Guild Wars 2

My general play style in other games was usually some one who can kill some one else fast a quick, sometimes without them even knowing wtf even happened. and as of right now I have really only leveled a Ranger, Guardian, and a Warrior. (to about lvl 18-20)

(and i absolutely hated warrior they were just to slow and clunky and the 2h skill that roots you in 1 spot just aggravated me half the time an enemy would just move out of it, and if a numb minded NPC could do that well i might as well just stand still for 2 seconds and let a player beat on me before i start fighting and just forget about even using the skill)

Im leaning more towards rangers.But so far I have read nothing but how bad Ranger is, that no one ever wants them for PvE and they are just to squishy and have no mobility for PvP. I dont want to make a Tanky ranger or do some build that doesnt involve the Longbow in some way. Im really interested in WvW for when i actually get there and yes i understand im a pretty long ways away from that. I tried sPvP with my ranger and did ok but i cant really use that as a judgment when i have little to no idea about wtf i am even doing half the time.

BASICALLY: my guestion comes down to this. Is it true that rangers are just bad? like are they good for PvE and PvP could I do solo WvW since i like running kinda lone ranger (hehe get it?…..god im stupid) a lot.

Do people want them for dungeons? or no?

I like ranger but wants the point of playing one getting it to 80 then finding out ok…now wtf do i do i can WvW but im just gonna get recked by 80% of all other classes and no one ever wants me for dungeons.

So if any one knows a class that might be a better class for me or has info about rangers let me know it would be a big help.

I just dont want to level a class and find out i kittened myself at the class selection screen.

Speaking for myself, I have just as much fun with my Ranger as any of my other professions, and I’ve never been kicked from dungeons/Fractals just because I was using my Ranger.

It IS true that Rangers lag a bit behind some of the other professions in terms of raw damage (a good portion of a Ranger’s damage comes from their pet, and like all AI companions, the pet won’t always be cooperative in reacting swiftly to changing battlefield conditions), but honestly, unless you’re joining a speedclear group, most players aren’t going to be bothered about it.

Most of the hate directed against Rangers is usually against bad PLAYERS using Rangers, doing things like insisting on attacking a boss at range when the party needs to be sticking close in melee range. If you carry both a ranged weapon and a melee weapon for different situations, and adapt your tactics accordingly, the Ranger is just as welcomed as any other profession.

I don’t really WvW or PvP, so I can’t offer any advice for those situations.

As far as quick kill classes go the Thief is probably a better fit since you can spike down a single target pretty quickly with it . As for the Ranger its not a bad class no but i see it more fit for solo play than group play. (bar dragons )

No, Rangers aren’t bad. However in your description you mentioned you like burst enemies down before they knew what happened. Rangers are not a very bursty profession, rather they are steady damage dealers like the Necro. Not saying there aren’t burst specs.

If you want that high burst shock and awe class, consider Mesmer or Thief (or Warrior, but you have one). Even Elementalist can do decent burst.

The way Anet has been balancing, one class is useless then OP the next month, so don’t discard rangers because you think they aren’t viable. Can you provide more details about your playstyle?

You favor offense or support?
Ranged or Melee?
What class did you enjoy most in other games?
Managing pets and npc minions?
Being squishy but with escapes/stealth, or tanky and reliable?
Large ‘toolbox’ of skills to use, or fewer but more effective skills?

I’ve never had a problem getting into dungeon groups with my ranger, or completing dungeons once I’m in. They’re not popular for speed clear groups but since I have absolutely no interest in doing speed clears that doesn’t bother me.

Other than that the main problem seems to be that some people don’t understand how playing a ranger works and other people see that and assume it’s how everyone plays a ranger. Typically this means standing in one spot firing away with the longbow and expecting your pet and/or other players to tank for you (and come and rez you when you don’t move out of AoE), no matter whether that’s a good idea (or even possible) or not.

Played well they can be effective in a lot of different situations, but it requires knowing how to adapt to each scenario, which requires practice.

Having said all that one thing a ranger will never be able to do in this game is take enemies down in one hit. As someone else said they’re more sustained damage dealers. If you specifically want to snipe/burst down targets it’s better to go with a thief.

Thanks everyone for the responses, it is nice to know that rangers are not horrible.

To give more insight on my playstyle in other games.

Elderscrolls series: I always had a Sneaky assassin class especially in Skyrim i ran a sneaky assassin who used illusion magic.

Other previous MMO’s:
SWTOR: I was a sith assassin. (the dual blade user cant remember if they were actually called assassins or not :p)
Dekaron: (many of you may not have heard of this MMO) I was the Vicious summoner, they were basically the fast high damage dealers of the game.
WoW: never got to into it only played for like a week but I only played the Archer class.

Basically every game i played i was the stealth class. i tried the thief in sPvP only so far using the D/P build but idk i just didnt like the leaping through the circle thing to cloak.
and idk if there are any other good builds for them.

I never liked being a support player, cuz idk I just cant do it. and i hate being a pure tank cuz i just like to kill things lol.

Are theifs good? I hear a lot of good things about them, but Im also worried that they may jsut get beat into to the dirt with the Nerf Stick and never recover from it (1 reason why i tend to stay away from the “community elected OP classes” since most “bad” players with just cry and moan untill the owners just do what they want and then they never have to deal with figuring out how to counter the class.

But are their any other builds for theif that are just as good as D/P or is D/P pretty much the go to build?

D/D is pretty efficient at laying the smack down on things . You have to use your skills wisely as a thief though as they have the lowest base health in the medium armor class .

ive played my ranger for over 2100 hrs now and i run a sb/gs build with knights armor (can use soldiers if you find yourself downing a lot) and zerk trinkets. now ranger damage is fairly low in the game with the bulk of our power from our (recently next to useless due to the content difficulty spike) pets. if you want a damage based ranger use s/w and lb to stay at range using cats for more crit damage, but personally i have more fun as the ‘tank’ of the party using sb and gs. ive pugged a lot of dungeons and a lot of the time im the last person standing even though im in the face of and kite tanking half the monsters in them.

i run a 30/0/30/10/0 build with healing spring, signet of the hunt, signet of stone and lightning reflexes. im set more for surviving rather than crit hits. for my elite i switch between the 3 class elites depending on whats needed. solo running i normally use Rampage as One for the stability, i use Entangle if theres gonna be a swarm of mobs coming and then spirit of nature i use if the team is downing a lot and it allows me to keep their health replenished for a while and also if a few down its 2nd ability allows for a mess revival from downed state. i use this mainly in water fights as it also gives me a better chance to stay alive and same goes for the team. tho in fairness rangers can down in water and just keep attacking without worrying too much due to our hidden asset :p

so while im basically taunting the bosses the rest of the team can unleash hell while i dance around the room with them. ranger is highly disliked due to the bearbow builds that have decent dps but drop fast.

in wvw i can last easily solo camps, fights in 1v1 vs war/guard and 8/10 times i win but multi oponents can cause problems. and i dont pvp much cuz i know i suck at it. but overall ranger is OP in pve enviroments, failry good in wvw from my experience and i hear its decent in spvp but as stated i suck at it so i dont bother.

Ranger is actually a pretty good class but needs to be played right. They’re generally not wanted in PvE due to the bearbow (combining bear pets that do almost damage with a Longbow) combo being common.

A Ranger can actually do similar damage to a Warrior played properly, I don’t know how to due this however.

With a couple traits in PvE you can help the group’s damage alot. Those traits being Spotter in Marksmanship and Vigorous Spirits in Nature Magic.

Spotter at level 80 will give allies 150 extra precision and Vigorous Spirit combined with a well placed Frost Spirit so it doesn’t die will increase damage by about 7%.

Ranger can do alot of damage with Sword mainhand. It stacks might on your pet (especially combined with Rampage as One elite skill). Which cat/bird pets are probably best for damage. Drakes aren’t bad in my opinion due to their blast finisher, being pretty tough, and having good damage still

Grok Krog.9581:

A Ranger can actually do similar damage to a Warrior played properly

This is accomplished by using the ele lightning hammer although only for a short time and with stacks of might and fury. its nice to deal the damage but given it needs the strict requirements its more of a now and again approach.

I have both a ranger and warrior that are 80s and love them equally. I think you will like them both better as you continue to level up and unlock traits. There is a big difference between a level 20 and a level 80.

I see so many people here that get to level 20ish and want to make another toon because they aren’t satisfied. And I totally understand this. I don’t enjoy leveling personally, but having leveled several toons to 80, I understand what a big difference the levels make.

I hated my warrior until about level 60 or 70. I didn’t fall in love with her until she was 80 will all exotics and ascended goodies.

My advice is to stick with it, it does get better. My ranger uses axe/warhorn combo mainly, but I will use a longbow when needed.

You seriously shouldn’t discount Warrior just because of specific skills that turned you off (I’m guessing you were playing with Greatsword and 100-Blades based on the ROOT in one spot complaint). There are traits (obtained later in the game) that can speed a Warrior up and you can also use a Warhorn on one of your sets that can speed up AlLL nearby allies for a limited time. You can even get a Warhorn trait that makes it a powerful condition removal AND provide nearly perma-swiftness to allies.

Warrior has SO many different weapon choices and options, I hate to see you dismiss them because of one particular skill dislike.

If you seriously want fast killing, however, Thief is your best bet. You do have to play with the mindset of actively attempting to AVOID damage (but you seriously should be doing that to some extent with ALL professions in this game).

Rangers aren’t bad with the right build, however, the way you describe things that you want and what you played in previous games, point me right to the thief profession.

Try a dagger/dagger build with offhand shortbow instead of dagger/pistol. Like this guys build. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Lh8Oogl6Y

I could never get into dagger/pistol myself either, but dagger/dagger is tons of fun with it’s burst.

Roll a Thief. Their whole playstyle is to stealth/port in and unload on you before you’ve got a clue what happened. There are plenty of ways to play thief. Lots of stealth, no stealth, evasion, condition, backstab…

Every class gets buffed/nerfed with each patch. Can’t predict those things.