Guild Wars 2

According to the QQ…yes…But i just want to make a class thats ’’main’’ weapons would be bows becouse i’v always liked them. I just dont want to level ranger 80 too to realise im even less useful than my necro which i havent touched in weeks >_<

Mainly asking people who have an engineer too, becouse that’d be next in my list of chars im interested in, or are engineers just as worthless (havent put time to research that myself yet)

Elronor.4571:

According to the QQ…yes…But i just want to make a class thats ’’main’’ weapons would be bows becouse i’v always liked them. I just dont want to level ranger 80 too to realise im even less useful than my necro which i havent touched in weeks >_<

Mainly asking people who have an engineer too, becouse that’d be next in my list of chars im interested in, or are engineers just as worthless (havent put time to research that myself yet)

Ranger has a lot of broken abilities, and subpar talents, and subpar abilities…

Granted, you can do ok on them… I happen to believe our best weapons aren’t our Bows though…

If you really just want to use a bow, I recommend a thief….

Play one to level 2 and then go the the HotM to try out how the profession plays at level 80.

I haven’t touched my Ranger in about a month or so, mainly because of the awful pet controls; it takes up to about 2 seconds before pets react to your “Attack”, “Come back” or “Use Skill” command, being able to tell your pet “Go over there” requires an utility skill with a 30 seconds cooldown, and you cannot use half of your pet skills manually.

If you don’t mind grenade spam Engineers are very powerful, easily one of the best PvE professions.

I certainly can’t tell you what you will enjoy, but I can tell you that my ranger is by far my favorite character to play. Engineer is also a lot of fun, but ranger just happens to have most of the tricks and tools that I like to use when I play.

I happen to do very well with my ranger in all of the game’s formats, so I know it can be useful in all situations. I also happen to think that learning to play the ranger adequately (outside of a trapper build) was more difficult than most of the other classes, so there can definitely be some frustration during the process. I think that frustration, more than anything else, is what you are hearing on these forums as people tend to think things are broken when they don’t fully understand how to use them.

Just ignore the forum QQ. If you are having fun playing your ranger, then play it. While there are some bugs, none of them will prevent you from being “useful.” Being useful is up to you as the player. The vast majority of the complaints revolve around rangers not doing enough damage (I do not agree), but tend to ignore all of the other amazing abilities the ranger has. Play and make your own decisions. Many of us find the ranger to be a very powerful tool, and very fun to play as well.

No.

I’ve been playing MMO’s for over a decade and have never seen such a whiny community. Play a ranger. If YOU don’t like it, put it down. I happen to enjoy mine, he survives well, DPS’s ok and in general is fun for ME to play. Some issues? Sure, same as most all classes, MMO classes are always being tweaked.

Okay, quess ill just leave it lay around till a real update comes, considering i got ele about to be 80 and its gonna need some gear^^

I personally love my Ranger over my Engi, I am also a longbow ranger with sword/dagger off set and have lots of fun. I will resonate with the whole bug list issue. It’s a bit ridiculous and some of our traits really need to be rethought. Thought just cleaning up the bugs would make rangers really into something I think Anet had intended for them to be…but I don’t know….

It’s definitely blown way out of proportion. By reading these forums, you would be led to believe you get one-shotted by everything that moves and can’t kill crows.

But, ranger really is the most bugged class, I believe. Aside from the bugs, there’s a few major annoyances. No speed buffs, lousy traits, etc.
Still, though, if you like the class and don’t feel the need to be the fotm overpowered class, it’s fine.

The class is still alot of fun, even though it’s unfinished. The best MMO tip I can give is, if you enjoy a class, never visit the class forum All these forums are is largely complaints about the bad stuff and fix suggestions/discussions. There wouldn’t be a whole lot to discuss if everything were perfect.

Yes, the ranger is that bad.

There’s little to no reason to play it, other than you like pets. And also as reference, i’d prefer a necro on my team than a ranger, by about 10 folds.

Are they kittened geriatric pushing their zimmer frame along trying to keep up with the group, no.
Are they the ranged pet master they should be no.
Some people still enjoy them but after playing a ranger since eq1 ive parked my 80ranger till my arrows dont get blocked by a gentle zphyr and my pet gets his brain back from the mad scientist.

Back on my guardian and loving it.

Every profession forum has its complaints about a particular class.

But, ask yourself this, how many cries of “nerf X ability of ranger” do you come across?

Every other class seems to have something considered op by another. Not that these things are necessarily overpowered because someone says so – but its at least an indication that those abilities are strong. But not rangers. Once I heard someone complain about Barrage in WvW, but turns out they were confusing arrow carts with the ranger skill…

Joiry.2504:

Every profession forum has its complaints about a particular class.

But, ask yourself this, how many cries of “nerf X ability of ranger” do you come across?

Every other class seems to have something considered op by another. Not that these things are necessarily overpowered because someone says so – but its at least an indication that those abilities are strong. But not rangers. Once I heard someone complain about Barrage in WvW, but turns out they were confusing arrow carts with the ranger skill…

QFT.

This is sadly just so true.

Having played a ranger at level 80 for quite some time now and done lots of Dungeons, WvW and SPvP I honestly think rangers are about where most classes are, we have stinker abilities, we have good abilities, but overall there are plenty of workable builds to go around. Once you get good at pet switching Dungeons lose a lot of their teeth (mind you many Dungeons are still nasty for anyone regardless of class), WvW is far more about numbers and tactics than particular builds/classes which really just leaves SPvP where at least in pug PvP I’ve seen no real issues, only really struggling against skilled players who just push me to get better at playing my character since its usually a mistimed dodge or a wasted attack that makes all the difference there.

I have lots of little complaints just like anyone else, ranger or no, but the one major issue I see with rangers is no obvious place in the current TPvP environment. The problem is outside of pug PvP I lose most of my usefulness, I can’t keep skilled players off a point and a true bunker will eventually get it from me even if I manage to fight to a standstill with them, I can’t kill/disengage fast enough to make a proper roamer, which really just leaves me as a generic teammate. That’s not to say I feel like a waste of space, but I’m just not bringing anything another class couldn’t and I’m unable to specialize in a useful role. That said I’m still barely getting my feet wet with TPvP, but the general attitude is that most organized teams don’t want a ranger on them (rightfully or not) which leaves me with daunting prospect of puging free tournies and hoping no premade teams decide to come wipe the floor with us. It doesn’t matter what your class is when half the team leaves after the first engagement.

I don’t see an easy fix for the TPvP issue, they could give us some gimmick which could be used/abused in that setting, but I honestly think the problem is more with TPvP itself and the conquest game mode than our class. Either way I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Rummy, for someone who is so critical of the dissent on ranger skills and abilities you offered no examples or evidence to support your praise of the profession in it’s current state. Your post could be summed up to say “it’s good, people complaining are wrong or haven’t learnt how to play,” and that’s all you’ve offered.

You haven’t dealt with issues of the sword auto attack being something so many rangers hate or the serious lack in variation in ranger builds. The balance dev himself said rangers probably need the most work out of all the professions, so for all the evidence and arguments people have about rangers struggling in so many different ways, you’ve offered us nothing to suggest why they are fine and everyone else is terrible at their class.

Infatum, as far as comparing with other classes, I have a level 80 guardian, ranger and mesmer and I find my guardian to be far superior to my mesmer in dungeon runs. The support they offer is phenomenal, their DPS is great and they can take far more hits while running decent crowd control on their weapon sets without having to rely on utilities. Virtues work far better than pets (faaaaaaaaar better) and one of the most important boons in the game – stability – is an instant cast on a short cooldown that synergises well with a very viable build. I can turn a stinker group into a successful group with my guardian. I can turn a good group into a fast group with my guardian. My ranger is just there. He’s decent DPS with a few control abilities (wolf fear howl, muddy terrain, entangle, traps don’t really cut it as CC unless they are ranged in which case you’d sunk too many point in to not use them for DPS) but he offers very little to the group and his individual contributions don’t make up for what he loses in group synergy compared to a guardian. Even a mesmer with feedback alone offers more control than a ranger can offer. On top of that they have 10 seconds of AoE quickness which can be used as a control, support or offensive skill – or all at once.

Honestly, rangers do a few things on par, but overall I believe they have far less diversity and in many ways their contribution to a group is strictly inferior. The power level of many utility skills and elites of other classes far outshines what the ranger can pull off. Even their weapon sets can be boring and less versatile than other classes (compare great sword on ranger and guardian for example).

Ok. This entire thread is a really big joke. Rangers could be made better, but do they need a buff or rework? No. The truth is, Rangers right now are fine as they are; you need to think outside the box on their strengths, weaknesses, and their utility and how to approach WvW/PvE/PvP.

I can tell you right now, they do decent damage when specced right and they can contribute to the team easily in PvE.

As for PvP, they are one of the strongest class if played right. If you don’t believe me, I’m down to bet gold for duels. You can use any class and I’ll use my ranger.

Rangers definitely have problem areas. Longbow desirability vs shortbow, spirits, nature magic trait line, shouts, general bugs etc. Thing is, nearly every class has these types of issues. Ask mesmers how much they like the scepter, torch, or mantras. Ask elementalists how much they like glyphs, focus offhand, fire trait line, or weapon conjures.

I think you need to differentiate the valid balance complaints from the ones that simply hate the way the ranger is designed. That is, there are a ton of complaints on this forum from players who read “Archer” as the class name not “Ranger”. They feel they should use the longbow 99% of the time, never switch weapons, and pets should just disappear. You see a similar situation on the elementalist forum where a lot of players want to be that long range, 100% offensive, single target uber nuker of doom, instead of the balanced offense/defense/heal class that Anet designed.

So what’s your definition of “ranger”? It’s not a roamer, it’s not an archer, it’s lacking mobility (when compared to other classes, holy crapballs batman)… Rangers excel at NOTHING. They’re mediocre in a few specific builds, and in the hands of a skilled player they can be decent.

A monkey beating a keyboard on a thief will be more acrobatic, mobile, damaging, and damage avoiding than your average ranger.

I would currently rank the Ranger as my second-favorite class to play, right after the Guardian. I run a very successful Shortbow/Trap build in PvP, which is one of the (relatively few) Ranger specs considered viable in tournament play at the moment. I don’t think the class is fundamentally broken, though. I think that the main thing Rangers need are buffs/fixes to a couple of weapons, their utility sets (Shouts, Spirits and Signets), and fixes to broken traits. While these are in progress, I’ll happily continue wrecking with traps, though it’s easy to see how that’s not a satisfying solution for the majority of Rangers.

I will say that I’ve also read quite a bit about how powerful Pet builds are, in spite of all the hate pets get from the Ranger community. I’ve tried it briefly, and while I preferred my Trap build in the end, I will say that some pets hit incredibly hard with 30 points in Beast Mastery. Just another option for you to consider, OP, particularly in PvE, where monsters won’t kite your pets.

My definition of Ranger doesn’t matter one bit. The GW2 Ranger is what it is in game. If I find that combination of skill set/ability/toolkit fun, I’ll keep playing it. There are just too many demands for complete class redesigns to transform it into the paradigm that some individual wants it to be. Rangers aren’t unique in this. Nor is GW2 as an mmo.

For instanced PvP…
Yes if you had the mentality I did when starting the game.
No if you throw that away for a spec that kicks kitten

In a few more words, I tend to enjoy playing things I think function pretty cool’ly. That doesn’t work well with ranger unless you are one of those one in a million that just loves the idea of traps or harrying people but all the while avoiding larger fights (which just isn’t SPvP). It’s really a kind of niche thing if you want to play a spec that works just as well as any other classes can.

If you run sword- something and a pretty offensive amulet, troll ungent, SotW, LR and empathetic bond… you can stall in small fights for days and still have a pretty solid burst (pet swap QZ).
That or traps, its more offensive and you have to know about enemy cleansing a bit more but it hits like a truck and doesn’t let up if you play it well.
But yeah, that’s pretty much it, there are a few other decent specs that work decently but you have to kind of carry them with better playing/luck than your opponent (or hope they have an even worse spec)…

It’s not an impossible place to be in PvP, but not quite rainbows and sunshine either.

Actually Guild Wars 2 is quite unique due to its completely new content and mechanics that is easily differentiable to the other payed mmorpgs out there.

• No other game interacts with the storyline like Guild Wars 2 does.
• Limited use of skills allowing for more strategy based gameplay, while other mmos have a gazillion skills that has endless results.
• The performance stats that Guild Wars 2 uses is completely unique.
• Trait system with passive benefits. No other mmo has that kind of mechanic.

The list could go on and on…

Ranger’s are infact a unique profession, basing the facts of the ranger lore as Rangers to be a nature orientated class that relies in nature magic, traditional weapons, and a reliable pet to ‘hunt’ their prey.

The fact that Guild Wars 2 Advertised Rangers to be ‘Unparalleled Archers’ lead many people to believe they excell in the use of bows and are therefore Masters in Archery. I personally believed that this was true due to what the description had said in grey text.

But because of the poorly designed mechanic that Anet had implemented in this profession, they infact DO NOT excell in Bows and are instead a condition based, survival style class that rely on their pets to do all the hard work, while they stand back and do kitten all.

Arguable but thats my view of this whole problem.

Ranger is really a good and fun class to play.
If you enjoy using mainly bows, then you’ll LOVE the skills the LongBow and SHortBow combos give u. Specially with epic Traps that can slow down ur enemies and damage them well.

With the pet mechanic, You’ll be a bit overpowered since if ur doing 1v1 on PvE monster, You’ll most likely not even get touched.
But if ur fighting multiple enemies, Yeah! Your going to move and dodge a lot and use all ur bows full capabilities and traps to keep urself alive and kill the enemy as much as u can.

It’s fun! I recomend it. specially if u love using Bows as much as I do!
Just dont rely on your pet if it dies… You gotta learn how to take effect with ur weapons and traps while moving and dodging to stay alive and kill enemies.

Hope this helps. =) And if u play in Borliss Pass Server, PM me so I can show you the ropes with Ranger. I love the class and im always happy to show people some new tricks and such.

Yes, OP. Rangers are that useless. Everything you can possibly, possibly do as a ranger, another class can and will do better. All you do when you join WvWvW as a ranger is take up a spot designed for a more valuable class.

The ranger needs work but it’s still fun to play.

If you want a fun experiment go the HotM and strip down a thief, warrior, and ranger. Attack a heavy target dummy and count the ttk for each class. No buffs, no runes, no sigils, just a basic weapon. You’ll be amazed how much longer the ranger takes to kill with auto attacks compared to the other.

Ranger needs a big increase on bow damage right now unless you’re spec’d full glass pea shooter (and why would you do this to yourself) Rangers tickle people to death.

And for gods sake can our pets be faster then players please. Who the hell out runs a bird?

@Shiren. I’m not critical of people discussing legitimate ranger issues. I am critical of people that offer hyperbolic estimates of how bad the ranger is. The ranger clearly has some issues, and I have said as much in most of my posts. I just don’t agree that the profession is trash.

I don’t feel the need to prove myself to anyone, and I never claim that I am some sort of ranger master. I simply say that I can do well with my ranger, and I have found more than one viable build that I have used successfully. I say these things not to brag, but to encourage others to try different things rather than spending all of their time and energy complaining on the forums.

And I have posted several admittedly vague build variations I use. If you want more specifics, feel free to PM me. I don’t really like discussing builds on forums as the way that you play them is as much, if not more, important than the numbers, and everybody’s tactical strengths are different.

If you expect the class to work like WoW’s hunter or even GW1’s ranger, then yes. If you expect a class that can split it’s damage across at least two targets in opposite directions at the same time, able to comfortably fight in melee and range, and you like animal companions, then you’ll like it.

This incarnation of the Ranger has an emphasis on the beastmaster facet, to the detriment of ‘dedicated archer’. Because it’s not a dedicated ranged class, just as (much to the immense rage of certain peoples) the warrior isn’t a dedicated melee.