Guild Wars 2

I started playing this game as a Warrior because I’m familiar with the “Barbarian” type class in other games. But recently, I make a Ranger, and found that to be really strong in WvW. With the amount of damage I can do from long range, do people think that this class is fair?

I use Longbow and a lizard pet. At any target I aim for, my pet rushes to it, doing double damage from my bow and pet. When it dies, I can switch to another pet, and keep doing long range damage. I also have an AOE #5 attack skill, where it rains arrows like an arrow cart.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Rangers are too strong for WvW?

bearbow is OP, people keep fighting the bear and ignore you, bear cannot die = you win.

Yeah that pet and barrage combo are brutal against afk players and npc’s. Their only real weakness are players that don’t stand still….

Actualy, it is probably worst class for WvW. Rangers are good for roaming (5 and less people) but they sucks at everything else. I would say warriors and guardians are core of wvw.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Yeah that pet and barrage combo are brutal against afk players and npc’s. Their only real weakness are players that don’t stand still….

I +1’d this, but still had reply cause it made me chuckle.

ragingsiux.6247:

Actualy, it is probably worst class for WvW. Rangers are good for roaming (5 and less people) but they sucks at everything else. I would say warriors and guardians are core of wvw.

How can that be when Rangers have rapid fire and knock-backs on Longbow. Add extra damage from my pet attacks, and I do a lot of damage. When in large group fights, I’m protected by front line. My team has even recommended I use Fire and Lightning sigils for triple damage.

Pets are double damage…. I don’t think you understand how math works.

Rangers are fun, they are definitely my favorite profession. But before you come in here claiming they are too strong you need to go get in some 1v1/1vX fights and see how long you last.

The game isn’t balanced around people standing in the pug zerg auto attacking, and since that seems to be the sum of your experience you should give back line ele and necro a try and see if you still think the ranger does too much damage.

Do Elementalists and Necros really do more damage than Rangers? Right now, I only have Warrior and Ranger, so I’ll try one of those out then. Hard to imagine another class being more powerful than a Ranger though. That’s all I hear people complain about when enemy Rangers target commanders.

They arent to strong, and they aren’t to weak. They do pretty well now that the meta has moved away from the highly exclusive Hammertrain.

You don’t get “extra” damage from pets. Ranger base DPS is lower than other classes because the idea is that the pet would make up the difference. In PvE, this works ok because every enemy stands still and waits for your pet to come over and bite it. In PvP/WvW, every enemy is constantly moving so you actually LOSE DPS because your pet can only deal damage to stationary objects.

mtpelion.4562:

You don’t get “extra” damage from pets. Ranger base DPS is lower than other classes because the idea is that the pet would make up the difference. In PvE, this works ok because every enemy stands still and waits for your pet to come over and bite it. In PvP/WvW, every enemy is constantly moving so you actually LOSE DPS because your pet can only deal damage to stationary objects.

My Longbow rapid shots follow the target no matter where who moves though. Enemies go down so quick with that.

Ele and Necro are far better at ranged bombing AOE with different field types that can be blasted. So not only do they provide direct damage, they can also provide lots of conditions, boon striping, and boon support. Rangers don’t provide this much party support.
There are also better single focus DPS professions but they don’t have the 1500 easymode distance the ranger provides. A decent group can retal/reflect rangers to near death as it is. Anyone claiming they are killing anyone with just rapid fire are fighting bad/uplevel players.

ranger is kind of bad for zergs, but excel at roaming. having great fun on my zerker/assassins/knights mix ranger. unparalleled single target ranged dps.

Ceres.4569:

Anyone claiming they are killing anyone with just rapid fire are fighting bad/uplevel players.

Dragonbrand is not bad players, there’s just so few of them.

Natto.5819:

mtpelion.4562:

You don’t get “extra” damage from pets. Ranger base DPS is lower than other classes because the idea is that the pet would make up the difference. In PvE, this works ok because every enemy stands still and waits for your pet to come over and bite it. In PvP/WvW, every enemy is constantly moving so you actually LOSE DPS because your pet can only deal damage to stationary objects.

My Longbow rapid shots follow the target no matter where who moves though. Enemies go down so quick with that.

Is it your assertion that Rangers should not be allowed to do damage? That’s a burst skill. It is supposed to cause a sudden burst of damage.

Just to clarify, DPS does not mean “highest amount of damage a class can do in a second”, it means “Damage Per Second” and is a measure of the AVERAGE damage done over the course of a fight.

Our nice burst is offset by the lower damage between bursts leaving the weapon on par with others over the course of the entire fight.

In a 1v1 fight, burst damage tends to be more effective than damage over time because the person being bursted does not have teammates who can assist him in mitigating the damage. In a group setting, that burst is relatively meaningless because it is being done to a single target who has many friends buffing and healing him.

Natto.5819:

Ceres.4569:

Anyone claiming they are killing anyone with just rapid fire are fighting bad/uplevel players.

Dragonbrand is not bad players, there’s just so few of them.

still takes over 50% hp of most players. absolutely destroys when you pop signet of the hunt for it. the player is almost dead by the time they close the distance.

P/P thieves are also over powered. At range unload can mow down people. And when they get in close? Boom blind unload again! Then another unload, and another! There are no cooldowns on me!

You can make these same arguements with almost any class. And yess some classes are better in zergs then others. But while zerging is fun and can entertain, it is no way to tell if a class or player is ‘good’

Ceres.4569:

There are also better single focus DPS professions but they don’t have the 1500 easymode distance the ranger provides. A decent group can retal/reflect rangers to near death as it is. Anyone claiming they are killing anyone with just rapid fire are fighting bad/uplevel players.

A decent Ranger wouldnt exactly shoot into a decent group that has reflection up.

Ranger is by far the best class for long range sniping (ie the ~1800 range they really got due to arrows still hitting targets beyond out of range) when running next to a zerg. They arent only just good at it – they are the only threat at that range. If they go balls deep into a zerg its their own fault.

Of course, the amount of decent Rangers on a server can be counted on one hand so the chances you are one of them or meet one of them is next to nil.

Rangers are good when they have LOS, after that if you close the distance between you and the Ranger, they’re pretty much sitting ducks if you play it right.

I was running with a group last night and this Ranger was sniping on the wall south of SM, we managed to pull him down, so he got rekt as you’d imagine; without the safety advance of Terrain and distance.

They’re especially good in a Raid/GvG group, because they can spike from distance and regroup with the Melee Train quite easily – if they get into trouble.

So Ranger at WvW:
+ Long range so u are safe
+ Op 1 target burst
+ A lot of tagging and poking during new PS meta
+ Pretty fine survi
Now let’s say about minuses:
- No support for group
- After u use RF nothing to do much dmg
- Low number of AoEs( only 5. from lb tho)
- Almost 0 ccs
- Nothing to harass and split enemy group( except roots, but 200s CD…)
Basically Ranger can’t do as much as GWEN classes and this class isn’t suited for playing in group( no boons, almost 0 hard condis like immo and AoEs, low amount of ccs). Still Rangers are nice for FP to take papers out but tbh nothing more. except some pointless bang bang bang from self range and holding spot from some GWEN player…blob player…:D

Kasteros.9847:

So Ranger at WvW:
+ Long range so u are safe
+ Op 1 target burst
+ A lot of tagging and poking during new PS meta
+ Pretty fine survi
Now let’s say about minuses:
- No support for group
- After u use RF nothing to do much dmg
- Low number of AoEs( only 5. from lb tho)
- Almost 0 ccs
- Nothing to harass and split enemy group( except roots, but 200s CD…)
Basically Ranger can’t do as much as GWEN classes and this class isn’t suited for playing in group( no boons, almost 0 hard condis like immo and AoEs, low amount of ccs). Still Rangers are nice for FP to take papers out but tbh nothing more. except some pointless bang bang bang from self range and holding spot from some GWEN player…blob player…:D

The problem here, is that your discussing this in the very narrow view of Longbow only.

I do not even use longbow on my ranger.

Entangle is good for CC and quit helpful. Flame trap is a nice 12s cooldown fire field. Frost trap offers an ice field. Healing spring is a large, water field with a 33% uptime, that cleanses conditions. Call of the wild offers 3 useful boons in an AoE.

Some of you need to learn, think, and play out side the box of the concept of blindly following the so called mate. I have no idea why so many blindly identify “meta” with “good” but they are not the same thing in my opinion.

Not to mention, If three or more rangers use the skill at the same time, a Lunar Wolf is summoned. This is a reference to the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt and meme. Which is not particularly group supportive, but its kind of cool

coglin.1867:

Kasteros.9847:

So Ranger at WvW:
+ Long range so u are safe
+ Op 1 target burst
+ A lot of tagging and poking during new PS meta
+ Pretty fine survi
Now let’s say about minuses:
- No support for group
- After u use RF nothing to do much dmg
- Low number of AoEs( only 5. from lb tho)
- Almost 0 ccs
- Nothing to harass and split enemy group( except roots, but 200s CD…)
Basically Ranger can’t do as much as GWEN classes and this class isn’t suited for playing in group( no boons, almost 0 hard condis like immo and AoEs, low amount of ccs). Still Rangers are nice for FP to take papers out but tbh nothing more. except some pointless bang bang bang from self range and holding spot from some GWEN player…blob player…:D

The problem here, is that your discussing this in the very narrow view of Longbow only.

I do not even use longbow on my ranger.

Entangle is good for CC and quit helpful. Flame trap is a nice 12s cooldown fire field. Frost trap offers an ice field. Healing spring is a large, water field with a 33% uptime, that cleanses conditions. Call of the wild offers 3 useful boons in an AoE.

Some of you need to learn, think, and play out side the box of the concept of blindly following the so called mate. I have no idea why so many blindly identify “meta” with “good” but they are not the same thing in my opinion.

Not to mention, If three or more rangers use the skill at the same time, a Lunar Wolf is summoned. This is a reference to the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt and meme. Which is not particularly group supportive, but its kind of cool

Ye I wrote about meta ranger and build that OP run. I know ranger have some usefull stuff but u need to admit that if we compare him with Ele, his skills means nothing. Entangle have too long CD to be considered as usefull. Healing spring yes is large etc. but Ele gives u same but it is x2 Ice field isn’t really needed, unless u know how to utilize frost armor / chill. Call offers buffs but same goes for much better Ele. If Ele is wrong example then let’s compare him with Warrior:

• Warrior – a lot of ccs, Ranger – almost 0
• Warrior have 2 short cd blasts, Ranger 1 long cd
• Wariror have flurry with low cd immo, Ranger have immo with 60 sec cd that happen randomly
• Warrior can rally with banner, Ranger…what is teamplay?
• Warrior can heal with shouts, Ranger have water field
• Warrior have low cd buffs, Again Ranger long cd buffs
• Warrior have a lot fo cleansing, Ranger not so much

I compared typical Worker Warrior with LB and most usefull group skills Ranger when it is about zergling / blobing. As u see Warrior won here(at last for me). The point of Ranger is that he have everything what other proffesions have, but it is much weaker.

Rangers have a pet that can rally from a distance.

Kasteros.9847:

coglin.1867:

Kasteros.9847:

So Ranger at WvW:
+ Long range so u are safe
+ Op 1 target burst
+ A lot of tagging and poking during new PS meta
+ Pretty fine survi
Now let’s say about minuses:
- No support for group
- After u use RF nothing to do much dmg
- Low number of AoEs( only 5. from lb tho)
- Almost 0 ccs
- Nothing to harass and split enemy group( except roots, but 200s CD…)
Basically Ranger can’t do as much as GWEN classes and this class isn’t suited for playing in group( no boons, almost 0 hard condis like immo and AoEs, low amount of ccs). Still Rangers are nice for FP to take papers out but tbh nothing more. except some pointless bang bang bang from self range and holding spot from some GWEN player…blob player…:D

The problem here, is that your discussing this in the very narrow view of Longbow only.

I do not even use longbow on my ranger.

Entangle is good for CC and quit helpful. Flame trap is a nice 12s cooldown fire field. Frost trap offers an ice field. Healing spring is a large, water field with a 33% uptime, that cleanses conditions. Call of the wild offers 3 useful boons in an AoE.

Some of you need to learn, think, and play out side the box of the concept of blindly following the so called mate. I have no idea why so many blindly identify “meta” with “good” but they are not the same thing in my opinion.

Not to mention, If three or more rangers use the skill at the same time, a Lunar Wolf is summoned. This is a reference to the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt and meme. Which is not particularly group supportive, but its kind of cool

Ye I wrote about meta ranger and build that OP run. I know ranger have some usefull stuff but u need to admit that if we compare him with Ele, his skills means nothing. Entangle have too long CD to be considered as usefull. Healing spring yes is large etc. but Ele gives u same but it is x2 Ice field isn’t really needed, unless u know how to utilize frost armor / chill. Call offers buffs but same goes for much better Ele. If Ele is wrong example then let’s compare him with Warrior:

• Warrior – a lot of ccs, Ranger – almost 0
• Warrior have 2 short cd blasts, Ranger 1 long cd
• Wariror have flurry with low cd immo, Ranger have immo with 60 sec cd that happen randomly
• Warrior can rally with banner, Ranger…what is teamplay?
• Warrior can heal with shouts, Ranger have water field
• Warrior have low cd buffs, Again Ranger long cd buffs
• Warrior have a lot fo cleansing, Ranger not so much

I compared typical Worker Warrior with LB and most usefull group skills Ranger when it is about zergling / blobing. As u see Warrior won here(at last for me). The point of Ranger is that he have everything what other proffesions have, but it is much weaker.

Your comparing a build built for the front line with a build built for small skirmishes. Rangers can build to be just as tanky as a war, have group condi cleanse, group precision buff, group vigor, group fury, group swiftness, group regen, interupts, CC, low cooldown immobilizes, the best water field in game, aoe poison, etc.

Once the trait change goes through they are going to be in an even better place with better access to multiple blast finishers.

Of course none of this has anything to do with the OP being in a pug zerg that apparently vastly outnumbered the group they were fighting. In that situation you could be running anything and feel powerful.

Natto.5819:

ragingsiux.6247:

Actualy, it is probably worst class for WvW. Rangers are good for roaming (5 and less people) but they sucks at everything else. I would say warriors and guardians are core of wvw.

How can that be when Rangers have rapid fire and knock-backs on Longbow. Add extra damage from my pet attacks, and I do a lot of damage. When in large group fights, I’m protected by front line. My team has even recommended I use Fire and Lightning sigils for triple damage.

As an Ele, if you don’t kill yourself from the reflection of Rapid fire, the next 3-4 incoming fireballs will. You see, the only way you’ll do any damage is if you go full berserk. If you take this route, the fireballs will hit you between 4K-6K.

I main’d a Ranger and thought they did great damage, up until I rolled an ele. It isn’t even close. Rangers do have the ability to be annoying though to other ranged classes whom are played by people with terrible reaction time.

I find ranger a jack of most trades. Sure not exactly the greatest front liner but I can spec to be quite tanky and deal decent dmg, however, I prefer the 90% full zerk LB with fire/air sigils.. Max bloodlust stacks etc because holy mother of dragons does that rapid fire make people cry.

I’ve learned to quickly swap out a utility for Sic Em if I see a theif around as that almost always ruins them completely.

Fought a condi warri hybrid last night; maybe it was just my tiredness.. We broke even but I mostly won the majority of our duels and it’s brain dead easy to pop RaO followed by that signet that grants stab and does 50% more movement or dmg? Either way, all them CCs were basically wasted on me haha.

ranger is very easy to play and with the updates to the class it’s definitely made them a serious threat if not dealt with properly.. Whether they’re playing serious or just mashing buttons they can be deadly.

rangers aren’t that bad on zergs. it’s just that they aren’t given that much credit on it. they’re not the bombing type like elementalist and necromancer as most have compared them with these classes based on posts above. traited they have more range than them though and given a good geography can reach them easily and force them back preventing them from easy bombing if not outright downing them. this makes the ranger a focus class. a very nice one. there’s a reason why every commander in ts suddenly has a badmouthing day when he realizes there are 10 rangers pewpewing him and the wall of reflection was too late.
if you trait for pierce and can live with the slower velocity and risk of retaliation, well, you might just make it to a very passive bombing class. also don’t forget them immobs.

My guild takes a ranger with us on most nights now because of how powerful they are to down single targets from range. If you can protect your ranger(s) (1 for every 10-15 people in your zerg), you can put a lot of ranged pressure onto your enemy backline or to snipe the enemy commander.

well if you have 3 rangers and they focus fire on an commander (they can easily do that) its always insta win against blobs etc. the commander keeps needing to heal up and restack his people cause of the OP melt fest.

snarfrificus.4230:

well if you have 3 rangers and they focus fire on an commander (they can easily do that) its always insta win against blobs etc. the commander keeps needing to heal up and restack his people cause of the OP melt fest.

Unless comm just charge backline and wipe rangers out and if group is organised they have some fp / casters to take care of rangers / papers focusing comm. Same goes for comm himself, if he is skilled it would be easy for him to avoid rf. But if he is low, ktrain comm with ktrain blob he would die easly. Also dunno how at ur server but at mine if comm get focused he give lead to someone else who can and is at ts3. Much better deal for 3 rangers is to find casters and focus them( 2k hit from 1600 range x3 is 6k dmg every 1 sec, papers run around 18-22k so they will melt. I’m not even mentioning rf.). And here comes what i wrote earlier, ranger is good for fp, but bad for playing in sychro with rest of group( mt and backline, except saving them).

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Untill you face someone that knows how to counter you easily.

Then rangers do what they know better…they run and escape.

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Untill you face someone that knows how to counter you easily.

RedBaron.6058:

Then rangers do what they know better…they run and escape.

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Untill you face someone that knows how to counter you easily.

Not happening when you have more mobility than the ranger does.

A noob ranger yes…

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Then rangers do what they know better…they run and escape.

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Untill you face someone that knows how to counter you easily.

Not happening when you have more mobility than the ranger does.

^ salty about dying to rangers

RedBaron.6058:

A noob ranger yes…

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Then rangers do what they know better…they run and escape.

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Untill you face someone that knows how to counter you easily.

Not happening when you have more mobility than the ranger does.

Since when is a ranger a noob if he lacks mobility? I dont run a speedy gonzales build myself but ill stay to fight kill or die. Nabs scared of dying will run off.

It’s even better on my Charr Ranger because i can use the Warband Support elite skill. It summons 2 additional Charr pets so with 3 pets i’m like QUAD DAMAGE!

That’s pretty good but I also run a hyena pet so I can summon the extra hyena the same time I call my warband. So I can do 5 times the damage. I’m pretty much a zerg at that point.

ragingsiux.6247:

Actualy, it is probably worst class for WvW. Rangers are good for roaming (5 and less people) but they sucks at everything else. I would say warriors and guardians are core of wvw.

Not true.

Depends on the player.

Depends on the build.

Depends on your expectations and what boons you love to bring to the table.

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Playing a Ranger when F2 doesn’t work half the time is far more challenging than playing a one note thief or warrior.

Good Rangers are all over and many have very successful tag runs.

Natto.5819:

I started playing this game as a Warrior because I’m familiar with the “Barbarian” type class in other games. But recently, I make a Ranger, and found that to be really strong in WvW. With the amount of damage I can do from long range, do people think that this class is fair?

I use Longbow and a lizard pet. At any target I aim for, my pet rushes to it, doing double damage from my bow and pet. When it dies, I can switch to another pet, and keep doing long range damage. I also have an AOE #5 attack skill, where it rains arrows like an arrow cart.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Rangers are too strong for WvW?

There is one thing people don’t seem to understand. Guild Wars 2 is balanced… Nothing is OP and nothing is UP, it depends on certain builds against certain other (counter) builds and the person who is playing.

Don’t choose your class based on damage, choose it based on your playstyle.

I love playing my ranger in my guild group and all (ascended zerker gear in all slots) but when the going gets tuff we all log our warriors and guardians.

Kasteros.9847:

snarfrificus.4230:

well if you have 3 rangers and they focus fire on an commander (they can easily do that) its always insta win against blobs etc. the commander keeps needing to heal up and restack his people cause of the OP melt fest.

Unless comm just charge backline and wipe rangers out and if group is organised they have some fp / casters to take care of rangers / papers focusing comm. Same goes for comm himself, if he is skilled it would be easy for him to avoid rf. But if he is low, ktrain comm with ktrain blob he would die easly. Also dunno how at ur server but at mine if comm get focused he give lead to someone else who can and is at ts3. Much better deal for 3 rangers is to find casters and focus them( 2k hit from 1600 range x3 is 6k dmg every 1 sec, papers run around 18-22k so they will melt. I’m not even mentioning rf.). And here comes what i wrote earlier, ranger is good for fp, but bad for playing in sychro with rest of group( mt and backline, except saving them).

calculations look good on paper and paper only, i have seen enough of these occasions when it happens and when the organised ranger group just nuke the hell out of the opponents commander. and they have a waterfield with a pretty low CD, rangers are also good for as it seems in focus parties. WvW is more then just group buffing everyone, it depends what you like to play.

LB Rangers have a few niche roles in WvWvW (that I’ve found) that they do very well in.

1. Choke-Point control: Longbow skills with piercing arrows can do a lot of multi-target damage in narrow areas (gates, Stone Mist Lord Room, Bridges in EotM).
2. Wall Defense: Dat range tho…
3. Roaming: (that horse has been killed and beaten)
4. Supply Denial: Self Explanatory…. find Dolyak, burst, kill, repeat.
5. Zerg Harassment: Similar to roaming, but if you’re clever enough, you can get some damage/cripple off on an enemy zerg with your longbow and run the hell away.

That being said, it’s suboptimal for most zerg-play, gets wrecked by retaliation and reflects (for obvious reasons, but you can counterplay if you’re awake), and has to sacrifice a lot of mobility for serious condi cleanse (on my build, my only real condi cleanse is my Bear’s “Shake It Off!”).

So it’s actually pretty balanced, IMHO. It does a few things really well, sucks at a lot of things, and is kind of meh everywhere else…. what a balanced profession/build should be.

Edit: I do have 2 stun-breaks on my build… so there’s that.

Natto.5819:

Rangers have a pet that can rally from a distance.

My main is a ranger…..but I still got a huge chuckle out of this comment!

Natto.5819:

Do Elementalists and Necros really do more damage than Rangers? Right now, I only have Warrior and Ranger, so I’ll try one of those out then. Hard to imagine another class being more powerful than a Ranger though. That’s all I hear people complain about when enemy Rangers target commanders.

https://youtu.be/-tW4pXmpGXU

Watch this comparison and you wouldn’t say ranger is anywhere OP.
Rangers are only strong in 2 V 2 roaming.

RedBaron.6058:

A noob ranger yes…

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Then rangers do what they know better…they run and escape.

Caedmon.6798:

RedBaron.6058:

Ranger is easy mode. Is good to relax in WvW.

Untill you face someone that knows how to counter you easily.

Not happening when you have more mobility than the ranger does.

Just saying, thief, engineer, and warrior all outrun rangers. The first 2 are the 2 top roaming classes as well, so they’re very good at dueling.

why do all the ppl who have no idea what they’re doing play ranger? is it because they can do high dps from a safe distance?

pepper.6179:

why do all the ppl who have no idea what they’re doing play ranger? is it because they can do high dps from a safe distance?

why is it that most of the people bashing rangers, are not nearly as good with a ranger as they claim to be?
Or
Why is it that most of the people who state “Everything a ranger can do, can be done better by profession X”, yet when proven wrong they start arguing that prof X can also do this and that, yet prof X cannot do what the ranger do and STILL excel in all the other stuff they say?

just food for thought, that being said, rangers are far far far from perfect, they do however have some very strong points, which has been outlined enough times by now.

Rapid Fire, contrary to what people THINK, is NOT a proper strong point for rangers, it is a crutch that keeps bad players from leaving the class, and make average to good players seem unbeatable.