Guild Wars 2

Am I the only one who is fed up for months with the shocking state of Rangers in this game?! It certainly feels that way! I’ve made a number of posts here about how badly Rangers need an improvement to be brought in-line with other classes in this game, and all are ignored and ridiculed.

I have NO reason to buy HoT expansion because I don’t want a stupid Druid! I want a RANGED class with Longbow skills, and I had hoped Ranger would get some long-overdue improvements in that area, but instead we get a useless Staff with useless support skills.

News flash: This game does not have “holy trinity” MMO setup (Tank/Healer/DPS) so why implement useless ‘healing’ on a class that is already so far behind everything else?!

Ranger pets – Useless (They die instantly in ANY and ALL fights and still cannot be dismissed in combat! The AI is completely dumb. They don’t dodge when we do.)
Longbow DPS – Average at best
Sword auto attack – useless
Healing Spring (our main condi cleanse) – Useless
Lead the Wind – Useless because “piercing arrows” does not negate blocks or actually ‘pierce’ as it should, by cutting through armor (toughness).
Clarion Bond – Useless because it has a cooldown.
Zephyr’s Speed – Average at best, becuase it has a cooldown.
Strength of the Pack – Average at best, because it isn’t an instant-cast stun breaker (like the endless Warrior slot skills that are all stun-breakers with stability)

Rentapest.6503:

Am I the only one who is fed up for months with the shocking state of Rangers in this game?! It certainly feels that way! I’ve made a number of posts here about how badly Rangers need an improvement to be brought in-line with other classes in this game, and all are ignored and ridiculed.

I have NO reason to buy HoT expansion because I don’t want a stupid Druid! I want a RANGED class with Longbow skills, and I had hoped Ranger would get some long-overdue improvements in that area, but instead we get a useless Staff with useless support skills.

News flash: This game does not have “holy trinity” MMO setup (Tank/Healer/DPS) so why implement useless ‘healing’ on a class that is already so far behind everything else?!

Ranger pets – Useless (They die instantly in ANY and ALL fights and still cannot be dismissed in combat! The AI is completely dumb. They don’t dodge when we do.)
Longbow DPS – Average at best
Sword auto attack – useless
Healing Spring (our main condi cleanse) – Useless
Lead the Wind – Useless because “piercing arrows” does not negate blocks or actually ‘pierce’ as it should, by cutting through armor (toughness).
Clarion Bond – Useless because it has a cooldown.
Zephyr’s Speed – Average at best, becuase it has a cooldown.
Strength of the Pack – Average at best, because it isn’t an instant-cast stun breaker (like the endless Warrior slot skills that are all stun-breakers with stability)

can you link the staff skills + utility plz.

Ranger pets – Useless (They die instantly in ANY and ALL fights and still cannot be dismissed in combat! The AI is completely dumb. They don’t dodge when we do.) a little tweak/bugfix would be nice
Longbow DPS – Average at best my best hit was around 11k opening strike vs a thief ( lvl 80 ) with opening strike
Sword auto attack – useless great singel target dps. downed 100% ppl in wvw in unter 3 sec with qz
Healing Spring (our main condi cleanse) – Useless you have no idea about condie cleanse capacity of the ranger
Lead the Wind – Useless because “piercing arrows” does not negate blocks or actually ‘pierce’ as it should, by cutting through armor (toughness). troll?
Clarion Bond – Useless because it has a cooldown. troll?
Zephyr’s Speed – Average at best, becuase it has a cooldown. troll?
Strength of the Pack – Average at best, because it isn’t an instant-cast stun breaker (like the endless Warrior slot skills that are all stun-breakers with stability) yeah no insta stabi sucks

Not trying to ‘out’ you in any way here, just giving you a response to each of your points:

Ranger pets – AI isn’t great but they are far from useless. Aside from soaking some ranged attacks and creating some breathing time, they have excellent F2 skills that can change the tide of a fight. If you manage them well they should survive anything outside of a WvW zerg fight.
Longbow DPS – Seriously OP outside of PVE. Every single ability on this weapon is strong.
Sword auto attack – True, it is very annoying to use and I avoid it at all costs.
Healing Spring – Good for trap rangers and is far from being the main source of condi cleanse for rangers (who are in a very good spot atm regarding that).
Lead the Wind – Incredible when fighting multiple opponents. Even if you don’t intend to hit more than one target it will almost always ensure that you hit your intended target with CC/Stealth shots when firing through a group.
Clarion Bond – Yeah don’t use this pls, it’s bad.
Zephyr’s Speed – Incredible now that it also has a mobility component in the form of super speed.
Strength of the Pack – Still strong as it allows you to ignore hard CC for a very long period of time. Rangers have enough stun breaks.

Please try to refrain from making such statements about things that you don’t use in your build due to w/e trait synergy you lack in what you use. A lot of what you said here is simply sensationalized and doesn’t apply to every one else who is using those things to great success.

Rentapest.6503:

Am I the only one who is fed up for months with the shocking state of Rangers in this game?! It certainly feels that way! I’ve made a number of posts here about how badly Rangers need an improvement to be brought in-line with other classes in this game, and all are ignored and ridiculed.

I have NO reason to buy HoT expansion because I don’t want a stupid Druid! I want a RANGED class with Longbow skills, and I had hoped Ranger would get some long-overdue improvements in that area, but instead we get a useless Staff with useless support skills.

News flash: This game does not have “holy trinity” MMO setup (Tank/Healer/DPS) so why implement useless ‘healing’ on a class that is already so far behind everything else?!

Ranger pets – Useless (They die instantly in ANY and ALL fights and still cannot be dismissed in combat! The AI is completely dumb. They don’t dodge when we do.)
Longbow DPS – Average at best
Sword auto attack – useless
Healing Spring (our main condi cleanse) – Useless
Lead the Wind – Useless because “piercing arrows” does not negate blocks or actually ‘pierce’ as it should, by cutting through armor (toughness).
Clarion Bond – Useless because it has a cooldown.
Zephyr’s Speed – Average at best, becuase it has a cooldown.
Strength of the Pack – Average at best, because it isn’t an instant-cast stun breaker (like the endless Warrior slot skills that are all stun-breakers with stability)

I agree with you mate.
Ranger is in a bad spot..and doubt that this situation will change in the future.

Rentapest.6503:

… I don’t want a stupid Druid! I want a RANGED class with Longbow skills …

This may be part of your problem.
Rangers are currently the best archers by far, but not the best ranged class.
Apparently what you want to play is an Archer and not a Ranger, so I suggest that you check the guardian elite spec Dragonhunter, it seems like to be a really nice archer.

I agree that rangers are in a quite bad spot, better than it was a time ago, but this last update feels like other classes (besides necros, I kinda feel bad for them) were buffed way more than rangers were and we needed to some buffs already.

You really have no clue. Please stop playing Ranger, just go play something else, even better, some other game.

- Pets are not great, sure, but they are hardly useless, unless you yourself are useless.
- LB DPS, agree, it is average.
- Sword AA is awesome if you turn AA toggle off, although the animation should be broken easier.
- HS, not useless, but broken atm. Definitely not our main condi cleanse.
- LtW, it pierces entire people, hardly useless. Go to trait for LB in WvW when zerging and PvP.
- Clarion Bond/ZS, hardly useless due to a CD, since pet swapping has a CD, any thoughts otherwise are pure idiocy.
- SoTP is excellent in its place, if you build around it being a shout and have a short CD. You have no clue about warrior skills either.

All i have to say is that your statement LB is average at best is kinda closed minded
yes the damage is technically not that high compared to e.g. a warrior
BUT the difference is you don’t need to be up close to deal that amount of damage
you can deal a good amount of damage at 1500 range, if your smart you’ll be positioned in a spot ppl can’t get to that easy (e.g. higher ground,… duh)
If the buff the LB dmg it would just get too powerfull, most classes would die before even having the chance to get close
take that in mind, imho ranger is (as soon as the bugs are fixed and some other classes see a slight nerf in their dmg like mesmer warrior etc. (again my opinion)) in a good state as it is. Ranger does not need a straight buff, it needs bugfixes and other classes need some adjustments, but that’s just my 2 cents

Pets suck. They really suck. They are not completely useless, due to their f2 skills and their ability to land a special attack once a millenia, when 9 planets (yeh I love pluto) align together. Problem is their situation being same. They should’ve been fixed by now. It works but not much. Still if you are a decent ranger you can manage something.

There are two kinds of people on the longbow topic. First type is those who claim it should not be powerful because it has a very long range, too much burst, epic skills and the ability to swing like a spider with iron man’s armor. It really can give you invis, shoot a cc, not really bad burst. So these people are not wrong. It is meant to be a powerful weapon, and it is not bad.

Second kind of people are those who knows the value of gap closers. You are a guardian? Call your judge and intervent this kitten . You are a thief? Lol, you know what to do. Ele? blink blink blink, blink the bloody waaay…. goes on like this. Problem is that the burst can be healed-dodged instantly by every class and these people know that. ( And seriously if you die because of the longbow damage, before you get close, you need to practice a little more. I did, and it helped.) There are some builds that are not very good against range damage though.

Shortbow is the new guy, nobody likes him. Sword’s autoattack is something that a monk should use. Single target ranged dps is not quite well enough overall, but more would really hurt the game itself.

These are all “ranger” problems for my taste. Other bugs and issues are normal for anet. Nearly every profession has some kind of uber-bugs and it feels normal now, sadly. Incompetence grows on you dear Anet.

But Ranger needs rework. Pet mechanic and especially AI should be fixed. Some weapons should be adjusted.

And for the love of God, I know you people despise longbows but I love them. For me the Ranger archetype is made with the longbow. Ithilien Rangers, beasthunters, dnd, all I love is a ranger with a longbow, who is not op, but brings some “invaluable” utility to his party. You know, someone you should trust, not scream with frustration when you see him in your party.

Rentapest.6503:

I want a RANGED class with Longbow skills, and I had hoped Ranger would get some long-overdue improvements in that area, but instead we get a useless Staff with useless support skills.

If something has been improved, it’s the Longbow.

The best thing to happen was the 100% projectile speed from Read the Wind a year ago, which has now become baseline together with 1500 range.
In this latest update the Longbow traits have also been reduced from 4 (of which you could only have 3 in your build) down to 1.

I suppose you’re just not used to having all these spare trait points left over to spend on other things? You could always go into Skirmishing for the extra Spotter, which would have cost you a longbow trait before the update.

Yes I lost damage with my Longbow since the update, but I do have more trait points to spend on other parts of my build as well.

I just love Clarions bond and windborne notes + zyhpers speeds = 4 might, regen, fury swiftness + blast maybe on a fire field for 3 more 7might on one swap sounds realy good.

combo that with sigil of battle for 2 and nature magic sharing boons pets going to have 18might every 2nd swap without Strenght of the pack or a Axe or a Sword or even might runes.

its a quick build up for pet attacks and if you know your stuff using zyphers speed Benifits melee rangers more than Lb rangers you need to swap pets closer or point blank, so no pets are not useless, just the users not doing enough or carelessly planning how they rotate attacks.

aB EXT.1287:

Zephyr’s Speed – Incredible now that it also has a mobility component in the form of super speed.

Good points all around. On this though, QZ has a super speed component with its quickness. I’m not aware of it being on Zephyr’s Speed as well (per wiki).