Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen enough posts being like, “We’re rangers! Why isn’t our range the best (see: hardest hitting) in the game and why isn’t it much better than our melee?”

I think it’s worth noting that “ranger” actually has nothing to do with range. Ranger was a real occupation, often related to the military, that involved scouting and wilderness. To pick a few definitions from the dictionary:

-one of a body of armed guards who patrol a region.

-a soldier specially trained in the techniques of guerrilla warfare, especially in jungle terrain.

Related; forest ranger:
-any of the officers employed by the government to supervise the care and preservation of forests, especially public forests.

And “to range” is to “rove, roam, or wander”.

Remember that Aragorn in LotR was also a ranger—or the scouts in Game of Thrones.

So it’s less about ranged combat and more about the archetype of scouting, exploration, wilderness attunement/survival, so on and so forth, all of which I believe the class captures very well in how it does what it does. I realize the bow is iconic to us, but remember our symbol is a pawprint. And, yes, the bow is a ranger’s tool, but because of wilderness survival or warfare, not because of an implication of fighting at range.

That’s fine and dandy, except the only definition of ranger that matters is Anet’s.

Rangers are proficient with the bow. They rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature to slay their targets. Their loyal pets, which rangers tame and train, distract enemies while the rangers strike safely from a distance. As an adventurer profession, rangers wear medium armor.

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.

These are the two definitions that matter. These are the two definitions that people need to worry about when looking at the ranger.

Now tell me, where is the Unparalleled archer they speak of? because I don’t see it.

Well, it’s not about raw damage for us. It’s about flexibility and adaptability. Our damage isn’t the highest on any front, but our evasiveness and control options might be, especially when you take that all as a package deal with I think pretty respectable damage. (I’ve been happy with it lately). “Best” doesn’t just mean “highest DPS”.

Not that I’d complain about even better control options and such! But I’m very happy with the shortbow 2-5 along with the base damaging 1, aside from the broken crossfire quickness, right now.

Our evasiveness and control options might be?!?

I think you’ve been eating a few too many questionable mushrooms if you think that the Ranger kit is the best evasive and controlling kit available. Thief and Mesmer both have the ability to drop our pet’s aggro, and despite being a scout/ranger we have some of the worst/least effective escape options in the game.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Their loyal pets, which rangers tame and train, distract enemies while the rangers strike safely from a distance.

If this really is Anet’s vision, then they kittened up! Our pet’s don’t distract very well, and they are in charge of half of our damage. If they are suppose to distract the enemy so we can strike from a distance, then they should remove the damage from pets and give it back to the ranger…which honestly, will fix many problems we have, especially in WvWvW.

“Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.”

This description is what is tripping up Anet. The absolute core of their version of ranger is an unparalleled archer. For all intents and purposes, no other definition of ranger matters.

As of now, ranger can be proficient with bows (though not unparalleled), but you need to spec traits and sacrifice other aspects of the profession to do so. By Anet’s definition, bows should be the foundation of all ranger builds (with other weapons to be viable alternatives if wanted). Any build you make should be capable of using bows. You should not need to constantly re-spec traits to be just “effective.”

If, however, Anet wants to change their definition of ranger to be more aligned with a historical definition, then that’s fine. But, they can’t claim ranger to be one way, and then design it to be another.

Othayuni.7369:

Remember that Aragorn in LotR was also a ranger

Yea, I remember, and if I remember correctly, he wasn’t forced to use a pet was he?

Akisame.9508:

Othayuni.7369:

Remember that Aragorn in LotR was also a ranger

Yea, I remember, and if I remember correctly, he wasn’t forced to use a pet was he?

Depends on your outlook towards dwarves and hobbits.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Akisame.9508:

Othayuni.7369:

Remember that Aragorn in LotR was also a ranger

Yea, I remember, and if I remember correctly, he wasn’t forced to use a pet was he?

Depends on your outlook towards dwarves and hobbits.

I recall he was throwing dwarves at his enemies similar to how we throw our pets at our enemies.

Lol you guys crack me up, no he didnt have pets, he had allies. But, BUTTTTTTTT he was also a king and could do WTF HE WANTED SON.

And we all forget, that a ‘Ranger’ in GW1 didn’t have to rely so heavily on his pet to do damage.

Yeah… getting pretty sick of people defending the fact we don’t have competitive dps.

ANET bragged about this game not having a “holy trinity” mechanic of tank, dps, healer, going so far as to mock games that do. In their game, your class doesn’t have a “role” as in other mmos. They attempted to pull this off by making each class able to do a variety of things. If you want to be tanky or healy, you can make your character a tank or healer, regardless of his class (think warriors banner heals).

You’re suppose to be able to play how you want. The ranger having sub-par dps compared to other classes is not a design choice – it’s a design failure. It’s not even that you people are drinking ANET’s koolaid, it’s that you made your own koolaid and are peddling it on others.

Unparalleled archer my foot. Everything a Ranger can do, another profession can and will do better. Anet has failed to fix this problem and in many cases denies the problem exists, E.X sword/longbow.

I’m ashamed to admit that I had faith in and defended them on the threads of negativity some time earlier, before the ‘high risk’ aqua-man patch.

I thought the definition of Ranger was easy kill :/