Guild Wars 2

Sorry if this sounds ignorant as im not fully experienced with the whole of GW2 nor have I hit 80 on a character.

Im looking into playing ranger but dislike the idea of being forced into being a druid.

Is this the case or can you stay more ranger type with longbow/greatsword?

Druid is an optional elite specialization, so no you don’t have to choose to be a Druid. I think I am going to give up the staff and get my greatsword back as Druid seems completely useless at the moment.

At this point the only nice thing for Rangers in HoT are the new pets. The Fiery Wyvern is nice.

Will there be more elite specialisations?

Seems like other proffessions get an elite spec which really builds upon what they already have where as druid is just like a complete new proffession nearly.

Thanks for the answer though so i can stay as standard ranger with bow/swords etc?

You can stay a standard ranger. I am still using a longbow/Greatsword or sword/horn and still having great success in Pve and in PvP.

Yeah, Druid is quite different from standard Ranger, but the purpose of many of the Elite Specializations was to offer something to the profession that they were lacking in before (Ranger – Druid – Group Support, Necro – Reaper – Melee Damage, Engineer – Scrapper -Melee Damage, etc.).

Unfortunately I agree that ours doesn’t fit in that well with the base class (unlike Nature Magic (our original support trait line), for example), but I’m hopeful we’ll see some changes in the near future.

As to the question of more elite specializations – almost undoubtedly. ANet hasn’t 100% confirmed this, but it seems like each profession will get a new Elite with each expansion (if they plan to continue with expansions). So, it might be a while before we get a new one. But feel free to play without it!

Skizbiz.3147:

Will there be more elite specialisations?

Seems like other proffessions get an elite spec which really builds upon what they already have where as druid is just like a complete new proffession nearly.

Thanks for the answer though so i can stay as standard ranger with bow/swords etc?

They say there will be but I wouldn’t look for them anytime soon

You ask a legitimate question because of the word elite. Because base game is now free it may seem like you are buying the druid. Add to that, everyone wants druid optimal to any weapons/gear stat/accompanying trait lines/play style with no throttle on celestial form and its pretty much a straight upgrade bringing in a 3rd skill bar into play.

Eventually we will undoubtedly see more elite specs accompanied by current elite spec overhauls and it will be standard for all players to use one. There will be a few diehards/rebels/whatevers that will have strong enough builds supported by strong regular traitlines or simply play better than their build.