Guild Wars 2

Back in the game after a year absence and started playing WvW again…

80% seem to be rangers?? what happened? Last time I played rangers were scarce and sort of a niche class, now they are everywhere.

Are they the new ‘op’ class? as they seem to have amazing offence and escape abilities…

Think it’s time to start a ranger like everyone else

Longbow got a DPS boost, and signets now affect both ranger and pet by default.

The result is (at least in berserker gear) a very powerful ranged class with up to 1500 range, but it still dies really fast.

Signet of Stone gives 6 second invuln, greatsword gives a good leap on moderate cooldown, and most will be running Signet of the Hunt (I think that’s the name) for the passive speed boost. As escape abilities go, they’re good, but still inferior to warriors in every way. Conditions will rip a zerker ranger to pieces.

Buff in LB so they’re abit more viable.

But doesn’t mean they’re anywhere remotely OP, it is still easy for any dueling specs to kill power ranger. (Zerk mediation, Cond engi, Cond thief, burst thief, Cond necro, etc)

Also they’re slower than most dueling specs because they usually don’t have much swiftness up time. (Unless choosing certain rune/ pet/ trait)

1 on 1, yes Rangers are still just ok, but 3 or 4 rangers focusing targets can drop anyone from significant range with the LB, and it can be pretty much instantly from full health, it’s the burst damage at long range that is OP.

While they’re not all that great in a zerg, in popular opinion, they’re excellent for tacking on vast sums of damage and a bit of critical cc from super far away. Condi trap rangers are also pretty good, but that’s probably more of a ‘Dire is op’ thing than the spec actually being good on its own.

rangers were given a small boost, however many seem to think said boost made a massive difference to their performance. While it did increase DPS, it did not do much for the actual damage, just how quickly it is applied. Rangers recently got some more minor buffs. These changes were to torch, our second strongest condi weapon, in general not a huge buff, but it is one among several smaller buffs that has lifted the class.

Rangers are currently as close to “balanced” as you get. Their build options are decent, they can fill several roles, hybrid builds are also very viable.

Ranger builds that are currently “popular”
DPS LB Power – troll build that does devastating amount of damage from afar, it has several counters and is to date the ONLY burst build that can have its entire damage returned to the source.

SB Bleedstacking – same as always. 111111111111111111111111 and you got a million bleeds to deal with. Now with slightly shorter range then before.

AD ST Survival – possibly the strongest dueling setup there is. Very tanky, has so much condition cleanse it can pretty much deal with any condi enemy. Massive condi bursts with low CD.

Trapper – same as before

LB Stealth trapper – same as trapper, but now also featuring heavy direct DPS bursts and stealth spam.

Hybrid Might stack – power condi hybrid centered around might stacking. It is a mix of buff bot, regen ranger, melee ranger, condi ranger and beastmaster. It is strong 1v1 and in smaller groups, not so much in zergs.

Cele spirit ranger – spirit ranger, now with more sustain and more direct DPS.

Tspatula.9086:

1 on 1, yes Rangers are still just ok, but 3 or 4 rangers focusing targets can drop anyone

Yup. Though it will be fun to see how the revenant is going to destroy rangers.

Fuzzion.2504:

Tspatula.9086:

1 on 1, yes Rangers are still just ok, but 3 or 4 rangers focusing targets can drop anyone

Yup. Though it will be fun to see how the revenant is going to destroy rangers.

you mean ranger destroying revenant.

or atleast that is how it will be for the first 3-4 weeks while fairweather FOTM try to learn revenant while the only rangers left will be people experienced with their class. unless anet implements some sort of instawin button.

Prysin.8542:

Fuzzion.2504:

Tspatula.9086:

1 on 1, yes Rangers are still just ok, but 3 or 4 rangers focusing targets can drop anyone

Yup. Though it will be fun to see how the revenant is going to destroy rangers.

you mean ranger destroying revenant.

or atleast that is how it will be for the first 3-4 weeks while fairweather FOTM try to learn revenant while the only rangers left will be people experienced with their class. unless anet implements some sort of instawin button.

Well, ranger will be more useless than ever in zerg fight in the future WvW.
A group of Revenants take turn opening that big shield and block all projectiles with a 50% up time. The radius is huge and they’re mobile, and able to just turn camera to block arrows from all direction.

Ben K.6238:

Signet of Stone gives 6 second invuln…………………………..Conditions will rip a zerker ranger to pieces.

invuln? it’s not invuln, it’s direct damage mitigator.
i laughed my kitten when ranger in pvp popped signet of stone and rampage as one against my condi war (was 3v3 situation, but i was ON him apart from a party) and gave him kitttten of condis that he couldn’t do anything with =))

but to OP…rangers is kind of normal NPCs nowadays in wvw.

Aomine.5012:

Prysin.8542:

Fuzzion.2504:

Tspatula.9086:

1 on 1, yes Rangers are still just ok, but 3 or 4 rangers focusing targets can drop anyone

Yup. Though it will be fun to see how the revenant is going to destroy rangers.

you mean ranger destroying revenant.

or atleast that is how it will be for the first 3-4 weeks while fairweather FOTM try to learn revenant while the only rangers left will be people experienced with their class. unless anet implements some sort of instawin button.

Well, ranger will be more useless than ever in zerg fight in the future WvW.
A group of Revenants take turn opening that big shield and block all projectiles with a 50% up time. The radius is huge and they’re mobile, and able to just turn camera to block arrows from all direction.

well, rangers got that type of effect already, nobody uses it because it is in the wrong line. but Striders Defense with a GS has a 180-240 “bubble” of effect and lasts around 1 sec pr proc (no ICD). So 2-3 GS rangers with their evasion on GS can pull off that “dream scenario” already. It works, ive tried it. But like i said, wrong traitline for the build i used.

If we assume that NOTHING changes with rangers then yes, they will be bad at zerging, then again. Rangers has never been good at zerging. They can, and always have been, able to zerg at a very OK level. But they were never GOOD or even GREAT. However, changes to stability may change this.
We do not know how this will affect rangers. Currently, rangers has 2 sources of stability, one which last a massive 20 seconds base, 40 sec with full boon duration, and one that lasts 8 seconds base, 16 seconds full boon duration.
We do not know if the ranger elite will get few stacks long duration or massive stacks and short duration. If the latter, they will be massively strong in zergs because they can stack more stab then the zerg can dish out CC.

There is also the question of specialization. Will the druid spec for rangers become a sort of AOE CC spammer, or some sort of buffing shaman.

Hvaran.6327:

Ben K.6238:

Signet of Stone gives 6 second invuln…………………………..Conditions will rip a zerker ranger to pieces.

invuln? it’s not invuln, it’s direct damage mitigator.
i laughed my kitten when ranger in pvp popped signet of stone and rampage as one against my condi war (was 3v3 situation, but i was ON him apart from a party) and gave him kitttten of condis that he couldn’t do anything with =))

but to OP…rangers is kind of normal NPCs nowadays in wvw.

Passive: Improves toughness for you and your pet.
Active: You and your pet takes no damage from attacks.You and your pet are still susceptible to conditions and control effects.

Mitigation means reduction, that would be less damage not no damage

Rangers have always been plentiful in WvW despite being massively under-powered.
A lot of players like them because they are one of the few ranged non-AoE centered classes and the only real non-disposable pet class. ANet from the beginning has had no idea how to develop this class.

They are generally not welcome is skill groups, few skirmish parties are built around them and they have just recently become tolerable in zergs (barely). Basically in WvW they are at least dangerous now and the longbow is a decent weapon for those that do not manage short range combat mobility well.

Still useless outside of roaming/dueling or maybe a cheese focus party at a push.

highest game range as well as ranged damage will melt zergs in wvw if you use piercing arrows trait

1900-2000 range thanks to the extra arrow flight

Basically, Rangers are able to properly Burst players now.

Rapid Fire now shoots way faster, making a pretty cheap combo with Point Blank Shoot and Entangle. (on low cooldown).
Plus Hunter Shoot now gives stealth.