Guild Wars 2

I normally don’t take offence to trash talking, but this time was a little different and I can’t seem to shake it. Let’s just say this has ruffled my feathers.

I was enjoying some Soloq and I like to think that my making a rank 400 means that I’m not a total kitten at playing in tournies. All of this has been done on my ranger (not spirit build).

At the start of one match today, a teammate immediately wagers that I’m going to lose Home point to whoever our opponents were. Because I’m a ranger. I did a fantastic job holding the point, but I was pretty kitten ed off that I’d been ignorantly dismissed as a dead-weight to the team just because of a class that I happen to really enjoy and excel at.

Like what the hell. So, since I’ve been playing ranger mainly since the start of the game, I’m not sure what opinion to have of the class that wouldn’t be subjective. Tell me, what’s the truth? Are they only useful in peoples eyes if they run spirits? Because that in my opinion is one of the most boring builds available, and isn’t nearly one of the best rangers have.

Nah man. I guess I’m on a “top” team and I often run a 30/30/10 zerker build.

Some guy said you’re going to lose homepoint to whoever your opponents were on what is possibly the best homepoint class next to mesmer?

kittenin solo queue lol

Eurantien.4632:

Nah man. I guess I’m on a “top” team and I often run a 30/30/10 zerker build.

What role do you play in your team Eurantien? I am assuming it is not HP bunker with that build?

To OP- I think rangers are great; what build do you run to hold HP with?

The guy who said he plays zerker ranger is trolling.
I am 13 europe in solo q and zerker ranger is troll build just for fun.

Because if you are serious a zerker ranger is sub-optimal to any zerker thief mesmer, which are designed in core better for that burst role.

Ranger in its core is not designed for burst. Its design to be efficient-optimal is to be an offtank bunker.
Last thing to say is i have 3.500 matches with ranger and played since release

Nary Why Irk.8150:

The guy who said he plays zerker ranger is trolling.
I am 13 europe in solo q and zerker ranger is troll build just for fun.

Because if you are serious a zerker ranger is sub-optimal to any zerker thief mesmer, which are designed in core better for that burst role.

Ranger in its core is not designed for burst. Its design to be efficient-optimal is to be an offtank bunker.
Last thing to say is i have 3.500 matches with ranger and played since release

Actually its odd to be 13 europe in soloq and to not know Eura, im 76% in europe and i know very well Eura, as well as hes team.From when Defektive was playing a Warrior in a “warrriors are worthless” era..Defektive was using a stunlock build back then,long before the hambow Warrior appears….
Anyway, enough of me cheering for my favourite team..

He played Zerker Ranger against Helseth and his team in a recent tournament..And he kinda won Helseth in a 1v1 (hate to Muffinz for showing up there)..Dont know if you know Helseth but things like this arent happening with troll builds..

@OP
I feel that we, Rangers are getting a disrespectfull attitude in every game..“Bring Spirits or gtfo.”, “stay at homepoint and autoattack” , “What? a Power Ranger? ahahahaha”…
Its true that a Power Ranger isnt the best 1v1 class right now but can do a lot of hurting in the opposite team imo..

Helseth is actually bad.
I beat him multiple times in solo q direct duel.

Also saying that this guy beated helseth with a zerker ranger proves nothing.

And yes, thinks like that can happen with a troll build.
The difference is a troll build cant beat many situations while a serious build (spirit meta) can.

Warriors have been always in a good state before the ultra cheese buff they got.

And i have to say some of the people to blame for anet ultra buffing warrior is that defektive for his multiple posts crying about warrior forcing anet to buff him in his own interests.

Now what we got is an ultra cheese strong mode versatile class warrior.
When ranger is getting nerfs and is bound to build always offtank for being serious.

Nary Why Irk.8150
Helseth is actually bad.
I beat him multiple times in solo q direct duel.

I really want to see his reaction when he read this…
But probably you are trolling, and i fell for it

Since people like throwing out numbers. I’m 12 on team leaderboards NA atm and 67 solo queue and I only play power ranger in solo queue (Its really hard to carry in solo queue) I did do spirit ranger for awhile and I floated around the top 10 when I did that.

@ Yasha I do what needs to be done. I prefer to act as a roamer and just showing up to an even numbered fight and ending it quickly but since that is not always the case I am often decapping far 1 v 1ing there and/or 1 v 1ing at home depending on what decapped it. The main goal though is to hang back in a team fight and pew pew till I get pressured 1 v 1 by their DPS (like a thief) and then just face-roll the thief.

@Nary. Ummm. So this “troll build” aka zerker ranger can beat warriors 1 v 1, condi immune engis 1 v 1, and even most spirit rangers 1v1 while still being able to destroy any other zerker spec. Spirit ranger can’t do that…. since this will be a hot topic the key word in this paragraph is CAN. It CAN happen. Would one be able to play 30/30/10 zerk ranger tomorrow and do these things? No. Also, Defektive didn’t run healing signet. I don’t think any warrior build is OP without healing signet. Warrior NEEDED buffs and they got a great one with zerker stance (though the CD and duration should both be reduced by 75% to make it a skill shot) though, again, what makes them over the top is the healing signet/ unsuspecting foe (which was in there already, right?).

But in retrospec I didn’t answer the OP’s question. Yes, rangers are considered bad if they don’t run spirits (though i’d say BM could be good too). Every other build we have just is too high risk for not enough reward. Ya sure, I play a power ranger but every time I see one on another team I just laugh and say, “Hey team, they have a power ranger so focus him, power rangers suck.” That’s because the vast majority of players lack good awareness and positioning to be able to pull off builds that aren’t “meta”.

Good luck beating a top tier hambow with zerker ranger.
I really want to see that to have some good laughs
Youll have to pop stability elite and even in that case if they play defensive they will crush you when rao is over with 2-3 skills

Mesmer is not a har match up to ranger exactly.

Only warriors counter the ranger.
Anything else is skillwise bearable

Nary Why Irk.8150:

Good luck beating a top tier hambow with zerker ranger.
I really want to see that to have some good laughs
Youll have to pop stability elite and even in that case if they play defensive they will crush you when rao is over with 2-3 skills

Approximately 7 hours ago Qt Hman died 1 v 1 to me while he was playing hambow and I was zerker. Was a great fight. Don’t think he streams though

Several power rangers have been scouted floating around NA recently (most notably Steamhawke and our friend Eura here) and having played a bit of it myself (spirits are for chumps) I can say for sure it’s vastly underrated. Basically a superior version of old warrior.

You’ll just be about then suddenly bamn, swoop>stun>maul and you’re nearly dead. Still not fantastically strong and could do with subtle buffs, but writing off a power ranger is silly. I’d say they’re at least competitive with thieves and they can give a far, far stronger aid in a teamfight than a thief.

Take power ranger nowadays as serious as you may want.
Mesmer and thieves own better burst and engage/disengage mechanics.
Power ranger is not yet ready for serious play. It still needs some buffs

No. Steamhawke… no. That’s… no. No. Steamhawke is and engi. Who likes to run the most prehistoric power ranger. It’s just… no. No.

Nary Why Irk.8150:

Take power ranger nowadays as serious as you may want.
Mesmer and thieves own better burst and engage/disengage mechanics.
Power ranger is not yet ready for serious play. It still needs some buffs

Just needs some minor buffs. While these classes have better “burst” they do lack in that they both require to be in aoe cleave to do the most damage.

Eurantien.4632:

No. Steamhawke… no. That’s… no. No. Steamhawke is and engi. Who likes to run the most prehistoric power ranger. It’s just… no. No.

Yo I was just mentioning who I’ve seen running a power ranger. Like what he does or not, it’s a ranger and it’s using power damage, so…

To be honest I’m getting a similar feeling to what you guys are saying; the effort level I have to put into playing as a Power Ranger is just so much higher than anything else I’ve ever tried playing (Ham/Bow Cheese warriors, although thats a far extreme), and the results are that I’m coming up only slightly ahead of other classes despite grabbing every opportunity to come up ahead in a fight. Yes, I do agree that Power rangers can use little tweaks here and there and not major buffs and my playstyle is very similar to how Eura mentioned his playstyle is with the Power ranger.

Ham/bow warriors CAN be beaten on a power ranger, but the effort it takes to do it is just silly. By the time you get one of these guys down they’ll have support rolling in as well.

To me Rangers are the most fun class to play in this game.
They are pretty strong and can be really hard to beat.
It’s just people want it to be simple and kill foes with 1111 (Aka spirit ranger).

Hey Eura, whats your set up? If you don’t mind me asking. For the 30/30/10? Gear, etc.

My 30/30/10 zerk ranger: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Fg-o;1sEkx-d2JEV-0;9F5E;1TT9;007909B2;6U-k0;2G3G3G3G35Bn

How do you deal with conditions? Why Troll vs Spring?

Heal as one not Troll..I think is that regen sucks when you are squishy…you wont have the time to regen…
Eura knows better tho..
Dont expect some ways to “deal” with conditions :S, even with Healing Spring..

You deal with conditions with signet of renewal and your heal. That should allow you to eat 2 nasty condi procs (however if you fail a signet clear cause pet is out of range you’re dead). The rest is up to good dodges, stealth, CC, and blocks.

I tried it and it´s a completely troll and crap build for pvp ^^

Eurantien.4632:

You deal with conditions with signet of renewal and your heal. That should allow you to eat 2 nasty condi procs (however if you fail a signet clear cause pet is out of range you’re dead). The rest is up to good dodges, stealth, CC, and blocks.

I’m fairly new at playing the ranger (in sPVP) i usally main an ele, so pardon my ignorance….
What about swapping out the heal and Wolf pets for a Troll Unguent + Fern Hound(regen active) combo for sustain ?

Well if you use troll then you shouldn’t use QZ and I find QZ to be too valuable a utility to give up just so I can use a more sustainy heal. Also, you are so glassy anyway if you get hit you will pretty much die so an extra 2k heal won’t help much. Same thing goes for the fern hound. With no healing power on the fern hound you will get the 1k burst heal and then 130hp/s from the regen which won’t amount to much in the end. You’re better off sticking with spider and fear wolf to fear/immob who you’re fighting when you can’t to help mitigate damage instead of trying to heal through it with this build.

@ Nark. I respect your opinion but I disagree. I went to EU on a free weekend and was top 50 running that build. Maybe it’s “crap” but I find it much more enjoyable as it is a much higher skill floor/cieling than the majority of builds being run out there. It is those very same “cheez” builds that I would refer to as “crap” but to each his own.

Eurantien.4632:

Well if you use troll then you shouldn’t use QZ and I find QZ to be too valuable a utility to give up just so I can use a more sustainy heal. Also, you are so glassy anyway if you get hit you will pretty much die so an extra 2k heal won’t help much. Same thing goes for the fern hound. With no healing power on the fern hound you will get the 1k burst heal and then 130hp/s from the regen which won’t amount to much in the end. You’re better off sticking with spider and fear wolf to fear/immob who you’re fighting when you can’t to help mitigate damage instead of trying to heal through it with this build.

Good Point,
Thanks
-Count

I ran a ranger a lot when I first started off and they are often underestimated…but I’m not sure I would rate them that high as a difficult class to play in PvP. I mean, running a squishy power build is definitely harder than a lolspirit build, but compared to engineer and ele, it’s still pretty straight forward. I mean, I’d probably even rate a thief as harder to play well.

Dahkeus.8243:

I ran a ranger a lot when I first started off and they are often underestimated…but I’m not sure I would rate them that high as a difficult class to play in PvP. I mean, running a squishy power build is definitely harder than a lolspirit build, but compared to engineer and ele, it’s still pretty straight forward. I mean, I’d probably even rate a thief as harder to play well.

I think that is a difficult line to walk. While power ranger has the ability to DPS from a range and essentially avoiding fights while still dealing damage a thief does more damage and has way better escape than a power ranger does. But I think its along the same difficulty as other glassy specs and the only thing that makes it harder is the fact that for best efficiency in terms of DPS and survivability it requires some next level pet control and with a buggy AI that isn’t easy to do.

I used to run trap ranger in pvp but it has been many ranger nerfs and necro buffs since then. Everyone said they were useless even teams that lost said i was useless when i turned out to have the highest score. But the truth is their not. At least they have been good. I haven’t played ranger at all since shortbow got nerfed last time.

Dahkeus.8243:

I ran a ranger a lot when I first started off and they are often underestimated…but I’m not sure I would rate them that high as a difficult class to play in PvP. I mean, running a squishy power build is definitely harder than a lolspirit build, but compared to engineer and ele, it’s still pretty straight forward. I mean, I’d probably even rate a thief as harder to play well.

Apm is not the only factor in build difficulty. It’s one of them, but not the only one.

Glass ranger is pretty high on the unforgiving scale, which is another factor.

Variety of decisions/approaches to different situations is the third main factor in build skill floor/cap imo. Since I haven’t played glass ranger much, I can’t speak to that, but I imagine that there is no “standard” rotation, as some higher apm builds have.

NevirSayDie.6235:

Dahkeus.8243:

I ran a ranger a lot when I first started off and they are often underestimated…but I’m not sure I would rate them that high as a difficult class to play in PvP. I mean, running a squishy power build is definitely harder than a lolspirit build, but compared to engineer and ele, it’s still pretty straight forward. I mean, I’d probably even rate a thief as harder to play well.

Apm is not the only factor in build difficulty. It’s one of them, but not the only one.

Glass ranger is pretty high on the unforgiving scale, which is another factor.

Variety of decisions/approaches to different situations is the third main factor in build skill floor/cap imo. Since I haven’t played glass ranger much, I can’t speak to that, but I imagine that there is no “standard” rotation, as some higher apm builds have.

Well, it’s not really an issue of APM. There’s a bit less choice involved in what actions you perform with a ranger, partly because there are less abilities to choose from, but also because a lot of the abilities are so one dimensional. I mean, consider the ranger’s heals to an engineer’s healing skills, for instance.

Dahkeus.8243:

Well, it’s not really an issue of APM. There’s a bit less choice involved in what actions you perform with a ranger, partly because there are less abilities to choose from, but also because a lot of the abilities are so one dimensional. I mean, consider the ranger’s heals to an engineer’s healing skills, for instance.

Right. I’m not saying it’s the hardest spec, but even though I’ve only played a few games on glass ranger and a few on spirit ranger I know which one is harder. Engineer builds have high rate of actions, high rate of decisions, and some are also extremely unforgiving. So the builds with the highest skill floors/caps are probably engineer builds, although it’s hard to say exactly which build is the highest.

Eurantien.4632:

My 30/30/10 zerk ranger: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Fg-o;1sEkx-d2JEV-0;9F5E;1TT9;007909B2;6U-k0;2G3G3G3G35Bn

I used to run almost exactly that build at launch (except I used short bow instead of GS). I thought it was quite strong if I was left alone, but certain death once focused. I would love to see how you play it.

wait for the nerfing….December.

Nary Why Irk.8150:

I tried it and it´s a completely troll and crap build for pvp ^^

only skilled players like Eurantien can pull it off, maybe?

You’re just used to easy to run cheese builds perhaps.

@OP: There is a simple, yet a bit lenghty answer that works with several assumptions:

Rangers are perceived as OP, because playing a spirit ranger makes them easy yet brutally effective. Since such a large number of ranger players run spirits (especially the version running a shortbow), there is some depth to this statement. People in pvp (and especially those who take it a bit too seriously) tend to assume everybody would be running the apex spec for their class, since running a suboptimal build is wasting your class’ potential. Since you are playing a ranger, they assume you are a spirit ranger and their criteria learned over a span of many games are applied onto you. This usually means they think of you as a player (not yet knowing you are not specced into spirits) that is used to getting carried by his class (yes, spirit rangers with shortbow have no right to argue about that.. and in terms of why shortbow especially: well, it’s a weapon designed in such a way that auto-attacking alone provides the highest dps you can achieve and all other skills are optional/situational). This assumption of theirs is rooted deep in their subconscious and when they are told you do not play spirit ranger, their subconscious screams something along the lines: “omg it’s a bad player AND he’s not running a good build! we are kittened!”.

Hope my tiny bit of psychoanalysis helps you understand the problem ^^

alcopaul.2156:

Nary Why Irk.8150:

I tried it and it´s a completely troll and crap build for pvp ^^

only skilled players like Eurantien can pull it off, maybe?

You’re just used to easy to run cheese builds perhaps.

If you play that crap once someone focuses minor fire on you. You are dead. Its a paper ranger.
Take it as you want. That build is sub-optimal to spirit rangers and sub-optimal to any other serious build from other classes.

I couldnt care less about me being running spirits. Right now it is the most efficient build a ranger can run.
To let you know, I have 3.500+ matches with ranger and my degree of knowledge of the class, is at least respectable.
On another note:
When 12 months ago on november battosai used to be famous for running the power beastmaster, at that time i ran the condi bm. After time condi bm proved to be more optimal and synergized than power bm

what most people don’t know that spirit rangers can perform as a bunker, offensive and support. it can outperform all other ranger’s builds. nerfing it made a lot of rangers unhappy.

I play a ranger in sPVP and have never once ran a Spirit build. I am not going to say spirit builds are useless because I have watched the tournament streams and its easy to see how they are viable.

I don’t play them because I like playing my ranger differently. I started playing a ranger as a main before I ever looked at anyone’s build. For that reason my build would be considered odd but I have fun with it. I don’t think it is cookie cutter, and I don’t pretend it is optimal, but I have fun. If I was playing in a true tournament, maybe I would change things around depending on the rest of the team, but that is a case where my team is definite. If I am hot joining and SoloQ’ing then what does it really matter. Its not like anyone can determine every build that is going to be placed on your team. Every composition has a counter.

To the OP’er, let haters hate and hope you get the chance to play against them next game. Maybe you will win, maybe you won’t, but when you do it feels so much sweeter

I gotta admit that since reading this thread, I started messing around on my ranger again with a power build like the one Eurantien posted and it’s been pretty fun. It’s still not as reliable as just bringing in something like a Guardian bunker in terms of winning games, but it does work well.

@ Nary. You go down with focused the same as any other spec. You do have LR, swoop, and the block for disengage all of which you can use while stealthed. You can knockback from stealth turning your 3 seconds of taking little to no damage into 5 seconds which you can then follow up with some solid DPS. Not to mention once that 2 seconds knockback/down ends you can just chain them with a pet kd, fear, or immob extending the duration where they are dying and you are not. I’d say getting focused is what you want with this build. I WANT a dps on the other team to try to “train” me down so I can kill them easier. So the problem is not taking focus 1 v 1 but taking focus by multiple people. However, like I said earlier you do have tools to deal with that with stealth and disengage, also knockbacks on the z-axis. The greatest thing with this build is that people like to cap nodes and if there wasn’t a node to worry about this build would be much less effective against any sustained spec.

This build isn’t the most “optimal” or “efficient” when it comes to the ranger. I too played a power BM, not because it was more efficient but because I found it to be more fun and offer more utility than condi BM (ability to decap while maintaining a 10k burst that I could control… those were the days).

I don’t know… I don’t find it rewarding playing the most optimal build for ranger and beating everyone else. I much prefer to play something sub-par and still win. I will also always prefer more CC and damage over sustained evasion as it allows me to control the fight from the first moment. That is why when I must play spirits I don’t go settler’s a/d s/t (though that is the most optimal spec for rangers) I go rabid sb s/t. I guess in the end it comes down to personal preference.

I think that spirits just need to be flat out nerfed since they are just stupid AI. But then rangers should also be given more ways to survive as a zerker spec and just have more builds opened up for them

if you want to play to win, spirit ranger is the best option, as it offers the biggest potential out of all possible ranger builds currently. ( also it beats warriors and pretty much everything else in the game 1v1 – don’t go a/d and s/t though, it sucks)
if you want to play for fun – just play whatever build you want, it can be decently effective – from bleeding burst to power ranger, doesnt matter as it comes down to your team and your individual skill, being not only well-versed with the mechanics of the ranger class but positioning, awareness, communication and coordination as well, so even something subpar can be decent or decently viable.
then again, speaking about 1v1s rangers are usually really strong – no matter the build you run.
also running something that is not meta adds the element of surprise – so i was using power ranger every now and then as well during team queue, back when ranked queues were still around – and it worked, just for 1-2 matches though as people usually adapted fairly quickly to it.
if we ever get controllable pets ( moas please! ) valk power ranger is going to be the kitten. could work fairly well with fern hound now too, then again i’ve been saying that for months now – not going to write it down again.
also if you play spirit ranger your challenge shouldn’t be winning every 1v1, it’s supposed to be winning every 1v2 … well basically it’s 5v2 – you, your pet and 3 spirits vs 2 – just add quality to the quantity and profit

Just LB all time and kill a lot No need swap weapon :/
The class with more combo variations, resume to spam LB skills and wait pets, spirits and passive skills do all job

there is no doubt that Ranger LB need be tuned down. He just have all in one weapon:
- High damage and boost damage (long range shot and rapid fire for example).
- Control (point blank shot and barrage)
- Sustain (hunters shot)
- AoE (barrage)
- Insane range (1200 w/o trait and 1500 w/ trait)
All this with very low CD. No need trait, just go LB and run in circle :/

Battosai.5620:

also if you play spirit ranger your challenge shouldn’t be winning every 1v1, it’s supposed to be winning every 1v2 … well basically it’s 5v2 – you, your pet and 3 spirits vs 2 – just add quality to the quantity and profit

i agree. you can even beat 2 warriors at the same time if they are bad to mediocre players. lol