Guild Wars 2

After maxing a mesmer, warrior and necro I kinda wanted to make a ranger next since I have the black widow pet and never got to use it. Similar to WoW with Hunters, I’ve always kind of heard Rangers are the bottom of the barrel, but recently I’ve seen a few in PVP that actually did very well.

What do you think of a trapper ranger or the class in general?

Rangers aren’t bad, it’s the mindset of the majority of players who play them. “Ranger” typically infers ranged combat, however it’s not the optimal playstyle, so many uninformed players are kicked off the cliff and bring the class as a whole down with them. In my opinion, ranger’s definitely the hardest class to master when you realize that we really don’t have a focus of direction within our traits and have very awkward utilities that don’t function like any other class’s in the game.

for your own sake, do not ask such questions on these forums. 99% of your answers will be provided by the doom and gloom crowd that inhabits this place.

Any class is strong, if it suits your playstyle and mentality. The limitation of a class is first and foremost a physical and mental limitation, and you will reach those limits long before you reach the mechanical limitations (99% of the players here will try say otherwise, simply because they cannot overcome their own shortcomings and learn to approach things differently)

Viking Jorun.5413:

Rangers aren’t bad, it’s the mindset of the majority of players who play them. “Ranger” typically infers ranged combat, however it’s not the optimal playstyle, so many uninformed players are kicked off the cliff and bring the class as a whole down with them. In my opinion, ranger’s definitely the hardest class to master when you realize that we really don’t have a focus of direction within our traits and have very awkward utilities that don’t function like any other class’s in the game.

So are rangers kinda like engineers in that if their skills aren’t used properly, it’s very easy to mess up?

Prysin.8542:

for your own sake, do not ask such questions on these forums. 99% of your answers will be provided by the doom and gloom crowd that inhabits this place.

Any class is strong, if it suits your playstyle and mentality. The limitation of a class is first and foremost a physical and mental limitation, and you will reach those limits long before you reach the mechanical limitations (99% of the players here will try say otherwise, simply because they cannot overcome their own shortcomings and learn to approach things differently)

I understand that, people once told me on the forums that necros are only ok and kinda squishy, yet mine is extremely tanky and one of my favorite classes to play haha

DrDivine.5378:

After maxing a mesmer, warrior and necro I kinda wanted to make a ranger next since I have the black widow pet and never got to use it. Similar to WoW with Hunters, I’ve always kind of heard Rangers are the bottom of the barrel, but recently I’ve seen a few in PVP that actually did very well.

What do you think of a trapper ranger or the class in general?

When deciding what class to play or try out, don’t walk, but RUN away from these forums as quickly as you can. Because for anyone willing or interested in trying a particular class, 90% of what you will read on these forums is pure poison. So go ask your guildies for advice, and just jump in and experiment yourself – but don’t look here. And this is not unique to the Ranger sub-forum … trust me, there is also a mountain of QQ tears in the Necro, Ele, Thief, Mesmer, and even (gasp!) the Engineer and Warrior forums.

Now once you have a class down at least partially, then, yes, these forums can be constructive. Because hidden beneath the endless pile of teenage QQ and tantrums there are also a great many good posts with builds, tips and good advice. In that sense, these forums can actually be a very good resource.

Basically, when it comes to Ranger (or any other class for that matter), if you take the class for what it is (and NOT what you would like it to be), and play to its inherent strengths, you will do just fine. If on the other hand, you have a set in stone preconceived idea of how the Ranger “should” play, and attempt to force that play-style onto your toon, then you will no doubt be disappointed. And then you will be able to join the ranks of the self-appointed “forums class re-designers” and post endless self-serving drivel claiming to want changes for “balance”, but in reality, wanting those changes for anything BUT balance reasons.

Don’t listen to the crowd, and test it out yourself …. nothing beats first-hand experience.

role a regen+condi+evasion ranger and never ask yourself that question again.

Having fully loaded characters of 1/2 the classes, ranger was my main and is largely played only in a few game modes.

In WvW, we do quite well in small groups but struggle in larger ones because of the lack of AE and the AI of pets is no real help. In short, the bigger the zerg, the less I would want my ranger vs other characters.

In PvP, we do quite well but PvP tends to respect more of the evade and melee style over range so it takes a bit of a different spec than most play.

In PvE (leveling), few things beat the ease of having your own meat shield.

In PvE (dungeons), the ranger has a few cute traits but plays very oddly (from what you would think a ranger should do).

Ranger outside large WvW is viable but a frustrating class because it likely will not meet the expectations you had of playstyle when you rolled a ranger.

Like rolling a cond bunker for small scale skirmnishing/1v1’s?
If yes then ranger is for you, otherwise avoid pvp. (edit: can also go spirit rez bot for team support)
PVE i have limited experience, but questing is a breeze, dungeons are fun as bm (for me anyway, i dont do fractals)
As far as traits go, rangers require 6 points to make utilities of 1 type viable and another 6 for our only decent condition removal, its annoying.

Unless you are doing 1 v 1s or 2 v 2s, ranger is bad.

^euratien stop giving us bad rep, we do fine in small and large zergs (it may be fustrating that we can’t be like warroirs no lol)
not amazing like the fans favorite , if you realy want to see a good ranger play pm me and i’ll invite you to my twitch account and i’ll show you if i get enough responses i’ll invite anyone willing to learn ranger outside of a bezerker set for WvW.

i won’t be showing you gear or what to use but guide lines visual tips you can learn by watching how i play my ranger , if its helpful all the better, i hope to help people improve because there are and is too many people that still struggle to play a ranger efficiently in WvW because of all this bad rep if Gvg had its own mode then yes the ranger would be lacking as it takes up limited space as wvw 90% of the time does not suffer from.

the main question is what can you do to help the ranger community? if you don’t want to help don’t bad mouth it and give people constructive support on how to improve their game , they will be much happier to learn some new tips, than to read the dribble and negative comments.

here to help

I thought I was being constructive. The OP asked for how ranger is in PvP. In PvP, ranger is good at small scale fights but once a 3 v 3 (depending on the enemy comp) but definitely a 4 v 4 or 5 v 5 ranger falls off pretty quick and you’d be more helpful to your team running another class. The main reason for this is because PvP is a conquest game type and do to all the might stacks being thrown around (namely warriors) you CANNOT 1 v 1 a warrior on the node and if they are any decent you cannot kill them in any reasonable time frame that if your team loses the fight at mid, then you will get collapsed on at a side node.

Of all the ranger builds, trap build is one of our most effective at low level PvP (very low) yet most ineffective build once players learn to dodge. This is because you have no defensive utilities to help support yourself.

So in the end, unless you are 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 ranger is bad. If you plan on doing team queue don’t be a ranger. If you are planning on hotjoin or solo queue then it doesn’t matter and you can effectively carry a team regardless of what you play (considering you are good).

you can time your evades , and have someone nearby get someone from main to come to you finish him fast , with a rangers mobility you’ll have no problem blitzing over to mid to help while you swap places with a guildie , the class can’t be played like a other classes where they can solo a node it requires an active communication
also the longer you keep that decent player on the node they aren’t helping else where too.

you have described the compision of team work is and losses will happen if not timed or rotated correctly.

play with your guidlies if you go ranger its not the type of class that can be played at a high lvl pvp,wvw without comminication like the other classes can.
solo can be ignored i see that places as only pvp practice and a place to test builds.

your second comment was much more contructive than (rangers is bad) that previous one was a bad post with no re-enforcement atleast think like you did in your second post when giving constructive advise..

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

you can time your evades , and have someone nearby get someone from main to come to you finish him fast , with a rangers mobility you’ll have no problem blitzing over to mid to help while you swap places with a guildie , the class can’t be played like a other classes where they can solo a node it requires an active communication
also the longer you keep that decent player on the node they aren’t helping else where too.

you have described the compision of team work is and losses will happen if not timed or rotated correctly.

play with your guidlies if you go ranger its not the type of class that can be played at a high lvl pvp,wvw without comminication like the other classes can.
solo can be ignored i see that places as only pvp practice and a place to test builds.

A class with swiftness is faster than a ranger. The only class slower than a ranger is a guardian or a necro, but neither of those will be racing you between a side node and mid node. Sure, you can stall at their home node or their char can just swap to your node and you are effectively gaining nothing. But at the point when the mid fight is one or lost and one of the side nodes gets rotated to, you are no longer as effective as another class. So what do you do? Well, you can rotate to mid and “stall” that guy, but if its a good team that mid point is gonna be something capable of 1 v 1ing you and holding the node, like an ele, or a warrior then you really aren’t helping your team because while that node is being held, they are winning.

Now, I’ve left a few places to be picked apart. Ranger can bring warhorn, but if you bring a warhorn YOU DEFINITELY won’t win a 1 v 1. You can go sword/gs and have high mobility, but then at any fight more than 1 v 1 you are not as beneficial to your team as anything else is. Plus, you won’t be able to kill or last against anything 1 v 1 on node. You might have a case to bringing a lb so that you can decap that 1 v 1 guy. Doesn’t matter. Because they will be able to kill you and you’ve lost your mobility.

Ranger builds are lacking something. It is not a matter of rotation because no matter how or where the ranger rotates it is not as useful as another profession could be.

Once again, this is a team queue situation. In solo queue, ranger can be very fun and very dominant even up to the top of the leaderboards regardless of what spec you play.

The main reason for poor performance in team queue is the coordination of the other team and the fact that ranger’s damage is vastly single target. You can condi burst with a/t s/d (or variant) but you have to be at melee ranger and most classes/teams will just clear the condis or pull back to their back line to heal. You can go sb, but the range nerf no longer leaves the ranger in a safe position at team fights to be able to pressure an enemy without the possibility of getting instagibbed. You can go power, but you need a babysitter, and even then you are always the prime target do to lack of something to keep you alive and you could always be a profession without a babysitter.

Note: when I refer to something I mean, better utilites, better damage coefficients, better aoe, better mobility, better boon rip, better ANYTHING that can give the ranger another edge.

Note: I love my ranger and will continue to play my ranger. But I cannot help but feel like I am a hindrance to my team and that I am just waiting for ranger to get buffed so I can be at the top of the food chain (not through OPness but by skill through decent balance). There is a reason ranger was voted number 1 in need of help in the CDI. Too bad that seems to have disappeared.

I will say we excel at small skirmishes and 1v1 so we make excellent roamers but lack the specialization required for top tier PvP/PvE. We don’t bring anything specific to a team that another class can’t do better.

bows are bad, rangers don’t have much going for them but definitely more than you people think. They’re a very strong class but it’s the bearbows or shortbow rangers that set the terrible image. (sword/Greatsword is your best dmg)

Inverted.7439:

bows are bad, rangers don’t have much going for them but definitely more than you people think. They’re a very strong class but it’s the bearbows or shortbow rangers that set the terrible image. (sword/Greatsword is your best dmg)

You leave my shortbow ranger alone -.-

Most rangers are terrible. The class overall? Could be worse.

The same could be said of every class.

Inverted.7439:

bows are bad, rangers don’t have much going for them but definitely more than you people think. They’re a very strong class but it’s the bearbows or shortbow rangers that set the terrible image. (sword/Greatsword is your best dmg)

OP mentioned PvP. This is for PvE and is completely opposite of PvP.

Presumably you’re talking about team q? Then ranger has traditionally had a solid place in a meta team. It’s only recently that we’ve fallen out of the meta, more to do with a few bugs and additions that buff other classes more then the ranger. In saying that, I’d never argue with a skilled ranger in my team.

Omnitek.3876:

Most rangers are terrible. The class overall? Could be worse.

The same could be said of every class.

That not so true… The fact is, ranger is one of the hardest class (if not THE hardest) explain why “most ranger are terrible”.

But once you became good with ranger all class are just a matter of 1-2 days to take in hand (in case of the warrior 0.5 sec). None of those class have unreliable factor like pet which helps.

That being said i would never trade my pet <3.

Rangers can bring something to a zerg.. Traps are great if traited; not the best 1-1 build with the lack of stun breaks but if youre careful you can contribute. Would be nice if they added a defensive component to trapping…

Rangers aren’t bad in anything that really matters. Aka, even in areas where they are suboptimal, it’s hardly needed to optimize anything. In general, rangers are better the smaller the numbers are involved. In a zerg, they must put much more effort than Guardians, Warriors, Elementalists, or Necromancers. On the other hand, a good ranger duelist is a fearsome one.

They also faceroll open world pve even more so than any other class, being able to afk solo many champions, and are very powerful in high end pve content as long as you don’t bearbow crap. In general, if you see a ranger offering you spirits and spotter, you are in good hands.

That being said, this class suffers from a lack of polish. It could use a number of QoL changes as well as rethinking of certain traits. All classes have their crap skills/traits, but rangers have so many that don’t do anything unless you trait them, due to a lot of them revolving around the pet.

Also ranger pets have vastly improved AI and usually do what they’re told now. Downing your pet is now largely a player skill issue as opposed to a few months ago where f2 skills might as well have never existed.

..ahh and thats what i get for trying to help some moot trying to prove me the Negative points Every class has Negative points , and if you can’t work out how to move fast on a ranger your doing somthing wrong or just in a sense of doubt because of other people don’t let it get to you.
only warroir and Thief can Escape from me in pvp as Eles are needed on point if those classes ran away that removes a major part of the Aoe and condi clears.
so nearly everything you said im ignoring there is no Such thing as 1vs1 in this Game, what game mode promotes 1vs1 none of them.
the ranger gives amazing Mobile support without having to pay the longcool downs of 40+secs.

Kilger.5490:

Rangers can bring something to a zerg.. Traps are great if traited; not the best 1-1 build with the lack of stun breaks but if youre careful you can contribute. Would be nice if they added a defensive component to trapping…

Only issue with traps is that conditions are very easily cleansed at the moment. Lemongrass poultry, melandru runes, soldier runes. Conditions aren’t so strong in zergs. Traps are however, great for tagging, and those few who don’t have condi cleanse or burned through theirs already will blow up.

Klonko.8341:

Omnitek.3876:

Most rangers are terrible. The class overall? Could be worse.

The same could be said of every class.

That not so true… The fact is, ranger is one of the hardest class (if not THE hardest) explain why “most ranger are terrible”.

But once you became good with ranger all class are just a matter of 1-2 days to take in hand (in case of the warrior 0.5 sec). None of those class have unreliable factor like pet which helps.

That being said i would never trade my pet <3.

The general skill level of the player base in GW2 is low. That is why most rangers are terrible. It holds more true for thief tbh.

Also, ranger is not the hardest class to play. Far from it. Work the hardest to achieve what other classes can, I will agree with that.

If you view a necro as tanky in PvE, your PvE ranger will be a complete waste of space; do not create..

If you mean PvP tanky , Ranger is better than necro.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Rangers aren’t bad, it’s the mindset of the majority of players who play them. “Ranger” typically infers ranged combat(…).

what made me delete my ranger was engi can achieve 1500 in nades range and has same range of the longbow with faster spam and woe conditions.

Condition/regen rangers shine at 1v1, sometimes 1v2 when vs certain classes, however, you have thief/warrior/mesmer/engi there laughing. And after 1 hr hard play, you won 10 1v1 fights in WvW, then you ask yourself — what’s the point of this in WvW?
LB zerk rangers can do some damage during zerg surfing, but ele and necro are loling at your pet.

he class isn’t bad in itself, it’s just the players. rue i could use some tweaks, buffs, but overall we’re in a pretty good spot right now.

Every class has it’s bad players, on ranger it’s more noticeable, thats all

I am beyond weary of these threads, where the OP says “do rangers suck?” “smelly solid waste”, ad nauseum. Granted there are alot of crappy rangers out there, as well as the nerfs we’ve received over the past year and the horrible AI of our pets. Rangers have that horrible stigma “bearbow” attached to them. But, I’ve seen some awesome rangers who run with bears.

Earlier in the thread, some one was talking about swiftness. Aside from Engineers who have speedy kits, the only 2 classes who cannot equip a signet for speed are Guardians and Mesmers, who have to rely on their weapons (staff and focus, respectively) to gain a speed buff. Everyone can use runes to gain swiftness. I can run using SoH as fast as a thief using their signet. Not that that makes any difference.

I will say that of all the classes Ranger is my fave (I’ve 4 of them, 3 80’s and 1 30 and about 2500 hrs. as one) as well as at least one (some more) of every other class at level 80. One thing alot of rangers don’t do, is pet management, which is vital to any ranger’s success. Like it or not, they are a part of us and really can’t be ignored. IMO, rangers are cake to level, but difficult to master well. Ele’s and Mes’s are much harder to level, but cake at 80.

As far as PVP, there are Rangers on highly ranked teams. Have had alot of success 1v1 against most classes, esp. thief. Depends on the player, but I’ve seen some truly awesome rangers in PVP.

People can think what they will about Rangers, I don’t really care. We’ve waited for changes by Anet, and maybe someday they’ll come about. Assignment of various traits need to be reassessed. One can only hope…

Eurantien.4632:

I thought I was being constructive. The OP asked for how ranger is in PvP. In PvP, ranger is good at small scale fights but once a 3 v 3 (depending on the enemy comp) but definitely a 4 v 4 or 5 v 5 ranger falls off pretty quick and you’d be more helpful to your team running another class. The main reason for this is because PvP is a conquest game type and do to all the might stacks being thrown around (namely warriors) you CANNOT 1 v 1 a warrior on the node and if they are any decent you cannot kill them in any reasonable time frame that if your team loses the fight at mid, then you will get collapsed on at a side node.

Of all the ranger builds, trap build is one of our most effective at low level PvP (very low) yet most ineffective build once players learn to dodge. This is because you have no defensive utilities to help support yourself.

So in the end, unless you are 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 ranger is bad. If you plan on doing team queue don’t be a ranger. If you are planning on hotjoin or solo queue then it doesn’t matter and you can effectively carry a team regardless of what you play (considering you are good).

Wrong. EU tPvP championships finalist team had ranger.

Just my opinion, since I primarily play world vs world i can only offer my perspective of the class in world vs world. I’m definitely a fan of rangers when it comes to world vs world groups, although their contributions can be replaced with other classes. For example, their ability to provide protection to allies is often substituted by guardians and elementalists. Their ability to snipe key players of the enemy is often substituted by thieves. Their ability to provide fury is often substituted by warrior running shouts.

My experiences fighting rangers 1 vs 1 is if they do not use double bow or simply back pedal then they do great. I feel like rangers lack sustain overrall unless with a regen build. However, their use of evades, range, and condition based ccs really makes them effective due to the fact even classes with a lot of access to stability still get cc a lot from the immobolizes, chills and cripples that are available on the ranger.

Lastly, one of the attributes i like on other classes such as the guardian, warrior even necromancer, engineer is that they can play backline or frontline. Whereas I think playing frontline on the ranger does not work well at all at least in comparison to other classes. Rangers could use some improvements so that their attributes that they offer are not simply replaced by other classes, that being said I believe they are in a fairly decent spot and can be played effectively in duels, groups, zerg play.

Personally I do not recommend simply going all out trapper ranger, spirit ranger or condition ranger, but rather a build that offers high physical dps or high sustain with moderate balance of physical dps and some condi.

Honestly, rangers have a large variety of play styles.

They’re not always the most optimal, but they work and they’re really fun. You just gotta keep your mind open.

In my limited time playing as one, it seems the one thing that is the most difficult to manage is the way rangers deal damage.

All other classes are easily capable of high damage burst (power or condi) at the right opportunity to down an opponent, whereas with rangers it seems to be much more difficult to coordinate pet and personal damage in order to spike high damage at the right moments.

Many things must be sacrificed in order to setup a perfect high damage burst as a ranger (traits, skills, pets, gear etc) – often leading to lack of sustain afterwards, making it a do or die situation.

Steady sustained dps is difficult to work with in outnumbered situations, especially given how healing works in this game. In 1v1 encounters it is a surprisingly easy class to play. Going 1v2 or more, the difficulty grows exponentially.

Again, just from my very limited experience.

I’m sorry I haven’t had time to read all the comments but to answer your question:

I can not speak for PVE as I’ve never done it, but in PVP rangers are bad. 1v1 They can hold their own, 2v2 they are great. But thats about it, there are classes which excel at these scenarios even more and rangers bring nothing to team fights. The range on our weapons in particular shortbow is too small now so you can’t really be safe in team fights, power is kind of a joke on rangers so longbow is out the question. The class is in need of balance, not hard to make it more viable, simply have it bring some useful team utility and give it a nicer range. Also less passive and more active skills would be very much appreciated.

ranger is not bad just other classes are better.. some of them much better.. speaking about www, its about luck and knowing what other classes are capable of , mesmers are pain ..LB is good for kicking ppl from cliffs but best use it as pile wood (5traits to make bow viable is just bad vary bad joke) pets i found useful dogs only .. axe is worst than necros ..elite skills well their epic long cd speaks for themselfes.. oh yes and i forgot condition you need 6 trait points in nature or survival(best in both) to barely handle them .. sending greetings to perplexity engineers

There is no “bad” class in GW2.

Some are just distinctly better in some aspects of the game than others. The issue facing rangers is that their greatest strengths are considered insignificant or simply just not particularly important aspects of the game, especially at 80, and this is especially applicable to players desiring a class featuring ranged combat. While any player can become skillful and perform extremely well with any class in the game through getting better, it is often the case that the ranger suffers from distinct setbacks due to various factors ranging from below-average trait synergy and dependency on fairly unresponsive AI companions. A given rangers’ strength often is the culmination of his build moreso than his actual skill level; this is especially more apparent as one compares something like berserker longbow versus condi spirit bunker shortbow.

The class is almost undeniably the best when it comes down to open-world PvE, and condi spirit bunker is unbelievably strong for point defense in sPvP, however beyond these two situations, it falters out, especially in regards to larger-scale fights in WvW and higher-level fractals. The class is never bad, and it can be extremely good. The main issue it faces is that it’s quite often replaceable.

theodor.3480:

he class isn’t bad in itself, it’s just the players. rue i could use some tweaks, buffs, but overall we’re in a pretty good spot right now.

Every class has it’s bad players, on ranger it’s more noticeable, thats all

While this is not unlikely it is not the entire problem. One the game itself devalues a lot of what the ranger was designed to do. Two the effort to effect across all the profession, not just ranger needs to be evaluated (example at skill X the potential effectiveness of player on a ranger is not the same as it would be on any of the other professions). Lastly if would seem that the develops themselves have a hate-hate relationship with the profession, example they despise passive play style, but do basically nothing to improve the matter all for fear of power creep.

I would be all for lowering your dps in favour of giving you more utility… your auto attack is almost as annoying as thieves in spvp against non heavies -.-, hell I would be happy if they nurfed your auto attack to the ground but beefed up your other skills damage wise, at least they can be avoided from actual skilful play. Nothing more annoying then 2k damage constantly from 1k range away when you are not a warrior and close that in 1 second

Not sure if complaint about long range shot is legit…

Sigmoid.7082:

Not sure if complaint about long range shot is legit…

Ranger is the King of Autoattack in GW2, is our best weapon “skill”….

urdriel.8496:

Sigmoid.7082:

Not sure if complaint about long range shot is legit…

Ranger is the King of Autoattack in GW2, is our best weapon “skill”….

Its not hard to avoid it and close in for anyone which is what i was getting at. its just crap that all our damage is loaded onto our #1 skills. no idea what anet is doing with out skills but as it is we have 7 utility skills and one attack skill.

Bad thing is cant even expect a change since it takes anet forever to do anything and their vision for the class is steady damage which is #1 spam in their eyes.

urdriel.8496:

Sigmoid.7082:

Not sure if complaint about long range shot is legit…

Ranger is the King of Autoattack in GW2, is our best weapon “skill”….

More the probably being that almost every other ranger weapon skill is for conditional uses and even then at best the skill is not a damage loss, more often than not it is though.

Yet there is this constant complaint that all ranger does is “spam 1”
With the developer’s current stance of ranger being a resilient, sustain damage based profession I really don’t see any real improvement on that auto attack heaviness of ranger.

Whether you wish to say rangers are bad or simply that other classes are better, the result is the same. . . rangers are lower on the laddering than any other class right now.

You CAN play them and add SOMETHING to most battles (not so much to a zerg in WvW but at least something). The key is that you could have brought more playing another class. . . generally.

There are exceptions. In PvE, a ranger has some unique abilities in the oddest of builds.
In roaming WvW, a ranger can be quite good 1v1 (so can other classes that bring more in other fights).
In Spvp, rangers actually do quite well and arguably are in a pretty good spot (even if you have to play them differently than other ranger classes in other games).

Ranger was my main. Every once in a while I bring her back out. Generally, I just think an engineer does more “range” style play than the ranger and is a better fit (for me at least).

Bombsaway.7198:

In PvP, we do quite well but PvP tends to respect more of the evade and melee style over range so it takes a bit of a different spec than most play.

I use Longbow and get 13k Crits with Rapid Fire…

Ask Pvpmasters Prinzkaos IF ranger is bad. This dude kill 3v1 like nothing.

Hi. My name is Cara and I play a Ranger. I mostly use my Ranger in WvW because I feel I can do the most damage at the back of the pack with my longbow dropping arrows into the crowd. It is great for collecting bags. I also find that I do very well solo’ing camps with this toon.

I tend to die more often than not when put in a 1v1 situation. But I never was much one for pvp as I am getting older and have lost a lot of the twitch needed to succeed. I’m alright with that.

I recently read posts about how the “BearBow” is horrid for support in Dungeons and Fractals. I am normally on my Mesmer for those but I thought I would try out a GS build on my Ranger and do a Fractal or two.

I must say it is a lot of fun. I do kill things rather fast with my GS and my Cat pet. I am still learning the ins and outs but I like what the Ranger brings to the group. I swap out with my bow when needed. I tried using the Sword+ something but that has a bit of a learning curve to it. Like not using it on a bridge.

So I have a card written up with my builds for GS and for Bow and change my build accordingly with what I am about to play. I still use my Mesmer more in Fractals but I am ready to play my Ranger if the opportunity arises.

I dont know if a ranger can be the best dps out there,i dont know if a ranger can be the broken class in pvp that you simply press 3 buttons and win but my personal experience is that i have a lot of fun with this class.
Dont listen to anyone who says that any class is good or bad.Its always the player who makes the difference.
For example everywere i look they say that warriors are great and since i recently started playing some solo arenas i kept an eye to see why they say this about warriors.I faced many many warriors and i have to admit that i didnt understand why people say that this class is too strong since most of them i faced fell without even touching me,but there was a warrior that made me run away in fear everytime i faced him.
My point? Every class can be terrible or amazing in the right hands.
And the most important,if you enjoy playing as a ranger then go with it and forget about stats and dps and all that.The purpose is to enjoy your self and me personaly im having a great time as a ranger

Littlefeather.8623:

Bombsaway.7198:

In PvP, we do quite well but PvP tends to respect more of the evade and melee style over range so it takes a bit of a different spec than most play.

I use Longbow and get 13k Crits with Rapid Fire…

And that’s really, really low relative to other classes.
Hell, even my P/P thief does 11k unloads which can be chained together.

You’d also just deal more damage autoattacking. RF only proves to be useful for DPS when your target is attempting to enter stealth as it’s stealth-tracking. Otherwise, it deals strictly less damage than AA’ing.