Guild Wars 2

Hey folks,

I have been casually looking through some of the WvW recruitment posts and have found that rangers are never among the options for available slots, especially in some of the more reputable guilds. I’ve also noted that they are scarce in GvG related videos. Whilst by no means exceptional i feel it can definitely contribute to a solid team, and have come across some incredibly strong rangers.

I have a ranger as one of my toons and rather enjoy it so am curious as to the hate.

Thoughts?

Rangers offer little to no group support or large AOE damage. The things they can do in those fields they are GREATLY outclassed in by other classes.

Rangers are by no means bad i’d say, But they are extremely single target DPS focused. The only time I could see one being used is as a peripheral player sniping lost necros and eles kiting the hammer train. Even then a thief outclasses them at that.

Because people take GWEN since it’s known…
Some guilds recruit rangers, (though more in EU than NA, apparently), but most are not imaginative enough to fit in a ranger…

The problem with ranger is a lack of focus coupled with a need for focus. Rangers have to spec heavily into something to be good at it, while other classes can typically match or surpass the ranger at the same job while doing other things as well.

A simple example would be trying to build a ranger for melee dps. You will dedicate most of your traits and all of your utilities to the role, but barely outdamage a shout warrior, while the shout warrior is tankier, has more soft and hard cc, provides aoe heals and condi clears, has blast finishers and can revive downed with warbanner. If a warrior had built for dps instead, while he would lose most of the utility of the shout warrior, he would still be tankier and more mobile than the ranger while also contributing nearly double the damage.

Ranger really only has potential for roaming and OS duelling. They are strong in 1v1, but lack group utility.

I really have a hard time imaging anything a Ranger would bring to a zerg, be it a role or a skill, that other classes couldn’t do better.

I know Rangers can be really good in sPvP and deal really good DPS in PvE. But none of that prowess translates into WvW where support and a strong niche or core-skill is more important than other factors.

I don’t imagine this will ever change due to the inherent nature of the class.

We bring bows and bears, sadly it’s considered so OP no one wants us.

No, rangers are overpowered… Just sit back and watch:

i have a ranger.

you just have to know what build to use effectively in a large scale combat. i use trapper’s build with axe/warhorn and greatbow.

Tbh im surprised as after talking with several guilds rangers can offer some brilliant abilities that no other class has.

i for one think healing spring is the best water field in the game as it can outheal any other waterfield skill even if they got blasted a few times.
entangle can be an amazing skill when organised to use it at the correct time.

people seem to get pigeonholled into this idea that they are poor and yet i see a few of them in most top guild groups because they have some really useful skills.

if anything i would say rangers have more of a use in general zerg and guild groups then thiefs do

Another note is that a traited ranger is really the only thing that can hit the inner cannons in Stonemist. I’m on a smaller server but I have seen several commanders call out for longbow rangers to hit those annoying cannons. I’ve thought in game about forming a party of entirely rangers when attacking SM to go around just focusing on that inner siege. Suffice to say that rangers do have their uses in World vs. World. Personally I like to think that everyone is jealous of the awesomeness that rangers provide but some people think them’s fightin words.

Personally, I think part of the hate is the fact that many rangers are bad players who come from pve and expect enemy players to behave like mobs in pve.

Pretty much anytime a ranger is tagging along with me, I get annoyed – most spam lb knockdown as soon as it goes of cooldown. This is really irritating to any melee class. In a zerg, I see commanders call for water on rams and almost all rangers use it everywhere except on rams.

Rangers can be useful but those are few.

Defense: Rangers make good bay defenders, plenty of choke points and high ledges for a zerk ranger to rain death on targets freely.

Roaming: Ranger make excellent condition roamers, 25 stacks of bleed in 5 seconds and a high bleed stack upkeep make killing necros and bunker wars with conditions a reality. That, and the ranger has the highest poison damage of any class along with decent mobility. Plenty of condition sources with low cool-downs that can be further complemented with sigils.

Direct zerg combat: I’ve seen ranger commanders before and they usually have an easy time staying up. On HoD the commander guy(some guy with aragorn in his name) was usually the last the go down. Getting a free evade every 3rd attack on your one skill is extremely useful in avoiding damage altogether. Not many sources of stability causes serious problems though, better off rolling a warrior here.

well, I read all you’v write above, I didn’t saw any ranger complaining about the fact Ranger should be a fighter for distance, so this means ARENA NET must do something regard this problem, we Rangers don’t have atm any good build for Longbow or Shortbow, not in sPVP not in WvW. Someone said most rangers are coming from pve area where the Longbow did a good dps and provide a safe distance, and I could say I’m agree with him. But GW2 don’t means only PVE, and I made a Ranger for fighting with Bow (Longbow or Short … most of time should be Longbow, because this should be the Ranger main weapon) in WvW and sPVP. It is stupid because of ARENA NET Rangers are forced to play with Greatsword (c’mon we are warrior?) , Sword, usual melee weapon. I played a lot of time World of Warcraft (more then 5 years), Rift, Tera and I don’t meet anywere this stupidity that a Hunter/Ranger should play with another wepon then Bow for higher dps. In most of the MMO games Hunter/Ranger provide a lot of CC and range damage because this is at least theoreticaly their jobs , for melee are others classes like warr, guardian, thief, assasin, etc … 1 year ago if I remember we had at least a good build, based on condition damage with shortbow … now we don’t have nothing

Ranger is a powerful profession whether people want to admit it or not. They are the 1v1 duelist profession and if used properly can provide a fair bit of group support. Unfortunately being a duelist in WvW doesn’t get you much unless you like to solo roam, even then you’re not going to always be fighting just one person, and in a zerg and/or havoc any other profession can fill the bill better than a Ranger can. Ranger was formerly my main and I love the profession to death. If played properly they can be a huge asset, especially in PvE dungeon runs where they’re actually one of the most useful in a speed clearing group composition. But as for WvW, well… They’re squishy, their pets die fast, Spirits are basically out of the question in anything larger than 4v4 and the only real AOE they have is Barrage which, although if timed right can be pretty awesome for crippling mass amounts of people, does little to no damage unless you’re full zerk. In which case you’ll probably die within 30second of zerg contact.

Basically… If you’re a Ranger in WvW you can do what ever you like as you’re entitled to play the game the way you enjoy it most. But if you want to be in any way effective you’re better off solo roaming because 1v1 the Ranger is second to none. You just better hope you can either get the hell away or you’re a kitten good Ranger if anyone else decides to join the fight.

A good commander will make use of a ranger if he really has to, but he will always ask them if they have an alt first.

Jeknar.6184:

No, rangers are overpowered… Just sit back and watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaWcAek5_JE

That guy never posts a build and hasn’t done a video since the patch… Hmmm….

atheria.2837:

Jeknar.6184:

No, rangers are overpowered… Just sit back and watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaWcAek5_JE

That guy never posts a build and hasn’t done a video since the patch… Hmmm….

He wasn’t a serious roamer. I believe he made that vid only to troll.

Well, i think a ranger should reply to this thread:
Yea, we can be out DPs by almost any melee class. But we are not really meant to be a melee class. Rangers who are used effectively are a support class, not front combat. If you want a ranger in front combat then you need VPT armor and there goes all your DPS.

Support classes tend to be glassy, but are in essence a mobile arrow cart. Longbow 5 and you lock down a spot for a few seconds. coordinate that among several rangers and you can get a choke the zerg can use to its advantage. Also, zergs tend to move in straight lines, typically at 90 degree angles. being away from the main group we can see that and predict it. when the flow (push) ends and an ebb(heal) starts we can focus the edge and burn down 2-3 people as a group. do this a few times and the zerg reaches critical mass and breaks.

Rangers are not week by any means, we just need to be utilized better.

Awavian.1549:

Another note is that a traited ranger is really the only thing that can hit the inner cannons in Stonemist.

False. Grenade Engis can hit it too.

lioka said it better but the answer to the title question is, basically Yes.

I’ve seen some incredible ranger players in WvW and pvp. But the issue is that those same players can do so much more on a thief, mesmer, or an engi, or on a GWEN class when it comes to WvW.

Rangers have to work twice as much to be half as effective. I have seen some awesome rangers including one from the Pro guild on FA last night. However anyone that can put up a decent fight in the ranger class is going to be terrifying in another class… absolutely terrifying.

Virtually anything a ranger does some other class does better and significantly easier.

shadowraiden.8394:

Tbh im surprised as after talking with several guilds rangers can offer some brilliant abilities that no other class has.

i for one think healing spring is the best water field in the game as it can outheal any other waterfield skill even if they got blasted a few times.
entangle can be an amazing skill when organised to use it at the correct time.

people seem to get pigeonholled into this idea that they are poor and yet i see a few of them in most top guild groups because they have some really useful skills.

if anything i would say rangers have more of a use in general zerg and guild groups then thiefs do

Which useful skills? Name something other than Healing Spring and Entangle. There are very few things a ranger can do for their group. And everything they have, another class can do better while having access to more stuff.

Oh, ranger water field lasts longer, sure. Eles bring 2 water fields they can place at range. And it doesn’t matter how long that field lasts when blasting any water field usually overheals the whole raid, especially when you combine it with Empower heals (you should).

Uh, I guess you can stand in a ranger field and keep getting healed. That sounds like a really dumb idea unless the enemy group is asleep. Being immobile just to make the most of a marginal heal is a quick wipe.

So you’ve got Entangle left. It’s not bad if you have multiple rangers chain it. But that would require bringing multiple rangers, a subpar class until they get to use that trick. And that trick is not on a short cooldown. Other classes have similar abilities, except with much shorter cooldowns. At range. And they can stay alive between their cooldowns.

The moment I saw a bearbow commander….

Anyway I love my trapper ranger. True that it’s not made for zergs but when I roam there aren’t that many people who can kill me. I tried Thief and warrior. Still like ranger. More to think about. Anyone can get a zerker warrior and press 2. A thief is annoying and I’m not sure who they are good in zergs.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Ranger is a powerful profession whether people want to admit it or not. They are the 1v1 duelist profession and if used properly can provide a fair bit of group support. Unfortunately being a duelist in WvW doesn’t get you much unless you like to solo roam, even then you’re not going to always be fighting just one person, and in a zerg and/or havoc any other profession can fill the bill better than a Ranger can. Ranger was formerly my main and I love the profession to death. If played properly they can be a huge asset, especially in PvE dungeon runs where they’re actually one of the most useful in a speed clearing group composition. But as for WvW, well… They’re squishy, their pets die fast, Spirits are basically out of the question in anything larger than 4v4 and the only real AOE they have is Barrage which, although if timed right can be pretty awesome for crippling mass amounts of people, does little to no damage unless you’re full zerk. In which case you’ll probably die within 30second of zerg contact.

Basically… If you’re a Ranger in WvW you can do what ever you like as you’re entitled to play the game the way you enjoy it most. But if you want to be in any way effective you’re better off solo roaming because 1v1 the Ranger is second to none. You just better hope you can either get the hell away or you’re a kitten good Ranger if anyone else decides to join the fight.

What? 1 v 1 duellist?!@$!# you got to be kidding. I roam 99.9% of the time, I have in the last 3 month meet a grand total of 1 ranger that beat me. The only reason he beat me was because he ran a very situational build once we started proper duelling it didn’t work any more. I don’t zerg so I can’t tell you if they are any good in large scale fights. But in 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 rangers are totally kitten. Pet AI is the problem with the whole class,

a good ranger can beat a thief 1v1. we have stun on our shortbow which will hinder a thief to stealth and we also have rapid fire that can track a thief on stealth. i dont mean to brag but the percentage of me beating a thief 1v1 in wvw is fairly high.

Valentin.2073:

a good ranger can beat a thief 1v1. we have stun on our shortbow which will hinder a thief to stealth and we also have rapid fire that can track a thief on stealth. i dont mean to brag but the percentage of me beating a thief 1v1 in wvw is fairly high.

That’s what a lot of people in this thread are saying though – you could probably be more effective on another class if you chose to do so, since you may be an above average player on a below average class.

Valentin.2073:

a good ranger can beat a thief 1v1. we have stun on our shortbow which will hinder a thief to stealth and we also have rapid fire that can track a thief on stealth. i dont mean to brag but the percentage of me beating a thief 1v1 in wvw is fairly high.

Thieves will almost always have the upper hand in that fight given relatively equal skill. Condi-thieves are far more brutal than condi-rangers. Evasion SB power thieves are evil… just evil. D/P thieves are somewhat laughable but annoying and won’t die unless they play poorly. The fight might come out a draw but that is the best you can hope for with equally skilled players against a D/P. D/D is on the decline thanks to ferocity changes but still dangerous.

The types of skills that Rangers have don’t lend themselves well to WvW.

The Ranger is the pet class, a skirmishing class, and a survival class that focuses on single target damage. They survive through good positioning and evasion, as well as good stats. They’re weak to CC (both hard and soft), condition burst, and don’t fight outnumbered very well at all.

In roaming in WvW, they’re generally outclassed by most other professions. The reason for this is:
-They don’t have many ‘outs’ like Stealth or tons of mobility. While Rangers do have a moderate amount (Sword and GS have good mobility), it’s generally not enough to outright outrun something.
-Their playstyle doesn’t lend itself to fighting multiple opponents. They have poor AoE damage but very good single target damage. WvW generally turns into fights with several opponents and in those cases, the Ranger is easily focused down and killed.
-The Ranger has poor access to active condition cleansing and stunbreakers, and very little access to Stability. This makes them incredibly easy to CC (soft or hard) to death.
-Other classes can capitalize on how overpowered Conditions are better than Ranger does.

In Zergs, Rangers just don’t have the skill sets that lend themselves to the way large WvW zergs have developed. Guardians and Warriors have great cleave damage, access to stability, and high inherent survivability. Elementalists have some of the best AoE spells in the game with Static Field (no target limit), Meteor Shower, and Water fields that give the Hammer Train its sustain. Necromancers have crazy strong AoE damage with Wells and Deathshroud and good CC with Staff. Rangers generally get run over thanks to their lack of stability and their damage is generally single target in nature or weaker if it’s AoE (such as GS cleave). Also, first and foremost, a Ranger’s mechanic is their Pet, which gets eaten up in a Zerg fight.

Ultimately, Rangers just don’t do well in WvW. But don’t let that fact make you feel that Rangers themselves are bad. In sPvP and PvE, the Ranger is very strong. WvW’s balance is just screwed up, but the class, when in ‘fair’ fighting situations, excels and is able to support a team well thanks to the assistance of their Pet (felines do tons of damage in PvE and canines are crazy good CC in PvP) and the buffs they give out (frost spirit significantly increases group DPS in PvE and sun spirit significantly increases group DPS in PvP).

The main problem with rangers in WvW, whether you’re considering zerging, small group play, or solo roaming is that there’s not a single thing they are superior at. Not much use at all in GWEN hammer trains besides a water field, or maybe downing a player or two playing a zerker long bow, but that’s not terribly useful if you aren’t really pushing full kills or stomps, and are liable to be a rally bot yourself. Condi roamers are completely outclassed by the perplexity trio (thief, mesmer, engi). Power roamers can be ok, and you will occasionally see a good ranger in a small group that really surprises players, and can do extreme damage to players trying to reposition under pressure or run away.

2nd post:kittenforum for eating my former post!

You can say whatever you want… I feel confident while playing ranger in zergs… Sorry for you zerg means “stay at the blue thingy and hit 1”… this is GW… about the EN side I can kill the most of them or make them retreat ASAP. A retreating ele or necro does no damage to my group. Thanks for God the commanders here in EU are not against the ranger profession. And non of the zerk-builded GWEN wants to meet a ranger on the way back to his group… Sure a thief can kill them faster but killed by a ranger is more painful

Wow some really insightful posts. Perhaps Anet may actually have a scan over them…

Kind of annoyingly amusing for me though, never been a hardcore WvWer but being a roamer has always worked out as my 80’s are the non GWEN classes.

My main is a Ranger. I rotate between longbow/shortbow and longbow/warhorn-axe for WvW, depending on the situation-zerg size-etc, and longbow/greatsword(normally PvE)

I don’t have much problem running with the zerg in WvW. I play ranged support the majority of the time, and there are usually a couple rangers there who are doing the same(unless the zerg is really small…then there’s usually only 1 or 2 rangers). If ranged support is played well on a ranger or 2 or 3, with a well run and organized zerg, it seems to me that us rangers can provide some real problems to enemy zergs.

Of course, you never want to use knockdown in the zerg, as that is the quickest way to tee off other players…..one learns that very quickly……lol. But barrage seems to work well in a lot of situations.

Normally, my survivability is decent enough where I can pull away from the zerg as they engage an enemy zerg and provide some effective long ranged support. Of course, one has to be very careful where you put yourself outside the zerg,(terrain awareness is very important on a ranger, imo) and you gotta be ready to move a lot and quickly and use those survival skills like crazy and have your head on a swivel all the time. This, of course, works much better when you have another couple rangers who are doing the same, as then the enemy won’t have such an easy time zeroing in on ya. Rangers are also very effective in keep and tower defenses….it’s a ton of fun taking down/bothering those squishies running around below the walls.

Of course, there are quite a few classes that are much more powerful/versatile than my ranger, but it truly can be a ton of fun to play in WvW, as it can be extremely challenging, and very rewarding when you play one smartly.

And yea, my ranger is not terribly good in 1v1 combat in WvW(not so much because of my class, but rather that I need to get better/smarter at it)…….I can usually last long enough and give the other player enough problems where another member in the zerg can get to me and help by that point. I have taken down a few 1v1, but generally am not very good in melee, unless I can get a good stun off with my shortbow, or use my survival skills well enough where I can put some distance between me and the attacker. Sometimes the pet works well, sometimes it doesn’t…..lol. I think that would be my real problem with the ranger…..the pet ai could be better. And yea, bears and cats work great…..and spiders are also fun to play around with.

Rangers might not be the ideal class to play in WvW, but they sure can be an awful lot of fun! I love my ranger in both WvW and PvE.

There is one thing ranger can beat everyone with, spirits. If you run a spirit regen build and are very good with it, you can be a major support, as you can out regen regen warriors, provide AoE burning, and other things. However, a warrior an do this almost as well with more Condi dps. However, never compare yourself to a warrior because warriors are stupidly good at everything.

oscuro.9720:

There is one thing ranger can beat everyone with, spirits. If you run a spirit regen build and are very good with it, you can be a major support, as you can out regen regen warriors, provide AoE burning, and other things. However, a warrior an do this almost as well with more Condi dps. However, never compare yourself to a warrior because warriors are stupidly good at everything.

Warriors are stupidly strong at base level but suck at improving anything not related to direct damage. Condi warriors make me laugh. They got good condi damage all right, but they are so darn easy to predict that they just doesnt feel like a threat anymore. Kinda like medi guard. Nasty build but that rotation is so obvious.

Ranger is sgrong if you got any clue at all of what you are doing. If you don’t know what you are doing, then it is a very unforgiving class to play. Also, people tend to play it wrong. They roll ranger cuz of "range"r, thus wielding bows. They don’t get it that the ranged weapons on ANY profession in this game is just supplementary to the “main” weaponset.
Also people seem to think that you can build a ranger like a warrior, and that aslong as you have 6 points in wilderness survival, you have a good build. People also seem to think that if you do not have 6 points in wilderness survival, your build is completely unviable and every “pro” and “experienced” forum ranger will slaughter your build.

When it comes to ranger, most of its potential falls under the infamous “L2P” category

Mogar.9216:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Ranger is a powerful profession whether people want to admit it or not. They are the 1v1 duelist profession and if used properly can provide a fair bit of group support. Unfortunately being a duelist in WvW doesn’t get you much unless you like to solo roam, even then you’re not going to always be fighting just one person, and in a zerg and/or havoc any other profession can fill the bill better than a Ranger can. Ranger was formerly my main and I love the profession to death. If played properly they can be a huge asset, especially in PvE dungeon runs where they’re actually one of the most useful in a speed clearing group composition. But as for WvW, well… They’re squishy, their pets die fast, Spirits are basically out of the question in anything larger than 4v4 and the only real AOE they have is Barrage which, although if timed right can be pretty awesome for crippling mass amounts of people, does little to no damage unless you’re full zerk. In which case you’ll probably die within 30second of zerg contact.

Basically… If you’re a Ranger in WvW you can do what ever you like as you’re entitled to play the game the way you enjoy it most. But if you want to be in any way effective you’re better off solo roaming because 1v1 the Ranger is second to none. You just better hope you can either get the hell away or you’re a kitten good Ranger if anyone else decides to join the fight.

What? 1 v 1 duellist?!@$!# you got to be kidding. I roam 99.9% of the time, I have in the last 3 month meet a grand total of 1 ranger that beat me. The only reason he beat me was because he ran a very situational build once we started proper duelling it didn’t work any more. I don’t zerg so I can’t tell you if they are any good in large scale fights. But in 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 rangers are totally kitten. Pet AI is the problem with the whole class,

That’s because unless you’ve been living under a rock you should know that Ranger’s attract the worst community of players. They’re very difficult to play properly and 95% of the people that use the profession use it completely wrong. The one’s that have any kind of clue how to actually use it will wipe the floor with any other profession in the game in a 1v1 scenario. I am by no means what-so-ever an astounding Ranger, but I’m confident that I know how to use it better than the majority of players I come across. And I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I have, and never will be, afraid to engage in a duel on my Ranger.
Also, as more than a few people have said in the past, a big part of the problem with the profession is that people use it assuming bows are going to be their primary weapon and force themselves to use LB even when they’re losing every skirmish they get in to. LB can be great if used properly but it’s really, really not meant for duels… I think a lot of people are thinking Archer and not Ranger.

Jackums.3496:

Condi bunker Rangers are incredibly powerful in duels.

That’s about it. The profession is generally lackluster in every other aspect of WvW.

Depends on two factors.

Group/zerg size and your expected function.
50 man zerg with 1-3 rangers. You wouldnt notice anything in particular except a few more theives then usual, following the zergs tail

15 man group with 1-2 rangers. You would certainly notice the boons, cc and suppressive fire.

Rangers, like any other profession is good if you build around their functions according to number of people involved.
1 ranger, or any other profession, can only hope to reliably buff 5 players due to aoe cap. This statement however does not apply to line or pulsing field buffs such as veil, spectral wall, symbol of swiftness, healing spring, shadow refuge, hallowed ground, null field and healing rain.

If you had built a 50 man zerg with equal number of rangers scaling with other support/offensive functions. You’d realize that all in all, you can build a zerg to have full GWEN capability simply by using rangers, engies and mesmers. Sadly you wuold not be able to form a hammertrain with that setup. But you could form a aoe+cc+boinrip+cleave+mass waterfieldblasting train from it.

REGARDLESS, people will play the profession they want. And not everyone enjoy the same stuff.

I enjoy the ranger because of the dynamics of a huge selection of functions and the way you cannot just sit back and win by default due to poor design and balance.

Grumpdogg.6910:

A good commander will make use of a ranger if he really has to, but he will always ask them if they have an alt first.

If he asks them if they have an alt first then he isn’t a good commander.
A good commander will make use of whatever resources are available to do his best to get the job done.
If you aren’t up to tagging up then you shouldn’t buy it.

Roe.3679:

Valentin.2073:

a good ranger can beat a thief 1v1. we have stun on our shortbow which will hinder a thief to stealth and we also have rapid fire that can track a thief on stealth. i dont mean to brag but the percentage of me beating a thief 1v1 in wvw is fairly high.

That’s what a lot of people in this thread are saying though – you could probably be more effective on another class if you chose to do so, since you may be an above average player on a below average class.

Just beacuse someone is good with one class doesn’t mean that they would be good with others. Every class requires differences in playstyle and attitude some of which may not work for some people.

Nidome.1365:

Just beacuse someone is good with one class doesn’t mean that they would be good with others. Every class requires differences in playstyle and attitude some of which may not work for some people.

and that pretty much sums up how this game works. +1

ceejay.2517:

Wow some really insightful posts. Perhaps Anet may actually have a scan over them…

Kind of annoyingly amusing for me though, never been a hardcore WvWer but being a roamer has always worked out as my 80’s are the non GWEN classes.

as it should be. Roaming is all class friendly.

Main build difference being that when roaming, you’re concerned for yourself.

When zerging, your build concern is keeping the folks next to you up and going.

Nidome.1365:

Just beacuse someone is good with one class doesn’t mean that they would be good with others. Every class requires differences in playstyle and attitude some of which may not work for some people.

If someone is “good” with a Ranger, it is a very safe bet they will be better with any number of other classes. The Ranger is an awkward class that doesn’t have good synergy with other classes. Take almost any effective Ranger build, you can find a similar play style in another class and that other class will be more effective at it.

Ranger? You mean, free kill?

Jedge.3619:

Ranger? You mean, free kill?

and the reason so many people think Rangers are bad… when you run into one that is hard to kill it is a complete surprise since most drop fast or do no damage.

Jackums.3496:

Condi bunker Rangers are incredibly powerful in duels.

That’s about it. The profession is generally lackluster in every other aspect of WvW.

Condi rangers also excel at flipping camps and soloing towers (and with some skill, luck and time, keeps) They never go amiss in small havok squads for quickly flipping things while the main zerg defends/attacks higher profile targets.

That said, in a zerg, a ranger can survive just as well as other classes and a well placed entangle on an unprepared enemy zerg can slow them down considerably.

TL/DR for the whole thread:

• Rangers are good in small scale environement (ranging from solo to maybe 5v5)
• Rangers are meh in a pug zerg… But then again, everyone is meh in a pug zerg…
• Rangers are subpar in the organizated guild raid scenario, just as Engineers and thieves. Because they can’t give you as much boons as a guardian, give a lot of cc as a warrior, have high damage aoe and still be able to set down fire and water fields as a elementalist, and they don’t have boon striping like necros… That’s why every guild runs GWEN or even some running GWEM (Mesmer instead of Necro).

Straegen.2938:

Jedge.3619:

Ranger? You mean, free kill?

and the reason so many people think Rangers are bad… when you run into one that is hard to kill it is a complete surprise since most drop fast or do no damage.

You mean the insane healing ranger or tanky condi bunker? If we’re talking zergs, useless. Roaming or Duels maybe. Spvp yes.

psizone.8437:

That said, in a zerg, a ranger can survive just as well as other classes and a well placed entangle on an unprepared enemy zerg can slow them down considerably.

No… just no. Entangle is one of the worst elites in the game. Long cool down, its bonuses completely disappear with condi-cleanse and it only effects 5 people. Its greatest sin, keeping players from one of the best elites in the game. Warriors laugh as soon as that thing fires since all you did was drop a regen heal on them most of the time.

As soon as I see a ranger drop that elite I know one thing… they don’t have easy access to stability. 20s of stability/fury/swiftness for an immobilize/bleed… Seriously?

Jedge.3619:

Straegen.2938:

Jedge.3619:

Ranger? You mean, free kill?

and the reason so many people think Rangers are bad… when you run into one that is hard to kill it is a complete surprise since most drop fast or do no damage.

You mean the insane healing ranger or tanky condi bunker? If we’re talking zergs, useless. Roaming or Duels maybe. Spvp yes.

But most classes are pretty useless in zergs. If you’re not a hammer-warrior, guardian or elementalist then you’re not going to be much use in that environment, it’s not specific to rangers.