Easy way to make rangers viable
Am I really the only one that thinks this would be a really great idea? Unless someone can think of a way for them to compete with the currently much more effective roamers and bunkers.
I really like the idea. I dont know what the ability would be called or how it would fit in with the ranger theme, but it would give rangers some valuable utility to bring to a team. Even thieves can teleport back to a trap that has been triggered.
i like this idea a lot actually. especially if the pet guarding the point counts as a teammate sitting in it for capping purposes. it would allow the ranger a way to effectively guard a point while providing some roaming support.
as a dedicated ranger that recently semi-retired in favor of ele, they do need something. they lack mobility, and killing power. lacking in teamfights (since pets can not jump off ledges if in good position, or they die in aoe making damage crap). they pretty much need to rely on cond damage and toughness, making their DPS awful in group fights / fights with any other condition people.
at this point, i feel like they can back point bunker okay, but only if another class isnt available. making things like guard or the combat rez much more viable would help
I’m glad to see someone else agrees. After playing enough TPvP its obvious that rangers dont have a spot with how they are currently, they dont do near enough burst damage to compete with warrior, thief, elementalist or mesmer they can’t bunker like an engineer, guardian, elementalist or necro and their condition builds can’t really compete in tpvp either. That being said I don’t think ranger is a bad class I think they just lack a spot and the easiest thing to do would be to allow them to compete with mesmer for side point holding and group support. The amount of buffs that a ranger would need to compete with any of the current bunkers or burst classes would be ridiculous and they would end up having to either changing the class completely or make them overpowered in 1v1 situations.
Devs read and consider it please!
(edited by Moderator)
Rangers are very good at 1on1, one of best point defenders when it comes to it beeing able t have almost permanent vigor/regeneration uptime. While having 20 seconds stability from Roam as one, gives a lot of ways not to let point be nulified by knockbard guardian or someone like that. But thats it.
What i would actualy want to see from the ranger is Highter movespeed, between points which your idea makes ideal, however:
The pet would have to defend the point, if he is killed before ranger teleports back, he loses ability to tp back. Pet does not count as a person holding a point. Pet has its protection range, so if attacked from far, he cannot chase target to faraway places.
With these conditions in motion its a rly decent idea.
Former Devils Inside Thief R43
I think all classes’ roles in the meta are in for some adjustment.
As a necromancer main, I can certainly feel your pain.
But the game was marketed as not having this particular meta, at least not so clearly defined and uncontested. I think all we can do is wait (and hopefully not wait months for every adjustment) and see where they’re taking the game.
Unfortunately, I think this is why we’re not seeing a lot of tweaks in the mean time. Compounding adjustments and balance with minor changes which don’t address bigger issues would just break things further, especially when bigger fixes and adjustments are ready for release.
5 rangers, 5 pets gaurd 1 point, the 5 rangers camp the other lol.
Rangers do need some work though, would like to build my ranger from guildwars 1, traps and no pet
Slasher Sladorian – Charr Warrior – [DECM] | Sea of Sorrows
Sophea Sladorian – Charr Ranger – [DECM] | Sea of Sorrows
Sophea Of Elements – Human Elementalist – [DECM] | Sea of Sorrows
Sophea Sladorian – Charr Ranger – [DECM] | Sea of Sorrows
Sophea Of Elements – Human Elementalist – [DECM] | Sea of Sorrows
5 rangers, 5 pets gaurd 1 point, the 5 rangers camp the other lol.
Rangers do need some work though, would like to build my ranger from guildwars 1, traps and no pet
so the skill cooldown/duration would just need to be slightly tweeked to where it wouldn’t be any different or stronger than 5 portal mesmers. This just seems like the quickest easiest fix to start making rangers more competitive to me.
I honestly don’t see this as a viable fix to Rangers.
If ANet really wants to fix Rangers there is one simple solution: remove the cast time on pet attacks or allow pet attacks to channel while moving. Boom. Problem solved. Pets would essentially be able to “attack on the run” and Rangers would get back a large portion of their lost damage.
Since the recent Patch, I’ve been playing around a lot with Ranger (I also played it a bit before) and I really think that there are various situations, in which the ranger totally excells other classes:
1) Quickness: Just the Quickness rezzes and Quickness stomps you get from Zephyr’s Speed are absolutely amazing in Teamfights and because the Ranger has it all 20 or even 15 Seconds is just awesome for Teamfights.
2) AoE: With either Traps, Piercing Arrows, Pet-Skills or other Skills/Traits, the Ranger has huge AoE-Potential, which is again very good for Teamfights.
3) Combo-fields and finishers: I’ve ran a build with Ice and Fire-Trap, Bonfire and the Healing Spring and the amount of combo-fields you put out is unmatched by any other Class. In addition to that, the Ranger has also a huge amount of combofinishers – the obvious ones on the bow, but totally underrated ones on for example Greatsword (leap every 10 or so seconds) or Offhand Axe (afaik the longest Whirl-finisher in the game and a two-way Projectile-finisher with rather short CD).
- Knockbacks: I’ve toyed around with Holding builds or offensive Point-cap-builds on the Ranger as well, because he has very strong Knockbacks or other options to get enemies off points: Fear on the Wolf, one of the strongest Knockbacks in the game on the Longbow, a decent knockback on the Greatsword (skill 4 when attacked in melee).
- Traps as counter to Portals: Another Option to use an offensive Roamer is with 2-3 Traps as a counter to Portals; It’s really nice if you can spam those traps on the Portal and have that insta-DPS on the ppl that get out of the portal, you simply start a fight with a big advantage and depending on how long it took for the opponent to get to the portal, you also have the CD’s almost rdy again very often even before the actual fight begins (just spam the traps and w8 a few seconds before you actually get on the point if the opponent doesn’t have vision of you, so you can get 4-6 traps on them right when the fight starts).
- Good Survivability: There are actually certain Traits and Skills available to the Ranger, that make him very very hard to kill:
1) Signet of Stone + Signet of the Beastmaster
2) Empathic Bond: All conditions transer from you to your pet every 10 seconds? There is no better Anti-condition-skill/trait!
3) Natural Vigor: a 5-traitpoint Skill that makes your Endurance reg 50% faster? Do ppl even realize how good this is?
4) Lightning Reflexes: A very underappreciated Stunbreaker.
5) Signet of Renewal: Stunbreaker and all Conditions away? Hell yes!
6) Companions Defense: Very nice Dodge-effect that works well with Natural Vigor, Lightning Reflexes (cuz of the Vigor) etc.
All in all, ppl just like to play their FotM-builds and are afraid to experiment with other classes – I don’t think that Ranger is a bad class: I’m not even sure anymore if he even needs any buffs at all, because I think he has potential that hasn’t been discovered or fully understood and tested out yet.
Since the recent Patch, I’ve been playing around a lot with Ranger (I also played it a bit before) and I really think that there are various situations, in which the ranger totally excells other classes:
1) Quickness: Just the Quickness rezzes and Quickness stomps you get from Zephyr’s Speed are absolutely amazing in Teamfights and because the Ranger has it all 20 or even 15 Seconds is just awesome for Teamfights.
2) AoE: With either Traps, Piercing Arrows, Pet-Skills or other Skills/Traits, the Ranger has huge AoE-Potential, which is again very good for Teamfights.
3) Combo-fields and finishers: I’ve ran a build with Ice and Fire-Trap, Bonfire and the Healing Spring and the amount of combo-fields you put out is unmatched by any other Class. In addition to that, the Ranger has also a huge amount of combofinishers – the obvious ones on the bow, but totally underrated ones on for example Greatsword (leap every 10 or so seconds) or Offhand Axe (afaik the longest Whirl-finisher in the game and a two-way Projectile-finisher with rather short CD).
- Knockbacks: I’ve toyed around with Holding builds or offensive Point-cap-builds on the Ranger as well, because he has very strong Knockbacks or other options to get enemies off points: Fear on the Wolf, one of the strongest Knockbacks in the game on the Longbow, a decent knockback on the Greatsword (skill 4 when attacked in melee).
- Traps as counter to Portals: Another Option to use an offensive Roamer is with 2-3 Traps as a counter to Portals; It’s really nice if you can spam those traps on the Portal and have that insta-DPS on the ppl that get out of the portal, you simply start a fight with a big advantage and depending on how long it took for the opponent to get to the portal, you also have the CD’s almost rdy again very often even before the actual fight begins (just spam the traps and w8 a few seconds before you actually get on the point if the opponent doesn’t have vision of you, so you can get 4-6 traps on them right when the fight starts).
- Good Survivability: There are actually certain Traits and Skills available to the Ranger, that make him very very hard to kill:
1) Signet of Stone + Signet of the Beastmaster
2) Empathic Bond: All conditions transer from you to your pet every 10 seconds? There is no better Anti-condition-skill/trait!
3) Natural Vigor: a 5-traitpoint Skill that makes your Endurance reg 50% faster? Do ppl even realize how good this is?
4) Lightning Reflexes: A very underappreciated Stunbreaker.
5) Signet of Renewal: Stunbreaker and all Conditions away? Hell yes!
6) Companions Defense: Very nice Dodge-effect that works well with Natural Vigor, Lightning Reflexes (cuz of the Vigor) etc.All in all, ppl just like to play their FotM-builds and are afraid to experiment with other classes – I don’t think that Ranger is a bad class: I’m not even sure anymore if he even needs any buffs at all, because I think he has potential that hasn’t been discovered or fully understood and tested out yet.
This. 100 times this. You’ll run into people constantly who tell you something sucks or isn’t viable, and then you have those people that challenge that. I ran into a “bunker” Ranger the other day who told me he was sick of hearing everyone say how Rangers suck and he was amazing, probably one of the best overall players I had seen in the game so far.
To me most of these posts seem to be moreso because certain other classes are much easier to succeed with, but easier doesn’t always mean better.
Jumzi (Ranger), Tarnished Coast
Since the recent Patch, I’ve been playing around a lot with Ranger (I also played it a bit before) and I really think that there are various situations, in which the ranger totally excells other classes:
1) Quickness: Just the Quickness rezzes and Quickness stomps you get from Zephyr’s Speed are absolutely amazing in Teamfights and because the Ranger has it all 20 or even 15 Seconds is just awesome for Teamfights.
2) AoE: With either Traps, Piercing Arrows, Pet-Skills or other Skills/Traits, the Ranger has huge AoE-Potential, which is again very good for Teamfights.
3) Combo-fields and finishers: I’ve ran a build with Ice and Fire-Trap, Bonfire and the Healing Spring and the amount of combo-fields you put out is unmatched by any other Class. In addition to that, the Ranger has also a huge amount of combofinishers – the obvious ones on the bow, but totally underrated ones on for example Greatsword (leap every 10 or so seconds) or Offhand Axe (afaik the longest Whirl-finisher in the game and a two-way Projectile-finisher with rather short CD).
- Knockbacks: I’ve toyed around with Holding builds or offensive Point-cap-builds on the Ranger as well, because he has very strong Knockbacks or other options to get enemies off points: Fear on the Wolf, one of the strongest Knockbacks in the game on the Longbow, a decent knockback on the Greatsword (skill 4 when attacked in melee).
- Traps as counter to Portals: Another Option to use an offensive Roamer is with 2-3 Traps as a counter to Portals; It’s really nice if you can spam those traps on the Portal and have that insta-DPS on the ppl that get out of the portal, you simply start a fight with a big advantage and depending on how long it took for the opponent to get to the portal, you also have the CD’s almost rdy again very often even before the actual fight begins (just spam the traps and w8 a few seconds before you actually get on the point if the opponent doesn’t have vision of you, so you can get 4-6 traps on them right when the fight starts).
- Good Survivability: There are actually certain Traits and Skills available to the Ranger, that make him very very hard to kill:
1) Signet of Stone + Signet of the Beastmaster
2) Empathic Bond: All conditions transer from you to your pet every 10 seconds? There is no better Anti-condition-skill/trait!
3) Natural Vigor: a 5-traitpoint Skill that makes your Endurance reg 50% faster? Do ppl even realize how good this is?
4) Lightning Reflexes: A very underappreciated Stunbreaker.
5) Signet of Renewal: Stunbreaker and all Conditions away? Hell yes!
6) Companions Defense: Very nice Dodge-effect that works well with Natural Vigor, Lightning Reflexes (cuz of the Vigor) etc.All in all, ppl just like to play their FotM-builds and are afraid to experiment with other classes – I don’t think that Ranger is a bad class: I’m not even sure anymore if he even needs any buffs at all, because I think he has potential that hasn’t been discovered or fully understood and tested out yet.
Quoted for great truth. This. So much.
If Anet manages to fix the pet AI the Ranger is potentially a true powerhouse. Currently pet AI is throttling the potential, but it’s there. Oh it’s there.
Aren’t they already viable.. just that no one ever figured out how? I mean ofc typical Ranger builds are bad just as much as typical Warrior builds but I wonder if there’s one odd-ball whose actually making a diff in paids.
Since people are negative about nerfs, how about we buff to balance then?
the best team in NA atm runs a ranger, he is ranked 6th on the QP ladder.
rangers are more than viable lol.
problem with spirits in pvp or anywhere in the game is their relatively low hp, as well as their little extremely limited aoe effects. anyone with the most minute amount of aoe dmg or channel of dmg can send your spirits soaring. spirits are rather useless unless you spend your time kiting. the next down side to spirits is the amount of traits you have to invest so that they can be the least bit practical, witch kills your offense. Not to mention the utility slots it robs you of so that when your spirits do die, witch they will, your basically defenseless .
I honestly don’t see this as a viable fix to Rangers.
If ANet really wants to fix Rangers there is one simple solution: remove the cast time on pet attacks or allow pet attacks to channel while moving. Boom. Problem solved. Pets would essentially be able to “attack on the run” and Rangers would get back a large portion of their lost damage.
How about no as it would ruin stealth classes with channel while running as you could see where thief is going all the time if you got certain pets. Removing cast time on some pets is ok some pets got too good skills to remove cast time.
Former Devils Inside Thief R43
I was infracted for making this thread…not sure why im still bothering with arenanet and the forums.
I suggested the exact same thing a while back. It makes sense to me as well, just because in broad terms the way team compositions break down looks like this:
Guardian and Ele compete for the bunker/support position
Thief and Warrior compete for glass cannon/roamer
Necro and Engi compete for ranged team fight condition pressure
Mesmer is close point defender because portal allows it to watch a point while being present in other fights on the map
Ranger is amazing 1v1 but can’t compete for the position of close point defender because it has no portal
If rangers could assist mid/boss kills and still teleport back to defend close point they could compete with mesmer for back point defender. I think there’s a chance they might even steal the role entirely, because imo ranger is the best 1v1 in the game. Of course mesmer portal can move multiple people so it still has additional utility the ranger wouldn’t have access to.
(edited by nurt.5401)
I suggested the exact same thing a while back. It makes sense to me as well, just because in broad terms the way team compositions break down looks like this:
Guardian and Ele compete for the bunker/support position
Thief and Warrior compete for glass cannon/roamer
Necro and Engi compete for ranged team fight condition pressure
Mesmer is close point defender because portal allows it to watch a point while being present in other fights on the map
Ranger is amazing 1v1 but can’t compete for the position of close point defender because it has no portalIf rangers could assist mid/boss kills and still teleport back to defend close point they could compete with mesmer for back point defender. I think there’s a chance they might even steal the role entirely, because imo ranger is the best 1v1 in the game. Of course mesmer portal can move multiple people so it still has additional utility the ranger wouldn’t have access to.
Exactly, and keep in mind although ranger is great in 1v1 so is mesmer and both would bring very different things to team fights with different advantages and disadvantages of both. The ranger can lay down condition fields with traps or torch or some decent sustained damage as well as spirit support; however they will lose all access to their pets for this time which means no aoe wolf fear, aoe regen from fern, kds, hard hitting pets like bird and felines and any other added bonus of the pets. Mesmers will still be able to put down timewarp and do great damage as well as bringing back a +1 or +2 with portal.
I honestly don’t see this as a viable fix to Rangers.
If ANet really wants to fix Rangers there is one simple solution: remove the cast time on pet attacks or allow pet attacks to channel while moving. Boom. Problem solved. Pets would essentially be able to “attack on the run” and Rangers would get back a large portion of their lost damage.
How about no as it would ruin stealth classes with channel while running as you could see where thief is going all the time if you got certain pets. Removing cast time on some pets is ok some pets got too good skills to remove cast time.
You do realize that most pets (especially the ones commonly used in PvP) have around 0.25 second to 0.5 second cast times, right? If that were changed to a channel that would hardly ruin stealth for Thieves (because that’s what you mean by “stealth classes”; you mean Thieves).
And when you say some pets “got too good skills”, which pets are you referring to specifically?