Guild Wars 2

DeamonSamurai.6504:

Personally I do have a ranger, and yes I have played it in WvW, the good point is that they can reach most anything on a wall for coverage purposes. But overall the Ranger needs to be re-worked to better take advantage of the Ranger roll. since the patch it seems to me that the ranger traits have become more spread out that can be effectively used to build a strong character. When I think of ranger I think of range, therefore the use of bows, and guns. Not greatswords like every other class in the game. If you’re not using a GS you’re not putting out Max damage. As mentioned above piercing should be a natural for rangers, as well as velocity, and just maybe the skills to be close to using ice bows, since bows are our trademark, thats where the power should be.

I find it ironic that everyone assumes dangers should use bows, when Rangers in fiction and reality never used bows.

Did you ever see Aragorn use a bow?

I just stay on the edge of the zerg to just tab cycle through targets just to pew pew light armor. I also would have a ton of evade/stunbreakers utlities and skills.

I also carry three different armors and 4 different class of weapons.

I’d play melee, but I just get all confused in the mob and I cant see what I am doing.

Wanderer.3248:

DeamonSamurai.6504:

Personally I do have a ranger, and yes I have played it in WvW, the good point is that they can reach most anything on a wall for coverage purposes. But overall the Ranger needs to be re-worked to better take advantage of the Ranger roll. since the patch it seems to me that the ranger traits have become more spread out that can be effectively used to build a strong character. When I think of ranger I think of range, therefore the use of bows, and guns. Not greatswords like every other class in the game. If you’re not using a GS you’re not putting out Max damage. As mentioned above piercing should be a natural for rangers, as well as velocity, and just maybe the skills to be close to using ice bows, since bows are our trademark, thats where the power should be.

I find it ironic that everyone assumes dangers should use bows, when Rangers in fiction and reality never used bows.

Did you ever see Aragorn use a bow?

He used a short bow in the Mines of Moira. Funny how Anet called the rangers the “unparalleled archers”, then nerfed short bow to the ground and long bow is still meh after all these years.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Banzie.5248:

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.

Not to mention other classes do that better.

I think rangers need a remake. They are not masters at what they should be and that is single target ranged DPS nuke. They need actual damage skills, rather than the crap they have now. Alot of the utility skills are meh.

Good luck finding anything in this game with better ranged dps. Warrior killshot? If the huge target around your feet isnt giveaway enough to dodge, you should just quit the game… staff ele dps? Its 90% big visible red circles, easy to avoid with minimal effort.
Dodging a rangers ranged dps is pointless because the dps is on the aa, not on the other skills. Therefore dodging the aa only prolong your suffering by 3-4 seconds.

Prysin.8542:

Good luck finding anything in this game with better ranged dps. Warrior killshot? If the huge target around your feet isnt giveaway enough to dodge, you should just quit the game… staff ele dps? Its 90% big visible red circles, easy to avoid with minimal effort.

Meteor Shower does not proc circles… it is actually a very powerful skill that is responsible for some of the highest spike DPS in the game. Backing this point up is the GWEN skill group model… if rangers were superior range damagers it would be called GWRN.

psizone.8437:

I disagree with it being criminal, RAO is very useful for it’s stability and the might (swiftness isn’t particularly needed and fury isn’t a dealbreaker with a condi build), but entangles bleed and immobilize is nothing to scoff at if it hits. Yes, some warriors (and other classes) are able to counter it at times, but the ranger has access to other attacks, too, so missing with it isn’t the end of the world. (it’s timer is 2 minutes with the reduced recharge trait)

Keep in mind Entangle is foiled by any number of mechanisms (block, condi removal, blind, etc). If you have not seen the importance of swiftness, stability, fury and might generation on both the Ranger and its pet in a fight you should try that skill again.

psizone.8437:

When I roam on my ranger I usually have entangle on because I know that most classes I’ll run into are quite susceptible to a well placed entangle.

Against a skilled opponent Entangle will have little effect. RaO on the other hand can easily give the Ranger an upper hand against a skilled opponent. Entangle works well against scrub players but a Ranger shouldn’t need it to dispatch them. Entangle is deceptively useless.

Meteor shower does proc a circle now. Read patch notes.
Meteor shower is very rng and more often then not you hit your intended target less then you need it to hit. Barrage does need a coefficient/shot increase though. Not denying that. The only reason meteor shower is good is that each meteor individually is limited by the aoe cap and not the entire skill.

Rangers aren’t bad. I love playing against them.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARTnMqQvgWLIWsAXLGAToaPALbA86GcHCNwEnyHuyaqA-w

Soldier gear, pick up any rune you want.

Wanderer.3248:

DeamonSamurai.6504:

Personally I do have a ranger, and yes I have played it in WvW, the good point is that they can reach most anything on a wall for coverage purposes. But overall the Ranger needs to be re-worked to better take advantage of the Ranger roll. since the patch it seems to me that the ranger traits have become more spread out that can be effectively used to build a strong character. When I think of ranger I think of range, therefore the use of bows, and guns. Not greatswords like every other class in the game. If you’re not using a GS you’re not putting out Max damage. As mentioned above piercing should be a natural for rangers, as well as velocity, and just maybe the skills to be close to using ice bows, since bows are our trademark, thats where the power should be.

I find it ironic that everyone assumes dangers should use bows, when Rangers in fiction and reality never used bows.

Did you ever see Aragorn use a bow?

Didn’t see Aragorn (the real one from LOTR) in WvW, so am sort of struggling on your reasoning.

If you had a line up of the usual suspects of all the classes on a cap point, ask a thief which one it would head hunt first>>
I loved the idea of the ranger class, and struggled with it in WvW for a very, very long time, but at the end of the day I had to say, ‘reality check’. I got fed up with the same lame excuses about rangers, so moved on. why choose a limited class, when the other classes offer so much more?

Shadey Dancer.2907:

If you had a line up of the usual suspects of all the classes on a cap point, ask a thief which one it would head hunt first>>
I loved the idea of the ranger class, and struggled with it in WvW for a very, very long time, but at the end of the day I had to say, ‘reality check’. I got fed up with the same lame excuses about rangers, so moved on. why choose a limited class, when the other classes offer so much more?

…because playing Ranger = Expert Mode in GW2

Sreoom.3690:

Shadey Dancer.2907:

If you had a line up of the usual suspects of all the classes on a cap point, ask a thief which one it would head hunt first>>
I loved the idea of the ranger class, and struggled with it in WvW for a very, very long time, but at the end of the day I had to say, ‘reality check’. I got fed up with the same lame excuses about rangers, so moved on. why choose a limited class, when the other classes offer so much more?

…because playing Ranger = Expert Mode in GW2

You forgot the mandatory LTP. Your welcome to think that, and good luck to you, your going to need it!
(level 80—err—oh ye—-everything!)

I played ranger for a long time in WvW. I could solo flip camps, tower lords and won plenty of 1v1 against other classes. It has many disadvantages, no decent escape rope, no decent stealth, the aoe is too tight and the weapon choices are kind of lackluster.

Ranger is a good 1v1 class, sometimes a good 1v2 class when your opponents are both melee and also just poor players. May be an unpopular view but I don’t mind rangers, and most of the complaints about rangers should be addressed to individual players being terrible. Rangers can be decent anti periphery if the player has good positioning, they are generally pretty dodgy when it comes to the melee (low stab, low CC, low damage), and they don’t offer enough AoE damage to be decent in the midline. Most of the time rangers that try to do both of these roles just end up as rally-bait and thats why commanders like to give them grief.

Take away is though, if you die all the time as a ranger don’t play the class – if you know your role and your positioning isn’t horrible there isn’t really anything wrong with it.

I have every class at lvl 80 and geared. No main so I play most of my classes to some degree…

There are REALLY good rangers out there. The issue as other have pointed out on a scale of 1-10 a GREAT ranger being a 9… would mean that player is good and if he spent the same time with any other class… he could be a 10. The ranger simply lacks compared to other classes… and now with shortbow nerfed its not even a great ranger. Warrior is better longbow user and thief is more damaging and group support then a shortbow ranger.

Its amazing that Ranger was already considered the bottom of the list for WvW classes and then its gets nerf every patch.

Ostra.3927:

I have every class at lvl 80 and geared. No main so I play most of my classes to some degree…

There are REALLY good rangers out there. The issue as other have pointed out on a scale of 1-10 a GREAT ranger being a 9… would mean that player is good and if he spent the same time with any other class… he could be a 10. The ranger simply lacks compared to other classes… and now with shortbow nerfed its not even a great ranger. Warrior is better longbow user and thief is more damaging and group support then a shortbow ranger.

Its amazing that Ranger was already considered the bottom of the list for WvW classes and then its gets nerf every patch.

Warrior longbow doesn’t even stand up to ranger longbow anymore. Stop spreading misinformation.

Nick.6972:

Rangers aren’t bad. I love playing against them.

Pretty much this. Rangers are great for the other team to have. In your team, not only do they bring very little to the table, they can actually hurt your group through their pets and Point Blank Shot spam.

YES. 10 characters

There are a number of decent rangers, but a vast majority in WvW are TERRIBLE. The ranger being a harder class to master/traits in too many trees to be effective makes the unskilled ranger much more prominent in portraying rangers as being poor in WvW.

Most of these rangers stay in longbow, don’t know how to dodge, mostly stand still and die so fast since they are in full zerker with full damage traits and no survivability. We all know these bowbear rangers who are so predictable that they may as well be a PvE monster. If you die to this type of player, you are either terrible or fell asleep on your keyboard. They are that bad.

Good rangers can and will engage in melee and be effective at it. I’ve seen some decent dual bow users too, but they are extremely few and far between. Most exceptional rangers will use swords/dagger or sword/torch. These type of rangers can 1vsX or escape situations and even mob trains with their various types of escape/dodges. They are great at kiting the enemy around while maintaining their survivability. Greatsword allows for this too, but not nearly as well as the sword/x weapon ranger.

Like what many people have said as well, the ranger class is good 1vs1 and do have a place in zerg skirmishes if they are utilized to hone in on staff eles on enemy zergs, beyond that they aren’t used nearly as much since the water field, while great, is on too long of a cool down to be as useful as other classes who do it better.

Ostra.3927:

Warrior is better longbow user and thief is more damaging and group support then a shortbow ranger.

I play both a warrior and a thief and I have to agree – ranger got the short end of the stick for both bows.

Banzie.5248:

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.

sooo much truth in this.rangers dont have any real wvw build out there and lack a role in a group. i main a mes and we got the same issue…we are utility bots and the only reason we bring a mesmer is because of veil.

i mean i know ranger can hit someone hard with rapidfire…and thats about it. i see a few traps here and there, but it tickles me more than anything else. people say, well u can gank backline…yea thats a thieves role.
also as a ranger…try to shoot at a zerg..so many reflects will make it hard for him to hit.
mes has similar issues. we lack a role.(veil is not a role and corrupt boon outclasses our boonstrips by far)

and rangers have it pretty much the worst in wvw cause honestly i cant even think of anything i would say hey, we need a couple of rangers doing that.

Sadly anything ranger does….ALL other classes do better. I am sorry but that’s just the truth.

The AI makes pets almost useless (almost) and once u kill that pet..u cut a ranger’s DPS into half instantly. What’s left? spirits? please….

ONLY valid area of the game where rangers can perform quite well is in PvP (not PvE or WvW compared to other classes)..and even so u will need a party combo that makes the ranger shine (as little as it can).

When a class (any class) depends on third factors like pets and spirits that means if the class is left without those 2 things…there’s almost nothing left…and sadly that happens over 90% of the time.

I am not saying u won’t have fun with a ranger….but take whatever fun with a ranger and multiply it atleast twice with any other class…that’s the feeling.

Rebound.3409:

Sadly anything ranger does….ALL other classes do better. I am sorry but that’s just the truth.

if you actually believe that, you have A) not played the class since before june 2013, suck at playing it, C) refuse to face reality.

Take a pick.

I’ve tried everything I could to get a slot for my guild’s rangers in my guild’s raid but found nothing they were good for that the other classes in the raid didn’t already have covered. Anything else I could think of is countered by the enemy.
Covered by my team:
Heals- Ele’s got it
Condi removals- Ele’s got it, guardians got it
Aoe- necro’s got it
CC- warriors and guardians got it
Single target periphery- thieves got it.
Rezzing party members- warriors got it
Pet- dies, useless. If only it knew how to dodge roll

countered by the enemy
High immobilize output- lemongrass + melandru + dogged march = thoroughly countered

My rangers couldn’t bring anything to the table that wasn’t already covered or isn’t heavily countered by the enemy. Ranger is a single target DPS class in a multi target game format and it can’t even do single target all that well without speccing heavily and missing utility.

As a “good commander” i would have to say I would try to carry a zerg full of bearbow rangers but it wouldn’t be a good day for me. Do your zerg, your guild raid a favor: save your ranger for spvp and dungeons. Grab a GWEN, mesmer or thief. Maybe engie, theres a good zerg build in the works I’ve been seein for em.

-edit: smiley pwned

I am really getting more and more of a good laugh when I read “anything the ranger does, any other classes can do better”. any other classes?
I’d love to see a war lay a water field, an Ele lay an immob that is not countered by stability, any other class give to 15 people a 7% crit chance increase, a possibility to pop the zones before the zerg gets on it without risking to lower the group DPS or use a 60 sec CD utility, and soak up AoE damage like we can.
Plus, most Ele I know hate to have to go in water (because they built for DPS and water is a loss of DPS). With 3 melee rangers in a zerg, we can have permanent on demand water field (most commanders ask for one every 15 seconds or so). 3 melee rangers in a zerg, when used right, can control the tide of the battle, by forcing the ennemy zerg to not be in a ball. those same 3 melee rangers can give 7% crit chance to up to 45 people (noone in WvW has 100% crit chance, so it’s a great addition). Those 3 melee rangers also help soak-up 3 places for AoE cap, at no cost for the zerg. with the proper build, they also do correct damage (1.5k AA, 3.7k maul in exotics, pretty constant)
This is the kind of build I run when all goes well or when in guild
With it, I almost perma-crit, which means almost perma 2k AA and almost 5k maul (plus the mauls vulne means my fellow players can hit harder too).
When there’s lot of AoE, I send the bear ahead, then either call it back or swap it, to keep low swap CD. It pops all zones on which my melee would otherwise have to step, and bears are resistant enough to soak it up. With GS4, I can cross a big amount of AoE wothout dangers, which is now counting in the AoE cap, which means also protecting one of my melee. When in melee, I take great advantage of Power stab (one sec evade every 3 sec), and when things get hot, either lighting reflexes or GS#3 will get me out of there. I’ll then switch to Axe/WH, circling around the melee until the repack/heal…
Being in melee range means I’m in good position for healing spring whenever it’s asked (while ele often have switch CD, we can give it on the spot).
Entangle is to be used when our group is going to impact their distant. (Most in a zerg fight don’t see the entangle before our melee is on them).
And Muddy terrain to spread out the enemy bus, or help create new cells on which our melee can concentrate.
With 2 break stuns (one that also breaks immob), and lots of almost on demand condi clean, all the built-in evade and break stuns, I find I’m way less down than many “faceroll warrior” (I mean the easy goer build where the player has not much more to do than attack while traits proc to keep them alive, not the more elaborate builds), while doing damages pretty over standard gard ot necro builds, and pretty much equal to the faceroll warrior build.

For some more survivability, especially with pugs, I’d go with this build
Which is basically just going to get some self stability, though it lowers the damage by crit, and some condi remove (changing polar bear with brown bear to compensate, and two traits in marks for the signet traits).

I did feel like the pre-patch ranger wasn’t bringing much to the zerg, compared with other class. But the ferocity nerf, the pet responsiveness corrections, and the active ability to cleanse condis did good things for the rangers.
We just have to re-learn how to play with pets, would it be for snipers to help finish their targets, for melee to help with aoe soaks and/or buffs, without the pet being perma dead. it was impossible before; it is now somewhat possible…

not sure what server you play on, but with no stability and no invuln, that build would melt in literally 2 seconds in any real ZvZ fight.

i wish that were viable, i really do, cuz i love my ranger. but in WvW it’s the least wanted class for all the reasons stated earlier in this thread.

What if you were to setup a 5 man party “sniping squad” with longbow rangers to pick off high valued targets at 1800 range?

basically, rangers lack team-oriented build like some mentioned

though one can argue they can fit for long range combat, but how useful will that long range combat be when fighting against zerg? how useful will that range combat be when standing on the wall, you still have to adjust yourself before you can even shoot the people below the wall

thus, people don’t recommend it even if it can kill people but killing is not enough

SkyShroud.2865:

basically, rangers lack team-oriented build like some mentioned

though one can argue they can fit for long range combat, but how useful will that long range combat be when fighting against zerg? how useful will that range combat be when standing on the wall, you still have to adjust yourself before you can even shoot the people below the wall

thus, people don’t recommend it even if it can kill people but killing is not enough

5 rangers, all glass. Piercing arrows, eagle eye, air and fire sigil. Strong singke + pierce damage. All the commander needs to do is issue a target. One ranger runking 60260 has insane cc and cleanse (self) coupled with up to 6k AA on lb. This is the dps you can get in spvp. Wvw you may reach 7-8k, the build gives you glass damage and 20k HP.

If you survive 5 railgun rangers you have blown all heals, invulns, stances, blocks and evades. And rangers are all about continuous damage, so there will be no “downtime” between bursts.

Prysin.8542:

Rebound.3409:

Sadly anything ranger does….ALL other classes do better. I am sorry but that’s just the truth.

if you actually believe that, you have A) not played the class since before june 2013, suck at playing it, C) refuse to face reality.

Take a pick.

You either lie to yourself in a blind fanboi attempt to defend the class or u never played other classses or have no clue how to play other classes. Take a pick

As for your own picks….90% of this game’s community says otherwise about rangers…where u might be…on whatever map u might be or whatever mod u might play and usually there’s a good reason for that. Odds are against u ^.^. Glhf

Rebound.3409:

Prysin.8542:

Rebound.3409:

Sadly anything ranger does….ALL other classes do better. I am sorry but that’s just the truth.

if you actually believe that, you have A) not played the class since before june 2013, suck at playing it, C) refuse to face reality.

Take a pick.

You either lie to yourself in a blind fanboi attempt to defend the class or u never played other classses or have no clue how to play other classes. Take a pick

As for your own picks….90% of this game’s community says otherwise about rangers…where u might be…on whatever map u might be or whatever mod u might play and usually there’s a good reason for that. Odds are against u ^.^. Glhf

Just because the masses say one thing does not necessarily mean that it’s true. No i do not play all classes, anymore, i did roll one of each, tried and tested all of the builds i struggle with or the builds others use so i can see what I can do to compliment their builds shortcomings.

As for professions i actively play, those would be ranger, ele and guard. Soon also lvl 80 thief, once i get the motivation needed to grind some more pve/eotm. Other classes has several functions that ranger is better at. Someone mentioned warrior being a hardcounter to ranger immob spam, so what, zergs are made of a lot more then warriors. Fyi, you do not want to focus the warriors as you’d blow your burst/cc on theur stances but rather wipe all others supporting the warriors. Try deal with immob as an ele, guard, necro or mesmer. If you do not cleanse ut asap you get rolled over by the melee train.

Also, ranger immob stack + necro with epi is seriously hard to deal with. Especially since ranger immob has almost same cd as epi, making the combo spam able.

Prysin.8542:

SkyShroud.2865:

basically, rangers lack team-oriented build like some mentioned

though one can argue they can fit for long range combat, but how useful will that long range combat be when fighting against zerg? how useful will that range combat be when standing on the wall, you still have to adjust yourself before you can even shoot the people below the wall

thus, people don’t recommend it even if it can kill people but killing is not enough

5 rangers, all glass. Piercing arrows, eagle eye, air and fire sigil. Strong singke + pierce damage. All the commander needs to do is issue a target. One ranger runking 60260 has insane cc and cleanse (self) coupled with up to 6k AA on lb. This is the dps you can get in spvp. Wvw you may reach 7-8k, the build gives you glass damage and 20k HP.

If you survive 5 railgun rangers you have blown all heals, invulns, stances, blocks and evades. And rangers are all about continuous damage, so there will be no “downtime” between bursts.

5 rangers, ranging people, sounds amazing. But you seems to be referring to a situation where you are in a open space. Do you think ranger can perform so great in a closed area where people are so near to one another.

Even in open space, the zerg only have to use body as shield, you down a few person, they just gonna warbanner them up and keep charging forward. No more stability? No worries, you are in a zerg, all the zerg have to do is to cover each other up. Imbol? Same thing, you are in a zerg. When they reach you, do you think ranger will still be useful?

This is not total war, you place archer infront and get rid of some incoming forces. Then your melee force will skirmish with their melee force. Nothing like that will happen, people just gonna walk and cut through you.

This is a large scale fight not some sPvP where you can just poke point defender while standing outside to death, that’s what most ranger do nowadays in sPvP anyway, poking people.

Rule 1 of lb ranger: never be in the front
Rule 2 of lb ranger: NEVER be in the front

The idea of the ranger group was to provide cc while having a deadly backline destroyer group. Piercing shots also does not care about body blocking. Since rangers have close to no burst, the damage is consistent. If you banner someone, the rezzed people will be dead again shortly thereafter, thus banner on cd and more people going down. If you send anyone to deal with the rangers, well, would you sacrifice any serious number of people to deal with 5 rangers??? Sending 2-3 thieves wont work as 5xrapid fire will murder them instantly, if they make it past rapid fire, try bursting anything standing in 5x barrage dealing 2k/wave +air/fire proccing for 1.2-2k ontop of that

Jeknar.6184:

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

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

……………..

lol

That Ballista kill @ 24:00.

Just started experimenting with a different melee build for my ranger in PvP. Using greatsword and sword/horn, and he just rocks now in small group battles. A lot more fun than my lb/sb typical power ranger setup.

Don’t think the setup would be worth much in a zerg, though.(need to start playing my mesmer more in those situations) Might be ok for roaming and/or small party setup.

Basically took the advice here of several people who said the melee ranger was good….so adjusted my traits and weapons loadout, and yea……lots better in a small group setting. Lots of fun to play.

Prysin.8542:

Rule 1 of lb ranger: never be in the front
Rule 2 of lb ranger: NEVER be in the front

The idea of the ranger group was to provide cc while having a deadly backline destroyer group. Piercing shots also does not care about body blocking. Since rangers have close to no burst, the damage is consistent. If you banner someone, the rezzed people will be dead again shortly thereafter, thus banner on cd and more people going down. If you send anyone to deal with the rangers, well, would you sacrifice any serious number of people to deal with 5 rangers??? Sending 2-3 thieves wont work as 5xrapid fire will murder them instantly, if they make it past rapid fire, try bursting anything standing in 5x barrage dealing 2k/wave +air/fire proccing for 1.2-2k ontop of that

That would work well for WvW, but the problem would be getting 5 good rangers together.
Maybe a ‘ranger guild’?

Prysin.8542:

Rule 1 of lb ranger: never be in the front
Rule 2 of lb ranger: NEVER be in the front

The idea of the ranger group was to provide cc while having a deadly backline destroyer group. Piercing shots also does not care about body blocking. Since rangers have close to no burst, the damage is consistent. If you banner someone, the rezzed people will be dead again shortly thereafter, thus banner on cd and more people going down. If you send anyone to deal with the rangers, well, would you sacrifice any serious number of people to deal with 5 rangers??? Sending 2-3 thieves wont work as 5xrapid fire will murder them instantly, if they make it past rapid fire, try bursting anything standing in 5x barrage dealing 2k/wave +air/fire proccing for 1.2-2k ontop of that

Those numbers are easily achievable, but I wouldn’t recommend that build to most rangers. You would be an easy target for anything with a high burst, meaning you would need fast reflexes and experience to know how to position yourself the best. I know of very few rangers who could pull off what you described. However, if it was pulled off, it would be considerably effective.

Shadey Dancer.2907:

Didn’t see Aragorn (the real one from LOTR) in WvW, so am sort of struggling on your reasoning.

Because all fantasy rangers are basically copies of LOTR rangers. Who get their name because they range, i.e. patrol the countryside, not because they use ranged weapons.

It would be more sensible to object to the fact that rangers in GW2 don’t make very good scouts.

As a ranger in WvW, I’d hate to say that “I” have little to no impact on zerg battles, except sniping random pugs, or uplevels or stragglers. Though most of the time I try to search for glass eles and focus on them, but other than that, the other classes outshine what rangers can really do in WvW fights.

EDIT: To be fair, I am using an LB/SB build though… Don’t judge me :P

What? Where is the arrowcart? Ohh… Its just a ranger. Hahaha!

Just because 90% play the class so bad it doesn’t mean the whole ranger class is bad. Just as Prysin and Jocksy mentioned there are ways to make a Ranger effective. The problem is not the class as such but the people playing the class. Most are somehow resistent for good advice. Instead they cry in the forums for more damage on the longbow… They play as they like, do single target damage and only scapegoat their pets. So from my side it is: Poor bad ranger players and poor guys telling people to stop playing ranger instad of giving them good advice.

Most of them will never stop playing a rager.
So good luck to all you ranger haters

Oak da Vite.9054:

Most of them will never stop playing a rager.
So good luck to all you ranger haters

The only people that hate rangers are the people grouped with one.

The class is still kitten in WvW… doesn’t mean a player cannot wring some life out of it but it is a herculean effort compared to the same effectiveness in another class. For large group play, I can take any decent ranger, have them re-roll into a GWEN class and they will be more effective. In skirmish/roaming, same applies just a different class set.

More people on the conspiracy bandwagon… that the reason no one can find a use for a Ranger is because every Ranger they’ve ever seen was bad.

Pretty low opinion of your server’s commanders and guilds if you honestly don’t think they could come up with some role for the class to play over 2 years.

Couldn’t possibly be that the class has legitimate issues. No. Never that. Oh wait! I’ve got it! YAK SLAPPER!

Atherakhia.4086:

More people on the conspiracy bandwagon… that the reason no one can find a use for a Ranger is because every Ranger they’ve ever seen was bad.

Pretty low opinion of your server’s commanders and guilds if you honestly don’t think they could come up with some role for the class to play over 2 years.

Couldn’t possibly be that the class has legitimate issues. No. Never that. Oh wait! I’ve got it! YAK SLAPPER!

Sorry, a thief can do it faster and better…

Atherakhia.4086:

More people on the conspiracy bandwagon… that the reason no one can find a use for a Ranger is because every Ranger they’ve ever seen was bad.

Pretty low opinion of your server’s commanders and guilds if you honestly don’t think they could come up with some role for the class to play over 2 years.

Couldn’t possibly be that the class has legitimate issues. No. Never that. Oh wait! I’ve got it! YAK SLAPPER!

Ather
If you eat something you cannot stand and find awful, will you eat it again 2 years later because me and a few others say its fine. Or would you ignore us and still not touch it??

Most people would still not touch it. This is because when we humans form an opinion on something, we will generally not change that opinion unless a lot of people say otherwise. However in this case, the majority dint like it in the first place so the majority still stay clear of it.
Ask around on your server, ask what players and commanders know about rangers and or when they last played one. The answers are usually very consistent.

Not saying rangers are perfect and nobody knows it. There is stuff that needs fixing. But claiming everyone is better is just proof of how ignorant one is.

Like I said way back on the first page, a lot of the concepts brought up are reasonably effective, but at one thing only. Rangers have to focus too significantly on a single aspect of combat to perform, while other classes can do the same job and other jobs with the same build.

You can make a ranger that is not useless, but you cannot make a ranger that is more useful to a group (talking gvg size here so 15-20) than a warrior, guardian, necro, ele, thief or mesmer.

Coldtart.4785:

Like I said way back on the first page, a lot of the concepts brought up are reasonably effective, but at one thing only. Rangers have to focus too significantly on a single aspect of combat to perform, while other classes can do the same job and other jobs with the same build.

You can make a ranger that is not useless, but you cannot make a ranger that is more useful to a group (talking gvg size here so 15-20) than a warrior, guardian, necro, ele, thief or mesmer.

If assuming a 15v15 setting you could most likely run spirit ranger with dire gear and shouts or sotf. BM would also work fairly well. Trapper would be far more devastating then a necro as they are more spammable and also has combo fields + cc and heavy conditions.
20v20 and ranger support functions beyond to dwindle, unles you bring more then 1 ranger….

You can’t rely on condi for 15v15, so dire is a no-go. Spirits don’t really give anything a gvg team needs and can be killed. I assume by shouts you mean nature’s voice, as I believe soldier runes only clear condis for you and your pet with ranger shouts, but we hardly need more regen or swiftness.

Traps don’t have the cc pressure needed to catch someone out on their own, it often takes multiple flurries and leg specialist hits to burn through all the removal and all that warriors need to pull this off is a main hand weapon and an adept trait. Necros are mostly used for boon stripping and dps rather than stuff like well of darkness + chilling darkness, most I know of don’t even run well of darkness, so comparing traps to a necro doesn’t really suit.

The only combo field that’s of interest from traps is the ice field, but eles get one for free at only 10s longer cooldown.

It really is a case that any possible use you find just has such huge drawbacks that it removes nearly all chance of viability. I can only guess that Anet forgot they were making a team game when designing ranger, since selfish builds are all they can really run well.

Here’s what I see so many rangers doing- firing dumbly into the front of the zerg train, then failing to move left or right and being rolled by the zerg.

Rangers can be very effective in disrupting zerg back lines- learn to position and you can cause some serious problems to the eles and necros trying to support their front liners.

Personally I mainly use my engi for this, where I just rocket boot right through the middle of their zerg and then play merry hell with the back liners, but lb/sword&horn on the ranger works well for this.

I’m not a fan of full melee ranger builds but Prysin makes good builds and is excellent at making the melee build work…I think I met him or one of his buddies the other day in our match up!

Ranger can be useful in zerg wvw but it just takes a lot more skill and positioning than most other classes to be good at it.

Look there are very apparent weakness in the ranger. Most players arn’t good enough accept those and move on.

But Rangers can be built for anything. Here is an AOE build for example of one of my favorite builds.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhFakRlWW7YxeFuWD4IUt6A2dbAMAuD3Q4oTZVZhNVA-TVSBABQqE8iDBQQ7PwlyvIeAAVq+zCHBg80HAwJAIAACghO0hO0hO0uZgUAMpMC-w

The problem is your commander probably is too stupid to know how to utilize a ranger.

Here I’ll prove it can you answer this question?
How can the ranger in the build I just posted gain 20+ stacks of might within 3-4 seconds?

If you don’t know, it just shows you don’t know anything about the class or how to utilize it.

Edit: Ranger mains don’t answer, I want to see how many noobs get it wrong.

rpfohr.7048:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhFakRlWW7YxeFuWD4IUt6A2dbAMAuD3Q4oTZVZhNVA-TVSBABQqE8iDBQQ7PwlyvIeAAVq+zCHBg80HAwJAIAACghO0hO0hO0uZgUAMpMC-w

Solo stacking 25 mights using a 2min elite and an utterly ineffective pet skill isn’t very good, not to mention that it’s also your only stability and your only team utility comes at a far greater cost than similar tricks on other classes. Getting 25 stacks of might for an entire zerg is entirely trivial, really.