Guild Wars 2

Saw this note in a LFG post(think it was for CM or some such) and had to laugh. I actually joined the group and said something like “RANGER TIME MY FRIENDS!” before I was booted.

I’ve been fooling around with ranger DPS builds without even going 100% ‘zerker. The damage actually isn’t too bad.

I mostly used sword which has a decent coefficient and a fast attack speed. It is a little clumsy because of the way the auto attack functions, making it difficult to dodge on demand at times, but it’s a decent brainless DPS weapon for a mostly brainless PvE.

Longbow is way too slow and shortbow does too little damage. The axe is interesting but it’s just a tad too slow as well, particularly for single targets. Pets don’t do much, even with proper BM traits. Drakes have a nice F2 skill but sometimes the pet positions wrong and it has a long cooldown. I prefer to use the bear as aggro tank if anything. Pets as a whole feel extremely clunky and I think they should do more damage for the investment required to get anything from them.

All said, though, ranger DPS can be decent enough with a sword and other utility via offhands. Axe is sometimes decent as well. Not sure what the bias is about.

This is nothing new. Most speed runs do not want rangers or anything not zerk. I respect these peoples way of play and don’t join there groups. Rangers are fine in dungeons and bring some very welcome buffs and heals/condition removal to a party. They are on the other hand not the most efficient class to do speed runs.

Reason is a lot of rangers go LB in dungeons and sit in the back out of range of buffs and don’t bother giving the group buffs like Spotter so in essence, they are a waste. Now like you said, 1h sword/x does do decent dmg and rangers that use that are usually fine and do great dmg. But the ones like I said that sit in the back using LB and taking dmg and dropping healing spring on themselves while the rest of the group is across the room are the ones who give good rangers bad names so generally the concensus is just boot any ranger who joins regardless and don’t take a chance.

So what constitutes a “good ranger”? I’m one of those LB rangers in the dungeons. I sit back and pop away with my longbow, outside of the buffs that the rest of the team enjoys. By your definition I should have my mugshot plastered on the side of every dungeon with the words “Do Not Allow” under it. I’m a pure power build running Zerker gear (Except LB itself, it’s a White Hart: it was a gift and I couldn’t afford a LB to max out the zerker stats). I take up a role of Fast Response and Support. I’m watching our group. If whoever is tanking’s health drops and they’re unable to disengage, I’m running in. I pop a ring after PB. If someone gets dropped, I pop Barrage on top of them and run in to rez. If someone is rezzing them already I pop Barrage on them for additional cover. If fit really hits the shan, I get in and kite. Grab the agro, pull the baddie away, send in the bear. I usually recall him before I kite because, well, he’s an idiot and usually prevents me from grabbing the agro.

By me being back, it opens up options. Our ele gets dropped, she mistforms back to me, same with any thief. (My team keeps the 5th slot open for guests. Makes the dungeon experience more fun) I can respond to help and plug gaps.

You’re correct when you say there are Rangers out there who seem to just tag along with crews, and they can be a liability. Same as any other player running another class who doesn’t care about anything cept getting his loot. I have been left high and dry by Warriors who run off because they forgot to loot something when we’re dealing with the Troll in AC. It isn’t the class that’s the problem, its the players.

That being said, I am really disappointed in how ANet handled the Ranger class. Animations over-running skill use, the pet’s in general, and the fact that it seems to be that you need a CRAY computer on your left running calculations on your build, while having Miss Cleo on your right to see if it will actually work.

LOBO Agin.4760:

I take up a role of Fast Response and Support. I’m watching our group. If whoever is tanking’s health drops and they’re unable to disengage, I’m running in. I pop a ring after PB. If someone gets dropped, I pop Barrage on top of them and run in to rez. If someone is rezzing them already I pop Barrage on them for additional cover. If fit really hits the shan, I get in and kite. Grab the agro, pull the baddie away, send in the bear. I usually recall him before I kite because, well, he’s an idiot and usually prevents me from grabbing the agro.

Nobody is saying there aren’t advantages of having a player in the back line. They are saying that as GW2 is currently designed, these advantages don’t outweigh the disadvantages (loss of sharing buffs and combos).

This is really one of the most puzzling things about the game to me. GW1 had a big enough group buff range that you could form up the classic RPG front line and back line. The meat shields would get up in the face of your opponents while the more delicate classes attacked from range behind. Even in dynamic roaming combat, there was a beautiful fluidity to how these two lines could move together while still maintaining a combat “front line”, and still sharing buffs.

GW2 has none of that. Everyone just piles on in melee range or gets left out. I think eliminating the dedicated healer was a positive step. But they’ve also eliminated the dedicated melee/ranged roles. In the process they’ve turned the game into an “every man for himself” affair, where any buffs or combos are accidental rather than planned. GW1 felt more like coordinated play, where each player had a certain job to do and you watched each others’ backs. It accentuated the advantages of the type of play you cite. Meat shields would fall back to protect the casters if they were being attacked by melee. Casters (and archers) would concentrate their fire on areas where the tanks were having trouble.

GW2 OTOH seems to discourage this melee/ranged two-line type of play. It’s supposed to be a multi-player game, yet aside from “everyone stack” and the occasional call-out for a water field, it often feels like I’m playing a single-player game.

Op,

as already stated it’s not something new to our class; appreciate you for posting it though..

I see that all the time; the sad truth, that is why i do runs with guildies.. less discrimination and prejudice.

The unfortunate reality truth is, i don’t blame them much for hating our class because we were created to be treated this way.

Just be sure to not run Brown Bear or you will be kicked in no time. You can pick Murellow instead! It’s still a Bear. Just shaved a lil’bit! But shhhh… They shouldn’t know. If they ask, it’s Kodan’s child

No one can blame the Rangers using LB. That weapon gives the highest damage and more at increased range. Using Sword or LB depends on the player .
As someone said above its the players nature that he/she would help others or just stay at a place and try to do damage.But unfortunately everyone think about Rangers like that and especially in dungeon raids 95% groups prefer “serker warriors” and oh yes they are doing SPEED RUNS!! Ranger is just useless to do SPEED RUNS and for that thank you A-Net.It seems I have wasted one character slot making a Ranger.

Solandri.9640:

LOBO Agin.4760:

I take up a role of Fast Response and Support. I’m watching our group. If whoever is tanking’s health drops and they’re unable to disengage, I’m running in. I pop a ring after PB. If someone gets dropped, I pop Barrage on top of them and run in to rez. If someone is rezzing them already I pop Barrage on them for additional cover. If fit really hits the shan, I get in and kite. Grab the agro, pull the baddie away, send in the bear. I usually recall him before I kite because, well, he’s an idiot and usually prevents me from grabbing the agro.

Nobody is saying there aren’t advantages of having a player in the back line. They are saying that as GW2 is currently designed, these advantages don’t outweigh the disadvantages (loss of sharing buffs and combos).

This is really one of the most puzzling things about the game to me. GW1 had a big enough group buff range that you could form up the classic RPG front line and back line. The meat shields would get up in the face of your opponents while the more delicate classes attacked from range behind. Even in dynamic roaming combat, there was a beautiful fluidity to how these two lines could move together while still maintaining a combat “front line”, and still sharing buffs.

GW2 has none of that. Everyone just piles on in melee range or gets left out. I think eliminating the dedicated healer was a positive step. But they’ve also eliminated the dedicated melee/ranged roles. In the process they’ve turned the game into an “every man for himself” affair, where any buffs or combos are accidental rather than planned. GW1 felt more like coordinated play, where each player had a certain job to do and you watched each others’ backs. It accentuated the advantages of the type of play you cite. Meat shields would fall back to protect the casters if they were being attacked by melee. Casters (and archers) would concentrate their fire on areas where the tanks were having trouble.

GW2 OTOH seems to discourage this melee/ranged two-line type of play. It’s supposed to be a multi-player game, yet aside from “everyone stack” and the occasional call-out for a water field, it often feels like I’m playing a single-player game.

I absolutely agree. GW2 does seem to treat the Range/Support roles in a backhanded manner. It’s almost as if they were forced to allow the Ranger role. The role takes HEAVY adaptation to play and a lot of times it may not seem worth it. We can’t rely on the role the game has provided for us (Tired of wearing that tin-foil hat), we have to think outside the box. The community view of the “useless Ranger” doesn’t help at all.

I’ve been experimenting not just in traits but also sigils and signets. I’ve found one of the better setups for offensive support to be a Fire Sigil on a LB. Running that with Barrage seems to surpass the 5 target limit. I’ve had many “meatshields” comment on the breather it gives them. We’ve been referring it as “Napalm Strike”. That’s got me thinking that there are other Sigils that may provide a more beneficial advantage to the line. I’ve thought Ice for the chill, and for a bit Water for the heal, but since that’s only effective around the PC, that tends to get nullified.

So I put this challenge out: You have a Ranger, and a LB. What Sigil, and how would you play the support?

One reason people use only long bow or short bow from the back is to avoid being downed. If the warrior gets downed, “Hey, stuff happens.” But when the ranger gets downed, “OMG Rangers suck!” So, out of fear of being booted, some players are ultra-cautious and are so worried about being perceived as bad that they contribute less than they could.

In my experience, having a good long bow ranger that runs around and assists from the back makes a number of dungeon paths go more smoothly.

The worst issue I’ve ever had playing with a longbow ranger is that sometimes you get a longbow ranger that randomly spams Point Blank Shot and screws up all the other players’ efforts.

MisterEction.9382:

One reason people use only long bow or short bow from the back is to avoid being downed. If the warrior gets downed, “Hey, stuff happens.” But when the ranger gets downed, “OMG Rangers suck!” So, out of fear of being booted, some players are ultra-cautious and are so worried about being perceived as bad that they contribute less than they could.

In my experience, having a good long bow ranger that runs around and assists from the back makes a number of dungeon paths go more smoothly.

The worst issue I’ve ever had playing with a longbow ranger is that sometimes you get a longbow ranger that randomly spams Point Blank Shot and screws up all the other players’ efforts.

I’ll admit I was guilty of the PB shot too. The effect of that shot seems rather random tho. It says the closer they are, the further it kocks back. At max range I’ve had it just knock down the target, and that’s the way I thought it should be, but then I’ve also had it (at max range) knock them clear across the dungeon it seems. I quit using it because it does tend to screw up strats, and reserve it as cover for downed team mates

Well to start with, any of the bows are subpar dps when compared to melee weapons like 1h sword/x for ranger or any melee weapon for any other class. So while you may think you are doing good dmg sitting in the back with LB, you are actually doing pretty crappy dmg. I can understand sitting in the back if it’s a new fight and you don’t understand the mechanics of it but otherwise, like I said, you are just doing subpar dps and pretty much wasting the groups time.

And like Solandri said, they advantage of sitting in the back does not outweigh the advantage of melee since this game pretty much wants you to melee to do good dmg. Also the advantage of grouping up on the boss and dps is everyone gets all buffs, heals, protections, etc and if someone goes down, it is easier to just rez them right there.

And to Uther, LB is far from our highest dmg weapon. Dungeons generally you cant get max range. SB with flanking is better if you are gonna use a bow but again, if you want the highest dps, its 1h sword/x. I personally use ascended 1h sword and dagger with Dreamer in secondary slot for when I need to range. Then in just open world wandering, I switch out Dreamer for Kudzu.

Pretty much any support role is moot point in GW2. Unless you are condition removal, you are better off just going full zerker and dps. The faster a mob drops, the less chance of someone making a mistake and getting downed. Sad but true and you can thank Anet for that.

My ranger was my first toon and I still love playing him. I got him 4 sets of exotic gear, Dreamer, Kudzu, ascended sword and dagger. But I will not pretend that bow dmg is good dps in dungeons. Like I said, I run pretty much sword/dagger or sword/warhorn in dungeons with the occasional SB if I miss a dodge or an evade. Sitting in the back and thinking you are “helping” the group isn’t really helping and that’s why those rangers general get booted. I never get booted from groups once they see im a sword/x ranger even if I get downed once in awhile cause I’m still doing good dps and providing buffs like Spotter and frost spirit to the group. Of course with all that being said, I still find it easier to just use my guard with Juggernaut facerolling easy to do dungeons, not to mention a guard with hammer and perma protection build can make any group pretty much work.

Personally I like that dungeon elitists won’t allow rangers because it reduces the risk of me ending up in their groups. I have no interest in skipping most of the dungeon and speed running the rest by doing exactly as I’m told, when I’m told and never ‘wasting time’ by thinking for myself. Then doing it another 5 times in a row and complaining that it wasn’t worth it.

I have much more fun doing dungeons with casual groups and first-timers. It might not be as quick but it’s more interesting and less stressful.

As for build I tend to use a shortbow because I usually can’t get far enough back to make the longbow effective and then sword/torch for when I either need to be in melee range or can’t avoid it. (Although sword 2 then longbow 3 is great for putting distance between yourself and your target when you want to.) Other than that it’s my standard PvE build which is a combination of condition and critical damage (and still a work in progress).

It might not be the best possible build, but given the groups I’m with that doesn’t tend to matter. It works and that’s good enough.

Besides the people that actively post it on LFG, I’ve never had anybody complain when I play my ranger. I am a pretty zerkery build and gear. So I have the damage, have spotter, and healing spring.

I imagine those people have just encountered a lot I “bad” rangers and bthink the whole ranger player aee is the same way.

Danikat.8537:

Personally I like that dungeon elitists won’t allow rangers because it reduces the risk of me ending up in their groups. I have no interest in skipping most of the dungeon and speed running the rest by doing exactly as I’m told, when I’m told and never ‘wasting time’ by thinking for myself. Then doing it another 5 times in a row and complaining that it wasn’t worth it.

I have much more fun doing dungeons with casual groups and first-timers. It might not be as quick but it’s more interesting and less stressful.

As for build I tend to use a shortbow because I usually can’t get far enough back to make the longbow effective and then sword/torch for when I either need to be in melee range or can’t avoid it. (Although sword 2 then longbow 3 is great for putting distance between yourself and your target when you want to.) Other than that it’s my standard PvE build which is a combination of condition and critical damage (and still a work in progress).

It might not be the best possible build, but given the groups I’m with that doesn’t tend to matter. It works and that’s good enough.

And that’s the secret of the game. Having fun. Hell you might want to join up with my crew for a run, we usually take dungeons fairly slow (My wife plays and she’s pregnant. Usually have to stop every other fight for a BB) and we’re constantly cracking jokes. The problem with groups is half the time you don’t know what you got until it’s time to march. And usually, then you have to deal with all the “Ranger love”.

I truly don’t understand, as much as I rag on the ranger class, I have never had a problem “speed” running any dungeons, except I haven’t been in Arah. But we speed run a lot of dungeon paths in our guild and I have never been excluded and am often sought out. And, yea, I use a lb, but I do come in for buffs or to drop Healing Spring on the melee types.

>shrugs<

Seriously, speed runs are more about knowing where to stand, when to stand, know the fights and a big chest at the end. When is buffing all that critical? Heck we speed run FoTM at least at my low level (don’t spend a lot of time in there, but when I do).

Picked up a random group for the Hybrid last night. Not dungeon length, but meh. No one had problems with me being a ranger. I think they appreciated the melee-range healing and regeneration that my Fern Hound gave them (30 invested in Beastmastery, keep in mind). And the 20+ stacks of vulnerability that I laid on the bosses. And the fact that I could shoot those darned plants from outside of the effect range. Sometimes I even popped down an aoe immobilize. I really don’t understand why people hate on rangers.

LoL hybrid with a group..just do it solo and done in the half time

The drakes cleave on their autoattack though that’s why you want them in anything with more than 1 mob wich is to say everything exept a few bossfights.

There is a “good ranger”. Its one who has good situational awareness, supports the team as much as he can, doesn’t die and helps get the fight going along fast and smoothly. Problem is, the ranger is like the warrior, they’re the “easy” classes to pick up. While this is true for solo pve it means a good 60% of the Ranger playerbase hasn’t got a clue, of course they wont be coming on these forums either. We’re the hardcore nutters that still stick to the class for some odd reason

Longbow isn’t bad as a self-support secondary weapon in PvE imho. At the current state it isn’t efficient alone neither in PvP or PvE but has some cool tools. When many may complain about KD on PBS, you can use that to drop Defiant stacks from the boss to help others in further interrupting, AoE Barrage in PvE dungeon befire swapping to your sword may increase overall dps a bit and offers some AoE damage, Hunter’s Shot helps when it comes to aggro, disengaging and RP may help you manage any damage before swapping to sword or waiting for swap to come up from cooldown.
However, as I said, it’s now just secondary utility weapon for PvE and has no worth besides that.

Longbow is actualy my main single targeting weapon but barrage actualy is a very powerfull damage tool when it comes to total dps. When i need a more permanant multi targeting i swap to my axe and watch it bounce for 4k+ an auto attack. My whole gear is zerker based and i have maximum critical damage. Since my whole build is based on spamming multi strike in order to stack critical hits my pet is nearly constantly above 12 stack of might minimum as well as fury so it deals dps around 2k minimum per auto attack to 3500+ per attack up to above 6k with a skill. Longbow is both a usefull aoeing weapon as well as a tool for survivability… when focused just use hunter shot and stealth out.

Longbow and axe should always be considered as main beast master spec tools due to their innate ability to spamming tons of criticals at the same time. It doesnt need to be heavy damage critical whole point is to do as many hit as possible within a small time period in order to stack might to the maximum.

point of the whole thing is to spam as many possible critical hit within the smallest period of time in order to stack up pet might to the cap

kyubi.3620:

Longbow is actualy my main single targeting weapon but barrage actualy is a very powerfull damage tool when it comes to total dps. When i need a more permanant multi targeting i swap to my axe and watch it bounce for 4k+ an auto attack. My whole gear is zerker based and i have maximum critical damage. Since my whole build is based on spamming multi strike in order to stack critical hits my pet is nearly constantly above 12 stack of might minimum as well as fury so it deals dps around 2k minimum per auto attack to 3500+ per attack up to above 6k with a skill. Longbow is both a usefull aoeing weapon as well as a tool for survivability… when focused just use hunter shot and stealth out.

Longbow and axe should always be considered as main beast master spec tools due to their innate ability to spamming tons of criticals at the same time. It doesnt need to be heavy damage critical whole point is to do as many hit as possible within a small time period in order to stack might to the maximum.

point of the whole thing is to spam as many possible critical hit within the smallest period of time in order to stack up pet might to the cap

axe is just bad dps..melee cleav is much more powerfull and i easy out dps guys like you, it´s okay for me when people like to play your way

BUT when i want to make a fast ini / frac run, i dont want people like this in my group cause they waste my time

Ask yourself this: If the group leader thinks that they need a group without any rangers to do a dungeon, do you really want to be in that group?

That player generaly not worth my while… i easily do my 6k+ dps from my build Altrought sword has exelent personnal damage it isnt actualy a very good multi targeting weapon. I deal most of my dps from pet having 25 stack of might due to multi hits. Also axe has the lovely ability to bounce multiple time making it easy to do 4k+ everytime you strike and score multiple critical hit within the time of 1 blow in a multi target fight (at least 2 target)

If of course i was a ranger 100% based on personnal damage like you id spec sword but my build is focused on making as many critical hits as possible within the shortest amount of time, making 1 hit every second from spamming sword auto attack simply will not do. This make axe /horn and longbow somewhat of the best combination for that purpose

Nothing personnal but i think you should just leave melee to the plate guy with 2600 armor + wich does about the same damage if not above yours. I guess what make you choose that spec is the bonus dodge from swordplay. Altrought you do a lovely 2k crit or so about near it (1600 damage per hit in heart of the mist with full zerker? Its good but i dont think ill go melee just for a small speed output when i need to reduce my might stack gain by such a ammount) per auto attack and if lucky a little more from the aoe slash i likely outdps you from having my pet score 3k to 6ks criticals while yours is hardly actualy stated to deal decent damage (having -300 on every stat for the pet does make a serious defrence on its damage critical rate and survivability).

Even if you run the most straight forward of builds for a ranger, in order to be valued for a dungeon (and this goes for anything, not just ranger) you need to learn to work in groups. The damage output you do must be absolutely consistent, so if you need to swap weapons in combat to better support your party get it done. Use AoE heals and use your pet wisely. A good ranger can turn the tide and in fact most rangers, when played well, are typically the last man standing in a dungeon, thanks to your pet and how the ranger combat system works.

That being said, there are tons of people out there who, despite their best intentions, have realized that most ranger pugs just suck at group coordination. This is not just about how much damage you do, how fast you do it, etc… it’s how you do it and if you do it good (be it condition damage, DPS, or pet DPS) then no party will think twice before inviting you over.

So if you encounter a sad excuse for a ranger, please teach them how it’s done, rid the pug base of lakcluster rangers, it’s not the ranger that’s making it tough for all of us, it’s the player behind the ranger AND them ignorant fools who write ‘no rangers allowed’ in their LFG.

awge.3852:

Even if you run the most straight forward of builds for a ranger, in order to be valued for a dungeon (and this goes for anything, not just ranger) you need to learn to work in groups. The damage output you do must be absolutely consistent, so if you need to swap weapons in combat to better support your party get it done. Use AoE heals and use your pet wisely. A good ranger can turn the tide and in fact most rangers, when played well, are typically the last man standing in a dungeon, thanks to your pet and how the ranger combat system works.

That being said, there are tons of people out there who, despite their best intentions, have realized that most ranger pugs just suck at group coordination. This is not just about how much damage you do, how fast you do it, etc… it’s how you do it and if you do it good (be it condition damage, DPS, or pet DPS) then no party will think twice before inviting you over.

So if you encounter a sad excuse for a ranger, please teach them how it’s done, rid the pug base of lakcluster rangers, it’s not the ranger that’s making it tough for all of us, it’s the player behind the ranger AND them ignorant fools who write ‘no rangers allowed’ in their LFG.

I totaly approve of what you said there. as for where longbow stands its not about spamming the range based auto attack but to abuse its many cooldown. Barrage rapid fire and hunter shot actualy deals quite a good load of very usefull effect and in the case of barrage a very good aoe dps once all those CDS are off however you might want to switch weapon in order to keep doing your maximum. One cannot and should not judge a weapon on its auto attack alone

Talking about LB and “Maximum” in the same sentence….
LB and quite a lot usefull effect?

1. no dmg…possibel an enemy could die how cruel!
2. less dmg then 1, and a little bit vul, but still not usefull
3. im stealthed guys! see u later die alone, possibel i will rezz u!
4. 60k 100B? Haha! not gonna happen BAM! Knockback!
5. Only usefull skill, but so much CD, that is should be only used to engage a fight, but even there it is worse then just playing GS with Swoop + Maul + Sword AA Chain. Or using Warhorn 4 and 5 while u are walking in melee range.

So if u have not rly a usefull effect to your party, but u´re dealing about 50% less dps then the swordranger with buffs. Possibel being the reason why bosses are using special anti ranged attacks on melees ( AC Spider, Lupicus Bubble/green stots).

Dealing all this dmg only to 1 enemy instead of 3, standig away from all buffs, don´t buffing a party.
Why by hell should any1 want a LB ranger? If u switch LB/axe and so on, u deal so less dps then all your support ist useless. Just any other class or player who can play his/her class will be better for the gruop. Even a daggernecro is better then a LB ranger.

If want to play it, cause u like it. Do it. But stop telling storys about how good u are for a party. Just enjoy a play what u want build, and join a play want u want gruops.

I main the class and I have to admit that I have booted other Rangers on several occasions. If I see a brown bear, a longbow and 3 signets loaded (esp if they also have low achieve points) you get the boot. Sorry.

If you are running bears that tends to place you in the camp of: ‘omg, pets suck! they need more HP or should be immune to AOE.’ This means that you aren’t effectively micromanaging your pet, this leads to all sorts of problems such as aggroing mobs that shouldn’t be aggroed, attacking enemies/bosses when you don’t want to for various reasons, and generally just having a dead pet a majority of the time…such a waste. There are so many boss fights where all Rangers should have their pets attacking something other than what you and the rest of the group are focusing on…sic them on totems, turrets, etc while the rest of the group focuses fire on the boss…duh! When I am gauging the skill of a fellow Ranger in my group, this is the main thing I am looking for…mastery over your pet.

Longbow has it’s place, but that tends to be the worst weapon a Ranger can bring in a dungeon. Period. See the above posts for clarification but it boils down to not sharing buffs. Also, LB is the worst weapon a Ranger has if you want to keep an eye on your pet and, you know, keep them alive and doing consistent damage.

Signets. Ewww. There are so many awesome utility skills that you should be running to both keep yourself/pet and others alive, if I see full signets loaded I will seriously think twice about partying with you. This loadout (paired with 30 marksman) is the hallmark of a kitten poor Ranger player attempting to maximize their DPS.

Not that all Rangers who run bears, or LB, or even signets are bad…but if I see them all together I will not hesitate to boot you.

This is not about your own damage there its about the pet damage itself… i could care little if my auto attack (wich i barely use) do 1k less then most ranger because i deal twice the amount from my pet with a safe range (wich in the end resolve to the same thing as you sword spammers). You can glorify your chain sword critical all you want you not likely to stack might as high with that weapon as you are to do with an axe or a bow. I didnt pick those weapon for the damage they do I picked them for the multihits per second in order to abuse might on crit and have my jag in the background score the real hits, running ‘’sick em’’ ‘’signet of the beastmaster’’ ‘’signet of the hunter’’ rampage makes the pet into a serious killing machine. I think the highest crit my Jag scored was a 8k on a bite, i know it aint this enormous in comparison to the warriors HB spamming but considering the low damage overall ratio that ranger possess even with melee weapon its actualy quite high for a single hit. I dont play this build because its ‘’like to play’’ i play it because its effective durable and actualy practical not to mention ive took several hours of my time testing it over and over again both in pvp on dummies and in pve zones and it gives exelent results.

HoMaki.4813:

Using simple tactic i can deal with Rapid Fire just last arrow, (+with crit) up to 16k dmg to the end boss.

How much hp do you think mobs have?
You aren’t dealing 16k damage witht he last arrow, you are dealing 16k damage over 5 seconds(which is really fricken rare that it acually goest that high it’s not like the rest of us haven’t tried or are playing min/maxed zerker rangers) which by itself isn’t anything special to begin with.

The Longbow deals less damage than our melee weapons, period, it’s just a fact and there’s really no point in arguing about it.
If your prime concern is to deal damage, you’re better of switching to the sword if you can stay alive.
Not only is it’s base damage higher the third strike stacks might on our pet(up to 3 i think it was? If not higher) which boosts it even more so there’s really no contest.

Rym.1469:

Just be sure to not run Brown Bear or you will be kicked in no time. You can pick Murellow instead! It’s still a Bear. Just shaved a lil’bit! But shhhh… They shouldn’t know. If they ask, it’s Kodan’s child

I used to like brown bear for wvw anyway… aoe 2 conditions removal every 25 secs, doesnt take any time from you, whats not to like? Most pets insta die and what good is that?

HoMaki.4813:

@Petrol.9086
im not going to agrue with you, i just wrote my facts.
And it is last rapid arrow, i sad UP TO 16k critable. Its not dealing 16k over 5 seconds, its like 1.2 – 4.1 – 7.3 – 9.4 – 10….. etc crit dmg -> up to 16k (the highest dmg i made with last arrow). Which is over 30k just per that skill, for example.
cheers

Wrong. The last number that comes up is the total damage of the whole rapid fire skill.

HoMaki.4813:

@Petrol.9086
im not going to agrue with you, i just wrote my facts.
And it is last rapid arrow, i sad UP TO 16k critable. Its not dealing 16k over 5 seconds, its like 1.2 – 4.1 – 7.3 – 9.4 – 10….. etc crit dmg -> up to 16k (the highest dmg i made with last arrow). Which is over 30k just per that skill, for example.
cheers

You might want to try enabling your “battle” log in your chat.

The numbers in a channeled skill are a running total, you aren’t seeing “damage per hit” displayed.

Bambula.3649:

LoL hybrid with a group..just do it solo and done in the half time

XD From what I saw of my boyfriend trying to solo it with a Guardian, no thanks. I don’t do well against respawning mobs on my own. Though if you, as a Ranger, found out a way to do that—and faster than with a party—I’d be interested to see that build.

Norjena.5172:

Talking about LB and “Maximum” in the same sentence….
LB and quite a lot usefull effect?

1. no dmg…possibel an enemy could die how cruel!
2. less dmg then 1, and a little bit vul, but still not usefull
3. im stealthed guys! see u later die alone, possibel i will rezz u!
4. 60k 100B? Haha! not gonna happen BAM! Knockback!
5. Only usefull skill, but so much CD, that is should be only used to engage a fight, but even there it is worse then just playing GS with Swoop + Maul + Sword AA Chain. Or using Warhorn 4 and 5 while u are walking in melee range.

So if u have not rly a usefull effect to your party, but u´re dealing about 50% less dps then the swordranger with buffs. Possibel being the reason why bosses are using special anti ranged attacks on melees ( AC Spider, Lupicus Bubble/green stots).

Dealing all this dmg only to 1 enemy instead of 3, standig away from all buffs, don´t buffing a party.
Why by hell should any1 want a LB ranger? If u switch LB/axe and so on, u deal so less dps then all your support ist useless. Just any other class or player who can play his/her class will be better for the gruop. Even a daggernecro is better then a LB ranger.

If want to play it, cause u like it. Do it. But stop telling storys about how good u are for a party. Just enjoy a play what u want build, and join a play want u want gruops.

For one, please use grammar and spelling that can be more easily understood. Otherwise, you just don’t look very intelligent. 2nd, learn a bit more about longbow synergies before you write off everyone who uses it. This weapon is 60% of the reason why I can maintain high stacks of vulnerability for my party. They love it. Distance isn’t a problem for that particular 20-25% increase to their damage, and when I need to, I can send in my pets to give them boons or even charge in with sword/axe. Also, longbow with the piercing trait hits 2-3 enemies on 1 and 2 skills easily and gets the average aoe 5 with the 5 skill. What are you talking about that skill 2 doesn’t do much? Have you ever tried firing that thing off with quickness? Things go down fast.

Now, you’ll notice that these points mostly work for particular traits. Sure, longbow’s only useful for certain builds. But, I’d argue that it’s not alone in that regard. Daggers on light characters, anyone? Next time you guys see a longbow ranger, don’t immediately write him/her off as useless.

for what you stack vulnerability?
i got it with rnd groups easy on ~20 stacks if you want to stack vul you should play a granade ingi, he is right the lb is just bad and brings nothing what you need in pve

for hybird :
i just used my normal pve build with s/h, full bersi 20/25/0/25 as elite i used SoN and i pop it on ~30% so i dont care about the debuff and take lifesteal on crit bufffood.
when the adds pop up, go to the ranged, the boss and other adds follow you, so you can easy kill all of them in the same time with your cleav dmg

When I run dungeons with a public group, I always use the “no thieves/rangers” notice as well. I do that, even knowing that a thief and ranger can be extremely valuable (and I run them as main and alt, too). Unfortunately, however, most of the people playing these classes are so bad that the entire player becomes useless. It’s no secret that a lot of players are really bad in these groups, but other professions aren’t punished so hard for sucking, so it’s better to reduce the chance of getting these lazy and bad players from the start, isn’kitten

Just putting it out there, the whole “most rangers are bad, let’s not take a chance” sounds a lot like, “many criminals are black so let’s avoid black people.” I know there is a difference between a game and real life, but it just rubs me wrong.

For the record, I mained Ranger, switched to Thief, then Engie and now am playing Ele. Also I’m Chinese.

Bob.8456:

I main the class and I have to admit that I have booted other Rangers on several occasions. If I see a brown bear, a longbow and 3 signets loaded (esp if they also have low achieve points) you get the boot. Sorry.

If you are running bears that tends to place you in the camp of: ‘omg, pets suck! they need more HP or should be immune to AOE.’ This means that you aren’t effectively micromanaging your pet, this leads to all sorts of problems such as aggroing mobs that shouldn’t be aggroed, attacking enemies/bosses when you don’t want to for various reasons, and generally just having a dead pet a majority of the time…such a waste. There are so many boss fights where all Rangers should have their pets attacking something other than what you and the rest of the group are focusing on…sic them on totems, turrets, etc while the rest of the group focuses fire on the boss…duh! When I am gauging the skill of a fellow Ranger in my group, this is the main thing I am looking for…mastery over your pet.

Longbow has it’s place, but that tends to be the worst weapon a Ranger can bring in a dungeon. Period. See the above posts for clarification but it boils down to not sharing buffs. Also, LB is the worst weapon a Ranger has if you want to keep an eye on your pet and, you know, keep them alive and doing consistent damage.

Signets. Ewww. There are so many awesome utility skills that you should be running to both keep yourself/pet and others alive, if I see full signets loaded I will seriously think twice about partying with you. This loadout (paired with 30 marksman) is the hallmark of a kitten poor Ranger player attempting to maximize their DPS.

Not that all Rangers who run bears, or LB, or even signets are bad…but if I see them all together I will not hesitate to boot you.

If you are trying to achieve something today by doing a difficult dungeon run, running all the dungeons in the game, etc… then yes please boot anyone who you consider not worthy of your group of players. Otherwise, please refrain from booting anyone who is considered ‘noob’ under your eyes. All that you said describes the exact reason why this post exists and why there are still rangers who don’t know any better. If you consider yourself so knowledgeable then apply yourself to teach other rangers how to get it right. I would gladly kick people that they don’t know how to do run their ranger if they would rather quit the group, than to try and learn from a ranger who knows how to do it right. However, when it comes to people who boot rangers on sight for their lack of experience, I would gladly vote to ban them from using the LFG system. Why? Because all the above quoted is the reason why there are still rangers who suck at playing right.

Does that sound a bit too much? let’s be more clear then. A novice ranger knows next to nothing on how to do things right in a dungeon. Think back to when you started, who helped you do things right? It was mr. trial and error that’s who, it was mr. I get killed so easily, but hey the game is still young and people are forgiving; or hey my friends play with me or my guild, they will be cool with it. Play and adjust, time and time again, every new dungeon a new ranger challenge. ANet dumping on the ranger over the months, the pet AI crapping your playstyle in the dungeon, what else is there to say? Then one good leisure day looking to party for a dungeon, a novice ranger with a longbow, a bear pet and tons of signets joins your party, and you have the bloody guts to boot them on sight? Please… refrain from using the LFG system mate.

Ranger hate has a few reasons in GW2.

1. Most people know nothing about ranger.
2. A LOT of people play ranger, cuz it’s cool. This means there are a lot of bad ranger players, because a lot of players also means a lot of bad players.
3. It’s fun to make jokes about ranger, and some people don’t realize they are mostly jokes.

With that said, I believe ranger pets are where the main issues reside. All balancing for ranger seems to be based on the assumption that a rangers pet will be alive, and will hit every attack. As we all know, rangers pets are notorious for missing attacks, dying quickly, and generally just being kitten y, since we don’t have a precise degree of control over them. We can’t even choose when to use 3 of their 4 skills!

So until some pet changes happen, or they give us back that amazing shortbow speed at launch… and 1200 range again…. ranger will still be the point of every joke, and the last invited to parties and dungeons.

Rym.1469:

Just be sure to not run Brown Bear or you will be kicked in no time. You can pick Murellow instead! It’s still a Bear. Just shaved a lil’bit! But shhhh… They shouldn’t know. If they ask, it’s Kodan’s child

LOL there’s nothing wrong with bear, with shake it off condition removal for you and those around every 25seconds isn’t bad, plus it has decent health and toughness for protect me so he takes all the hits for 6 seconds.

WhiteAndMilky.2514:

Ranger hate has a few reasons in GW2.

1. Most people know nothing about ranger.
2. A LOT of people play ranger, cuz it’s cool. This means there are a lot of bad ranger players, because a lot of players also means a lot of bad players.
3. It’s fun to make jokes about ranger, and some people don’t realize they are mostly jokes.

With that said, I believe ranger pets are where the main issues reside. All balancing for ranger seems to be based on the assumption that a rangers pet will be alive, and will hit every attack. As we all know, rangers pets are notorious for missing attacks, dying quickly, and generally just being kitten y, since we don’t have a precise degree of control over them. We can’t even choose when to use 3 of their 4 skills!

So until some pet changes happen, or they give us back that amazing shortbow speed at launch… and 1200 range again…. ranger will still be the point of every joke, and the last invited to parties and dungeons.

I only use pets for whatever buff I want and protect me to pull damage off me. Rangers shouldn’t rely on their pet to be a source of dps.

Gotchaz.7865:

WhiteAndMilky.2514:

Ranger hate has a few reasons in GW2.

1. Most people know nothing about ranger.
2. A LOT of people play ranger, cuz it’s cool. This means there are a lot of bad ranger players, because a lot of players also means a lot of bad players.
3. It’s fun to make jokes about ranger, and some people don’t realize they are mostly jokes.

With that said, I believe ranger pets are where the main issues reside. All balancing for ranger seems to be based on the assumption that a rangers pet will be alive, and will hit every attack. As we all know, rangers pets are notorious for missing attacks, dying quickly, and generally just being kitten y, since we don’t have a precise degree of control over them. We can’t even choose when to use 3 of their 4 skills!

So until some pet changes happen, or they give us back that amazing shortbow speed at launch… and 1200 range again…. ranger will still be the point of every joke, and the last invited to parties and dungeons.

I only use pets for whatever buff I want and protect me to pull damage off me. Rangers shouldn’t rely on their pet to be a source of dps.

Wrong please dont put all the pets in the same bag, a cat with 30 in beast mastery has 300 to every of its stat and can tank the hits quite well. The bear just wont die if you actualy care a little for him. Of course your pet will hit like crap if you didnt spec into him in the first place. Truth be told Beastmastery isnt as bad as people want to believe it is and can actualy be runned quite fine but require some extra attention on the pet. I would definitively approve a boost to the master bond trait however. Maybe no more removal from pet swap?

HoMaki.4813:

Using simple tactic i can deal with Rapid Fire just last arrow, (+with crit) up to 16k dmg to the end boss.

5 1/2 sec channeld and only 16k dmg is not good it´s bad….there is a good reason why so much people don´t want LB rangers. And the GS dps is bad too. About 15-20% less then 1handed sword.
And at the same time….less then warr/engineer and so on. If u are save using your LB, your team will take your dmg (cause they are in melee) and get less dmg from you. Mobs will stay alive longer, and doing even more dmg to your party….

awge.3852:

Bob.8456:

I main the class and I have to admit that I have booted other Rangers on several occasions. If I see a brown bear, a longbow and 3 signets loaded (esp if they also have low achieve points) you get the boot. Sorry.

If you are running bears that tends to place you in the camp of: ‘omg, pets suck! they need more HP or should be immune to AOE.’ This means that you aren’t effectively micromanaging your pet, this leads to all sorts of problems such as aggroing mobs that shouldn’t be aggroed, attacking enemies/bosses when you don’t want to for various reasons, and generally just having a dead pet a majority of the time…such a waste. There are so many boss fights where all Rangers should have their pets attacking something other than what you and the rest of the group are focusing on…sic them on totems, turrets, etc while the rest of the group focuses fire on the boss…duh! When I am gauging the skill of a fellow Ranger in my group, this is the main thing I am looking for…mastery over your pet.

Longbow has it’s place, but that tends to be the worst weapon a Ranger can bring in a dungeon. Period. See the above posts for clarification but it boils down to not sharing buffs. Also, LB is the worst weapon a Ranger has if you want to keep an eye on your pet and, you know, keep them alive and doing consistent damage.

Signets. Ewww. There are so many awesome utility skills that you should be running to both keep yourself/pet and others alive, if I see full signets loaded I will seriously think twice about partying with you. This loadout (paired with 30 marksman) is the hallmark of a kitten poor Ranger player attempting to maximize their DPS.

Not that all Rangers who run bears, or LB, or even signets are bad…but if I see them all together I will not hesitate to boot you.

If you are trying to achieve something today by doing a difficult dungeon run, running all the dungeons in the game, etc… then yes please boot anyone who you consider not worthy of your group of players. Otherwise, please refrain from booting anyone who is considered ‘noob’ under your eyes. All that you said describes the exact reason why this post exists and why there are still rangers who don’t know any better. If you consider yourself so knowledgeable then apply yourself to teach other rangers how to get it right. I would gladly kick people that they don’t know how to do run their ranger if they would rather quit the group, than to try and learn from a ranger who knows how to do it right. However, when it comes to people who boot rangers on sight for their lack of experience, I would gladly vote to ban them from using the LFG system. Why? Because all the above quoted is the reason why there are still rangers who suck at playing right.

Does that sound a bit too much? let’s be more clear then. A novice ranger knows next to nothing on how to do things right in a dungeon. Think back to when you started, who helped you do things right? It was mr. trial and error that’s who, it was mr. I get killed so easily, but hey the game is still young and people are forgiving; or hey my friends play with me or my guild, they will be cool with it. Play and adjust, time and time again, every new dungeon a new ranger challenge. ANet dumping on the ranger over the months, the pet AI crapping your playstyle in the dungeon, what else is there to say? Then one good leisure day looking to party for a dungeon, a novice ranger with a longbow, a bear pet and tons of signets joins your party, and you have the bloody guts to boot them on sight? Please… refrain from using the LFG system mate.

+1

Glad that Bob has such an easy to remember account name. Will make booting him/her from any dungeon I run with my LB Signet build ranger that much easier. Ironic actually.

Altrought i do disaprove of longbow signet rangers ranged weapon should not be dismissed as bad from the start just because they deal less damage then melee weapons. Longbow pushback makes for an exelent interupt when necesary, barrage actualy deals a fair amount of damage on multitarget not to mention the mass criple and hunter shot stealth actualy serve some purpose when redirecting the agro away. Id say longbow is a weapon for a ranger who want to live a ’’long’’ life rather then get 1 hit KOed from behing stuck in the 1h sword auto attack combo at the wrong moment.

Altrought i do agree damage is important staying alive to do the so called damage is also important. Melee range is the most dangerous area for a leather armor character with little toughness. Before saying longbow actualy deals bad damage maybe we should actualy compare the weapon with enginer rifle/pistol or thief shortbow/pistol damage. Damage isnt the strong suit of ranged weapon, their main advantage is litteraly their ’’range’’ wich allow the character to stay out of most harmfull effect reach and keep shooting effectively increasing the character rate of general survivability. If ranged weapon did do as much damage as the melee weaponry wed see rifle warriors and pistol thief everywhere.

The second point id like to have you keep in mind is that ranged character can continously attack their target without having to back off to heal or kite away. While a 2h sword warriors deals tremendous damage it will have to spend half of its time dodging melee blows and pulling in/out of combat and as such this will highly affect the total damage youve done in the fight. I point out those various boss wich force the party to keep a long range fight such as lupicus or are just ultimately highly melee unfriendly such as the ghost alternates bosses in AC. Ranger wont have to constantly back off to keep shooting and will have continuous dps on them. Altrought i admit a necromancer can pull off extreme damage from ranged attack in death shroud necromancers are forced to a 600 range to actualy do their maximum dps (life blast damage greatly reduce when higher then 600) and still as such should be considered melee characters.

At this point I will not deny some guys are this good at dodging or evading at the right time they can keep their melee chain up and still avoid everything but most melee i know spend more time running around or healing themselves then damaging the boss therefore wasting prety much all this lovely dps they have. Can you seriously look down on ranged weapon user yet totaly ignore melee fighters who dont do their job adequatly?

Been playing ranger since first year Guild Wars 1. People who choose ranger, chose it for the play style. They wanted to hit the enemy at longer ranges. They felt that there was more safety, if you could hit the enemy at range, the better chance of survival you had. Even in Guild Wars 1, I had a build that I named “Last Man Standing”. Even that term was coined earlier in this thread. We did damage at range, and that is our style of play we preferred. But unfortunately Ranger was always considered a second class profession. Support. Sidekick. This was never more common, than in Hall of Heroes, Urgoz Warren, and The Deep. Ranger mains were always told to “reroll”. Do you have any other profession? We need 2 tanks, 1 nuker, 2 Healers, 1 Prot…so on and so on…usually the last person was just an added benefit. Rangers were considered nothing more than an afterthought after the CORE group was chosen and put together. And the CORE group, was never a ranger.

Support. We were there to support the base core group. Nothing more, nothing less. At times, yah it hurt. It sucked. After nearly six years, was lucky enough to find a group for Underworld. Was I bad player? How would they know if I never worked with them? No, I was a fully dedicated player. The groups, wanted 55 Necro’s, 600 tanks, nukers, bonders, healers, Minion masters….but never barely a single ranger. Second class citizens. 55/600 builds never worked to well with rangers, because the skills were not quite compatible for the builds. Our ability to cover large AoE areas were limited, unless we pulled the skills from a secondary skill set. Hall of Heroes was the worst. You had to be a certain rank, to join the group, and even then you had to have certain professions. Rangers were excluded just for being a ranger.

Now, come Guild Wars 2…Rangers are still classified as nothing more than support, sidekick…once again, we’re being classified as a second class profession. Mostly from those players who played the original Guild Wars. And this rankles a lot of long term original main rangers. Rangers don’t like to think of themselves as second class to ANYONE. We’re a profession all to ourselves. We have unique skills, with the proper combinations, runes, sigils, can do extraordinary things.

Barrage with Sigil of Hobbling, and you can slow the enemy down.

Rune of the Centaur, gives Sharpening Stone additional bleed time, add that with Sigil of Agony….

Hunter’s Shot quickly followed by Quickening Zephyr, then Rapid Fire could easily give up to, if all shots hit, and has been reported, up to 18k in damage can be achieved. But you have to be properly Traited, runed, and be seriously focused on the target.

When people look at DPS, or damage from the Longbow, that’s all people will focus on itself. The weapon. What traits you do, what rune’s you have on your armor, what sigil is on your weapon, and which Support Skills you have in your bar, will wildly change the damage you can do. But most people will not sit down and look at what will support the Longbow/Short Bow skills for a ranger.

PART 2

A true, TRUE, ranger, will look at more than just the weapon itself. What can I use in my skills, my traits, in order to increase my weapons effectiveness. The only real drawback, I will conclude, will be our pets. I think it was a balance issue with Anet. "Well rangers have pets, and this will make them overpowered for damage…so we decrease the damage of the base weapon for them. Unfortunately the AI on pets is incredibly dumb. With f1,f2, and f3 skills not always activating when you want them to. Frankly I use my pet as a meat puppet. So accordingly the Longbow and Short Bow damage loss was supposed to be made up in the damage your PET does to the target enemy. Most our pets were never that quick on attacks, were slow on follow up attacks, and were fighting to their own AI tune, rather than our little dance. Anet even used the same program for Pets from GW1 and ad-hocked it into GW2. What Anet never took into effect is the Knockdown/Retarget AI program. When a pet is knocked down, it auto-targets the nearest enemy. Unfortunately if your dealing with multiple enemies, it is no longer attacking the original enemy you locked on, it retargeted to something closer to it. I had so many enemies get away, heal, then come right back at me fully charged. And all I wanted to do was kick my pet. Knowledgable rangers always knew that the F2 skill was nothing more than a slapped stick on extra Skill #6 on our own main weapon bar. “But there’s only 5 attack skills on the bar….” Yah I know that, but F2 for pet literally made us have 6. But Anet has made it that almost anything can break a Stun, Daze, Remove bleeding, poison, fire, chill…that literally made the F2 skill on a pet completely USELESS, to the point that early on after Beta, I ran with Stalker just for the extra buff. I’m running around with Wolf now for Fearing my enemy off the cliffs of WvW, and/or Drake Hound to keep the enemy right where they are, to allow my compatriates in combat to finish what I started. I would have liked to have seen Collars, or Claw Gauntlets for pets, to give them an extra OOMPH! Pet Collars would have added a whole different dimension to pet combat.

Now back to bow. I don’t see that many professions, besides thieves, that will use any type of bow. I seen maybe couple warriors lately use a bow, but mostly thieves will use a bow. But warriors slur the bow, and still use it as a kiting tool. Even in WvW a Warrior will use a bow as a kiting tool against other PLAYERS?…and to me that’s just a stupid purpose for a bow against another live player. Unlike an AI opponent, most players aren’t STUPID to get pulled into a bad battle, if battle doesn’t need to be joined. But a lot of old time warriors from GW1 use “kiting” with a bow on both AI opponents, and LIVE opponents. Thieves only use the bow to get to nooks and crannies, or to shortcut spots, or to run away. To those professions it’s not a WEAPON…it’s a tool…and it’s not worth anything else. And for that reason many professions look at bows as useless. USELESS!

The best thing I liked about Longbow for rangers was Point Blank Shot. In WvW, nothing makes me smile more than using it on an enemy overlooking a cliff, not even seeing me behind him, or watching an allied guardian/warrior go down, and having me save their kitten from a coup-de-grace by knocking their opponent back 10 feet. Allowing them to get their butts back up and into the fight.

Dungeons. Don’t even speak to me about dungeons. I been in groups where the Guardians, warriors, ele’s and mesmers had all died, and I was still solo’ing the mob boss.

And also listed above, Yah, we got Healing Springs. Which means most players list us as nothing more than a Poor Man’s Healer, and we’re EXPECTED to go toe to toe with that Warrior and that Guardian, and that Perma Invisible Thief, to keep THEIR kitten up and running during dungeon runs.

You’ll get your support if the Ranger understand his skills and abilities. But if you only figure that the Ranger is supposed to support just YOU, personally, and only your lonesome self….don’t expect nothing. We are there for the Group.

We have skills. We have talent. We do have a few ranger’s that are a bit rough around the edges, but every good ranger will polish him or herself to a fine keen edge. But only with proper understanding and respect of their strengths and limitations.

A ranger is more than the sum of his/her bow.

CLOSING

A ranger will see the Longbow as a weapon, not as a tool. But warrior sees it as a kiting tool. Thieves use it as a movement tool. And since it’s nothing more than a tool to them, they spit on rangers. “What good is a tool in combat.”

And that’s why other professions, when LFG, will mostly look at a ranger and go, “We don’t need a tool. We need damage dealers.” This is why other professions look down at Rangers. Either they figure we’re backup support with tools, or they figure that the Base weapon itself doesn’t do the damage.

Bows do great. They can do some pretty amazing damage. But you have to know the player themselves. Our combo’s are ENDLESS, depending on our runes on our armors, our sigils on our weapons, our Support Skills, and our traits.