Guild Wars 2

Really good guide thank you very much for it, i hope this will lower the “Bearbow” Trend
Could be very helpful to make more such guids

Overall, found the beginner’s guide was not very accessible to the viewer base they might be aiming for. If you expect the viewer to know all the ins and outs of min/maxing before watching – what’s the point?

A big negative is that It watched like a school lecture; he only utilized the video to show off item and skill tool tips and then just narrated an unstructured dialogue about the profession.

I would have liked to see more depth of the different styles of play – since PvE encompasses Dungeons, Fractals, Open World, WvW, and Living Story. More focus on different weapon and build options (and why); and possibly – where to start with your builds (including trait distribution) and highlight some which players can play with; saying merely ‘condition’ or ‘damage’ isn’t necessarily beginner lingo.

This is also a “level 80 ranger guide” as well. Since, although some of the advice can be filtered down below 80, it focuses mostly on the armour and runes at level 80.

It does give some idea for what people should aim for, but suggesting that beginners pick up full offensive gear and then “not die” seems like a poor choice. I understand that might be optimal gear but its not practical to some of your audience.

It would have been great to see how they play a ranger at say 20 50 and 80 for a newbie guide. Show the different styles of play and a few encounters.

What this really helps with is teaching 80s who don’t play rangers a bit about the class which is useful but not a real help for newbies.

Two things I took from this:
1) you are supposed to keep might stacks on your pet
2) you are not supposed to use a longbow

I was a little bit disappointed by the questions answered. Besides the fact that he didn’t really answer any question but gave some vague responses, for one thing. The other thing that he really did pick questions that have not that much value for any ranger watching.

The first question that was answered was about the uniqueness of the ranger. The Answer was that the unique thing about the ranger is the pet. Wow, big surprise there. The ranger is supposed to be more flexible using a pet. But not as much as an engineer or an elementatlist ist flexible(?!?). And we can split damage using a pet, like focusing on two different things at once. In which game is this an advantage? Given a group of enemy without any specific skill set, it is always better to focus down one before moving to the next. Granted, I don’t do too much PvE, but there can’t be that many bosses where it is really an advantage to split your focus, right? The one interesting thought I got from all that was, that you can mix your damage between condition damage and direct damage, but that’s about it.

The second question was about ArenaNet employees favorites pet. The answer was basically: “depends”.

The third question was about an evasion mechanic for the pet to mitigate damage without supervision. The answer was that they are thinking about it, but that changes like that are hard to make. To sum this up: Maybe sometime down the road, but certainly not while there is other stuff to fix. I hardly think that they change the way pets behave just for one profession, if it has such a huge impact on the mechanics.

The really tough questions weren’t even addressed. What about the pet AI? What about group support that can’t be killed with AoE?

The rest of the screen cast was about the three basic builds, direct damage, condition damage and spirits, but he did not talk for one second about anything specific. He mentioned some traits that support one build or the other. He highlighted some very obvious synergies in one or between two trait lines, but the entire thing had less substance than the chocolate bar I had for lunch.

Also, for my taste he “felt” a lot too much about certain mechanics for someone who has access to the math behind it. There have to be calculations or at least estimations for as much as anything that the professions can do.

Really guys, anyone playing ranger and owning a webcam could have done that screen cast. There are a lot of real issues here that are being discussed for months, most of them summarised here in this very thread. Please give us some real answers, not those vague responses that leave you with one less 30 minutes to live and not the wiser.

Give the class a petless spec, pets really are the main problem with the class when you get right down to it.

Holland.9351:

Two things I took from this:
1) you are supposed to keep might stacks on your pet
2) you are not supposed to use a longbow

Actually, let me add to my post.

1) He says to stack boons on the pet to keep its damage up, but he also says to switch pets often. Switching pets removes boons, it also removes Rampage as One, it also removes Master’s Bond stacks, it also removes things like Sic’m, Signet of the Wild active, Enlargement, Search & Rescue, and Lick Wounds.

2) He says a lot of people pick Longbow initially. He then says people should change to other weapons because the longbow is inefficient. If a lot of people who pick Ranger are drawn to the longbow, but the longbow is inefficient, then shouldn’t the longbow be made perfectly efficient in at least 1 build? Instead he seems content to consider it a newbie weapon and tell people not to use it.

There is something interesting he said:
The more toughness you have, the more you get attacked.

I did not know this. I thought PvE was mostly random.

Holland.9351:

There is something interesting he said:
The more toughness you have, the more you get attacked.

I did not know this. I thought PvE was mostly random.

There seems to be more to it than that but that is one element of their wacky aggro system.

Holland.9351:

2) He says a lot of people pick Longbow initially. He then says people should change to other weapons because the longbow is inefficient. If a lot of people who pick Ranger are drawn to the longbow, but the longbow is inefficient, then shouldn’t the longbow be made perfectly efficient in at least 1 build? Instead he seems content to consider it a newbie weapon and tell people not to use it.

There are many, many builds that utilize the Longbow to amazing effect… later into your game, when you have access to most of your traits and utilities.

The context is that of the PvE beginners vantage.

To begin with, Longbow isn’t necessarily the best or the most new player friendly. He’s encouraging these players to try different weapons. That isn’t saying the Longbow sucks.

Question: Why can’t we see what conditions/buffs the pet has? Silly we can’t see them unless we click/target pet.

Question: Why isn’t guard/active on a F key? I need to bind this key.

Question: Why can’t we swap pet out for preparations as a core mechanic? Sometimes the pet is just terrible, and most of the time it’s just bad.

As a basic guide I thought it was pretty good. I’m glad to see Izzy promoting “melee zerker scholar rune deepz” as one of the better styles of play versus “bearbow ranger.”

Holland.9351:

1) He says to stack boons on the pet to keep its damage up, but he also says to switch pets often. Switching pets removes boons, it also removes Rampage as One, it also removes Master’s Bond stacks, it also removes things like Sic’m, Signet of the Wild active, Enlargement, Search & Rescue, and Lick Wounds.

He meant don’t be afraid to swap out a pet if it’s about to die. Most new ranger players don’t realize that swapping out a pet essentially heals it to full. It’s counter-intuitive if you think about it – when I started playing I expected pets to swap in at their last hp state when they were swapped out. So rather than try to heal a pet and baby it with F3 to keep it alive, just swap it out if it’s about to die.

Yeah you’ll lose the boons, but you’ll lose them too if the pet dies. So you’re not losing anything by swapping pets.

2) He says a lot of people pick Longbow initially. He then says people should change to other weapons because the longbow is inefficient. If a lot of people who pick Ranger are drawn to the longbow, but the longbow is inefficient, then shouldn’t the longbow be made perfectly efficient in at least 1 build? Instead he seems content to consider it a newbie weapon and tell people not to use it.

I’m not sure what his position within Anet is. I took his advice (which I thought overall was pretty good – close to how I advise newbie rangers) to mean “this is the current state of the game, and what you should do to play ranger effectively in its current state.” In its current state longbow isn’t that great except for certain types of boss fights, and some very situational fights.

Q: What is the ranger niche in the game?
A: Ranger is the pet class.

Really love my Ranger.

Really hate my pet.

Who cares about pve, you can go around naked and win. How about wvw where I love my Ranger but hate my pet.

aspirine.6852:

Who cares about pve, you can go around naked and win. How about wvw where I love my Ranger but hate my pet.

Yup agreed, the pet is even more useless (If that’s possible) in WvW.

Solid Gold.9310:

Yup agreed, the pet is even more useless (If that’s possible) in WvW.

Which puts us under every other class from the outset on this one point, it’s astonishing that nothing has been done to compensate this (or nothing effective has been done).

Currently we are the butt of the joke when it comes to WvW I think I’ve heard every snide remark / joke there is from my mumble when it comes to Rangers on the battlefield.

snow.8097:

to all our ranger friends who have Problems with the sword autoattack –
Strg, mouse rightclick on swordskill #1 – Problem solved
ist easier to control when press 1 by yourself

I think all question were asked but i have one
Why is the signet of the wild not instant like the other Signets?

Doesn’t work on Asura characters, even without auto attack the Asuras animations lock them in sword one….

Q: What is the ranger niche in the game?
A: Ranger is the pet class.

Really love my Ranger.

Really hate my pet.

If that’s the case why is it called a Ranger and not a Beastmaster?

Also if the Longbow is inefficient and to not use it?, i must ask why is it inefficient a year after its been released, no weapon should be inefficient on any class, or should be fixed asap if they are..

If you want my opinion all Ranger weapons are inefficient, compared to other classes using them which is why the Ranger is looked down upon so badly.

Dante.1508:

snow.8097:

to all our ranger friends who have Problems with the sword autoattack –
Strg, mouse rightclick on swordskill #1 – Problem solved
ist easier to control when press 1 by yourself

I think all question were asked but i have one
Why is the signet of the wild not instant like the other Signets?

Doesn’t work on Asura characters, even without auto attack the Asuras animations lock them in sword one….

Q: What is the ranger niche in the game?
A: Ranger is the pet class.

Really love my Ranger.

Really hate my pet.

If that’s the case why is it called a Ranger and not a Beastmaster?

Also if the Longbow is inefficient and to not use it?, i must ask why is it inefficient a year after its been released, no weapon should be inefficient on any class, or should be fixed asap if they are..

If you want my opinion all Ranger weapons are inefficient, compared to other classes using them which is why the Ranger is looked down upon so badly.

They called it a ‘Ranger’ as an homage to the GW1 class, mostly to avoid kitten ing off the rather large ranger player-base from GW1.

The GW2 class is apparently the synthesis of three separate (2 failed, 1 meh) classes.

The reason ranger weapons seem underwhelming is because the pet is supposed to account for the missing damage/utility. When you factor in the pet’s damage, assuming it somehow manages to be consistent, the ranger breaks even with most classes. BUT, pets have issues with mobile targets which leads them to being substandard in most PvP engagements. Which is why you see condi builds or full BM builds more often than power builds. One build is practically independent of the pet; the other goes the opposite and seeks to have the pet as the primary damage dealer, while the ranger serves as the utility.

As for longbow specifically, idk. Its #1 skill is cumbersome to use to its max damage in many instances. #2, rapid fire, isn’t great because its a channel involving relatively slow-moving projectiles. #3,4,5 are situational.

Just my thoughts/opinions.

Shadow Phage.9084:

As for longbow specifically, idk. Its #1 skill is cumbersome to use to its max damage in many instances. #2, rapid fire, isn’t great because its a channel involving relatively slow-moving projectiles. #3,4,5 are situational.

Just my thoughts/opinions.

#2, actually works bit better with haste (zephyr) since it makes it bit faster, but yeah overall it isn’t that good outside of pve, decent at best.
#3, okay, but gives only short breather, #4 is okay for another breather or if need room for using #3.
#5, is good in wvw, though wouldn’t mind slightly faster cooldown, since it’s only AoE they have.

Well hopefully they allow us to throw away our pets, as an option for build.

#3, 4, and 5 on longbow are all amazing, think outside of the box, that stealth has given is so much utility it’s ridiculous!

Play a Mesmer a bit and learn to be trixy, then play a LB ranger and reap the rewards of being trixy with the ranger toolkit.

Durzlla.6295:

#3, 4, and 5 on longbow are all amazing, think outside of the box, that stealth has given is so much utility it’s ridiculous!

Play a Mesmer a bit and learn to be trixy, then play a LB ranger and reap the rewards of being trixy with the ranger toolkit.

I will disagree with one of your points here. LB #5 is a bad skill because you have to stand still to cast it. When you contrast this AoE against say, the Warrior AoE’s which are shoot and forget while your moving you will begin to see what “Amazing” is all about.

Edit: My poor Ranger has to sit on top of a keep wall while casting Barrage, while my warrior can hop up onto the wall let loose a nasty ticking AoE, hop down, when cool down is up, hop back up cast another AoE in the same spot ontop of the ticking AoE, then hop back down or hit another smaller AoE bow skill…

Now THAT is amazing.

NargofWoV.4267:

Durzlla.6295:

#3, 4, and 5 on longbow are all amazing, think outside of the box, that stealth has given is so much utility it’s ridiculous!

Play a Mesmer a bit and learn to be trixy, then play a LB ranger and reap the rewards of being trixy with the ranger toolkit.

I will disagree with one of your points here. LB #5 is a bad skill because you have to stand still to cast it. When you contrast this AoE against say, the Warrior AoE’s which are shoot and forget while your moving you will begin to see what “Amazing” is all about.

LB #5 is hardly bad, most people won’t even stand in it, you can use it as a detaunt, aka area denial, not to mention it lasts longer than the warriors AoEs (most of which are just one hit and then done which i guess you could use barrage for). Barrage, unlike the warriors skills, should be used more to create an area that the enemy doesn’t want to be in, something you can kite them through to rack up damage and cripple (which is in turn more damage since you can keep more distance).

Durzlla.6295:

NargofWoV.4267:

Durzlla.6295:

#3, 4, and 5 on longbow are all amazing, think outside of the box, that stealth has given is so much utility it’s ridiculous!

Play a Mesmer a bit and learn to be trixy, then play a LB ranger and reap the rewards of being trixy with the ranger toolkit.

I will disagree with one of your points here. LB #5 is a bad skill because you have to stand still to cast it. When you contrast this AoE against say, the Warrior AoE’s which are shoot and forget while your moving you will begin to see what “Amazing” is all about.

LB #5 is hardly bad, most people won’t even stand in it, you can use it as a detaunt, aka area denial, not to mention it lasts longer than the warriors AoEs (most of which are just one hit and then done which i guess you could use barrage for). Barrage, unlike the warriors skills, should be used more to create an area that the enemy doesn’t want to be in, something you can kite them through to rack up damage and cripple (which is in turn more damage since you can keep more distance).

The warrior F2 (Combustive Shot) is the nasty AoE that I was speaking of. I don’t know this for certain but I think its Area is larger than my Rangers Barrage, maybe not. Lasts nearly as long and is what I use to run folks through an area repeatedly cause it last so long and has a nasty condition tick and I CAN KITE them through the area while dealing other damage, something my Ranger can not do. Heck, I don’t have to kite them, I can swap weapons and make them go toe to toe with me and they have to do so in my soup of condition damage mess. The limitation is, my Adrenaline has to be full, which isn’t hard with Bezerker stance (it ticks your Adrenaline to full).

Sadly, Combustive shot is on the nerf bat batters box for the Dec 10 patch, its that strong. But, when you wish to use a term like Amazing it helps to know what else is out there, I was only trying to point that out to you.

Nefaria.7659:

Overall, found the beginner’s guide was not very accessible to the viewer base they might be aiming for. If you expect the viewer to know all the ins and outs of min/maxing before watching – what’s the point?

A big negative is that It watched like a school lecture; he only utilized the video to show off item and skill tool tips and then just narrated an unstructured dialogue about the profession.

I would have liked to see more depth of the different styles of play – since PvE encompasses Dungeons, Fractals, Open World, WvW, and Living Story. More focus on different weapon and build options (and why); and possibly – where to start with your builds (including trait distribution) and highlight some which players can play with; saying merely ‘condition’ or ‘damage’ isn’t necessarily beginner lingo.

This is also a “level 80 ranger guide” as well. Since, although some of the advice can be filtered down below 80, it focuses mostly on the armour and runes at level 80.

It does give some idea for what people should aim for, but suggesting that beginners pick up full offensive gear and then “not die” seems like a poor choice. I understand that might be optimal gear but its not practical to some of your audience.

I watched this today and you took the words straight out of my mouth. I would have learned a lot more if he showed different playstyles in action using different weapon and skill combinations. I was also hoping for a run down on different types of pets but he barely talked about it. Seeing as pets are the ranger’s niche it should of had a lot more focus in the guide.

Substance E.4852:

Holland.9351:

There is something interesting he said:
The more toughness you have, the more you get attacked.

I did not know this. I thought PvE was mostly random.

There seems to be more to it than that but that is one element of their wacky aggro system.

That’s what I’ve been saying for a while but people dismissed me and said that’s not how agro works. There you go, yeah it is. Toughness = Agro.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Substance E.4852:

Holland.9351:

There is something interesting he said:
The more toughness you have, the more you get attacked.

I did not know this. I thought PvE was mostly random.

There seems to be more to it than that but that is one element of their wacky aggro system.

That’s what I’ve been saying for a while but people dismissed me and said that’s not how agro works. There you go, yeah it is. Toughness = Agro.

Yup, has to be something or the Champions would be full on ele killers. This is the one thing that the supposed tank classes, Guardian and Warrior have a lot of, Toughness.

NargofWoV.4267:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Substance E.4852:

Holland.9351:

There is something interesting he said:
The more toughness you have, the more you get attacked.

I did not know this. I thought PvE was mostly random.

There seems to be more to it than that but that is one element of their wacky aggro system.

That’s what I’ve been saying for a while but people dismissed me and said that’s not how agro works. There you go, yeah it is. Toughness = Agro.

Yup, has to be something or the Champions would be full on ele killers. This is the one thing that the supposed tank classes, Guardian and Warrior have a lot of, Toughness.

It’s a kitten shame that my Ele still pulls aggro, then, because I’m running 20 in Earth while the Warrior beside me is full glass cannon.

And he still has more survivability, but that’s a discussion for another thread.

there are many builds that use the LB . None of them are useful

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

Anet telling us l2p?

Cause thats all I got from this, is so they need to pick a dev to play ranger religiously for a month pve/pvp/wvw. On the highest rank servers. No Arenanet tag. Free-balling.

This is the biggest comedy yet.

What I like most is the actual lack of gameplay.

They’re telling the community to L2P and deal with it because it apparently works, yet nowhere do they actually demonstrate the so-called potential this class has.

Effectively they’re merely saying, “We did the math and from an ideological perspective, such as using and maximizing scholar rune potential and the likes, we can determine that rangers can possibly be factors when played with lots of skill and attention, and our justification is not in actual experience but in running the numbers and hitting some mobs. Also, we’re not going to provide any real insight on how to play the class well, or unveil the secrets the community has missed. We’re just going to tell people to run 30 precision and spam F2 stealth on cats.”

I hoped this video would teach me something – even as a decade-long archer main over countless games, I was optimistic in hoping to learn something critical I might have missed. All I got out of this video was ANet proving yet again they have absolutely no idea what the Ranger is nor do they care enough to fix it.