Guild Wars 2

Don’t get me wrong this is not a QQ topic. I love my 2(did for racial skills) level 80 rangers, and I love playing ranger. What I don’t get is why the ranger is neglected/hated.
Why I feel this is so….

• The ranger npc in the mists practice/waiting area was replaced by a large rock formation (mountain).
• The pet AI and dozens of bugs not addressed in 3 years (ex. pet naming, sword rooting…etc.)
• When they do a fix we end up with skills like the current healing spring, and now swoop.
• The ranger is always the first targeted no matter what size group in wvw.
• The lack of high end competitive pvp players using ranger.
• And as of 9/2 I still encounter dungeon messages like the one below. (b4 criticisms fly-not my dungeon build)

Currently, the most common answers I have come across have been that whatever ranger does other profs. do better, the skill level of most players who play ranger are lacking, and anet has given up on the profession.

Then finally when researching and all hope seemed lost, I came upon this video and it made me remember what it’s all about. : )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKjR6DhC-Yg pre-6/23 patch but fun all the same.

1. What heresy is this?? A ranger and necro in the same lfg group!!!!
2. Don’t think sword root would be considered a bug.
3. I heard the ranger npc use to school newbies and was bugged so that’s why it’s gone.
4. Cheer up, druid inc!

that video was hilarious. not a single good fight, but lots of funny situations.

Lyger.5429:

1. What heresy is this?? A ranger and necro in the same lfg group!!!!
2. Don’t think sword root would be considered a bug.
3. I heard the ranger npc use to school newbies and was bugged so that’s why it’s gone.
4. Cheer up, druid inc!

The sword root isn’t a bug…like permanent pets, it was a poor design decision.

OP, maybe its because youre using Traps, a longbow, and a tanky non-dps pet…?

Kahrgan.7401:

OP, maybe its because youre using Traps, a longbow, and a tanky non-dps pet…?

Drakes DPS is really good, behind only felines and maybe birds, but it cleaves and tank a lot, I never leave home w/o one
The rest I agree.

Belzebu.3912:

Kahrgan.7401:

OP, maybe its because youre using Traps, a longbow, and a tanky non-dps pet…?

Drakes DPS is really good, behind only felines and maybe birds, but it cleaves and tank a lot, I never leave home w/o one
The rest I agree.

Birds actually fall behind Canines, with the order of damage being Feline>Canine>Birds. All because they like to spam their swiftness skill and end up sitting there dancing the majority of the time.

True, in that case drakes and canines are the 2nd best DPS, because canine and drakes have the same power and precision, what you’ll need to pick is if you want the canines CCs or the drakes cleave/tank.

And as of 9/2 I still encounter dungeon messages like the one below. (b4 criticisms fly-not my dungeon build)

^ From above….I use zerk build for dungeons…I just arrived in the picture. Not meaning to start an argument or discussion about my build in the picture please. Build in picture, I was playing around with in Silverwastes.

I particularly love drakes, myself; confusion makes people panic, so taking a reef drake into a pvp situation tends to be a good idea.

Kilrik.6320:

Don’t get me wrong this is not a QQ topic. I love my 2(did for racial skills) level 80 rangers, and I love playing ranger. What I don’t get is why the ranger is neglected/hated.
Why I feel this is so….

• The ranger npc in the mists practice/waiting area was replaced by a large rock formation (mountain).
• The pet AI and dozens of bugs not addressed in 3 years (ex. pet naming, sword rooting…etc.)
• When they do a fix we end up with skills like the current healing spring, and now swoop.
• The ranger is always the first targeted no matter what size group in wvw.
• The lack of high end competitive pvp players using ranger.
• And as of 9/2 I still encounter dungeon messages like the one below. (b4 criticisms fly-not my dungeon build)

Currently, the most common answers I have come across have been that whatever ranger does other profs. do better, the skill level of most players who play ranger are lacking, and anet has given up on the profession.

Then finally when researching and all hope seemed lost, I came upon this video and it made me remember what it’s all about. : )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKjR6DhC-Yg pre-6/23 patch but fun all the same.

I watched that video while listening to this album. I found the first few songs surprisingly appropriate.

“I just want to clarify for good that main hand sword is currently working as intended. All movement skills cannot be interrupted by dodging and this is currently intentional. It has a very specific play style, and I would like it to remain. I understand that rangers want a one handed melee option that is more mobile, but that will have to wait, as I know there are a mix of players who also like how this weapon plays and I do not want to take away one of the more unique playstyles that we have and replace it with something that is fairly common.”

“Unrelenting Assault: Increased the damage by 30%. This skill will now evade while your character is preforming this attack.
As with Surge of the Mists, we made Unrelenting Assault evade for its duration. It was too punishing to be locked into a skill where you had no control over your character.”

You cryin’ yet?

P.S. I wouldn’t take a doggy, honestly… Their randomly spammed cc is absolutely game-breaking if you’re in a decent party. Let’s not even talk about pigs (but pigbow is a superior build so yeahh whatever). If you can’t take a kitty, drakes are just awesome. The locust cleansing at lupi with the river drake… /sighs dreamily

deSade.9437:

“I just want to clarify for good that main hand sword is currently working as intended. All movement skills cannot be interrupted by dodging and this is currently intentional. It has a very specific play style, and I would like it to remain. I understand that rangers want a one handed melee option that is more mobile, but that will have to wait, as I know there are a mix of players who also like how this weapon plays and I do not want to take away one of the more unique playstyles that we have and replace it with something that is fairly common.”

“Unrelenting Assault: Increased the damage by 30%. This skill will now evade while your character is preforming this attack.
As with Surge of the Mists, we made Unrelenting Assault evade for its duration. It was too punishing to be locked into a skill where you had no control over your character.”

You cryin’ yet?

P.S. I wouldn’t take a doggy, honestly… Their randomly spammed cc is absolutely game-breaking if you’re in a decent party. Let’s not even talk about pigs (but pigbow is a superior build so yeahh whatever). If you can’t take a kitty, drakes are just awesome. The locust cleansing at lupi with the river drake… /sighs dreamily

Are they on drugs? It is much more punishing to be locked out by an auto attack than by a 3/4s skill with 10s cd. The double standard with that is repulsive. Not to mention skills like pistol whip, which also locks you out without evasion. If they were really serious about fixing self-punishing skills, I could make them a laundry list…and there is no reason for ranger sword aa not to be at the very top.

I could have sworn Pistol Whip provides an evasion during the sword slashes. Anyways, Anet probably does not think this is a double standard since – in their eyes – Rangers can turn auto attack off when using the sword while Unrelenting Assault is a channel that lasts around 2 seconds (can’t fully recall).

/shrug
You don’t have to tell me. And the 1st quote was actually on the CDI thread because sword aa rooting resulted as being the biggest perceived (by rangers) problem right after pets.
The irony, huh? They make a CDI and then don’t listen to anything people say.
Oh, and they also confirmed rangers will never get rid of pets in any way, but I can’t find the quote.

deSade.9437:

/shrug
You don’t have to tell me. And the 1st quote was actually on the CDI thread because sword aa rooting resulted as being the biggest perceived (by rangers) problem right after pets.
The irony, huh? They make a CDI and then don’t listen to anything people say.
Oh, and they also confirmed rangers will never get rid of pets in any way, but I can’t find the quote.

According to the wiki, Unrelenting Assault has a 3/4 second cast and 1/2 second evade; there is no mention of it being a channeled skill.

As for pets…pets are probably the single most important reason that rangers are not competitive in tournaments. No AI based spec does well in Guild Wars tournaments (or is even used at all), as far as I know, so why do they think that forcing an entire profession to use nothing but AI specs is a good decision?

https://youtu.be/RFVAOvvMtoc?t=10m28s

It’s a channel skill. The cast time listed on the wiki is correct, but I’m not sure why there is a ½ second evade time listed as the evade wasn’t present in the last beta, nor does it cover the skill’s duration.

I really understand why rangers want the sword aa to get fixed, but to call it “unfair” because they gave unrelenting assault an evasion is just too much. These are different problems. If you use sword aa you know where you are going, because it will follow your target. This way you can predict the danger, like how high is the chance to jump in an enemy aoe field taking damage.

Unrelenting assault is teleporting you to multiple random targets, so if there is aoe possible in this situation you will NEVER use it because you have no idea where you are going to be.

That’s all, one of the skills is predictable, the other isn’t.

Kodama.6453:

I really understand why rangers want the sword aa to get fixed, but to call it “unfair” because they gave unrelenting assault an evasion is just too much. These are different problems. If you use sword aa you know where you are going, because it will follow your target. This way you can predict the danger, like how high is the chance to jump in an enemy aoe field taking damage.

Unrelenting assault is teleporting you to multiple random targets, so if there is aoe possible in this situation you will NEVER use it because you have no idea where you are going to be.

That’s all, one of the skills is predictable, the other isn’t.

Not quite. If your target dies, stealths, or clones, you go flying. Besides, sword auto locks you out of dodging essentially for most of the time that you’re dealing damage. No other weapon set has such a debilitating side effect, and here ANet is trying to market their glaring design flaw as a ‘feature’.