Guild Wars 2

Yes there is a stigma on rangers in all 3 game modes.

Mesmers and Thieves are often off point but they make for good +1 roamers and their bursts are apparent.

A lot of players despise rangers because most Rangers are indeed bad. I’ve had Rangers on my team who’ve done nothing but pewpew.. not stomping or rezing allies. Some (most) Rangers bring absolutely nothing to the fight. Very annoying.

It’s easy for players to blame them first. The sad thing is, 90% of the time they’re right. That’s not to say they are terrible. I know some great Rangers who I wouldn’t mind having on a team because they’re just that good.

As to that guy, ignore him.

There can be some negative feelings towards ranger in the game. Though its actually rare than not that people will act on it. Ranger has some mechanics that while they are easily countered. When the ranger is in that ideal situation those mechanics are REALLY punishing to go against.

A few things that I think has caused this.

For a long time power based ranger builds were considered HIGHLY suboptimal. Infact it was generally considered a joke spec for an extremely long time (first 2 years of the game). This ended up creating a few builds that most rangers ran that were very frustrating for an opponent to fight.

Condi bunker regen ranger/ Cruise missile pet ranger/ Burst Maul ranger.

Cruise Missile pet ranger isn’t possible anymore and burst maul builds don’t do the damage necessary to be considered a viable playstyle on its own.

Condi bunker regen rangers are still around and gaining rage to this day. Though its not as out of control as it was say during the spirit bunker age.

Now alot of rangers play power longbow/gs. Its kind of one of the iconic symbols for rangers in todays games. And its what drew alot of people to the ranger in the first place.

Since it has been buffed longbow ranger can do its job of punishing distracted players very well. Making it a rather good +1 build. Though still not (typically) on the level of thief and mesmer. Though were close enough to thief we can fight for a spot in a team with them.

The thing is. A longbow ranger is very annoying to get hit by. Watching your health get shredded by someone off screen while your fighting someone else is going to generate rage. As if they have already burned cooldowns they feel like nothing they do can save them. Which is of course why the ranger is effective at +1ning.

Secondly. Not many rangers really use there build to the fullest extent. Youl see many that are afraid to engage in close combat to fight for dominance on a point. Despite the fact that rangers are actually quite dangerous in melee.

While there are situations where you shouldn’t engage on point. (its 2v3 on mid your not going to get reinforcements and you know you won’t be able to rez your team mate when he goes down in a couple seconds but you might be able to down someone and stomp them to get a rally if you nail your rapid fire/swoop/maul or rapid fire/path of scars combos.) Typically giving up a point to fight at ranged is only worthwhile if its securing an advantage for later in the match. So its heavily up to the ranger to know when he should and shouldnt snipe.

This has caused a bit of a stigma on ranger in pvp despite the fact that the ranger is actually quite capable of dominating in the conquest game mode. Ultimately its up to the rangers individual habits. But alot of rangers have rather bad habits. Either brought over from open world PvE or out of a fear of engaging say a thief in melee to contest a point. This colors peoples opinions of us quite a bit.

Not to mention taunt is annoying as kitten.

Hmm, that’s a shame. Ah well, hopefully the ranger elite specialization won’t carry the same stigma. Before I even got into gw2 I decided I would be a druid when the expansion came out.

Anyway thanks for the feedback guys. Would you say the stigma is mild or severe?

As for Saiyan’s reply, yeah I can understand that. Personally I stand back and pewpew unless stomps are possible, I’m the only one on my team who can stand on the point, or I can safely rez someone. I do see a lot of rangers going in the middle of teamfights with their greatswords. I’m not really sure if I should be doing that as well. Maybe me standing back so often is what’s causing these types of outbursts from people :p

EDIT: Thanks for your reply too Shadelang, was pretty in-depth and helped me understand the situation a lot better

You’re playing the worst pvp class combined with a general stereotype of rangers being pve scrubs, so yeah – don’t expect any love from other players.

With that being said, most of the flame derives rather from ANet’s terrible matchmaking than from you playing ranger. Veteran PvP players are matched up with rookies and are expected to carry them more or less. It’s neither a fun experience for them nor is it for you, thats why there is “so much” flame and toxicity.

You only need to internalize that ANet doesn’t give a flying kitten about PvP or PvP balance. Enjoy yourself and flame, trashtalk and report other players as much as possible. You can even leave or afk matches on purpose – you won’t be punished, cause no matter what you do – ANet doesn’t care.

there is nothing you can do about crazy people in the game. Imo i would love a zerk range ranger on my team to stand on a ledge and do the dps while i sustain on a point. A huge problem with people in this game is the idea of people fighting on the point. Only 1 person needs to be on a point to hold so the rest need to support since there is nothing worse then team wipes on a point.

I have screen prints of people saying im bad after beating them in 1 vs 1. Its the way the game works, everyone thinks there is a certain way you have to play and they rage at others when you dont do what they want. Lastly there are some players in the AG/ESL weekly using rangers so rangers have some cred right now its just people dont get to see these matches.

yes there is.

and I started playing for that reason.

to support the underdog class.

and ruin their day by beating them with a lowly (according to them) ranger

play what ever u like and be good , and remember what ever u play always will be someone to tell u his …… you know

yeah its funny when other classes try to facetank or rush my ranger and i hand their kitten to them (without longbow). really i dont see many rangers playing my build as it’s my own, so i tend to surprise the enemy

well… taunt being over used while its bugged your pet in general is the most annoying thing ever conceived just under headshot thieves and the 2k range pew pew from a cliff that many classes cant do anything about will get people very angry with you.. and when they actually get within striking distance you just pop an immunity and trololololol on till you go invisible making the enemy fight your pet again… while they are stuck in place for ages by an elite in a decent cd..

still i would rather fight ranger then a good thief/mesmer.

Rangers not bad, but other professions can bring more to an organized team when played right. Here are a few comparisons:

Condi Ranger vs D/D Ele: Both classes can be strong on holding side points. However, D/D Ele has more mobility and a lot more utility to provide teammates in the form of healing and boons.

Longbow Ranger vs Mesmer/Thief: The problem with Longbow Rangers isn’t fighting off point. Longbow rangers can be awesome at team fights since they can provide so much sustained pressure without having to stop to use defensive skills due to being off point. However, once that fight ends, your enemy can easily out rotate you since Rangers don’t have the mobility to match what a Mesmer/Thief can do.

A lot of the problems with Ranger in sPvP are related to the nature of Conquest, but unfortunately, I don’t think they really shine in Stronghold either since there’s not much open area for longbow to shine and not enough stability/CC to do well with the channeling mechanics.

If we had a big, wide-open area type PvP with something like Capture the Flag, then longbow rangers would dominate the mid area and would play a crucial role…but in GW2 PvP maps, there’s not a lot of benefit to them unless you end up on Foefire.

Traited healing spring with settlers is stronk in team fights.

ragnarokda.1805:

Traited healing spring with settlers is stronk in team fights.

Yea, it’s almost like you’re a Cele D/D ele for an instant every 24 seconds!

Dahkeus.8243:

ragnarokda.1805:

Traited healing spring with settlers is stronk in team fights.

Yea, it’s almost like you’re a Cele D/D ele for an instant every 24 seconds!

Yes but it has a 10s duration and pulses every 2s for a regen and a cleanse. Not to mention it’s a water field. I don’t even slot this out when I’m not running traps. I’m in love with it.

Haha that packets of salt mail is so hilarious and original! I never thought of that! Good one OP!
Assuming you play power ranger, you should absolutely almost never stand on point. If however you were condi/“guard”, then yes.

robertul.3679:

Haha that packets of salt mail is so hilarious and original! I never thought of that! Good one OP!
Assuming you play power ranger, you should absolutely almost never stand on point. If however you were condi/“guard”, then yes.

I think it’s becoming a thing. I had salt mailed to me as well at one point lol. It’s definitely more comical than offensive in my opinion. Haha

Rangers have had a big stigma in GW1 thanks to thumpers and the infamous Touch Rangers…don’t know why here.

It’s because Ranger was by far the weakest class for a very long time. While everyone was spending time mastering D/D Cele Ele, Cele/Rifle, ect.. ect.. no one wanted to touch the Ranger. This has created these problems:

• 95% of Ranger players are terrible because even veteran players who may have mastered other classes, are trying to play Ranger in their MMR ranges for the very first time as if it were year 1 again. This is noticed by other players and this makes for the assumption that a Ranger joining your team is going to be terrible. This assumption is usually true and this is where the main stigma comes from.
• Due to the lack of use of Ranger in SPvP, it has never really been widely recognized as how to actually use a Ranger in SPvP so we are in a phase were Ranger is finding it’s place as how it needs to be played to be effective within a conquest team. Even when a good Ranger joins a team, players often won’t identify that it is a good Ranger because they don’t understand what the Ranger is doing or why he is doing it. This furthers the stigma.

Few things to help you understand how to better your Ranger play:

• LB/GS power spec is the only option now.
• LB/GS is meant to be played as a Peeler +1’er role within the team. Not an On-Point Engager, not a Point Holder.
• LB/GS is very strong in 1v1 now but still very brittle if you are focused 1v2. Learn how to avoid 1v2 situations before they happen and learn how to trap opponents 1v1 against you. You should be winning all 1v1s as a LB/GS power spec within your MMR range with the exception of Burn Guardians and Condi Mesmers. Those are your 2 hard counters. Avoid them in 1v1.
• Avoid playing in teams who do not understand what your Ranger is meant to do. If they pick you up because they need a strong 1v1 Peeler +1’er, that’s good. If they pick you up expecting you to stand on point and hold like a D/D Cele Ele, this is bad and will only result in an ignorant team being frustrated with you.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Why-Ranger-isn-t-getting-buffs/first

People rage at Rangers because Ranger isn’t even hard yet people fail so hard to play an easy class.

And then you get people saying “oh ranger so hard high skill cap” when in fact it is THE easy low skill cap class of the game because you just do the same Taunt combo over and over and it’s not even hard to land and then spam evades when you get focused.

The whole ranger community is annoying honestly, they can’t understand why their class can be stupidly easy. Like I wouldn’t even say my main can’t be easy, EVERY class in the game right now is stupidly easy but Ranger was ALWAYS easy since launch. Some classes that are easy right now were hard at one point.

This class will NEVER deserve respect in it’s current state, there is not a single top player that respects ranger because this class takes no skill. It never took skill whether it was viable or unviable.

What this class needs is a REWORK.

Nier.8741:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Why-Ranger-isn-t-getting-buffs/first

People rage at Rangers because Ranger isn’t even hard yet people fail so hard to play an easy class.

And then you get people saying “oh ranger so hard high skill cap” when in fact it is THE easy low skill cap class of the game because you just do the same Taunt combo over and over and it’s not even hard to land and then spam evades when you get focused.

The whole ranger community is annoying honestly, they can’t understand why their class can be stupidly easy. Like I wouldn’t even say my main can’t be easy, EVERY class in the game right now is stupidly easy but Ranger was ALWAYS easy since launch. Some classes that are easy right now were hard at one point.

This class will NEVER deserve respect in it’s current state, there is not a single top player that respects ranger because this class takes no skill. It never took skill whether it was viable or unviable.

What this class needs is a REWORK.

If you’re just going to describe every class as ‘easy’, then you may as well take any argument about difficulty out of your posts, because it has no meaning.

If you think everything is easy, then here’s your cookie for being Mr. Pro. In the meantime, please step aside so that people can discuss the relative complexity of classes in a way that’s meaningful and productive.

Really wish people would describe the scenario where Taunt completely destroys them… Like, i can only think of a handful of situations that would facilitate a death because of taunt. And in most situations it involves a +1.

I’ve fought so so many bad rangers. More than any other class. Which would lead me to believe the class has a higher skill cap than some would assume.

Top players don’t scoff at rangers because they’re inherently easy to pick up or that “noobs generally play them.” If anything they scoff at a team comp involving a ranger because they know that team will be underperforming regardless of skill level because that spot could have been filled with another class with a more appropriate spec for the match.

Good players and good pvpers SHOULD be able to pick up ANY class and play it effectively because the nature of these types of games is to have as much information as possible about what you play against and the BEST way to gain that knowledge is to learn each class.

playing the ranger at my MMR is masochistic and emotionally draining, which is why I’m taking a break from the game. it’s draining because I ONLY enjoy playing the ranger and other profs don’t really interest me. I mostly blame this on inactive and/or incompetent devs. the xpac and the next balance patch might change my opinion, but it likely wont. and if I have to wait another 6 months for things to look up, I certainly wont have an interest in that.

there are very, very few veteran rangers left playing at a high level because, as I said, it’s masochistic. you get better results at the same skill level for less stress with other profs. it’s simply horribad game development. this is also why most of the rangers left playing the game are angry, negative people, I don’t like interacting with too many of them sadly.

Nier.8741:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Why-Ranger-isn-t-getting-buffs/first

People rage at Rangers because Ranger isn’t even hard yet people fail so hard to play an easy class.

And then you get people saying “oh ranger so hard high skill cap” when in fact it is THE easy low skill cap class of the game because you just do the same Taunt combo over and over and it’s not even hard to land and then spam evades when you get focused.

The whole ranger community is annoying honestly, they can’t understand why their class can be stupidly easy. Like I wouldn’t even say my main can’t be easy, EVERY class in the game right now is stupidly easy but Ranger was ALWAYS easy since launch. Some classes that are easy right now were hard at one point.

This class will NEVER deserve respect in it’s current state, there is not a single top player that respects ranger because this class takes no skill. It never took skill whether it was viable or unviable.

What this class needs is a REWORK.

Honestly I played my thief for about 15%-20% of my games at this point, and I’ve found the difficulties to be similar. I do equally well just as consistently as my ranger. I think you’re over-reacting to the point of being hyperbolic actually. Taunt barely lasts any time at all and when I have my bird out the thing is so slow it takes quite a bit for it to actually be close enough to F2. Plus often times when I send my bird on my target it’ll just stand there awkwardly to do it’s skill where it gives me swiftness when I really just want it to hurry the hell up and stick to my target so I can taunt.

To everyone else posting, thanks for your input, it really helped me see how ranger is perceived here. I guess all I can do is continue playing, swap to druid elite spec when the expansion hits, and hope the stigma doesn’t infect our elite spec as well :P

ragnarokda.1805:

Really wish people would describe the scenario where Taunt completely destroys them… Like, i can only think of a handful of situations that would facilitate a death because of taunt. And in most situations it involves a +1.

Agreed. I’m sure it’s annoying but I’ve found it to only net kills when the target is already outnumbered and it simply just secures a kill. That or if a super glassy thief spec gets caught out and I taunt them then Rapid Fire will usually kill them if they’re already hurt a bit. It may be bugged right now and it’s definitely great but I’m not seeing the same game breaking OP no-skill I-WIN button that others are seeing.

taunt for sure isn’t an I-WIN button. it works really nicely against thieves because you can 2-shot them if they don’t have their stun breakers up. but in general it’s not as on-demand as we’d like it to be. in fact, you can only do it once on-demand, and that’s when u swap pets in melee range. I really don’t understand the issue with this trait. rangers are still so lackluster.

Taunt actually is an “I win button” for experienced Rangers, in 1v1 situations.
I’m actually being serous about this.

Taunt needs reworking so that it is less effective in 1v1 and more effective in team fights “which is what the Ranger really needs”. Taunt should be removed and replaced with a small AoE CC such as a daze, stun or maybe even a fear.

Sorry you ran into a kitteny, ragey player.

But, in general, I don’t see rangers getting an unusual amount of hate. Most of it is centered on eles these days.

Trevor Boyer.6524:

Taunt actually is an “I win button” for experienced Rangers, in 1v1 situations.
I’m actually being serous about this.

Taunt needs reworking so that it is less effective in 1v1 and more effective in team fights “which is what the Ranger really needs”. Taunt should be removed and replaced with a small AoE CC such as a daze, stun or maybe even a fear.

In my experience against glass cannons it nets me a significant edge as it lets me usually follow it up with an unimpeded rapid fire which puts me ahead in the fight by quite a bit. With the exception of already-injured thieves, or already-REALLY injured other professions, it doesn’t make me win right off the bat. Just puts me ahead. The tankier someone is the less effective it seems to be as well.

Then again I’m also not very experienced, but I can’t imagine an experienced ranger would be able to do much more than me within the 2 second period of taunt unless I’ve been doing it wrong all this time and rapid fire actually ISN’T the move to be using in that situation. Not really sure, probably everyone in here has been pvping for longer than me :P

While I don’t think it’s an i-win button, it’s certainly powerful and I’m very glad I have access to it.

I didn’t read your post…just answering the question from my pov….

I main a Necro. 10 out of 10 times, I’m fighting in close and want to. I can’t stand the Ranger that just wants to pew pew from far away and keeps backing up. I understand strategy but spamming the # idk key only and that’s it is very lame. Typically, that person doesn’t kill me. I close the gap and stomp. It’s when you get 3-4 Rangers teaming up to cheese a fight.
m2c

kitten y Jerky.8462:

I didn’t read your post…just answering the question from my pov….

I main a Necro. 10 out of 10 times, I’m fighting in close and want to. I can’t stand the Ranger that just wants to pew pew from far away and keeps backing up. I understand strategy but spamming the # idk key only and that’s it is very lame. Typically, that person doesn’t kill me. I close the gap and stomp. It’s when you get 3-4 Rangers teaming up to cheese a fight.
m2c

For me it’s when a ranger +1s from a ledge off point.

I take it you would rather be +1 by a thief?

As long as the ranger contributes it’s all good.

On the other hand, this is Ranked play vs a team with 3 rangers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0dsUvOnOiI

Pretty standard experience from my PoV.

kitten y Jerky.8462:

I didn’t read your post…just answering the question from my pov….

I main a Necro. 10 out of 10 times, I’m fighting in close and want to. I can’t stand the Ranger that just wants to pew pew from far away and keeps backing up. I understand strategy but spamming the # idk key only and that’s it is very lame. Typically, that person doesn’t kill me. I close the gap and stomp. It’s when you get 3-4 Rangers teaming up to cheese a fight.
m2c

That # key would be our 1 key. Does more damage the further you are and if you’re max range it actually does some work. Pressuring from far away in big team fights seems to work out well for me, although of course I’m doing other things like Rapid Fire and my AOE barrage and pet taunts and all that, and not just letting my auto-attack go off.

Don’t forget bearbow rangers is the preferred class of (what must be) botters. Too many times I see some level 1 ranger in starter wardrobe do nothing but run to a cap, stand in the exact center, and autoattack whatever comes in range. After about a minute, the rest of the team leaves.

Problem with most ranger players i experienced is not that class itself is terrible but a lot of them just stand somewhere and spam 1-2…. they don’t cap, don’t rez teammates, don’t stomp, don’t bother use their pet for CC to help teammates etc. There are however few rangers that i really enjoyed playing with but they are rather exception

PvE: i just can’t describe how much i hate rangers in pve as melee class. You try to dps an NPC and ranger always has to spam their knockback forcing you to chase NPCs consistently and making killing of the NPc quite ineffective. Every time i asked rangers why are they doing it, the answer was: because i can. That was always reason for me to insta kick them.

Then there is also bearbow……… see the post above me.

The way I see it is rangers are like thieves – only 5% are useful. Most are braindead and are getting carried by their pets.

In a recent match at mid, after my necro downs 3, the idiot ranger stood at ledge and pew pewed instead of helping me stomp. I ended up getting downed and the idiot ranger still stood at ledge and pew pewed some more.

I play ranger too but at least I make an effort to be useful to the team. Heck, I even have a build where I use healing spring when going against condi heavy teams.