Guild Wars 2

I’ve been dabbling in the Beta test on different specialization, long enough to get the “feel” of the new builds. Reaper and Tempest so far have been a blast (har har pun) and each have their own unique mechanics and flavors.

The Dragonhunter, on the other hand, has left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is an excellent extrapolation of the Guardian’s “control” abilities, applied to ranged and area attacks. With my Dragonhunter, I was able to pull enemies together for DPS, apply burning to a group at range, reflect projectiles, and even use knockback every 10s or so, to keep them off objectives.

On the other hand…where does this leave my Ranger? Though there are several unique and effective builds for a Ranger (double-axe melee being my PVP build, for example), I feel like the Dragonhunter is encroaching heavily on flavor that originally belonged to the Ranger—namely heavy DPS/control on a single ranged target. Now that the Dragonhunter can even use traps, does this mean the Ranger only has a pet as his unique ability?

I’m still looking forward to seeing the Ranger’s elite specialty in the upcoming betas…I just hope that it doesn’t require using the specialty to make him feel unique again.

Nah, the Guardian can’t sneak up behind me while I’m protecting a point from a cheeky mesmer and instantly down the last 30% of my life force with one skill… and then knock me off point.

Seems like a bit of a narrow vision for a Ranger’s “niche.”

Im not fully understanding ur issue here, the DH and traditional longbow ranger plays quite differently through mechanics, one simple example being slow autos 1200 range vs fast autos at 1500 range, pet vs virtues, *slower gameplay vs agile.