Guild Wars 2

With all the tests being done recently and the ever present discussions of data-sets, I decided to do a little data-mining myself. Before getting into the numbers though, I believe that companies (and individuals) put their efforts into what is truly their priorities. With that said…

Since the inception of the “Dev Tracker”, Mr. Peters has made 140 posts. 41 of those posts have been in the SPvP Forum, 15 in the Mesmer Forum, 14 in the Dungeon Forum. So, the Rangers, the class ”most in need of improvement” hasn’t had a post from the Designer in well over two months and doesn’t even make the top 3 forums regularly posted in by the designer. And since the last Designer post in the Ranger forum, the forums with the most posts are overwhelmingly SPVP and Mesmer. I think it’s pretty safe to say that contrary to what we’ve been told, we aren’t a priority to ArenaNet, so either accept where we are and where we’re going or do something else. It’s really that simple.

It’s kind of like the old adage about crime, just follow the money. In this case, just follow the post activity.

Hah Dev Tracker, hats off to you sir! Aye I think it confirms a lot of what we already know. I’d love to see a dev response to this but sadly it’s not posted in the PvP forum so they likely won’t read it.

makes me smile an think about a certain game series thats about to release an online title, if it plays anything like its latest single player ull be able to play however u like, if half the people on this forum have any sense an im sure they do id expect this forum to go awful quiet in a couple a months awful quiet with tumbleweeds

As Mr. Peters makes future posts, I’ll update his “area of emphasis” here.

This is actually a useful reference/stat. It does give you a pretty good idea as to what they think is important, regardless of what was said previously. Maybe make this post somewhere other than in the Ranger forum too, as other classes (i.e. necro – which I main on) may find this useful.

Out of curiosity, in sPvP forums were any of his posts about rangers? I know I’ve read several sPvP forums that mention viewpoints on profs and the like.

Please realize I’m just saying this as in sPvP forums are more general and as such should be looked into more, I doubt anything ranger esc will be said there.

My god I wish our utilities get the update they mentioned in October, we have the most dull utilities in the game…

Durzlla.6295:

Out of curiosity, in sPvP forums were any of his posts about rangers? I know I’ve read several sPvP forums that mention viewpoints on profs and the like.

Please realize I’m just saying this as in sPvP forums are more general and as such should be looked into more, I doubt anything ranger esc will be said there.

My god I wish our utilities get the update they mentioned in October, we have the most dull utilities in the game…

Just a thread on the second page with a video of orb running and some comments about swoop and hornet’s sting being used for movement. Give it time hopeful it will get buried and Anet will not feel the need to adjust those skills because of an objective in a Spvp map.

Bran.7425:

Durzlla.6295:

Out of curiosity, in sPvP forums were any of his posts about rangers? I know I’ve read several sPvP forums that mention viewpoints on profs and the like.

Please realize I’m just saying this as in sPvP forums are more general and as such should be looked into more, I doubt anything ranger esc will be said there.

My god I wish our utilities get the update they mentioned in October, we have the most dull utilities in the game…

Just a thread on the second page with a video of orb running and some comments about swoop and hornet’s sting being used for movement. Give it time hopeful it will get buried and Anet will not feel the need to adjust those skills because of an objective in a Spvp map.

Nah those skills will be safe, if anything they’ll make it so leaps don’t work with the orb.

Normally I would agree with you there, but lately it seem they have been going out of there why to hit ranger skills/traits even if it is easier to just change the text in a tool tip.

Bran.7425:

Normally I would agree with you there, but lately it seem they have been going out of there why to hit ranger skills/traits even if it is easier to just change the text in a tool tip.

Well empathetic bond really needed something fixed on it lol, all condis every 10s? Pretty ridiculous, and them all going to your pet would effectively destroy your pet so…. Yeah….

I’ve been waiting for the Ranger to get a class buff up since Guild Wars 1. The class as a whole is enjoyable. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy running around shooting people in the face with a bow? Oh, that’s right. The people that realize their arrow only angered the enemy while doing no damage whatsoever. In Guild Wars 2 as well as Guild Wars 1, I’ve had to rely on my team to basically “tank” things while I shoot it with my toothpick arrows. Heaven forbid I get attacked, otherwise I would immediately drop dead if the enemy looked in my direction. There needs to be a balance where Rangers can actually do some damage while surviving at the same time. This class has been useless for far too long. Rangers are the only class I enjoy playing too! If Rangers aren’t fixed soon, I’ll be moving on to games where balancing classes isn’t an issue.

Galtrix.7369:

I’ve been waiting for the Ranger to get a class buff up since Guild Wars 1. The class as a whole is enjoyable. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy running around shooting people in the face with a bow? Oh, that’s right. The people that realize their arrow only angered the enemy while doing no damage whatsoever. In Guild Wars 2 as well as Guild Wars 1, I’ve had to rely on my team to basically “tank” things while I shoot it with my toothpick arrows. Heaven forbid I get attacked, otherwise I would immediately drop dead if the enemy looked in my direction. There needs to be a balance where Rangers can actually do some damage while surviving at the same time. This class has been useless for far too long. Rangers are the only class I enjoy playing too! If Rangers aren’t fixed soon, I’ll be moving on to games where balancing classes isn’t an issue.

You needed your team to stop yourself from dropping dead in GW1 O.o?! What were you doing running 4 Superior Runes? Or did you not bring one of the 100 or so blocks we had access to, same with GW2, are you purposely gimping yourself by putting your pet on passive and using berserker armor or something? Because rangers can pump out some really scary ranged damage and still remain sturdy

Rangers and necros, maybe engineers too. But specially rangers and necros.

Both ranger and necro do crap damage.

One because half his damage is split with a pet that does not scale with gear (no 90-100% crit damage bonus or 1k condi damage or sharpening stone or food bonuses), hits mostly single target (where most melee specs cleave on every one of their attacks, including autoattack). That half also dies to a sneeze in dungeons/high fractals and wvw. And their stupidly long F2 activation times with boons that last less than other classes can give. Crap utilities as well.

The other because his weapons simply are terrible damage wise and their condition damage is bleeding, which is weak compared to burning and confusion.

Both classes also suffer from the fact that their weapons have half mixes of power and condi skills, which means no weapon gets 100% benefit from one stat except longbow and mainhand sword. The necro has dagger and axe but neither of those is a viable ranged option with 600 range and less (and both axe and dagger suck and have no cleave or aoe).

You guys view data and only see one thing. My class isn’t getting all the attention.
Perhaps it may have been determined that necro and ranger and engineers are the baseline and the other classes are getting more attention becuase they have one or two op issue. Yes this is just speculation. But not anymore than yours.

don’t want all the attention..want some, even a little that isn’t a nerf to the word class ina ll aspects in the game. Even a post sooner than 4months ago would be nice…as of now we are punching bags and not wanted in any aspect of the game, its terrible.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

You guys view data and only see one thing. My class isn’t getting all the attention.
Perhaps it may have been determined that necro and ranger and engineers are the baseline and the other classes are getting more attention becuase they have one or two op issue. Yes this is just speculation. But not anymore than yours.

Serraphin, you are missing an important bit of data. While we Rangers have stated (some have raged) that we need improvements, our discontent at the moment is that a game designer has stated his belief that Rangers are the profession most in need of improvement and since that statement has ignored us.

So we can’t be the “baseline”.

Well, I for one don’t think that balancing is a priority at all at the moment for any class. Also the fact that Robert H is repeatedly stating that he plays a ranger and it’s amazing is not helping either.

Pedra.4381:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

You guys view data and only see one thing. My class isn’t getting all the attention.
Perhaps it may have been determined that necro and ranger and engineers are the baseline and the other classes are getting more attention becuase they have one or two op issue. Yes this is just speculation. But not anymore than yours.

Serraphin, you are missing an important bit of data. While we Rangers have stated (some have raged) that we need improvements, our discontent at the moment is that a game designer has stated his belief that Rangers are the profession most in need of improvement and since that statement has ignored us.

So we can’t be the “baseline”.

Yes, but when he said this he didn’t say we were weak, he flat out said our utilities were boring, ifour utilities are boring, and they plan to fix that, that means they’re going to be changing our utilities which probably means some sort of overhaul. That could take some time, especially when they’re looking at balancing everything, adding more content each month, trying to get sPvP as an esport, etc etc etc.

We very well -could- be a baseline, but a very boring baseline.

Durzlla.6295:

Pedra.4381:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

You guys view data and only see one thing. My class isn’t getting all the attention.
Perhaps it may have been determined that necro and ranger and engineers are the baseline and the other classes are getting more attention becuase they have one or two op issue. Yes this is just speculation. But not anymore than yours.

Serraphin, you are missing an important bit of data. While we Rangers have stated (some have raged) that we need improvements, our discontent at the moment is that a game designer has stated his belief that Rangers are the profession most in need of improvement and since that statement has ignored us.

So we can’t be the “baseline”.

Yes, but when he said this he didn’t say we were weak, he flat out said our utilities were boring, ifour utilities are boring, and they plan to fix that, that means they’re going to be changing our utilities which probably means some sort of overhaul. That could take some time, especially when they’re looking at balancing everything, adding more content each month, trying to get sPvP as an esport, etc etc etc.

We very well -could- be a baseline, but a very boring baseline.

Increasing longbow dmg by 5-15% & returning the shortbow fire rate to normal would take about 15 seconds to a balance dev, testing it wouldn’t be too bad either. :-)

I dont usualy post in these types of threads but….

I have played most of the classes to lvl80 now and i can say 100% without bias that the ranger class (while being my favourite class) is definately the most underpowered.

I am talking purely WvW here, but i own 3 full armor sets and the weapons to match and there is absolutely no freeking way that i can pump out the same damage as any of my other level 80’s.

I have zero chance of beating a same skilled thief, mesmer, guardian, Elem or Engineer.
The only classes i seem to be able to beat with any regularity is Necro (because they are as kittened as us) and warrior (because none of them seem to have a ranged weapon equiped, they are all running GS/Hammer or GS/sword n board).

It is truly ridiculous in my eyes why the ranger seems to be kittened in so many ways.
Our DPS is well below average, pet AI is kittened.
We arent the best ranged class or the best melee, we dont have the best bunker specs or heal specs, we arent the best party buffers or enemy debuffers.

There is absolutely nothing we excell at.

So what makes me keep coming back? I dont have a fking clue to be perfectly honest.

Galtrix.7369:

I’ve been waiting for the Ranger to get a class buff up since Guild Wars 1. The class as a whole is enjoyable. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy running around shooting people in the face with a bow? Oh, that’s right. The people that realize their arrow only angered the enemy while doing no damage whatsoever.

Thing is, I played with 16 in beastmaster and that was hilarious. You had effectively ulimited energy, hit hard, fast, often and still got to shoot people in the face with a bow. Go try it, seriously. It’s great.

Loki.4871:

Galtrix.7369:

I’ve been waiting for the Ranger to get a class buff up since Guild Wars 1. The class as a whole is enjoyable. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy running around shooting people in the face with a bow? Oh, that’s right. The people that realize their arrow only angered the enemy while doing no damage whatsoever.

Thing is, I played with 16 in beastmaster and that was hilarious. You had effectively ulimited energy, hit hard, fast, often and still got to shoot people in the face with a bow. Go try it, seriously. It’s great.

Omg yes! I had a 14bm/12marks/9expertise and like 10? In WS, sooooooo much fun, my energy was limitless I attacked on 2 fronts, had significant amounts of survivability, could apply 4 condis (deep wound, cripple, poison, bleeding) it was just awesome!

If only GW2 ranger could ascend to that lv….

PS: staff BM ranger was so amazingly awesome in PvP xD.

Nice thread.

I as well have been tracking dev movements for some time now. I noticed that devs haven’t spoken about most professions lately.

Important facts:

1. Rangers aren’t being discussed about on forums. (regarding this subforum and the thread).
2. Necromancers (my other top profession) are in the same spot – absolute denial of existence on dev part. Most notable example lately – a bug/fix with our profession mechanic which I tried to get explained with numerous people on numerous occasions, without success.
3. Jon Peters made an appearance after last patch few times, when I last checked – he wrote 3-4 posts on mesmer forums. He also mentioned undocumented elementalist changes and later added them to the notes after the patch.
4. Devs are very picky about whose question they choose to answer.
5. There is no sign of any change happening in the near future.
6. Increased activity in sPvP forums regarding PvP in general after the patch (they mentioned they use to have more time after a patch hits the live environment).

leman.7682:

Nice thread.

I as well have been tracking dev movements for some time now. I noticed that devs haven’t spoken about most professions lately.

Important facts:

1. Rangers aren’t being discussed about on forums. (regarding this subforum and the thread).
2. Necromancers (my other top profession) are in the same spot – absolute denial of existence on dev part. Most notable example lately – a bug/fix with our profession mechanic which I tried to get explained with numerous people on numerous occasions, without success.
3. Jon Peters made an appearance after last patch few times, when I last checked – he wrote 3-4 posts on mesmer forums. He also mentioned undocumented elementalist changes and later added them to the notes after the patch.
4. Devs are very picky about whose question they choose to answer.
5. There is no sign of any change happening in the near future.
6. Increased activity in sPvP forums regarding PvP in general after the patch (they mentioned they use to have more time after a patch hits the live environment).

Fun fact:
#i love how everyone just ignore warriors like it’s not even there.

Sina.9208:

Well, I for one don’t think that balancing is a priority at all at the moment for any class. Also the fact that Robert H is repeatedly stating that he plays a ranger and it’s amazing is not helping either.

Yeah, but it’s also apparent that he’s pretty full of himself and is only interested in hearing opinions that are the same as his. I doubt he fools anyone.

But, as an aside. I’d really like to see him play his Ranger and keep his pet alive throughout dungeon encounters. I’d almost pay to see that.

Lighter.5631:

leman.7682:

Nice thread.

I as well have been tracking dev movements for some time now. I noticed that devs haven’t spoken about most professions lately.

Important facts:

1. Rangers aren’t being discussed about on forums. (regarding this subforum and the thread).
2. Necromancers (my other top profession) are in the same spot – absolute denial of existence on dev part. Most notable example lately – a bug/fix with our profession mechanic which I tried to get explained with numerous people on numerous occasions, without success.
3. Jon Peters made an appearance after last patch few times, when I last checked – he wrote 3-4 posts on mesmer forums. He also mentioned undocumented elementalist changes and later added them to the notes after the patch.
4. Devs are very picky about whose question they choose to answer.
5. There is no sign of any change happening in the near future.
6. Increased activity in sPvP forums regarding PvP in general after the patch (they mentioned they use to have more time after a patch hits the live environment).

Fun fact:
#i love how everyone just ignore warriors like it’s not even there.

Warrior is a well rounded class to be honest. 100b should be nerfed, but apart from that it has many working & balanced builds.

Pedra.4381:

Sina.9208:

Well, I for one don’t think that balancing is a priority at all at the moment for any class. Also the fact that Robert H is repeatedly stating that he plays a ranger and it’s amazing is not helping either.

Yeah, but it’s also apparent that he’s pretty full of himself and is only interested in hearing opinions that are the same as his. I doubt he fools anyone.

But, as an aside. I’d really like to see him play his Ranger and keep his pet alive throughout dungeon encounters. I’d almost pay to see that.

Well he knows dungeon mechanics the way no player does. With exact timers, unnoticeable boss emotes and everything, even so I’d like to see how he does it. It would be fun to see him playing that melee ranger of his in 40+ fractals, while not only not dying, but keeping the beast alive.

Sina.9208:

Well he knows dungeon mechanics the way no player does. With exact timers, unnoticeable boss emotes and everything, even so I’d like to see how he does it. It would be fun to see him playing that melee ranger of his in 40+ fractals, while not only not dying, but keeping the beast alive.

We find ourselves in violent agreement.