist
4. Mesmer
5. Warrior
6. Thief
7. Engineer
8. Guardian

The problem with engineer’s interrupt is that the grappling line has the shortest CC duration along with pulling the enemy on top of you as opposed to the guardian’s push.

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

But then if you compare to warriors, yes you have very similar downed skills, except your #3 lets you stand back up and continue fighting, AND once an enemy is killed you have I believe a 50% chance (untraited) to rally. So you’re extending the frame of time that you can be rallied by an enemy death dramatically, you’re not vulnerable to executions, you do full damage because you’re not using crappy downed skills to fight, and you’re certainly not relying on a defenseless pet to heal you. I mean where is the balance there?

Ranger’s #2 downed skill should give stealth or something, and I’d be content. If you could have a few seconds of immunity to execution and most attack skills, it would be a lot more viable to wait for your #3 skill to revive you in combat situations. It would be more comparable to the effectiveness of most other classes’ downed skills.

Deleven.7508:

…with the ranger being a little better because they have access to their pets while downed.

lol, but what you’re referring to as an upside is actually a downside. The damage of ranger skills is balanced with pet damage in mind already, so a ranger is not more effective when their pet is up, it’s just less effective when their pet is down. So while you’re downed if your pet dies, you just do less damage than everyone else does. That’s not an upside.

Ranger is less than OP above ground, since they only have the 2 skill to stop a finisher (though quickly swapping to wolf and hitting F2 is a good way for another one). But underwater…. as a downed ranger being healed by the pet, I’ve survived against the combined DPS of 3 enemies for minutes.

Ele, underwater, has absolutely nothing, incidentally.

Mist form is mostly useful in WvW if you can get back behind your zerg or somewhere else that’s less exposed. It’s less useful in small groups.

1 Ranger
2 Necromancer
3 Elementalist
4 Guardian
5 Mesmer
5 Thief
5 Warrior
8 Engineer

Thief, Warrior and Mesmer are tied for me — pretty lackluster. Engineer is dreadful. The positive is that Engineer downed state being so bad is a better incentive to not die than most death penalties.

Draknar.5748:

Everyone voting for ele mist form must not PvP. It’s probably the most useless of all the downed skills, maybe next to guardian knockback.

Warrior’s vengeance I think is most useful in PvP.

Your stability/blind/invulnerability is worthless against my mist form!

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

Ranger is my main and we have probably the most OP of all downed states(assuming your enemy has no stability). You get downed #2 daze > swap to wolf > wolf uses kd on enemy while you’re healing > after kd f2 for aoe fear > #3 for pet heals(by this time your #2 daze is back up for another stun) > get rezzed by your pet and go down again because you play ranger(pve specific)

I hope the ranger one gets fixed…infinite pet healing is broken in spvp

1-Engineer, sure you may be pulling them towards you BUT you’re cancelling their attack buying yourself some time to get a teammate to recover you.
2-Mesmer, you DO control where you end up, select the enemy you want to arrive “away” from, you’ll teleport in the opposite direction of the enemy you select (thus you need to have an enemy selected for this.)
3- Warrior Self explanatory, the 3 is amazing, and for PvE, very easy to recover from.
Can’t comment on rest.

That Engi pull is an interrupt so it’s great for stopping a stomp. On the other hand the skill that pushes back people is what I find annoying because it always starts off in cooldown and 9 times out of 10 the cooldown is not ready before you are stomped – totally pointless!

Ordered from best to worst.

Best tier (100% stomp avoidance-ish):

Thief – Shadow Escape allows movement to safe(er) areas, capture points, and stomp avoidance. Stealth Bomb provides stomp avoidance, but it will probably not come off cooldown if you are glassy. Prevents point capture contribution, but can be useful if a nearby enemy is about to die.

Ele – Vapor Form allows 100% stomp avoidance, but prevents point capture contribution. It can, however, be used to move onto a capture point or away to safety.

Mesmer: Deception allows great stomp avoidance, but prevents capture contribution and can move you into harm’s way. Phantasmal Rogue deals great damage.

Mid tier (AoE interrupt, can be aegis/blind/stability/invulnerability stomped):

Ranger: Thunderclap applies AoE daze. Lick Wounds can res, depending on pressure, if opponents are unable to stomp. Overpowered underwater.

Guardian: Wave of Light pushes enemies away from you. Symbol of Judgement provides decent damage, and can res if your enemies for whatever reason decide to leave you alone (who am I kidding, this will never happen).

Worst tier (single target interrupt, can be aegis/blind/stability/invuln stomped):

Engineer: Grapple line interrupts and pulls the target to you. This can be used to prevent a stomp on an ally, but puts you at risk of being stomped yourself. It can also be used to pull an enemy off a capture point. Booby Trap is an AoE knockback, but will not be off cooldown unless your enemies do not immediately attempt to stomp you, or wait/recover slowly from grapple line.

Warrior: Hammer Toss knocks down for 2s, with a 1s cast time. Interruptable. If enemies do not persist in attempting to stomp, vengeance can be used to finish off a foe and possibly rally. However, this prevents capture point contribution.

Necromancer: Fear fears an enemy away from you, dealing damage if traited, but has a long cast time and is interruptable. Enemies who do not watch their positioning may end up feared off a ledge. Can be used to move enemies off of capture points, or prevent stomps of allies as well. Fetid Ground provides AoE damage and poison.

Edit: Formatting

1. Elementalist
2. Ranger
3. Guardian
4. Thief
5. Necromancer
6. Warrior
7. Mesmer
8. Engineer

Draknar.5748:

Everyone voting for ele mist form must not PvP. It’s probably the most useless of all the downed skills, maybe next to guardian knockback.

Its AWESOME in WvW thou, whenever you have big fights near a tower/keep/stonemist, even if outnumbered badly, a ele can go out, fight, get some kills, oh I have been downed, misform through friendly gate, rez up. Repeat. Never dieing, as long as I have a friendly gate to mistform through.

I’ve not played all professions yet, and some where just too long ago to remember the downed skills, but I do know that I like the ranger one and loathe the thief. With the thief, once I’m downed, I don’t even bother anymore. Teleporting out, doesn’t break agro, nor does the invisibility skill. Guardian is ok, you can heal yourself while attacking. Warrior depends on the traits if it’s ok or awesome. Necro I’d rank between guardian and warrior.

So
1 Ranger
2 Guardian
3 Necromancer
4 Warrior
5
6
7
10000 Thief

Oh, I never play WvW unless I’m mapping, and I try to stay out of combat then.

SemiProBBQ.8946:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

Ranger is my main and we have probably the most OP of all downed states(assuming your enemy has no stability). You get downed #2 daze > swap to wolf > wolf uses kd on enemy while you’re healing > after kd f2 for aoe fear > #3 for pet heals(by this time your #2 daze is back up for another stun) > get rezzed by your pet and go down again because you play ranger(pve specific)

As someone who has a level 80 of every class in the game I just don’t understand how anyone can think ranger’s downed state is anywhere close to “OP.” Arguing that rangers can have downed abilities that are half as good as everyone else’s if you count pets’ F2 skills is clearly silly, every other class can defend themselves without having to compromise their builds. In PvP and WvW, more than half the time, you’re being executed by either some heavy who has Stability up constantly, or a thief who is stealthed, or you’re in a blind AoE, so your #2 skill is almost completely redundant. Other classes get AoE fields that push back enemies or some kind of evasive ability; ranger gets a medium-range stun that can only hit one targeted enemy and can be countered by half the skills in the game.

Charak.9761:

I hope the ranger one gets fixed…infinite pet healing is broken in spvp

Try playing one. The pet can simply be killed while it’s healing, and then there’s a large cooldown before they can call on it again — much longer than you will ever need to finish executing said ranger considering they have no method of defending themselves whatsoever in the meantime.

SemiProBBQ.8946:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

Ranger is my main and we have probably the most OP of all downed states(assuming your enemy has no stability). You get downed #2 daze > swap to wolf > wolf uses kd on enemy while you’re healing > after kd f2 for aoe fear > #3 for pet heals(by this time your #2 daze is back up for another stun) > get rezzed by your pet and go down again because you play ranger(pve specific)

pretty much this. When you learn you can still control your pets while downed through button commands, it becomes amazing. Especially in PVP. Minus the "
getting downed" again part, you’re doing it wrong if you keep getting downed that much on Ranger.

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

But then if you compare to warriors, yes you have very similar downed skills, except your #3 lets you stand back up and continue fighting, AND once an enemy is killed you have I believe a 50% chance (untraited) to rally. So you’re extending the frame of time that you can be rallied by an enemy death dramatically, you’re not vulnerable to executions, you do full damage because you’re not using crappy downed skills to fight, and you’re certainly not relying on a defenseless pet to heal you. I mean where is the balance there?

Ranger’s #2 downed skill should give stealth or something, and I’d be content. If you could have a few seconds of immunity to execution and most attack skills, it would be a lot more viable to wait for your #3 skill to revive you in combat situations. It would be more comparable to the effectiveness of most other classes’ downed skills.

Deleven.7508:

…with the ranger being a little better because they have access to their pets while downed.

lol, but what you’re referring to as an upside is actually a downside. The damage of ranger skills is balanced with pet damage in mind already, so a ranger is not more effective when their pet is up, it’s just less effective when their pet is down. So while you’re downed if your pet dies, you just do less damage than everyone else does. That’s not an upside.

I can confirm the opposite experience-Rangers indeed have the best downed mode for PvE. Bleeds, interrupts, and a very good chance at survival with your pet reviving you. VERY GOOD chance at coming back unless ridiculously mobbed, including boss battles. You can switch your pet while downed, so just switch to your tankier pet so that it can revive you without dying. Having played all other Professions, this downed mode is superior to both Elementalist Thief, or Mesmer for PvE, simply because barring special circumstances, often the enemies will still chase you-the pet will revive you easily even under heavy fire at times.

Star Ace.5207:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

But then if you compare to warriors, yes you have very similar downed skills, except your #3 lets you stand back up and continue fighting, AND once an enemy is killed you have I believe a 50% chance (untraited) to rally. So you’re extending the frame of time that you can be rallied by an enemy death dramatically, you’re not vulnerable to executions, you do full damage because you’re not using crappy downed skills to fight, and you’re certainly not relying on a defenseless pet to heal you. I mean where is the balance there?

Ranger’s #2 downed skill should give stealth or something, and I’d be content. If you could have a few seconds of immunity to execution and most attack skills, it would be a lot more viable to wait for your #3 skill to revive you in combat situations. It would be more comparable to the effectiveness of most other classes’ downed skills.

Deleven.7508:

…with the ranger being a little better because they have access to their pets while downed.

lol, but what you’re referring to as an upside is actually a downside. The damage of ranger skills is balanced with pet damage in mind already, so a ranger is not more effective when their pet is up, it’s just less effective when their pet is down. So while you’re downed if your pet dies, you just do less damage than everyone else does. That’s not an upside.

I can confirm the opposite experience-Rangers indeed have the best downed mode for PvE. Bleeds, interrupts, and a very good chance at survival with your pet reviving you. VERY GOOD chance at coming back unless ridiculously mobbed, including boss battles. You can switch your pet while downed, so just switch to your tankier pet so that it can revive you without dying. Having played all other Professions, this downed mode is superior to both Elementalist Thief, or Mesmer for PvE, simply because barring special circumstances, often the enemies will still chase you-the pet will revive you easily even under heavy fire at times.

Well okay, in PvE being downed as a ranger is pretty choice, if we were talking about just PvE I would definitely agree. Top five. But where it actually matters, in PvP and WvW, it is abysmal. Anywhere you rely on being able to defend from enemy execution and sustaining yourself until an ally kills off an enemy you’ve tagged it could really not be worse. In PvE, enemies do not execute you and they are not smart enough to target your pet or put you in a blind AoE field, and that’s the only reason it works.

Ranger has completely OP UNDERWATER drowning skills, if I’m on my ranger and there is water nearby and about to die, I run inside of it. Can survive for a very long time in both PVE and PVP.

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Star Ace.5207:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

My vote goes to ranger. It’s my main and it’s just abysmal when you’re downed. It’s got to be the only class besides warrior that has absolutely no way to defend from the downed state. The #2 skill is like a one-second stun that hits one enemy, and that’s it. Beyond that your only hope is to wait the — what is it, five seconds? — for your #3 pet heal skill to charge. And once it does, so what? You’re still downed and you can still be executed, and your pet can also die while it’s healing you. Utterly useless in all but the lowest-level PvE.

But then if you compare to warriors, yes you have very similar downed skills, except your #3 lets you stand back up and continue fighting, AND once an enemy is killed you have I believe a 50% chance (untraited) to rally. So you’re extending the frame of time that you can be rallied by an enemy death dramatically, you’re not vulnerable to executions, you do full damage because you’re not using crappy downed skills to fight, and you’re certainly not relying on a defenseless pet to heal you. I mean where is the balance there?

Ranger’s #2 downed skill should give stealth or something, and I’d be content. If you could have a few seconds of immunity to execution and most attack skills, it would be a lot more viable to wait for your #3 skill to revive you in combat situations. It would be more comparable to the effectiveness of most other classes’ downed skills.

Deleven.7508:

…with the ranger being a little better because they have access to their pets while downed.

lol, but what you’re referring to as an upside is actually a downside. The damage of ranger skills is balanced with pet damage in mind already, so a ranger is not more effective when their pet is up, it’s just less effective when their pet is down. So while you’re downed if your pet dies, you just do less damage than everyone else does. That’s not an upside.

I can confirm the opposite experience-Rangers indeed have the best downed mode for PvE. Bleeds, interrupts, and a very good chance at survival with your pet reviving you. VERY GOOD chance at coming back unless ridiculously mobbed, including boss battles. You can switch your pet while downed, so just switch to your tankier pet so that it can revive you without dying. Having played all other Professions, this downed mode is superior to both Elementalist Thief, or Mesmer for PvE, simply because barring special circumstances, often the enemies will still chase you-the pet will revive you easily even under heavy fire at times.

Well okay, in PvE being downed as a ranger is pretty choice, if we were talking about just PvE I would definitely agree. Top five. But where it actually matters, in PvP and WvW, it is abysmal. Anywhere you rely on being able to defend from enemy execution and sustaining yourself until an ally kills off an enemy you’ve tagged it could really not be worse. In PvE, enemies do not execute you and they are not smart enough to target your pet or put you in a blind AoE field, and that’s the only reason it works.

Are you kidding me? having complete control of pets, including switching to live pets makes it incredible in all modes. Many times in 1v1s if the other player is at 10-15% health, i can finish them off with my pet. Then it becomes a downed fight, which I have never lost on my ranger. And don’t forget the CC you can switch to, like the wolf fear.

I have 6 classes but I only play three of my toons: ele, guard and engi.

my ranking is:

1. Ele
2. guard
3. Engi

Yet my engi’s 1 is amazing! It can kill so fast as its instant recharge and spammable. The more you press 1 the faster she throws junk and can down an enemy for a rally fast couple that with the pull, and you can pull the lowest health foe to you for closer and faster hits.

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Are you kidding me? having complete control of pets, including switching to live pets makes it incredible in all modes. Many times in 1v1s if the other player is at 10-15% health, i can finish them off with my pet. Then it becomes a downed fight, which I have never lost on my ranger. And don’t forget the CC you can switch to, like the wolf fear.

Right but examine what you’re saying here. You’re saying that rangers have to use their pet skills and even choose their pets, which are fundamentally vital to playing a ranger, just to have downed abilities that come close to everyone else’s. That illustrates just how weak it truly is. I should not have to sacrifice one or both of my two pet slots (which rangers need to make full use of to be effective in combat) to not be completely defenseless while downed. If anything, take away pet control while downed and give me a balanced set of downed skills that are on par with every other class.

And naming very specific circumstances in which the ranger’s downed skills work effectively is also not very substantial. Yeah, in a circumstance when you’re fighting one-on-one against an enemy who has exhausted all of their skills and is a few hits from downing themselves, ranger excels, woopee. Meanwhile every other class can defend themselves from multiple enemies, and evade execution in some way, without sacrificing a major part of their combat effectiveness and regardless of enemy HP.

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Are you kidding me? having complete control of pets, including switching to live pets makes it incredible in all modes. Many times in 1v1s if the other player is at 10-15% health, i can finish them off with my pet. Then it becomes a downed fight, which I have never lost on my ranger. And don’t forget the CC you can switch to, like the wolf fear.

Right but examine what you’re saying here. You’re saying that rangers have to use their pet skills and even choose their pets, which are fundamentally vital to playing a ranger, just to have downed abilities that come close to everyone else’s. That illustrates just how weak it truly is. I should not have to sacrifice one or both of my two pet slots (which rangers need to make full use of to be effective in combat) to not be completely defenseless while downed. If anything, take away pet control while downed and give me a balanced set of downed skills that are on par with every other class.

And naming very specific circumstances in which the ranger’s downed skills work effectively is also not very substantial. Yeah, in a circumstance when you’re fighting one-on-one against an enemy who has exhausted all of their skills and is a few hits from downing themselves, ranger excels, woopee. Meanwhile every other class can defend themselves from multiple enemies, and evade execution in some way, without sacrificing a major part of their combat effectiveness and regardless of enemy HP.

You’re not sacrificing anything. Wolf/canine pets are meta in PVP scenarios. And tell me how being able to fear/attack/stun an attacker is somehow worse than say, a warriors setup, who has a single stun and then must wait for vengeance, which by the time it’s ready, he will already be stomped.

You’re just another person who doesn’t want to admit that Rangers are all about the pets, it seems. Mesmers use clones while their downed. Why is it so wrong to use pets while downed? because of the pets, rangers have the highest DPS while downed if traited for beastmastery (which I usually am in PVP modes.) Even if you’re not using a wolf, a lynx F2 while downed deals the same amount of damage, which can be substantial.

Rangers might not be the BEST in PVP modes, but they’re far from the worst.

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Are you kidding me? having complete control of pets, including switching to live pets makes it incredible in all modes. Many times in 1v1s if the other player is at 10-15% health, i can finish them off with my pet. Then it becomes a downed fight, which I have never lost on my ranger. And don’t forget the CC you can switch to, like the wolf fear.

Right but examine what you’re saying here. You’re saying that rangers have to use their pet skills and even choose their pets, which are fundamentally vital to playing a ranger, just to have downed abilities that come close to everyone else’s. That illustrates just how weak it truly is. I should not have to sacrifice one or both of my two pet slots (which rangers need to make full use of to be effective in combat) to not be completely defenseless while downed. If anything, take away pet control while downed and give me a balanced set of downed skills that are on par with every other class.

And naming very specific circumstances in which the ranger’s downed skills work effectively is also not very substantial. Yeah, in a circumstance when you’re fighting one-on-one against an enemy who has exhausted all of their skills and is a few hits from downing themselves, ranger excels, woopee. Meanwhile every other class can defend themselves from multiple enemies, and evade execution in some way, without sacrificing a major part of their combat effectiveness and regardless of enemy HP.

“Have to”? Be glad that you can use your class mechanic at all. I main an engi and if I could use my F1-F4 in down state, I’d be over the moon, lol.

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

You’re not sacrificing anything. Wolf/canine pets are meta in PVP scenarios.

lol, meta. Yet another poor excuse. I do not play by “meta” and I should not be expected to in order to have a downed state as effective as everyone else’s — no other class has to play by meta just for basic survival.

And tell me how being able to fear/attack/stun an attacker is somehow worse than say, a warriors setup, who has a single stun and then must wait for vengeance, which by the time it’s ready, he will already be stomped.

Because when a warrior’s Vengeance charges they are instantly immune to execution? When a Ranger’s #3 charges they are slowly healed by a pet who can be killed and have no option to defend from execution. They are not even in the same league.

You’re just another person who doesn’t want to admit that Rangers are all about the pets, it seems. Mesmers use clones while their downed. Why is it so wrong to use pets while downed?

Right, but mesmers can stealth (which makes them invulnerable to execution for a few seconds) and teleport (which can move them to safety), and they get clones on top of that. Compare that with what you’re saying, basically that rangers need to use their pets just to get basic defensive abilities. Mesmers don’t need to use clones to achieve that.

because of the pets, rangers have the highest DPS while downed if traited for beastmastery (which I usually am in PVP modes.) Even if you’re not using a wolf, a lynx F2 while downed deals the same amount of damage, which can be substantial.

lol there is no way a ranger deals the highest DPS while downed. Some downed skills do a terrific amount of damage, including AoE damage, but ranger doesn’t have any of them. And even if pets did good damage while downed (if you want to compare with beast mastery traits you would also have to consider other classes’ trait lines that improve downed skills) pets are easily killed, negating their damage completely. Rangers’ #1 and #2 skills are among the worst downed skills in the game in regards to damage. I can experiment with the exact numbers when I get back on the game but after playing a level 80 of every class I can say that with certainty.

Rangers might not be the BEST in PVP modes, but they’re far from the worst.

They are the only ones with absolutely no way to defend themselves from executions and that makes them the worst from a pretty objective standpoint.

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

You’re not sacrificing anything. Wolf/canine pets are meta in PVP scenarios.

lol, meta. Yet another poor excuse. I do not play by “meta” and I should not be expected to in order to have a downed state as effective as everyone else’s — no other class has to play by meta just for basic survival.

And tell me how being able to fear/attack/stun an attacker is somehow worse than say, a warriors setup, who has a single stun and then must wait for vengeance, which by the time it’s ready, he will already be stomped.

Because when a warrior’s Vengeance charges they are instantly immune to execution? When a Ranger’s #3 charges they are slowly healed by a pet who can be killed and have no option to defend from execution. They are not even in the same league.

You’re just another person who doesn’t want to admit that Rangers are all about the pets, it seems. Mesmers use clones while their downed. Why is it so wrong to use pets while downed?

Right, but mesmers can stealth (which makes them invulnerable to execution for a few seconds) and teleport (which can move them to safety), and they get clones on top of that. Compare that with what you’re saying, basically that rangers need to use their pets just to get basic defensive abilities. Mesmers don’t need to use clones to achieve that.

because of the pets, rangers have the highest DPS while downed if traited for beastmastery (which I usually am in PVP modes.) Even if you’re not using a wolf, a lynx F2 while downed deals the same amount of damage, which can be substantial.

lol there is no way a ranger deals the highest DPS while downed. Some downed skills do a terrific amount of damage, including AoE damage, but ranger doesn’t have any of them. And even if pets did good damage while downed (if you want to compare with beast mastery traits you would also have to consider other classes’ trait lines that improve downed skills) pets are easily killed, negating their damage completely. Rangers’ #1 and #2 skills are among the worst downed skills in the game in regards to damage. I can experiment with the exact numbers when I get back on the game but after playing a level 80 of every class I can say that with certainty.

Rangers might not be the BEST in PVP modes, but they’re far from the worst.

They are the only ones with absolutely no way to defend themselves from executions and that makes them the worst from a pretty objective standpoint.

Why are you being so rude? really? You just want to hate Rangers, I’ve seen it before. I wasn’t even counting the output of the downed skills, mainly the output of the pet when it comes to DPS vs other downed skills. Have you seen how much damage a traited cat does, for example?

Also, pets are not “easily” killed in SPVP, if you have a brain in your head and switch them when they’re low on health.

Also, what’s wrong with thunderclap? It’s the same essentially as the warrior stun, but AOE. #1 does decent damage relatively close to most #1 downed skills like engy, except it is guarenteed to bleed.

You also missed the point of my vengeance comment. I was saying rangers can do more VS warriors up until the point where vengeance is ready, which is basically a moot point in PVP same as lick wounds because you’re likely dead by that point, barring some miracle (again, this is the same for most classes.)

Like I get the Ranger hate, I deal with it every day, but why do you WANT to hate my favorite class? Just, why exactly?

I mean I gave you tons of examples on how they can defend themselves from execution, and you go ahead and say “they have absolutely no way”, which is totally untrue, but apparently “pets dont count”, am I right? Is wolf fear somehow different from necro fear? AOE stun is apparently worse than a single target knock down? Like really, what?

And I say this as someone who loves to SPVP. Maybe you’re just talking about WVW. I don’t know. But my downed skills serve me well in SPVP, and the benefit of having a large chunk of my damage still under control while downed has won me MANY 1v1s. I have proof that it works. There is no way another classes downed skills do more damage than my downed skills +roughly 30-35% of my base damage. It’s silly to even argue this.

And go ahead and tell my pet is an “easy kill” when the majority of pets have more vitality than players (a drake for example has 40,800 health) and I can just switch it every 15 seconds. And like many non-rangers are not aware, I can switch/call target/F2/retreat my pet all while downed too. The buttons go away, but the F buttons or whatever you want to bind them to still respond while downed.

I’ve been every profession in the game and I honestly find, by a long shot, Lick Wounds to be the best downed skill.
The pet will keep ressing you no matter what until either the pet’s dead or you are. Not only that even after the pet’s dead if you live long enough for the cooldown on Lick Wounds to wear off you can use it again and the pet will just come back to life to res you again.

So imho:

Ranger
Elementalist
Guardian
Thief
Warrior
Necromancer
Mesmer
Engineer

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

You’re not sacrificing anything. Wolf/canine pets are meta in PVP scenarios.

lol, meta. Yet another poor excuse. I do not play by “meta” and I should not be expected to in order to have a downed state as effective as everyone else’s — no other class has to play by meta just for basic survival.

And tell me how being able to fear/attack/stun an attacker is somehow worse than say, a warriors setup, who has a single stun and then must wait for vengeance, which by the time it’s ready, he will already be stomped.

Because when a warrior’s Vengeance charges they are instantly immune to execution? When a Ranger’s #3 charges they are slowly healed by a pet who can be killed and have no option to defend from execution. They are not even in the same league.

You’re just another person who doesn’t want to admit that Rangers are all about the pets, it seems. Mesmers use clones while their downed. Why is it so wrong to use pets while downed?

Right, but mesmers can stealth (which makes them invulnerable to execution for a few seconds) and teleport (which can move them to safety), and they get clones on top of that. Compare that with what you’re saying, basically that rangers need to use their pets just to get basic defensive abilities. Mesmers don’t need to use clones to achieve that.

because of the pets, rangers have the highest DPS while downed if traited for beastmastery (which I usually am in PVP modes.) Even if you’re not using a wolf, a lynx F2 while downed deals the same amount of damage, which can be substantial.

lol there is no way a ranger deals the highest DPS while downed. Some downed skills do a terrific amount of damage, including AoE damage, but ranger doesn’t have any of them. And even if pets did good damage while downed (if you want to compare with beast mastery traits you would also have to consider other classes’ trait lines that improve downed skills) pets are easily killed, negating their damage completely. Rangers’ #1 and #2 skills are among the worst downed skills in the game in regards to damage. I can experiment with the exact numbers when I get back on the game but after playing a level 80 of every class I can say that with certainty.

Rangers might not be the BEST in PVP modes, but they’re far from the worst.

They are the only ones with absolutely no way to defend themselves from executions and that makes them the worst from a pretty objective standpoint.

Why are you being so rude? really? You just want to hate Rangers, I’ve seen it before. I wasn’t even counting the output of the downed skills, mainly the output of the pet when it comes to DPS vs other downed skills. Have you seen how much damage a traited cat does, for example?

Also, pets are not “easily” killed in SPVP, if you have a brain in your head and switch them when they’re low on health.

Also, what’s wrong with thunderclap? It’s the same essentially as the warrior stun, but AOE. #1 does decent damage relatively close to most #1 downed skills like engy, except it is guarenteed to bleed.

You also missed the point of my vengeance comment. I was saying rangers can do more VS warriors up until the point where vengeance is ready, which is basically a moot point in PVP same as lick wounds because you’re likely dead by that point, barring some miracle (again, this is the same for most classes.)

Like I get the Ranger hate, I deal with it every day, but why do you WANT to hate my favorite class? Just, why exactly?

I mean I gave you tons of examples on how they can defend themselves from execution, and you go ahead and say “they have absolutely no way”, which is totally untrue, but apparently “pets dont count”, am I right? Is wolf fear somehow different from necro fear? AOE stun is apparently worse than a single target knock down? Like really, what?

And I say this as someone who loves to SPVP. Maybe you’re just talking about WVW. I don’t know. But my downed skills serve me well in SPVP, and the benefit of having a large chunk of my damage still under control while downed has won me MANY 1v1s. I have proof that it works. There is no way another classes downed skills do more damage than my downed skills +roughly 30-35% of my base damage. It’s silly to even argue this.

Stop trying to validate your opinion to someone :P. I agree with most of what you’ve said but you don’t have to prove yourself to some random person who believes Rangers suck. He’s allowed to think that if he wants.

Not sure how necromancer is getting rated so high from some people, #2 fear gets countered most of the time (it really only works like 1 out of 10 times), #3 is pure garbage, look out I’m going to poison you so you don’t heal while piking me!

They should have just made the #2 skill the same for every class, a knockdown of some sort, and #3 the class defining skill, and necros should be aoe fear instead of poison or let me use the rest of my lifeforce for another deathshroud form.

1 – Thief (almost always have to burst down instead of stomp. They can avoid 2 stomp attempts by teleporting and then screening if you don’t start first stomp immediately or find where they teleported. good damage on downed 1 as well.)
2 – Warrior (vengeance can be a game changer. If enemy gets downed after you then you can vengeance and stomp them, potentially rallying in the process. Otherwise you can add some dps to a team fight before dying. Decent damage on downed 1 as well)
3 – Elementalist (mist form can avoid stealth and stability stomps. In WvW can retreat to keep or friendly zerg. Other skills are garbage)
4 – Guardian (interrupt more than one person attempting stomp and also knock them off a point in spvp. Healing field is great to avoid getting bursted down, help allies, and also to win fights against other downed people)
5 – Ranger (almost the same as guard. 2 skill can interrupt all stompers if they don’t have stability, but won’t knock them back like guard. Last long enough and pet will do crazy healing so you won’t get bursted down and can win any fight against another downed enemy)
6 – Mesmer (2 skill can port you into really hard to reach places occasionally, prolonging death. Other times it can port you an inch away. Phantasm skill is really strong and can down a low hp stomper)
7 – Engi (2 and 3 skills are lackluster but at least can interrupt reliably. 1 skill is really strong and can do strong condition damage and chill people for a LONG time even after you are dead)
8 – Necro (2 skill is countered by almost everything, from stealth to stability to blind to condition immunity. 3 is pretty good for damage if you can last that long)

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Why are you being so rude? really? You just want to hate Rangers, I’ve seen it before. I wasn’t even counting the output of the downed skills, mainly the output of the pet when it comes to DPS vs other downed skills. Have you seen how much damage a traited cat does, for example?

Why am I being rude? Well it’s simple really, I’m not. Disagreeing with someone is not rude, especially not on a forum. And where do you get off saying that I “just hate rangers”? First off, notice that I don’t have to make ad-hominems and imply that you have some ulterior motive to argue against your points, my arguments are objective and stand on their own. Second, why would I clock like 2,000 hours on a ranger main if I hate rangers? Quite the opposite, I love my ranger, which is why I hate being at such a disadvantage with one.

Also, pets are not “easily” killed in SPVP, if you have a brain in your head and switch them when they’re low on health.

lol, if you don’t trait specifically into pets then your pet is already going to be on cooldown, and in a lot of cases, both are down for the count before you are. And they are easily killed… very easily.

Also, what’s wrong with thunderclap? It’s the same essentially as the warrior stun, but AOE. #1 does decent damage relatively close to most #1 downed skills like engy, except it is guarenteed to bleed.

Thunderclap’s AoE is absolutely tiny, I rarely ever see it daze more than one enemy even when they’re right on top of me. I’m not necessarily complaining about Thunderclap on its own, it’s a fine skill on the surface, but the problem is that as a whole the ranger’s downed skills just do not offer the same effectiveness as everyone else’s. Hammer throw works fine as warrior’s #2 because of the fact that once Vengeance charges, it’s game over. So what if Thunderclap gets you another second closer to your #3 skill? You still have to rely on your pet to heal you, you still have to lie there defenseless and vulnerable to damage and executions. Hammer throw works for warriors only because it gives you two seconds of knockdown to prevent execution, which very often gives you the opportunity to reach Vengeance.

You also missed the point of my vengeance comment. I was saying rangers can do more VS warriors up until the point where vengeance is ready, which is basically a moot point in PVP same as lick wounds because you’re likely dead by that point, barring some miracle (again, this is the same for most classes.)

In my experience that is simply not true. With good positioning and timing you should be able to go down in an advantageous spot, maybe slightly less so in sPvP.

Like I get the Ranger hate, I deal with it every day, but why do you WANT to hate my favorite class? Just, why exactly?

lmao is this a joke? Do you see me asking why you’re blindly supporting the nerfed state of the ranger’s downed skills if it’s your favourite class? That just makes no logical sense to me, and the delivery of your accusation here seems more appropriate of the Jerry Springer show than some honest discussion on a forum.

I mean I gave you tons of examples on how they can defend themselves from execution, and you go ahead and say “they have absolutely no way”, which is totally untrue, but apparently “pets dont count”, am I right? Is wolf fear somehow different from necro fear? AOE stun is apparently worse than a single target knock down? Like really, what?

You give me extremely specific examples of when the ranger’s skills might work effectively, that’s not sufficient. Everyone else has general-purpose skills that are effective in MOST situations. Is a wolfs fear somehow different from necro fear? YES, absolutely. Rangers have to sacrifice their pet choice just to get fear while downed, necros don’t have to sacrifice anything, it’s part of their downed skills. And I don’t have a problem with Thunderclap on its own, in comparison to Hammer Throw, I have a problem with the overall effectiveness of the ranger’s downed skills and how the three skills work together, not by themselves.

And go ahead and tell my pet is an “easy kill” when the majority of pets have more vitality than players (a drake for example has 40,800 health) and I can just switch it every 15 seconds.

And players would be easy kills too if they couldn’t dodge, evade, or use a bar of ten skills.

This thread is hilarious. I should have made popcorn.

1. Elementalist – Nigh immortal near gates in WvW and no counter to his delay.

2. Mesmer – Powerful downed-skills and very difficult to counter his stealth.

3. Ranger – The pet can revive them or help kill their opponent. The skill interrupts everyone in the vicinity. Only downside is that Blind can counter it fairly easily.

4. Thief – 2 potential delays, one with a counter move (Blink/Shadowstep).

5. Guardian – Heals himself fairly quickly and the AoE knockback is good, but has obvious counters (Blind and/or Stability).

6. Warrior – Nothing special except for the fact that they are fairly strong in downed-duels due to high armor and decent damage.

7. Engineer – The pull is a fair interrupt but again easily countered by Blind and Stability.

8. Necromancer – A single interrupt and aside of being fairly good in downed-fights, nothing special.

Personally I think the last 3 are almost identical in practical terms. 1 interrupt that can easily be countered. The top 2, Elementalist and Mesmer, I consider slightly OP because unlike the other classes they can guarantee 1 failed stop attempt. With the right skills every class should be able to be instant-stomped.