Guild Wars 2

Hi, Im a new player and been trying out different classes.

I also enjoy reading the forums, and after going through a couple places now, I can’t get over how many times people mention the Ranger class as the most “worthless” class or at least the most in need of repair.

I was honestly considering leveling one up to 80, but you’ve scared me off . . . O.o

Just HOW bad is it right now for Rangers?!?!

It’s not bad for rangers who aren’t massively competitive players who want to run every dungeon as fast as it can be run.

For people in casual guilds like mine, we have plenty of rangers who do just fine.

It’s not that rangers are “bad” it’s that they do less damage than other professions without some of the advantages of other professions.

If you don’t pug and you’re playing in a guild with like minded people it will matter a whole lot less than if you’re trying to pug with speed run groups.

What Vayne said.

What if I want to be a super competitive player but not sure if I want to make a ranger my main? How’s the experience from 1-80, relatively speaking?

For dungeon, the way to do most damage is to use a melee weapon for ranger…

But the problem is the people who play ranger don’t use melee weapon. So they get the idea ranger can’t do dps.

Not only that, because of the dodge mechanic, it is very hard to play ranger.

The problem with rangers is that a lot of Rangers almost afk, as in Open World it’s very possible to send in your Bear and then plink a target till it dies.

In Dungeons you can do this, but you will do SO much less than any other class in the game. Without proper pet management they will be down 90% of the time, and Pets are such a big chunk of a Ranger DPS. Also a lot of a team DPS comes in the form of buffs, if your at extreme range plinking you will not be getting any of these buffs. Also you will be adding no support to the team.

I don’t think you need to go full melee to be effective as a Ranger, though you will if your in a Zerker Speed run group. But you do want to remain at about 300-450 range to get the most out of team buffs. Also things like Healing Springs are far better if placed over the melee team and yourself than 1800 range away from everyone else healing just you.

My own issue with ranger is the sword, and the lack of control over the pet.

Both get me into more fights than I am able to handle.

Ratty.5176:

I don’t think you need to go full melee to be effective as a Ranger

You don’t. But the problem is people still get the mentality ranger use bow and longbow.

If I’m a warrior or thief I get frawned on if I use range weapon. But most people don’t have a problem with ranger using bow.

If people just think that melee = high risk more damage. Range = lower risk less damage. It is much easier to understand why ranger is design that way.

I would say ranger is as good as other class meleeing, if not for the jump chain attack. So it is very hard to use.

laokoko.7403:

Ratty.5176:

I don’t think you need to go full melee to be effective as a Ranger

You don’t. But the problem is people still get the mentality ranger use bow and longbow.

If I’m a warrior or thief I get frawned on if I use range weapon. But most people don’t have a problem with ranger using bow.

If people just think that melee = high risk more damage. Range = lower risk less damage. It is much easier to understand why ranger is design that way.

Something about -range-r that screams ranged weapons. I mostly use bows on my ranger cause I liek keeping my distance, and they arent bad in a rangers hand. I prefer having a range and a close up weapon set on my classes. Longbow obviously fits the range side, but I often use shortbow as my close up, since it seems to serve me better than their other melee choices.

‘d have to say in my experience and most of the MMO’s I have played, the pet based classes are always weaker then the classes without a pet.

The class is balanced with the pet in mind of course so that is a certain percentage of your characters effectiveness. Now regardless of the pet controls available you are still taking a certain element of the character out of the players control and relying on computer AI for your effectiveness. This will always result in a less effective class then a class that has full control over his character and all of his abilities.

Your pet does not use its abilities with the timing and precision of a player controlled character, so you are at a disadvantage.

This is why personally I always stay away from pet classes in MMO because I don’t like aspects of my character that I don’t have full control over.

What Im Mudbone said.

Soloing with a ranger in open world with any sort of build is easy and fairly quick. There’s plenty of good advice to be found in this thread mtl so don’t be afraid to at least try the profession out.

Another black mark against ranger is they have very limited team utility skills compared to other classes.

Engy’s can stack debilitating conditions that benefit the team like vulnerability, weakness, poison. Elementalists can provide near permanent fury and might to the team while they DPS. Mesmers and guardians can render a party nigh immune to projectiles, while healing them as they fight.

Rangers… don’t really have much to offer to a team besides their sword… or bow, or whatever. In fact they’re probably the single least supportive class in the game along with thieves.

Nonetheless, I find ranger a blast to play and do take them along on dungeons with guildies to great effect; however, it’s unlikely i could find a high level PUG that’d take a gamble on me, I only get to as my guild knows me and they know I’m not a longbow afk’r and will punch my full weight; perhaps ranger’s greatest problem isn’t the class, so much as the reputation it’s players have earned it – the home of WoW hunter washouts, casuals who want a pretty pet but care nothing for game mechanics, and people who think “ranger” means “ranged” and never use their melee weapons

Well, this thread has actually made me further discouraged.

I played a warrior today from 1-15, completed the starting zone, and was switching the weapons to see what the warrior version was. When I got to the bow, I honestly thought to myself: “It’ll be exciting to be a ranger and a master of bows. I’d really like to play a class where shooting arrows is the main thing, that could be really fun. Oh, I see I can’t use the one-handed kind? I guess the ranger, master of bows, can”

And now ur saying bow isn’t actually pet, and the pet doesn’t serve as a tank for me?

That kinda eliminates my motivations for playing one . . .

and yeah, ok, maybe we are WoW Wash-outs, but we’re also just trying to find a new home and adjust. We’re just trying to find the right fit, that’s why we ask questions. Ultimately, it’s more players for you, which can only be a good thing for everyone.

There is a guy on YouTube that plays Ranger in Dungeons. I’m not elitelist enough to know how the speed changeswith one tho. Some Guildie used Ranger and we did cof1 in the usual 6-7 min range whch is perfectly fine in my opinion.
And that should be the Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bjq1vcnhpQ

the biggest problem with ranger they are outdone in any role by other classes so unless your soloing dont expect a lot of groups to like you. their dps is way lower their support isnt great aoe isnt great compared to other classes. you got a casual guild who dont mind taking a min or two longer to do stuff rangers ok

Just level one and enjoy the aspects of being a ranger.
It will give you more insight about rangers and you will soon discover if it suits your style of play or not.
Yeah, ranger has a few down sides, but other professions have these as well.

I play all 8 professions and ranger is pretty simple and enjoyable. I like my ranger!!!

I can only speak for pve and I do not dungeons very often, but if I want to take my ranger and do a dungeon I would go for it. Just find some nice people that aren’t about “how can we save 1 or 2 minutes more”.
And if you do like this kind of content (e.g. “speed runs”), too, then level another profession that fit in these requirements (I think warrior, mesmer, guardian?).

Just give it a try, you might be surprised what the ranger will offer you despite what everyone is saying!

My Ranger is heavily traited into Beast Master, and with Healing Springs I can keep up my Pet up most of the time in dungeons. I’ve even had Guildies on TS3 occasionally going “What the hell how is that Moa tanking the Cave Troll”. So it is possible to use your pet effectively. I also like shortbow, and keep at range. It doesn’t do bad DPS (partly due to the pet being up most of the time), and it survives well.

SO yes you can use your Pet and you can use bows and be effective. What you shouldn’t do is stand in the next state over and plink for an entire dungeon.

The key thing to take to heart here is that rangers are not “ranged-ers”. They’re more akin to tolkien’s rangers, like Aragorn – protectors of the land, at home in the wilds. They fight with dexterity and skill, and their pet is a second pair of hands – a tank, a source of DPS, whatever you need.

Every class in GW2 has both melee and ranged weapons options., and universally melee always does more damage than ranged (due to the risk Vs reward) – there is no “designated ranged class” – some classes do better at ranged than others (guardian is especially poor at ranged), but it’s universally preferable to fight in melee if it’s safe to do so

So unfortunately, if you dream of being a master marksman, GW2 isn’t going to be able to deliver… well, not if you want to do high level dungeon content, master your class or be taken seriously by the hardcore players.

Saelune.5316:

Something about -range-r that screams ranged weapons. .

You just made Chuck Norris cry a little.

Rangers are fine for everything but damage. They do good sustained (not burst) damage.

In a long fight they actually out damage most classes, however they have no burst so they can’t really make a short fight end quickly.

However, they are very hard to kill if played correctly, probably the hardest to kill class in the game.

How are rangers in solo play?

Was also considering a thief, but they also are bad apparently

Rangers are based around PvP

their PvE is useless.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Saelune.5316:

Something about -range-r that screams ranged weapons. .

You just made Chuck Norris cry a little.

Good.

ranger aren’t that bad as long as you are willing to explore every one of your weapon choices. In dungeons, don’t expect your pets to be helpful.

mtl.5921:

Well, this thread has actually made me further discouraged.

I played a warrior today from 1-15, completed the starting zone, and was switching the weapons to see what the warrior version was. When I got to the bow, I honestly thought to myself: “It’ll be exciting to be a ranger and a master of bows. I’d really like to play a class where shooting arrows is the main thing, that could be really fun. Oh, I see I can’t use the one-handed kind? I guess the ranger, master of bows, can”

And now ur saying bow isn’t actually pet, and the pet doesn’t serve as a tank for me?

That kinda eliminates my motivations for playing one . . .

and yeah, ok, maybe we are WoW Wash-outs, but we’re also just trying to find a new home and adjust. We’re just trying to find the right fit, that’s why we ask questions. Ultimately, it’s more players for you, which can only be a good thing for everyone.

Looks like you’ve confused yourself. Just play one and decide for yourself.

What are your expectations? What exactly do you want to do?
Pvp, wvw, pve, dungeons, world bosses, fractals,…. (You can do that with each profession, but yes, there might be some that could make it easier for you.)

You might want to create all professions (one after another), complete the tutorial, go to the mists (pvp lobby) and then you are up-leveled to lvl 80 and you can try out how this profession will feel at lvl 80 (although it’s focused on a more pvp feeling).
That could be helpful.

Forgot to mention roaming rangers in WvW is more annoying to me than perma stealth thieves -_-

I solo my rangers a lot in PvE, and I find it fun. I’m not a hard core player, I take my time and level slowly. But I enjoy playing rangers. Just remember that different weapons are good for different things, so it’s important to consider what two weapons/weapon sets you’re using. It’s also important to remember that pets are the same, different ones do different things. Get several right away, and think about what you want them to do. Fern Hounds are great, they have an AoE regen buff that I love. Bears can tank. Canines knock down. Felines cause bleeding. Moas…. do something that I’m sure would be useful if I ever got around to trying them. But you get the idea.

The important thing, though, is that they can be FUN. That’s more important than if they’re the best or not. If you want solo play, I do suggest trying them.

I highly suggest playing through each profession until you find one that you enjoy the most. I came into this game fully expecting to play a Thief and nothing else, but over time I found that I didn’t enjoy the Thief as much as I thought, so I rolled a Ranger and found that I loved the variety I had between ranged and melee, I then branched out to other professions and enjoyed the Guardian and then the Engineer until I had given all of the professions a good play through. I still love the Thief but I also love all of the other professions. The Engineer is probably the most fun because of the variety but anytime I feel a profession is getting stale, I change builds, change gear or change professions until I find the one that suits my style for however long it takes to get bored of it. I’m back playing the Thief at the moment with a whole different build, weapons and skills to master. Regarding Ranger specifically, I can think of at least 5 different ways to play it off the top of my head based around different weapons, traits and builds that work in any given situation. My favourite 3 ranger builds would be spirit/melee build, condition/trap throwing build and dual bow ranged dps, that’s not even including whether I’d use ranged, melee or tanky pets (pets wont hold aggro like wow but they can still be tanky)

The first mistake you made was asking in the forums. Just try the class out. I love using my ranger for everything :P

mtl.5921:

How are rangers in solo play?

Was also considering a thief, but they also are bad apparently

I don’t enjoy thief at all :P

I LOVE my ranger- it is awesome fun and I can take it anywhere and do anything.
Leveling a ranger is a breeze and they are great solo roamers.

I play SB/LB Sylvari Ranger-/raven/eagle with racial skills and the synergy is amazing.
I am generally amazed by the amount of damage I can putt out.

My suggestion would be to just try Ranger- it is a matter of whether you like the style and can pull it off.

I have never understood the Ranger hate- when I encounter it here on the forums I just nod, smile and back away slowly.

In game I get a kick out of being the one who comes out of nowhere, gets you out of a tight spot and then vanish- poof.
It is like magic.

I’ve had a share of rangers in fractal pugs and usually they’re not really a liability. Zerk geared warriors are on the ground far more often and usually bring worse attitude (eg blaming their failures on rangers who rez them)

That said, it can’t be denied that the dps of a ranger is in his pet, which makes him far more suited to open world play. In dungeons, they’ll have to micro more to get on par with the second worst profession (necromancer). But honestly, ranger is so difficult to play well that, on average, rangers are far better players than zerk warriors.

Morrigan.2809:

mtl.5921:

How are rangers in solo play?

Was also considering a thief, but they also are bad apparently

I don’t enjoy thief at all :P

I LOVE my ranger- it is awesome fun and I can take it anywhere and do anything.
Leveling a ranger is a breeze and they are great solo roamers.

I play SB/LB Sylvari Ranger-/raven/eagle with racial skills and the synergy is amazing.
I am generally amazed by the amount of damage I can putt out.

My suggestion would be to just try Ranger- it is a matter of whether you like the style and can pull it off.

I have never understood the Ranger hate- when I encounter it here on the forums I just nod, smile and back away slowly.

In game I get a kick out of being the one who comes out of nowhere, gets you out of a tight spot and then vanish- poof.
It is like magic.

:D
I’m naming my eagle after you, Morrigan. You rock.

Reasons not to play a Ranger:-

1. They are bad/worst class in dungeons because in any ‘hard’ fight your pet(s) end up dead and on cooldown within secs, you just lost a huge chunk of your dps and any skills involving your pet are now useless.

2). They are bad/worst class in WvW because in any ‘hard’ fight your pet(s) end up dead and on cooldown within secs, you just lost a huge chunk of your dps and any skills involving your pet are now useless.

3) Your pet is hard to control and will often bring ‘extra’ aggro down on you ie…neutral foes like a pack of moas for example it just on its own got into a fight with. You pet is also fantastic at drawing foes to exactly the place where you don’t want them.

4) Rangers are decent/good in spvp which the entire game is solely balanced around so Rangers are always going to be nerfed never buffed.

5) Rangers are the most used class for botting so the devs will never allow the Ranger to be good/powerful, they are always going to handicap Rangers.

This will tell you almost everything that’s wrong/needing to be changed with rangers:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Complete-Ranger-class-suggestions/first

The pet is junk, its better to store it away until boss.

And some bosses, it better to never have it out, so the whole game just ruins your dps.

For dungeons they are fine. They do good dps if you use a sword and provide the group with 12% more damage with spotter and frost spirit. If you stick with Ranger use the sword right away and try to get used to it. If you can’t deal with the sword then you won’t be contributing as much as other classes in dungeons and mine as well make a class that will contribute a lot with much less effort like a warrior. I would check this out if you want to do dungeons as a Ranger http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/84268-the-perfect-dps-ranger-guide-for-real/

Fractals is a bit different. It’s more punishing and harder to contribute the most because of that and the mechanics of the sword and your pet. You can read up on that more if you want https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Ranger-in-Fractals-48

They seem awful in dungeons given the way pugs play them with bows and bears but they aren’t bad if played correctly. It just takes a lot of effort and skill to contribute the same as a warrior auto attacking with an axe or an ele auto attacking with a lightning hammer. The sword and pet mechanics/survival are in need of a fix and will probably frustrate you or give you a laugh at times.

I have spent over 800 hours with my Ranger main—I love it. Having said that;

1) It will take practice to learn how to control and swap out your pets effectively, and its important that you can do that—they’re a good part of the Ranger’s overall effectiveness.

2) I have had great success with the Short Bow/Long Bow combination and also the Shortbow/Greatsword combination. Despite what some people say about Rangers having low DPS; with the right traits, skills, use of conditions, and upgrades on your weapons you can put out some really nice damage, but more so over time (conditions)

3) The merit of Pet ‘rezz’; I can not count how many times I have called my pet to come and rez me when downed, and have consequently escaped death. Really useful! Having said that, there are times when you’re just sick of the kitten pet or it gets in the way by say inadvertently pulling mobs.

4) What you can take away from all this is that, Rangers are not the easiest class to play. They aren’t simply ‘this’ or ‘that’ like you might say a warrior is a tank. They’re a bit of a “Jack of all Trades” which is sometimes great but sometimes not what some of the more ‘hardcore’ players want in their group or dungeon run.

I’ve levelled an Ele, Warrior, Thief and Ranger to 80. I’m now levelling a Necro (currently 23). I genuinely enjoyed playing the Ranger and it will become my main once I’ve got the other classes to 80. I’m kind of glad people don’t like it, it means I’m more unique than the average Joe who has to hit button 2 on their Warrior.

marnick.4305:

I’ve had a share of rangers in fractal pugs and usually they’re not really a liability. Zerk geared warriors are on the ground far more often and usually bring worse attitude (eg blaming their failures on rangers who rez them)

That said, it can’t be denied that the dps of a ranger is in his pet, which makes him far more suited to open world play. In dungeons, they’ll have to micro more to get on par with the second worst profession (necromancer). But honestly, ranger is so difficult to play well that, on average, rangers are far better players than zerk warriors.

While ironically zerk warriors on dungeon settings still give faaar more to their party than rangers with their insane dps even if they are total idiots who dont really ever try to dodge anything and end up crawling on the ground blaming the world most of the time.

mtl.5921:

What if I want to be a super competitive player but not sure if I want to make a ranger my main? How’s the experience from 1-80, relatively speaking?

Slow …. but steady. (especially slow if you’re a bear’s summon)

Dungeons Explorable?? You’d better be good, otherwise bring War/Guar instead.
We don’t need anymore bad reputation floating around out there.
It’s bad enough we give hardly any buffs back to most teams.

Ask yourself how you will feel knowing that your team would have been better off taking pretty much any character other than yours…

mtl.5921:

What if I want to be a super competitive player but not sure if I want to make a ranger my main? How’s the experience from 1-80, relatively speaking?

It’s okay. Unless you happen to also play other classes like guardian or warrior. Then you start seeing problems. In general, though, you will be okay on normal leveling. Dungeons, however… that might be another matter.

When players start going into melee with their Rangers they will realise that Rangers aren’t as bad as they make them out to be. Use some spider pets in WvW (they can stop escaping players too) and they won’t die as quickly.

Pets die easily in dungeons when there is lots of ground aoe / red circles, they can’t dodge so they take all the damage, the new dungeons are showing very well what is wrong with ranger pets. The “jumping the traps” and the final boss part Molten Facility, the laser room and final boss in Aetherblade Retreat are the best examples that Anet devs should be playing, and try to find ways for the pet to survive in ANY of those. When they find a way for the pet to survive in those types of encounters most of the pet issues will be solved.

If you want to play Ranger in dungeons, learn how to use the sword from an early level where mobs don’t hit as hard.

Saelune.5316:

laokoko.7403:

Ratty.5176:

I don’t think you need to go full melee to be effective as a Ranger

You don’t. But the problem is people still get the mentality ranger use bow and longbow.

If I’m a warrior or thief I get frawned on if I use range weapon. But most people don’t have a problem with ranger using bow.

If people just think that melee = high risk more damage. Range = lower risk less damage. It is much easier to understand why ranger is design that way.

Something about -range-r that screams ranged weapons. I mostly use bows on my ranger cause I liek keeping my distance, and they arent bad in a rangers hand. I prefer having a range and a close up weapon set on my classes. Longbow obviously fits the range side, but I often use shortbow as my close up, since it seems to serve me better than their other melee choices.

Rangers aren’t rangers because of their weapon choice. They’re rangers because of their desire to “range”. To travel from place to place. You know, home, home on the range.

All fantasy RPGs are descendents of D&D which itself descended from The Lord of the Rings.

Aragorn in LotR is a ranger, and he uses a sword, not a bow. He and his people simply live in the wilds and they’re called rangers, just like a park ranger is a person who supervises a certain range.

The problem with many rangers is that they have no clue how to actually get the most out of the class. What I see is 90% spamming with bow around and then wonder why they get kicked out of a group. They should visit the ranger forum, because there are alot of better builds.

With one, and ONLY one exception, there is absolutely nothing about the Ranger class that makes it a poor class compared to others. They are rock solid in sPvP, among the very best in over-world PvE, and hold their own quite well in WvW. Naturally there are adjustments that need to be made, skills that need refinement and so forth — but this is true of every class in the game.

As to that one and ONLY exception, that’s obviously PvE dungeon grouping. But if/when Anet were to add a simple “dungeons ONLY pets take 50% less aoe damage” (or some other simple alternative like this) … then this too will become a non-issue.

I don’t really see any class as “bad”, I think they are all pretty much on the level with each other.

The player itself tho, is another matter.

i think our real problem is the pet. we need a totaly different build and armor in dungeons, wvw, pve. first problem: need to learn 3 different play style. second: retrait, change skills, armor befor and after wvw.
in wvw pets useless no matter what you do. in dungeon we need trait kitten them or my little wolfie melt down in the first fight.

Sir, allow me to speak with you please.

First, play as every class. I got this game at launch, ive taken 3-1 month breaks, and I always come back like its a fresh game (which it is actually). I still havent rolled Warrior or Necro, and my engi is lvl 10, but the rest I have at 80 so I can speak with some experience.

if youre looking to go into every dungeon and destroy monsters and grab booty (gold and loot you perv) warrior is the best way to go. GS is built to just own things. With that out of the way, Ranger is my 2nd favorite class, possibly 1st because I constantly rotate my top 3. Here is what makes the Ranger great… open world PVE is an absolute breeze as a Ranger. I walked the world with Shortbow Longbow and murdered my way to lvl 80. After that, in dungeons, you can go anyway you want. Depending on your team you can go for range or melee. Rangers at range are safe because our healing for ourselves and/or party is amazing, plus our damage is constant but not burst. (burst damage is overrated for PVE, but thats conversation for another day). Moving away from that, all of our weapons are viable. Axe is probably our weakest weapon, which is funny because its actually my favorite weapon but I havent used it lately. GS is a beast. Its auto attack isnt that strong, but its 2 attack is powerful and we have a leap finisher, a great block and a stun. its great for PVE and amazing for WVW/PVP. Sword is one of the best weapons in the game. its extremely difficult to use, but it plays well with any off hand weapon you choose as long as your build coincides with it, as well as playstyle. Traps suck for PVE but theyre great for PVP/WVW. Our conditions arent powerful, but theyre constant and with our high mobility, range, good hp pool, hp regen, we can outlast almost any class.

I could keep going but I why bother. Point being, the Ranger is actually an experts class and is treated as the noob class because we have “Range and pets!!!”. Dont look at it this way. Think of it more like Drizzt Do’Urdem (you probably have no idea who that is). Think of Rangers as agile warriors that are built to survive, and have many means to do that by.