Guild Wars 2

Hi Guys,

since there is no Balance forum anymore, i am mostly relating to WvW and dont want to post it in the ranger forum where everyone is just PRO ranger i have to post this in here.

With the last balance patch the power ranger got buffed. Among other things both the Longbow and the Greatsword damage got increased.

PvP: You now see some power rangers in unranked and even some in ranked matches (mostly solo Qs). But there are no power rangers in the top teams.
Most power rangers just feed the enemy team. And it is no coincidence that most people hate to see a ranger in their team (There is right now a Thread up “which Class you hate the most in your team”). Since there is no big open field on most maps Rangers cant benefit that much from their Longbow Damage as in WvW.

PvE Dungeons: Since i dont play many dungeons i cant really say something about this gamemode. I think rangers do decent melee damage and can contribute some Precision for their team.

WvW: Now you see a lot more Rangers in this gamemode than before. Since Rangers aint got much AoE they are pretty useless in WvW Zerging but they are present in Roaming. And with present i mean there are at the moment more Rangers running around than any other class. And they are all power rangers.
In WvW most Power Rangers use Longbow as one of their Weapon Sets. Traited it has a range of 1500. When u face a power ranger u already lost half of ur life before u can get to him or even see him except u used some big cooldowns or at least 2 dodges and some gapclosers. Stealth wont help since their biggest Damage skill “Rapid Fire” is a channeling Skill.

Although a ranger buff was really needed before the patch i think it went the wrong way. At the moment we have a class that does not have to set up their burst.
With one Skill they can kill anything while there is no skill rotation or CC needed.
When you finally get to the ranger he could still use his Knockback or he just uses his now pretty decent melee Weapons which aint got any disadvantages anymore to those from other classes.
So now you`re in melee range, used many skills to get there and the actual duel starts. I wouldnt say a ranger now definately wins the fight but if the two players are on the same skill level he at least has some advantages.

In my experience you have pretty good chances to win against a power ranger when u play very aggressive. If you dont attack the ranger or if you cant get closer you are dead.
Since there arent many 1on1´s or even fair fights in WvW the Problem gets even bigger.
While you can avoid the most damage from other zerker classes with 1 dodge or 1 defensive skill in the right moment the ranger´s rapid fire just laughs about your few defensive abilities.

Oher classes need to get close to do much damage. They need to set up combos, bait dodges, use CCs for burstskills etc.

People dont like Rangers in their Group cause they have to stay far away to do damage
-> not close enough for Any Combos or a fast rez
People dont like Rangers as enemies cause they do such insane damage from far away
-> totally destroys high risk high reward

I think the way the Longbow works has to change. The Autoattack shouldnt increase in damage so strong with a big range and shouldnt decrease in that amount while being close to the enemy. Also the rapidfire skill shouldnt be such a long channeling skill while moving. Either you change it to one very hard hitting visible arrow or the ranger has to stand still. And the 1500 range is definately the wrong way to go!

The fact that Power Rangers arent in the PvP meta or close to that even though the damage got increased massively shows us that the Rangers arent as effective as other classes in other areas and for future buffs anet should maybe focus more on group support or Synergy. You cant just increase the damage on some Weapons to put the class in a better spot cause it wont help and just destroys other gamemodes like in this case WvW roaming.

I know WvW Roaming is just a small area in gw2 but after the white swords change it´s even more important and i see many people moaning about the current state.
Even some main rangers aren´t pleased about the faceroll changes!

What are you´re thoughts about Ranger in WvW?

Regards

I have fun with my ranger in wvw, the damage buffs are really nice, its not hard to counter rangers rapid fire, blocks, blinds, terrain obstructions, reflects, gap closers, retaliaton, cc’s, etc etc. Dropped a zerker ranger with my necro last night in 5seconds. They are predicatable, so it makes it easier to counter. Pets could def use an overhaul, pretty much useless in zergs, I use ranged pets particularily spiders for zerging, mainly for the poison fields. Pets are essentially useless outside small team/solo stuff.

I love to roam and of course there are several builds out there that can be classified under the tag ‘lame’, however the latest balance changes might have created a new category that falls below the last mentioned one in appeal.

I agree with most of your points; for me the worst aspect is Rapid Shot, which keeps hitting you even after you stealth AND dodge. I have to either use lots of dodges or many cds to not get my healthbar reduced to the size of a straw.

Of course you can say ‘oh but you can counter a ranger by blablabla’, but i’d rather not run a pvt mesmer with all the reflect traits and run around as a 1 trick pony.

rapid fire is a channeling skill so it will continue firing if activated before you stealth, as will any channeling skill.

I am aware of that

X T D.6458:

I have fun with my ranger in wvw, the damage buffs are really nice, its not hard to counter rangers rapid fire, blocks, blinds, terrain obstructions, reflects, gap closers, retaliaton, cc’s, etc etc. Dropped a zerker ranger with my necro last night in 5seconds. They are predicatable, so it makes it easier to counter. Pets could def use an overhaul, pretty much useless in zergs, I use ranged pets particularily spiders for zerging, mainly for the poison fields. Pets are essentially useless outside small team/solo stuff.

Yes you can counter rapid fire easily but no when there are kilometres between you and the ranger

move out of range

I stopped reading the second you stated “useless in a zerg without AoE damage”. If you truly believe that, as an individual, you likely are “useless” in a geat deal of WvW situation, both others on the same profession may not be.

well you`re right its not only because of the lack of AoE damage but that other classes can contribute more.
What a ranger party can do is sniping the commander but i would even put that on the contra list

if you need help getting aoe damage in a zerg, trait for piercing arrows, eagle eye is not that necessary, if you have 6 in the power line, I guess you can use both, but always ALWAYS have piercing arrows for wvw, plus you have traps, muddy terrain, barrage, nice for aoe damage/effects, fields etc

well my post wasnt really about rangers in a zerg but if you can really help your zerg with a ranger then i have no problem with that

I do agree that in zergs, its not good for support, rangers are a more offensive profession. The few group support skills you can use are difficult to use in wvw zerg fights, spirits for example will melt in less then a second, fern hound pet unless u keep it on passive to provide the f2 regen skill, set on aggressive, its melee will die quickly in a zerg fight, swap pets, cant use it for like 59 seconds or w/e. So yea its mainly offensive not in the same league as necro or ele. Its more played by people who like the profession. Not by how useful it is.

My thoughts on Ranger in WvW are if I see one in the open I high tail it out of there until I have something to LOS them with. As someone who primarily roams on either a condition Necromancer or a melee trapper Ranger I’m only dangerous when I’m face to face with you. LB Rangers are the biggest pain in the behind because of exactly what you’ve stated, not having to set up their bursts and the fight doesn’t start until you’re already at less than 50% health and just reaching them. You can beat the majority of them quite easily (besides the ones that actually know how to play both at range and in melee) but if they catch you off guard, you have nothing to LOS them with or if you have low mobility/no/not many gap closers it’s almost a sure win for them. I can tell you first hand nothing is more frustrating than getting kited to death by them with my Necro… I know I’m a good Necro and I win the majority of my fights. But even terrible Rangers can just lul pew pew me because I can’t get near them.

I don’t think they need nerfs, especially since I play Ranger and love it to death, although I don’t play LB Ranger I still would hate to see it stripped of it’s new found place in roaming. I do however think that their ability to just burst/kite people from max range is a bit silly. Even if you’re a very skilled player it’s hard to turn the tide of the fight on them if you don’t at least have a few blocks or leaps/gap closers. I’ve been getting better at dealing with them but no matter how many times one catches me off guard I’ll never get better at closing that gap to kill them because by the time I realize one’s shooting at me I’ve already lost half my health.

I will add one thing fighting them with a necro, you have a teleport with ds 2, which will also protect you against the rapid fire burst, as well as a insta cast fear which will interrupt them, both can be used at 1200 range. Staff 5 is also a 1200 range fear, and necros also have a 1200 range pull.

It’s not that hard to be useful as a ranger in zerg fights, even running lb/gs. It’s all about positioning and causing maximum disruption to their backlines, so having a few to discourage thiefs from your squishies is also good.

Although I have to admit, I see so many lb rangers fire barrage against the front of an enemy zerg, it’s not surprising so few people rate them. rapid fire with traited piercing can be fun though;-)

I created a ranger today and insta-80d him with an experience scroll and tomes. I already had some ascended armor pieces and trinks ready for him. Thing is, while he does use LB and the range/dmg/attack speed increase/cd decrease for LB, he’s not a power ranger. The LB has a lot of utility because of its high range, but if that gap gets closed it can get really deadly, really fast. I run a combination of knight’s, assassin, and berserker for armor, soldier weapons, and captain’s/knight’s trinkets. So, yes, high crit chance, fairly high power, but not glass. I also don’t use GS — I prefer s/wh so I can blast my own heals, and the sword for the evades, cripples, and poison. Signet of Stone and Entangle are pretty much necessities (as well as the decreased CD on Entangle), but the whole idea of a Ranger is to keep my distance and if I can’t, use as many evades and movement impeding skills as possible to widen the gap again. Lightning Reflexes and Spike Trap/Muddy Terrain are also great, but I’m still having trouble with condi clears and stability — shame that Signet of the Wild isn’t also a stun breaker.

Generally my utility layout is Healing Spring, Lightning Reflexes, Signet of Stone, and still trying to decide on Signet of the Wild/Spike Trap/Muddy terrain for the third. Entangle generally runs in my elite but Rampage as One is pretty great aside from its prohibitively long CD.

Yes, it’s only been one day. Yes, I’m still learning. But I’ve put over 10 hours in on my wife’s Ranger and I think I can work out a build I’m comfortable with in a week or so.

That said, I think that even with the build I run it feels too powerful. Read the Wind just doesn’t need to exist and the channel activates far too fast on Rapid Fire. Every single skill on the LB is insanely useful and has a relatively short CD. Rapid Fire will out-burst my power Warrior’s HB any day, and I can do it from 1200 range and still keep moving. It just doesn’t seem right.

The thing you’re ignoring about the melee classes in this game is they have an abundance of ways to get into melee range and maintain that range. While the Ranger has some kiting tools, there aren’t many on the LB+GS combo that is all too common. It’s also worth mentioning that despite the supposed strengths you list, the class still hasn’t found a way to break into the meta in PvP, WvW, GvG or competitive guild groups.

Being completely honest, unless you’re a Necromancer, a Ranger isn’t going to present an insurmountable hill you can’t climb. While the Ranger is certainly strong, a nerf while the class is still mostly obsolete seems premature without compensation elsewhere.

p3wp3w rangers are merely an annoyance. Nowhere close of being OP…

Consider being killed by rapid fire the same as being killed by backstab or somenthing…

It’s fine, just pop a reflect… WvW-ers seem to love hitting themselves in the face or if you don’t have a reflect, pop a channeled block, or idk… dodge…

In wvw if you are a ranger, you are the first target and you dont have the escape ability of a mesmer, ele or a thief. You will die as soon your stone signet is over.
If i random zerging with my ranger there are minimum 3 snipers try to hunt you down like crazy.
If i roam with some of my friends the situation is the same. All of the thieves and mesmers, eles jump in my face.
And if i play with my guild with my gua, we also hunt down rangers first because its an easy kill. But true… Sometimes we kill necros first, because they are dangerous not as a ranger

Missile reflect at close range Rf = dead power ranger. Especially when many of them pop quickening zephyr before Rf.

Atherakhia.4086:

The thing you’re ignoring about the melee classes in this game is they have an abundance of ways to get into melee range and maintain that range. While the Ranger has some kiting tools, there aren’t many on the LB+GS combo that is all too common. It’s also worth mentioning that despite the supposed strengths you list, the class still hasn’t found a way to break into the meta in PvP, WvW, GvG or competitive guild groups.

Being completely honest, unless you’re a Necromancer, a Ranger isn’t going to present an insurmountable hill you can’t climb. While the Ranger is certainly strong, a nerf while the class is still mostly obsolete seems premature without compensation elsewhere.

Aberrant.6749:

It’s fine, just pop a reflect… WvW-ers seem to love hitting themselves in the face or if you don’t have a reflect, pop a channeled block, or idk… dodge…

The interesting part comes when you’re someone like me who has mained a War and Guard exclusively for the last 2 years. I’m pure melee. I know all the tricks for distance closing and reflection, usage of EP/BC/GS Charge/Whirl/Missile Deflection with Shield on War, on Guard JI, WoF, Sword 3, traited retal, and have seen many pew pew Rangers die to me without even getting my health down below 95%. I just don’t think they’re very good.

So, consider what happened yesterday when I made a Ranger and popped him to level 80 then took him into wvw after a few practice PvP hotjoins. I didn’t go with GS — Swoop has its utility, yes, and there is an evade on AA, but I don’t feel it’s very effective. Quickening Zephyr is a terrible waste and a super easy way to die. Instead I went evasive/trapper with some condi mixed in. I don’t allow myself to die from my own ranged attacks and I know how to fight melee so I can hold my own very well with a sword+wh. I can also heal and blast myself to full every 30 seconds and have more invul than a traited EP/DP War or Guard with Focus 5+RF. My armor is comparable to that of my Guard, and I run ~20k health. My power and crit chance is comparable to my War.

I was killing people left and right, and, yes, good players too — I could hold my own in melee for a while at least to poison/cripple, pop a trap and then LB 3 to stealth and about face+Lightning Reflexes to move away again. All the War/Guards gap closers and reflections are still on CD at this point. All my LB skills are off CD within 15 seconds or less. I can now pew pew again at 1000+ range, behind you without you even knowing I went behind you, rinse repeat Healing Spring + WH blast and I’m full health and you’re probably almost dead.

I think a person who exclusively played melee playing a Ranger can be extremely deadly — we know all your tricks. Bad Rangers are gonna be bad, but they’d benefit an awful lot if they played and knew melee mechanics inside and out so they wouldn’t retal or reflect themselves to death or panic the moment their pew pew has failed and the gap has been closed.

My rage yesterday was then unnecessary Ranger got my mesmer 4-5 times, and invisibility did not help.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Atherakhia.4086:

The thing you’re ignoring about the melee classes in this game is they have an abundance of ways to get into melee range and maintain that range. While the Ranger has some kiting tools, there aren’t many on the LB+GS combo that is all too common. It’s also worth mentioning that despite the supposed strengths you list, the class still hasn’t found a way to break into the meta in PvP, WvW, GvG or competitive guild groups.

Being completely honest, unless you’re a Necromancer, a Ranger isn’t going to present an insurmountable hill you can’t climb. While the Ranger is certainly strong, a nerf while the class is still mostly obsolete seems premature without compensation elsewhere.

Aberrant.6749:

It’s fine, just pop a reflect… WvW-ers seem to love hitting themselves in the face or if you don’t have a reflect, pop a channeled block, or idk… dodge…

The interesting part comes when you’re someone like me who has mained a War and Guard exclusively for the last 2 years. I’m pure melee. I know all the tricks for distance closing and reflection, usage of EP/BC/GS Charge/Whirl/Missile Deflection with Shield on War, on Guard JI, WoF, Sword 3, traited retal, and have seen many pew pew Rangers die to me without even getting my health down below 95%. I just don’t think they’re very good.

So, consider what happened yesterday when I made a Ranger and popped him to level 80 then took him into wvw after a few practice PvP hotjoins. I didn’t go with GS — Swoop has its utility, yes, and there is an evade on AA, but I don’t feel it’s very effective. Quickening Zephyr is a terrible waste and a super easy way to die. Instead I went evasive/trapper with some condi mixed in. I don’t allow myself to die from my own ranged attacks and I know how to fight melee so I can hold my own very well with a sword+wh. I can also heal and blast myself to full every 30 seconds and have more invul than a traited EP/DP War or Guard with Focus 5+RF. My armor is comparable to that of my Guard, and I run ~20k health. My power and crit chance is comparable to my War.

I was killing people left and right, and, yes, good players too — I could hold my own in melee for a while at least to poison/cripple, pop a trap and then LB 3 to stealth and about face+Lightning Reflexes to move away again. All the War/Guards gap closers and reflections are still on CD at this point. All my LB skills are off CD within 15 seconds or less. I can now pew pew again at 1000+ range, behind you without you even knowing I went behind you, rinse repeat Healing Spring + WH blast and I’m full health and you’re probably almost dead.

I think a person who exclusively played melee playing a Ranger can be extremely deadly — we know all your tricks. Bad Rangers are gonna be bad, but they’d benefit an awful lot if they played and knew melee mechanics inside and out so they wouldn’t retal or reflect themselves to death or panic the moment their pew pew has failed and the gap has been closed.

A good melee Ranger is scary. IMO, a good Ranger, Ele and Engi are the scariest things you can come across because they take more practice/knowledge to be good with. You won’t meet many, but the ones you do will just straight up destroy you. I’ve put so many hours in to my Ranger and I’m just not that good. I wish I were, but I’m at least better than a lot of them and I have fun winning 2, 3 and sometimes even 4v1’s if the location is right. LB Ranger does crazy damage and I still have trouble dealing with them sometimes but… Melee Ranger is so much more fun and rewarding and feels nothing like any other melee profession with it’s grace. I literally cannot recommend it more for people who like to feel engaged in combat rather than being half AFK.

Thieves. Thats all. They can drop every condi on you from stealth, and hit for 8-9k per ability. (go, go)Power Rangers are just ranged thieves. So is it fair, no, but If you nerf the ranger, you might as well nerf the thief too.

I played Power ranger since i first bought the game (+2 years ago) so I have seen the old ranger. The patch was def. needed for rangers. I got excluded many times in all kinds of stuff as dungeons and PvP. The only thing that was left for me, was WvW. But still then I was very vulnerable. Back then it was very hard to win a 1vs1 in any way. Now rangers finally can be recognized as a full part of team such as pvp, wvw and dungeons. I sincerely don’t hope they’re gonna nerf it again cause some people don’t know how to fight them. Ranger has always been described as ‘death from afar’ and now he finally is. And yes I also play other classes and ranger can be taken down if you know how.

As a warrior, I still find rangers to be the easiest to kill when roaming.. by a large gap.

Dodge the rapidfire, pop an invuln, use shield + missile reflect trait, etc. then break the range gap and spank away.

Every class will have a counter for it.. and sadly half the rangers out there will go full potato after rapidfire is evaded or blocked

aesthetix.4832:

As a warrior, I still find rangers to be the easiest to kill when roaming.. by a large gap.

Dodge the rapidfire, pop an invuln, use shield + missile reflect trait, etc. then break the range gap and spank away.

Every class will have a counter for it.. and sadly half the rangers out there will go full potato after rapidfire is evaded or blocked

Yeah but you’re not really beating the class. You’re just beating bad players, which seem to be abundant in the ranger class representation. Power Ranger is popular with baddies because it’s so brain dead simple to play.

Tom Gore.4035:

aesthetix.4832:

As a warrior, I still find rangers to be the easiest to kill when roaming.. by a large gap.

Dodge the rapidfire, pop an invuln, use shield + missile reflect trait, etc. then break the range gap and spank away.

Every class will have a counter for it.. and sadly half the rangers out there will go full potato after rapidfire is evaded or blocked

Yeah but you’re not really beating the class. You’re just beating bad players, which seem to be abundant in the ranger class representation. Power Ranger is popular with baddies because it’s so brain dead simple to play.

You may be partially right but I don’t think fully! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve dueled some very good rangers also (actually I just recorded a 5 minute long duel with a fantastic ranger that I’ll post in the near future), but a good mesmer or thief, or guard, or any class for that matter (cheese builds aside) seem to be more of an issue than a good ranger IMO.

That’s not just speaking from me as a warrior either, as a necro and ele that I play as well.

Tom Gore.4035:

aesthetix.4832:

As a warrior, I still find rangers to be the easiest to kill when roaming.. by a large gap.

Dodge the rapidfire, pop an invuln, use shield + missile reflect trait, etc. then break the range gap and spank away.

Every class will have a counter for it.. and sadly half the rangers out there will go full potato after rapidfire is evaded or blocked

Yeah but you’re not really beating the class. You’re just beating bad players, which seem to be abundant in the ranger class representation. Power Ranger is popular with baddies because it’s so brain dead simple to play.

But I will whole-heartedly agree that bad players seem to make up quite a large abundance of the ranger population.

slamfunction.7462:

Thieves. Thats all. They can drop every condi on you from stealth, and hit for 8-9k per ability. (go, go)Power Rangers are just ranged thieves. So is it fair, no, but If you nerf the ranger, you might as well nerf the thief too.

When warrs get nerfed, they look at thieves, when mesmers get nerfed, they stare at thieves, when someone mentions “nerf rangers”, you talk thieves. You guys never change.

X T D.6458:

Pets are essentially useless outside small team/solo stuff.

While I agree that they’re more of an asset in small scale/team/solo stuff they do have their uses in bigger fights. Just set them to defensive so that they’ll stick with you and use ones that remove conditions from you and your backline or fear/interrupt enemies who come to close or to prevent nearby stomping.

I’m doing world completion on my ranger at the moment, and hence end up q’ing for wvw on him during prime if i fancy a run around in wvw.

I’ll use lb/gs in wvw, but have sw/wh in my bag (along with everything else). It’s not a glass build, but it is power.

I rarely die in zerg fights, despite the opposition trying to focus me…I’ll drag thiefs away from our necros and eles then scoot away on my gs skill, use barrage to interfere with your eles and necros and focus down those that stray, or focus on thiefs if they are amongst our back line.

Piercing arrows are a lot of fun if you get your angles right.

Positioning is very important, and that’s where so many rangers go horribly wrong.

Personally I don’t use traps in wvw on my zerg build as the plan is to be nowhere near their main zerg! QZ works well on a variety of targets so I drag it along, whereas i find lightning reflexes a waste of a space for me and I generally run two signets for want of anything better. Healing spring generally as my preferred heal as it can be useful for others too, and as elite it’s either rampage or entangle depending on what we’re facing and what i’m doing.

Rangers have a lot of uses and I enjoy the challenge of playing one well (get it wrong, unlike being on a guard, you’ll die pretty fast), but when things get sticky I’d rather be on my staff ele or necro.

aesthetix.4832:

As a warrior, I still find rangers to be the easiest to kill when roaming.. by a large gap.

Dodge the rapidfire, pop an invuln, use shield + missile reflect trait, etc. then break the range gap and spank away.

Every class will have a counter for it.. and sadly half the rangers out there will go full potato after rapidfire is evaded or blocked

See my post above about maining 2 heavy melee classes for 2 years, and what happened when I made a Ranger. What you’re seeing is what I call “Ranger Panic” when I beat them on my War or Guard, in that once their RF or PBS has failed and you have closed the gap, they seem to no longer know how to fight. And that’s a big issue, yes they made Rangers walking machine guns after the patch but a machine gun is useless if you’re up in their face with a pointy thing and they’re still reloading, for lack of a better analogy.

There is a role in WvW for Rangers.

My preferred position is just behind a team/group/zerg and to offer suppression fire. Read the Wind + Piercing Arrows makes even tanks and guardians hesitate to charge into an opposing group.

…plus, our Healing Spring is a powerful condition remover/heal for all.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

aesthetix.4832:

As a warrior, I still find rangers to be the easiest to kill when roaming.. by a large gap.

Dodge the rapidfire, pop an invuln, use shield + missile reflect trait, etc. then break the range gap and spank away.

Every class will have a counter for it.. and sadly half the rangers out there will go full potato after rapidfire is evaded or blocked

See my post above about maining 2 heavy melee classes for 2 years, and what happened when I made a Ranger. What you’re seeing is what I call “Ranger Panic” when I beat them on my War or Guard, in that once their RF or PBS has failed and you have closed the gap, they seem to no longer know how to fight. And that’s a big issue, yes they made Rangers walking machine guns after the patch but a machine gun is useless if you’re up in their face with a pointy thing and they’re still reloading, for lack of a better analogy.

The same applies to any bad player that is using a gimmick build and doesn’t know how to adapt. Use stability against a terrormancer or hammer war/guard, reveal/rapid fire a mes/thief, avoid ride the lightning against an ele that runs the same rotation over and over, etc.

In pvp you run into a lot of crappy ele’s and engi’s because people see that as a good balance of being powerful and easy. In WvW you see the same with thieves, wars, and rangers. That means the majority of them are going to be free bags, but when you run into one that knows what he is doing you are going to have a bad day.

I’ve always played the hunter/ranger class. In Wow, hunter. In Aion, ranger. In GW1, ranger. In GW2, ranger.

In RL I bow hunt and target shoot and I have a dog.

Yet in WvW when running with the zerg I often use my necro. I hop on TS and whether it’s in the main zerg channel or the guild channel, it’s all the same. Ranger hate everywhere.

I honestly don’t get it.

The rangers were the red headed step child of ANet and was in need of some serious reworking. Now they have received some of that rework and it seems that the hate only increased.

I don’t do much sPvP so I can’t say anything on that but regarding PvE and WvW…

In PvE, they’re great for solo. I can solo things that I couldn’t solo on any of the other professions at any given level. Although I haven’t tried much to solo [Group] content on any other profession. Rangers bring reasonable group support.

Spotter: Increase precision to nearby allies.
Healing spring: Heals allies, removes conditions, and provides a water field.
Spirits: Providing boons to allies on chance.
Pets: Many pet’s F2 will provide a boon to allies.

Regarding WvW, rangers can hold their own roaming. Depending on the skill of the player I’d say 1v2 is certainly doable. 1v3 becomes shaky (again, depends on player skill). Although roaming is about utility rather than just lots of tank and dps. Blocks, dodges, stun breaks, gap openers and closers, etc.

In zergs, I wish rangers could be more than what they are. I run a power ranger with a high crit chance and have sigil of fire on my LB. Someone commented on using Barrage on the enemy zerg. Why the hell not? A decent sized aoe that does alright damage (it’s no fire ele) and cripples the enemy zerg. Plus the flame blasts that trigger.
Trait Piercing + Flame Blast and fire that into the enemy zerg, especially rapid shot. It excels at any bottle neck situation (zerg going through gates, holes in the wall, down hallways in SM, etc.).

There is also nothing quite as satisfying as using Point Blank Shot with Piercing Arrows on a zerg near a cliff. Pushing up to 5 enemies off said cliff.

I agree that positioning is important.

However, this may be a tier thing, but I notice that thieves and mesmers are still top spot for roaming. Then it’s engineer and ranger. The rangers, that I’ve notice, tend to be using a condition trap build with the trapper rune.

In GW2, the biggest problem with the ranger has been the pet, and still is. In WoW, you get better control, you can actually give your pet a ‘build’ using the ‘trait lines’, it hits more reliably vs moving targets and it doesn’t die instantly due to AoE. In Aion, the ranger doesn’t even get a pet. In GW1, you had skills for your pet. You even had to take a skill just to bring a pet giving the option to go without one. It was balanced since ‘builds’ in GW1 was all about the skills you brought. Like a deck of cards. Having a skill for your pet means not having one for yourself. There was better balance.

In GW2 it’s different. You must have a pet (stowing is for OOC only).

Pet’s still can’t hit moving targets unless it is crippled or chilled and even then, if the enemy has swiftness on, they are back to running at base speed which is enough to get out of melee range. As long as they are not trying to run backwards.

Pet’s still die almost instantly in any zerg vs zerg engagement due to AoE. This also goes for many boss fights where the boss uses lots of heavy AoE. In WvW I simply keep the pet on passive and use it for the F2 buffs. Outside of zerg vs zerg I’ll give the attack command when/if I want my pet on target. I often use Beast Master’s Bond. Take a pet like the Stalker, and use F2. 5 stacks of might, then the pet will engage the target running into the zerg, instantly get Fury and 3 more stacks of might. Swap pets before it dies.

Just last night, running CM with the guild, we discovered that the pet will aggro the enemy even when the ranger is cloaked. Normally if the pet passes through an enemy’s aggro range and the ranger is outside it, the enemy won’t aggro. However, if you are cloaked and inside aggro range, it still counts and if your pet is too and not cloaked, they will aggro the enemy. Meaning they are still a liability in this area too.

i play eng and after more than 5k pvp tournaments i find berserker ranger not so difficult to manage . They are strong but if you avoid their first burst and interrupt them at the right moment you can have them . In wvw in my opinion it is different. In pvp you fight for a small point sto a ranger who fight out of the point is useless.
In wvw instead with lb ranger can move much more . What i see as annoying is when you fight in a group and a ranger arrive from far and kills you .. but it is the role for that profession. Probably in wvw , where there is no need to fight “on point” rangers are stronger becouse they can use wisely the space around them and the npc .

personally i find lb/gs power ranger to be the easiest to counter and the worst build for team play.
i haven’t been playing a long time, but from what ive read and seen, ranger melee is a very untapped build by the community. its a much higher skill cap than ranger bow skill/builds. so its no surprise. but a ranger that knows how to fight with melee is very very difficult.

If you build to duel rangers they can easily be counterable, necro having the most problems due to lack of vigor/blocks/reflects/leaps/ports/mobility in general/might not have life force.

They are annoying as hell pew pewing from over 1500 range because of elevation though. And idk why people say they are easily focused, lightning reflexes and proper use of s/d or gs/muddy terrain/pet cc make them fairly slippery if the ranger is competent.

oneply.9586:

personally i find lb/gs power ranger to be the easiest to counter and the worst build for team play.
i haven’t been playing a long time, but from what ive read and seen, ranger melee is a very untapped build by the community. its a much higher skill cap than ranger bow skill/builds. so its no surprise. but a ranger that knows how to fight with melee is very very difficult.

True. But melee is untapped just becouse eveyone can troll with lb. At least in wvw a lot of people picked up ranger class just for pewpew from range and even if people try to defend it minding an hypotetical 1v1 is pure cancer. And melee or condi bunker could even be hard to fights or get an higher skill cap to play with, but since you can spam 1..

mrmadhaze.8706:

oneply.9586:

personally i find lb/gs power ranger to be the easiest to counter and the worst build for team play.
i haven’t been playing a long time, but from what ive read and seen, ranger melee is a very untapped build by the community. its a much higher skill cap than ranger bow skill/builds. so its no surprise. but a ranger that knows how to fight with melee is very very difficult.

True. But melee is untapped just becouse eveyone can troll with lb. At least in wvw a lot of people picked up ranger class just for pewpew from range and even if people try to defend it minding an hypotetical 1v1 is pure cancer. And melee or condi bunker could even be hard to fights or get an higher skill cap to play with, but since you can spam 1..

No it’s because we only have longsword and greatsword as our melee and long sword auto has a leap that essentially roots us. Even evading doesn’t cancel it.

Deamhan.9538:

mrmadhaze.8706:

oneply.9586:

personally i find lb/gs power ranger to be the easiest to counter and the worst build for team play.
i haven’t been playing a long time, but from what ive read and seen, ranger melee is a very untapped build by the community. its a much higher skill cap than ranger bow skill/builds. so its no surprise. but a ranger that knows how to fight with melee is very very difficult.

True. But melee is untapped just becouse eveyone can troll with lb. At least in wvw a lot of people picked up ranger class just for pewpew from range and even if people try to defend it minding an hypotetical 1v1 is pure cancer. And melee or condi bunker could even be hard to fights or get an higher skill cap to play with, but since you can spam 1..

No it’s because we only have longsword and greatsword as our melee and long sword auto has a leap that essentially roots us. Even evading doesn’t cancel it.

sword is not easy to master (i haven’t) but once you do (i’ve run into them they do exist) it wrecks people faster than LB. the animation lock doesn’t really even matter. honestly if you think that ranger melee is handicapped you might want to take a look at your own skillset. S/x and A/x is a lean mean fighting machine.

Sword/Horn is what I run instead of GS (for the blast and fury), although Sword/Axe is really great for deflecting projectiles. If you know how to master using the sword, you are all over the place, evading, poisoning, crippling, leaping in and out of the fight, timing your autos for optimal use of the final strike, and a lot of the time people get so turned around trying to fight a sword Ranger they look like chickens with their heads cut off. I put many many hours into playing my wife’s Ranger before making mine, and I definitely wanted to go with sword. GS may hit hard at times, but it will generally get you killed in most melee fights due to the fact that you must be glued to the target at all times for it to be any good.

The ranger didn’t even need to be buffed, players were that bad at working out how to use the ranger they decided to "buff"it to make it more user friendly for the general population… I have 2k hours on my WvW ranger but I havent used him since the patch as it felt skillless to pewpew someone to death from 1500 range away…

The ranger has so many damage buffs in the traits alone that a longbow rapidfire spikes at 18k and AA average out at 5k a hit.

…. Kinda miss my axe/warhorn sword/dagger-torch build for roaming

Rangers are fine, leave them alone. They’ve been broke since forever, who cares if they are machine guns now. Just about every viable WvW/PvP before was nerfed or intentionally broken by Anet. LB was kittenty for the longest and Rangers were exiled from all game modes. There were a few builds that Rangers were pigeon holed into playing with other classes still being better options. Now the longbow does what it’s supposed to do in WvW, murder people from long range.

There are plenty of counters to Rangers as Rangers should be able to counter other things, all is working as intended. Reflects, gap closing, blocks, shut a LB Ranger down and force them to flew or reconfigure their strategy. rangers are mobile but their mobility is sort of in the middle of the spectrum, meaning it’s now difficult to gap close on them even if you’re not on very mobile class: andaabove average Ranger can run/kite well though. Also a lot of people are pretty bad at LB even with its damage buff,just look their way and they panic.

The difference between the 1500 range burst from a ranger to for example a backstab from a thief is you can easily avoid the backstab. The thief has to be close range, so he risks his life. You only need one dodge and pressure the thief yourself. You cant pressure a target in 1500 range.

People saying you just need to learn how to face a ranger. But its not about 1on1s here. Its about the burst from range. It is just too easy without having any risk. And there is no escape for many classes. You have to play very aggressively against a power ranger. If you run you die. Not many classes can just use 3 leaps (warrior) to escape. Stealth wont work against a good ranger. WvW is mostly an open field so the ranger just have to follow u while hitting you with 3k autoattacks.

Lets say you roam and suddenly 4 or more enemies appear. If one of them is a ranger you`re probably dead. You cant attack a ranger aggressively when there are 3 more enemies so you run and die. Thats for me the big Problem. The certain death just because of a guy using autoattack. Before that patch roaming was something else :/

The suggestion to just equip every block, gapclose and reflect skill is just the wrong way.
Why should there be a class in a gamemode which forces other classes to completly change their builds for?

Weez.6315:

The difference between the 1500 range burst from a ranger to for example a backstab from a thief is you can easily avoid the backstab.

LOL thanks for the laugh….

Every other game in existence has had a ranged nuking class. How did you handle them there? And in your 4 opponent example, what are your 3 allies doing? Perhaps you should bring a class that can nullify the range advantage? And then the idea that you have the tools to handle a Ranger but you shouldn’t be kitten d to use them? Come on…

Like I said above… the only class that has a legitimate complaint against Rangers is really Necromancers. They have no mobility, 1 gap closer, and short ranged attacks. I really can’t see another class having an issue against a power Ranger. And considering they’ve been this way for 3 months now and they still haven’t found a way to get into the meta they are either not powerful enough or what they provide isn’t wanted or needed.

I’m indifferent to nerfing them. But you have to keep in mind that the class was worthless in WvW before the change, they’re worthless now. Nerfing them will need to be offset SUBSTANTIALLY. Seeing how long it took for them to get what they got? I don’t think ANet has what it takes…

Weez.6315:

Lets say you roam and suddenly 4 or more enemies appear. If one of them is a ranger you`re probably dead. You cant attack a ranger aggressively when there are 3 more enemies so you run and die. Thats for me the big Problem. The certain death just because of a guy using autoattack. Before that patch roaming was something else :/

Did you just qq because you lose in 4v1’s? Are you saying it would be totally fair if it was just 4 thieves that ganked you, but if you replace 1 with a ranger it isn’t fair?

Before the patch the ranger autoattack hit just as hard, how was it different?