Guild Wars 2

i love the ranger/hunter type characters, always have. but this is seriously some weak stuff in this ranger class man. in wvw anyway. its fine in pve, no problems. but we have absolutely no counters to anything, cant ‘disappear n zip to somewhere’ etc like others, or have multiple images appear etc, which it seems to me, being ranger/one with nature type thing, we should be able to meld into the surroundings and camouflage away somehow, something, ANYTHING. anyone who knows rangers runs up to us n just unloads cuz they know we are worthless in defense, because we have none. cant get away, and our attacks are so weak that i am getting embarrassed to be one, and i actually have kinda cool looking exotics with racial, but even that doesnt matter because its lame.

a typical attack on me by, say, a guardian; getting locked down in the light chains then 2 hit, and im dead. my build is just fine, but this class is crap, it has no teeth or defense. or my new favorite, being 2 shot by thieves that stay invisible, and then i die before they even reveal themselves. im not even getting into the other classes. you have at least 3 other classes that either have 5 ‘pets’, or they can multiply, or their dps is so insane that with our medium leather and slow speed and no speed buffs we are worthless. and im really enjoying the one where an invader attacks nearby npc’s then disappears so my auto attack starts firing on the npc animal while they reappear behind me and i get ganked. (that ‘one with your pet’ or whatever its called doesnt count as a speed buff, as long as it takes to cycle until we can switch to a different skill that slot is useless, making us even weaker for too long) i know we are ranged, but that does absolutely no good when another class youre firing on from what should be a safe distance, suddenly zips up right next to you and cuts you down, with no chance to even react before youre fighting to survive on the ground. you might as well have just made us fat bears like lame pandas or something that just jog around and throw jars of honey and spit bees or something stupid, that might actually be effective.

you already cut down our ranger dps when you took out some supposed ‘graphics glitch’ that i never heard anyone speak of with the short bow, i never experienced it. but apparently because i use a short bow i get the dps nerf. thanks. NOT. and in every patch notes there is some class always getting buffed, rarely nerfed, several not even touched, or changed so slightly it doesnt make a difference or its some weak graphics thing that was just fine but your devs decided to change it cuz they didnt like it, not that there was a problem or anything. you have forum pages full of exploits and hacks that people tell you about but you would rather throw in some cosmetic thing to make it look good rather than fixing game mechanics so its more FUN. and the one thing i ever saw of rangers changed in a patch was the short bow thing. this is not even fun any more in this class. its really really lame. the rare highs in the middle of really low lows doesnt make it worth it any more. from what i hear in gw1 the rangers were kind of tough. i wouldnt know ive never played that. but why would you screw that up? ive tried with this, spent more money than i planned trying to make it ‘fun’ or ‘cool looking’ etc, but as is theres no point. not as long as its like this.

Ha, I completely agree with OP, I played my ranger long enough to earn 200 spare skill points with her, and recently I leveled a thief to 80. If you never played anything but a ranger in WvW you have no idea what complete garbage rangers are in anything but PvE.

Then you get Mr Jon ’I’ll buff Rangers, wait and see’ Peters come and tell us Longbow and Greatsword are fine weapons. Well, you know what Jon? I’d rather not have fine weapons on my ranger, you can instead give us the broken Warrior’s rifle. Or just eat that 20 thousand damage killshot yourself and then come back and tell us that longbow is fine – doing maximum 3-4k dmg if Ranger get lucky.

I fully understand what Mr Peters said in his previous post – the one about having 2 devs working on balance thing. I’m sure they got loads of things to do but don’t come here and give us crap promises if you can’t deliver.

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

Because it’s Guild “Wars”.

That aside, I don’t want another burst ranger. There was enough of that in GW1…and Aion. That’s not how ranger should be. A ranged high burst class is stupid.

Imo, there’s no need to boost DPS in ranger weapons. What needs to be done is a fix to AI for pets, and universal bugs that affects all classes (including projectile bugs ofc).

Call of the Wild, Rampage As One, Quickening Zephyr, slash/slice/stab = massive burst.
The only thing is, no one is stupid enough to stand there and take it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a burst dps class either (I like the concept of the ranger here, but in-game it just doesn’t play out like that) . What I meant is that the ranger problem is something similar to the mesmer was before some fixes. If you chose the wrong weapon (anything except staff/sword/pistol) you were skinned alive in seconds. It’s the same with ranger. You only have 2 or 3 viable builds with the SAME 2 weapon sets, while everyone else has much more choices. I’d like to use 1h sword and GS too, and want them to be viable choices in pvp – because now – they are subpaar.

also: Daggers anyone?

Just keep bombarding them in twitter,forums etc and someone should give some attention to us if there’s any competence left in Anet.

Our burst was fine till they nerfed shortbow animation ,did they also nerf 1h sword? because it feels like it to me. If they revert back that animation change and buff greatsword/ torch fix pets a little more and fix traps placement bugs + buff spirit health i think we will be perfect.

Hold your horses guys. Just because some of you don’t feel like playing burst damage ranged class, or don’t want to burst people down – alright, no prob for me. Just because lots of people enjoy playing evading-trapping-melee-whatever-weirdo-type-of-ranger doesn’t mean I have to. I don’t – to be honest I want to be Robin Hood, pew pew ranger burst spec. Just can’t find it in traits or in weapon skills.
Please for the love of whoever keeps the balance in this game – LET RANGER HAVE RANGED BURST SPEC too, just like pretty much every other class in the game. I for one would be perfectly happy to have a typical glass cannon build on my ranger, I want it, and I hope Arena Net will deliver it.

tl;dr I don’t want to be forced into melee/tanky/whatever build I WANT VIABLE RANGED BURST ON MY RANGER. please…

Increasing rangers ability to do burst damage is not the solution. Toning down other classes (in many cases rather insane) burst damage would be the better solution. Fights lasting 3-4 seconds aren’t very exciting imho.

Samanar.3265:

Hold your horses guys. Just because some of you don’t feel like playing burst damage ranged class, or don’t want to burst people down – alright, no prob for me. Just because lots of people enjoy playing evading-trapping-melee-whatever-weirdo-type-of-ranger doesn’t mean I have to. I don’t – to be honest I want to be Robin Hood, pew pew ranger burst spec. Just can’t find it in traits or in weapon skills.
Please for the love of whoever keeps the balance in this game – LET RANGER HAVE RANGED BURST SPEC too, just like pretty much every other class in the game. I for one would be perfectly happy to have a typical glass cannon build on my ranger, I want it, and I hope Arena Net will deliver it.

tl;dr I don’t want to be forced into melee/tanky/whatever build I WANT VIABLE RANGED BURST ON MY RANGER. please…

Just this, that’s all I want, just a good long bow (It’s SO slow) and short bow, just the short bow really, chuck all the other stuff out the window, I’m a Ranger I want a GOOD bow !

I don’t have any issue in WvW, even when running around solo. Yeah I’ll hit a zerg every once in a while, but who can avoid that? In general I run an all trap build with a SB and Axe+Warhorn, which is great for kiting melee. Condition damage is my first stat, then I look at vitality/toughness, and lastly power/precision. If you know other classes spell animations and how to interrupt/dodge effectively then you’re golden.
Yes we are kittened compared to other classes but if you know the class/build and are a good player you can still be a killing machine.

I know this probably isn’t a popular comparison, but the WoW hunter classically does attrition damage (with weapons and pet) while using a ton of CC and escape abilities to keep up the pressure and win. The GW2 ranger, when at range, seems to have a similar attrition, but no CC or escape to speak of. Meanwhile, every other class does decent ranged and AoE damage. So where’s the ranger’s unique pattern of play? What’s the point of them? If it’s the pet then we need a lot more control or pet abilities.

(I’m a relative newbie and happy to be corrected!)

Kurow.6973:

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

Because it’s Guild “Wars”.

That aside, I don’t want another burst ranger. There was enough of that in GW1…and Aion. That’s not how ranger should be. A ranged high burst class is stupid.

Imo, there’s no need to boost DPS in ranger weapons. What needs to be done is a fix to AI for pets, and universal bugs that affects all classes (including projectile bugs ofc).

If they didn’t want ranged burst then why give warriors killshot? why are mesmers able to 2-3 shot ppl in under 3 seconds? the one class that’s suppose to excel at ranged dps is at the bottom of the ladder in terms of ranged dps… real.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Increasing rangers ability to do burst damage is not the solution. Toning down other classes (in many cases rather insane) burst damage would be the better solution. Fights lasting 3-4 seconds aren’t very exciting imho.

Actually it is the problem. Sure toning other classes down would help, and idc if I get more damage on my longbow or not, just increase the projectile speed, fix opening strikes bug, maybe increase the effect and fix pets survivability/responsiveness/animations and inc our burst. It would also be nice to have a more offensive elite than rampage as one. Maybe give a new elite or just add a new effect to it but Id love an elite arrow attack or preperation that gives us fat damage for a time or acts like a kill shot.

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

A. We’re not free kills to anyone if you pick the right build. In fact i win 90% of the one vs ones I get into.

B. Shortbow is one of the worst weapons in this game, Why people still insist on using it I’ll never know. It does low damage, and it’s utility is crap, and It uses up two Weapon Slots. Sword/Dagger = Far Great Weapon Combo then Shortbow…. If you say “I won’t be able to range people down” I’ll say..You can’t do that against anyone competent anyway with Shortbow…If you want to range people..You’re pretty much going to be forced into a Berserker Set with Longbow and Zerg Surf.. and you simply won’t use it in SPvP as it blows.

Mabuse.2879:

I know this probably isn’t a popular comparison, but the WoW hunter classically does attrition damage (with weapons and pet) while using a ton of CC and escape abilities to keep up the pressure and win. The GW2 ranger, when at range, seems to have a similar attrition, but no CC or escape to speak of. Meanwhile, every other class does decent ranged and AoE damage. So where’s the ranger’s unique pattern of play? What’s the point of them? If it’s the pet then we need a lot more control or pet abilities.

(I’m a relative newbie and happy to be corrected!)

They have no escape, lol….
They can be hunted down and killed even if they’re speced out to be able to run away. They’re not going to run away. lol
They’re just too slow. When caught, they’re going to die unless some scub player chased the ranger.

I used to thought traps were awesome for AoE damage.
They’re not. It’s only useful for some mobs in PvE.

Xsorus.2507:

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

A. We’re not free kills to anyone if you pick the right build. In fact i win 90% of the one vs ones I get into.

B. Shortbow is one of the worst weapons in this game, Why people still insist on using it I’ll never know. It does low damage, and it’s utility is crap, and It uses up two Weapon Slots. Sword/Dagger = Far Great Weapon Combo then Shortbow…. If you say “I won’t be able to range people down” I’ll say..You can’t do that against anyone competent anyway with Shortbow…If you want to range people..You’re pretty much going to be forced into a Berserker Set with Longbow and Zerg Surf.. and you simply won’t use it in SPvP as it blows.

A. No we arent free kills, but there is no right build. Ranger has no viable pvp builds, spvp doesnt matter, 1v1 doesnt matter, sure evasion tank can kill most people 1v1, but in a group fight its fairly useless.

B. Thinking shortbow is one of the worst weapons in game pretty much ruined your credibility. Its one of rangers best weapons, while not being one of the best weapons in game its far from the worst, longbow is much worse. Reasons, shortbows auto attack hits as hard as rapid fire, think of it as a perma rapid fire with a bit slower attack. It gets a cripple, an evade, a stun/daze, and a pet bleed which is kinda useless, the only thing LB has on shortbow is barrage, and its cd sucks. Longbow is far too easy to counter, that gives shortbow an edge.

King Jon.3128:

Mabuse.2879:

I know this probably isn’t a popular comparison, but the WoW hunter classically does attrition damage (with weapons and pet) while using a ton of CC and escape abilities to keep up the pressure and win. The GW2 ranger, when at range, seems to have a similar attrition, but no CC or escape to speak of. Meanwhile, every other class does decent ranged and AoE damage. So where’s the ranger’s unique pattern of play? What’s the point of them? If it’s the pet then we need a lot more control or pet abilities.

(I’m a relative newbie and happy to be corrected!)

They have no escape, lol….
They can be hunted down and killed even if they’re speced out to be able to run away. They’re not going to run away. lol
They’re just too slow. When caught, they’re going to die unless some scub player chased the ranger.

I used to thought traps were awesome for AoE damage.
They’re not. It’s only useful for some mobs in PvE.

Well, rangers can escape quite easily, problem is when you choose survivability, you give up ALOT more offense than other classes have to such as panic buttons like lolprotect me and signet of stone, you give up pet utility/CC/dps for it to die in 2-3 secs, for signet of stone you gotta give up traits, or trait 30 into MM for it, I refuse to give up piercing arrows, its too good not to take. I personally like being the main source of damage and having my pet be maybe 30% at best, sadly its more like pet does more damage and Im his 45-50% even as full glass cannon. When I generally kill someone they dont say eff you dante, you are a beast, no they usually flame my pet, and that makes me laugh and cry at the same time.

As a response to the OP i can only say….

Laughing stock dps wise? I think you should learn to know the class a bit better, know how to equip it and play a bit more often.

Yes there are some things worth changing but in general it’s a solid class.
People complain even before they know what they are talking about.

It’s all about choice

I made the decision to go glass cannon (yes, hit them before they hit you), sure ye take a lot of damage quickly.
But it was my decision to do so for group play.
Result: in pvp i dps down every class very quickly with at times the cloth ones in 3 auto shots. Sometimes the crits even scare people and keep them from attacking.
For pve i do noticeably more dps than most other people.
So lack in dps, i think not.

And as for any class, if you stack up on defense you will lose dps but have more suvivability.

And about the ranger defensive side, i agree that it lacks at least 1 or 2 good skills that actually work but other than that i think most people get it all wrong.

Space Monkey.7084:

As a response to the OP i can only say….

Laughing stock dps wise? I think you should learn to know the class a bit better, know how to equip it and play a bit more often.

Yes there are some things worth changing but in general it’s a solid class.
People complain even before they know what they are talking about.

It’s all about choice

I made the decision to go glass cannon (yes, hit them before they hit you), sure ye take a lot of damage quickly.
But it was my decision to do so for group play.
Result: in pvp i dps down every class very quickly with at times the cloth ones in 3 auto shots. Sometimes the crits even scare people and keep them from attacking.
For pve i do noticeably more dps than most other people.
So lack in dps, i think not.

And as for any class, if you stack up on defense you will lose dps but have more suvivability.

And about the ranger defensive side, i agree that it lacks at least 1 or 2 good skills that actually work but other than that i think most people get it all wrong.

Bull. I can spec in full glass cannon damage build but i can’t get anywhere near the damage you say.

I’m going to have to call you a complete liar unless you show me proof.

Space Monkey.7084:

As a response to the OP i can only say….

Laughing stock dps wise? I think you should learn to know the class a bit better, know how to equip it and play a bit more often.

Yes there are some things worth changing but in general it’s a solid class.
People complain even before they know what they are talking about.

It’s all about choice

I made the decision to go glass cannon (yes, hit them before they hit you), sure ye take a lot of damage quickly.
But it was my decision to do so for group play.
Result: in pvp i dps down every class very quickly with at times the cloth ones in 3 auto shots. Sometimes the crits even scare people and keep them from attacking.
For pve i do noticeably more dps than most other people.
So lack in dps, i think not.

And as for any class, if you stack up on defense you will lose dps but have more suvivability.

And about the ranger defensive side, i agree that it lacks at least 1 or 2 good skills that actually work but other than that i think most people get it all wrong.

Im going out on the limb and saying you have only played ranger. Some of our weapons lack dps, GS, LB, Axe ect… Im full glass cannon on all my toons, and Im willing to bet that any other class can do it better than my ranger. Sure my ranger can melt you if I use elite and get 25 stacks of might, but its not my ranger, its my pet. My problem is the fact that pet is like 50% of my damage and when he dies, my damage turns to mush. So yea, in pve, rangers are almost fine, pets still suck tho. In pvp, rangers are far from fine, when my rapid fire actually lands, it tends to average 7-8k and pet hits for 7-9k, but they are so easily dodged and so buggy that its almost not worth it. I cant shoot people at range with longbow, people side step the arrows, my pet likes attacking air too.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Xsorus.2507:

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

A. We’re not free kills to anyone if you pick the right build. In fact i win 90% of the one vs ones I get into.

B. Shortbow is one of the worst weapons in this game, Why people still insist on using it I’ll never know. It does low damage, and it’s utility is crap, and It uses up two Weapon Slots. Sword/Dagger = Far Great Weapon Combo then Shortbow…. If you say “I won’t be able to range people down” I’ll say..You can’t do that against anyone competent anyway with Shortbow…If you want to range people..You’re pretty much going to be forced into a Berserker Set with Longbow and Zerg Surf.. and you simply won’t use it in SPvP as it blows.

A. No we arent free kills, but there is no right build. Ranger has no viable pvp builds, spvp doesnt matter, 1v1 doesnt matter, sure evasion tank can kill most people 1v1, but in a group fight its fairly useless.

B. Thinking shortbow is one of the worst weapons in game pretty much ruined your credibility. Its one of rangers best weapons, while not being one of the best weapons in game its far from the worst, longbow is much worse. Reasons, shortbows auto attack hits as hard as rapid fire, think of it as a perma rapid fire with a bit slower attack. It gets a cripple, an evade, a stun/daze, and a pet bleed which is kinda useless, the only thing LB has on shortbow is barrage, and its cd sucks. Longbow is far too easy to counter, that gives shortbow an edge.

A. We have Traps build in SPvP, Some power builds work alright, Mostly using Bird Pets to Burst someone.. but it’s basically Traps and more Traps… Those do fairly good in SPvP because people fight on points, it’s useless in World vs World though.

B. Shortbow is awful..and i’m not saying Longbow is the greatest weapon either, I’m saying Shortbow is awful and longbow is better then it. Shortbow’s Auto Attack can hit like rapid fire all it wants, It’s still an awful weapon (By the way, Rapid Fire at least still gets the benefit of QZ unlike Shortbow) The Knockback alone is better then most of the Abilities in Shortbow, Auto-attack is superior to Shortbow as well when dealing with World vs World…. I mean if you really want to use bow.. and i mean if you really really want to..You’re pretty much like I said going to be humping zergs with a PowerCrit Build and using Longbow….If i was going to do any sort of SPvP, I wouldn’t touch either bow with a 10 foot poll because they’re both crap compared to our other weapons. Shortbow simply isn’t anywhere near our best weapon…It’s our worst. The only time it was ever remotely useful was when QZ made it fire a billion times a second.

Xsorus.2507:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Xsorus.2507:

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

A. We’re not free kills to anyone if you pick the right build. In fact i win 90% of the one vs ones I get into.

B. Shortbow is one of the worst weapons in this game, Why people still insist on using it I’ll never know. It does low damage, and it’s utility is crap, and It uses up two Weapon Slots. Sword/Dagger = Far Great Weapon Combo then Shortbow…. If you say “I won’t be able to range people down” I’ll say..You can’t do that against anyone competent anyway with Shortbow…If you want to range people..You’re pretty much going to be forced into a Berserker Set with Longbow and Zerg Surf.. and you simply won’t use it in SPvP as it blows.

A. No we arent free kills, but there is no right build. Ranger has no viable pvp builds, spvp doesnt matter, 1v1 doesnt matter, sure evasion tank can kill most people 1v1, but in a group fight its fairly useless.

B. Thinking shortbow is one of the worst weapons in game pretty much ruined your credibility. Its one of rangers best weapons, while not being one of the best weapons in game its far from the worst, longbow is much worse. Reasons, shortbows auto attack hits as hard as rapid fire, think of it as a perma rapid fire with a bit slower attack. It gets a cripple, an evade, a stun/daze, and a pet bleed which is kinda useless, the only thing LB has on shortbow is barrage, and its cd sucks. Longbow is far too easy to counter, that gives shortbow an edge.

A. We have Traps build in SPvP, Some power builds work alright, Mostly using Bird Pets to Burst someone.. but it’s basically Traps and more Traps… Those do fairly good in SPvP because people fight on points, it’s useless in World vs World though.

B. Shortbow is awful..and i’m not saying Longbow is the greatest weapon either, I’m saying Shortbow is awful and longbow is better then it. Shortbow’s Auto Attack can hit like rapid fire all it wants, It’s still an awful weapon (By the way, Rapid Fire at least still gets the benefit of QZ unlike Shortbow) The Knockback alone is better then most of the Abilities in Shortbow, Auto-attack is superior to Shortbow as well when dealing with World vs World…. I mean if you really want to use bow.. and i mean if you really really want to..You’re pretty much like I said going to be humping zergs with a PowerCrit Build and using Longbow….If i was going to do any sort of SPvP, I wouldn’t touch either bow with a 10 foot poll because they’re both crap compared to our other weapons. Shortbow simply isn’t anywhere near our best weapon…It’s our worst. The only time it was ever remotely useful was when QZ made it fire a billion times a second.

Ah you are speaking WvW, k well I cant comment on them since Im gonna finish lvling my ranger before going hardcore wvw but in spvp, and pve longbow is inferior for many reasons. In WvW Im sure longbow is better, it has better reach and aoe, and long ranged shot. In spvp and tpvp and pve shortbow is better than longbow in every way, but you are right, both bows suck big ems. I just hope ranger buffs come sooner than later, idk if Ive got it in me to wait a fricken month for another small kitten minor and almost useless set of buffs.

Xsorus.2507:

B. Shortbow is awful..and i’m not saying Longbow is the greatest weapon either, I’m saying Shortbow is awful and longbow is better then it. Shortbow’s Auto Attack can hit like rapid fire all it wants, It’s still an awful weapon (By the way, Rapid Fire at least still gets the benefit of QZ unlike Shortbow) The Knockback alone is better then most of the Abilities in Shortbow, Auto-attack is superior to Shortbow as well when dealing with World vs World…. I mean if you really want to use bow.. and i mean if you really really want to..You’re pretty much like I said going to be humping zergs with a PowerCrit Build and using Longbow….If i was going to do any sort of SPvP, I wouldn’t touch either bow with a 10 foot poll because they’re both crap compared to our other weapons. Shortbow simply isn’t anywhere near our best weapon…It’s our worst. The only time it was ever remotely useful was when QZ made it fire a billion times a second.

Shortbow still gets the benefits of rapid fire. It just gets about 14% less benefit than it did before the 40 ms nerf.

Longbow autoattack only does better damage than shortbow autoattack at max range when the target is looking right at you. Once you get close it becomes pathetically bad. Even at long range it isn’t good because long ranged attacks in general can miss if the enemy isn’t standing still.

Shortbow is probably the best weapon to use in sPVP, and you saying it’s horrible compared to our weapons is so wrong i wonder if you even set foot in the sPVP mists before. Compared to our sword that constantly roots us in place, the axe that does meh damage in general and is really bad for 1v1, and the greatsword that does horrible damage and only works as a sub-par tanking weapon and for running away, the shortbow is downright amazing.

Not only does its basic attack outdamage the longbow 9/10 times, it also gives far better mobility, a quick snare, a evasive attack for kiting, quick access to poison to reduce healing, and an interrupt that comes out quickly and can actually interrupt things unlike the longbow knockback.

The only advantage longbow has is range.

I play a ranger myself and i don’t think the class can bring much to dungeon parties. They can’t take hits like guardians, they have less dps than warriors, elementals remove conditions and heals better, even Mesmers can do more for a pt than rangers.

The developers say they will be making changes to this class. Lets hope they do it soon.

If it’s any consolation for you PvP folks, you’re a hard counter to nearly every Engineer build. They simply cannot compare to your ranged DPS with pet and unless they are constantly interrupting their attacks they cannot match your speed w/out a stream of critical hits which they can only get by using said inferior dps.

I think a lot of classes that play in WvW feel pretty useless right now. Even with the (very big) damage nerf Mesmers still look good; Thieves don’t have much to complain about, but everyone else is sort of left feeling like they’re there to sort of throng with the zerg and get killed byt he other two classes.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Im going out on the limb and saying you have only played ranger. Some of our weapons lack dps, GS, LB, Axe ect… Im full glass cannon on all my toons, and Im willing to bet that any other class can do it better than my ranger. Sure my ranger can melt you if I use elite and get 25 stacks of might, but its not my ranger, its my pet. My problem is the fact that pet is like 50% of my damage and when he dies, my damage turns to mush. So yea, in pve, rangers are almost fine, pets still suck tho. In pvp, rangers are far from fine, when my rapid fire actually lands, it tends to average 7-8k and pet hits for 7-9k, but they are so easily dodged and so buggy that its almost not worth it. I cant shoot people at range with longbow, people side step the arrows, my pet likes attacking air too.

No, i have several characters and more than 1 lvl80 but the ranger is my main character.
My main weapon is a longbow and yes, rapid fire misses quite a lot but with a little bit of correct timing (like a well placed knockback or when your pet gets a player on the floor) you can get quite a few hits too wich in most cases does almost or at least 50% dmg to someones HP bar.
I dont use any extra might buffs or whatsoever and still get 10-11k hits with rapid fire, if it hits ofc.
My main attack damage comes from the auto attacks wich hit players for an average of 3-5k wich in my opinion is more than sufficient (depends on the player toughness)
And these attacks tend to miss a lot less than every other attack.
If i would to use any buffs the damage would go up significantly.

Pets are indeed far from flawless and miss attacks like every other player would but then again if they miss that one crucial attack it could cost you dearly.
I myself use a wolf and hound for the cripple/knockdown/fear and immobilize.
The player activated skills are mostly about timing it right or it might be another waste but it is all manageble.
Like i said i feel it only needs minor tweaks and people make it look worse than it is (but it differs for every player)

I agree, other weapons do seem to lack a bit of damage but could it not be intentionally?
As a ranger is described as being a professional marksman. (maybe other weapons merely act as secondary, i dont know….ask Anet)

But in the end if we all agree or not there is always something to complain about.
Not just this class, every class has complaints. Everyone wants to have the the ability to kill every single player.

I say, you cant have a game with a class that rules all, there should allways be some sort of nemesis class wich dominates yours.
Lastly, i feel this game is more based around group play at the moment than 1vs1 wich gives the most issues.

The post header states laughing stock of dps, that’s untrue. However to satisfy the players a bit more there should be more available than just a dodgy longbow and stubborn pets.

KirinDave.6451:

If it’s any consolation for you PvP folks, you’re a hard counter to nearly every Engineer build. They simply cannot compare to your ranged DPS with pet and unless they are constantly interrupting their attacks they cannot match your speed w/out a stream of critical hits which they can only get by using said inferior dps.

I think a lot of classes that play in WvW feel pretty useless right now. Even with the (very big) damage nerf Mesmers still look good; Thieves don’t have much to complain about, but everyone else is sort of left feeling like they’re there to sort of throng with the zerg and get killed byt he other two classes.

Not true, I play a glass cannon engineer and I dominate most rangers, mind you 1v1 isnt important either way. But engineers can certainly hit harder at range and be harder to dodge than rangers.

Space Monkey.7084:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Im going out on the limb and saying you have only played ranger. Some of our weapons lack dps, GS, LB, Axe ect… Im full glass cannon on all my toons, and Im willing to bet that any other class can do it better than my ranger. Sure my ranger can melt you if I use elite and get 25 stacks of might, but its not my ranger, its my pet. My problem is the fact that pet is like 50% of my damage and when he dies, my damage turns to mush. So yea, in pve, rangers are almost fine, pets still suck tho. In pvp, rangers are far from fine, when my rapid fire actually lands, it tends to average 7-8k and pet hits for 7-9k, but they are so easily dodged and so buggy that its almost not worth it. I cant shoot people at range with longbow, people side step the arrows, my pet likes attacking air too.

No, i have several characters and more than 1 lvl80 but the ranger is my main character.
My main weapon is a longbow and yes, rapid fire misses quite a lot but with a little bit of correct timing (like a well placed knockback or when your pet gets a player on the floor) you can get quite a few hits too wich in most cases does almost or at least 50% dmg to someones HP bar.
I dont use any extra might buffs or whatsoever and still get 10-11k hits with rapid fire, if it hits ofc.
My main attack damage comes from the auto attacks wich hit players for an average of 3-5k wich in my opinion is more than sufficient (depends on the player toughness)
And these attacks tend to miss a lot less than every other attack.
If i would to use any buffs the damage would go up significantly.

Pets are indeed far from flawless and miss attacks like every other player would but then again if they miss that one crucial attack it could cost you dearly.
I myself use a wolf and hound for the cripple/knockdown/fear and immobilize.
The player activated skills are mostly about timing it right or it might be another waste but it is all manageble.
Like i said i feel it only needs minor tweaks and people make it look worse than it is (but it differs for every player)

I agree, other weapons do seem to lack a bit of damage but could it not be intentionally?
As a ranger is described as being a professional marksman. (maybe other weapons merely act as secondary, i dont know….ask Anet)

But in the end if we all agree or not there is always something to complain about.
Not just this class, every class has complaints. Everyone wants to have the the ability to kill every single player.

I say, you cant have a game with a class that rules all, there should allways be some sort of nemesis class wich dominates yours.
Lastly, i feel this game is more based around group play at the moment than 1vs1 wich gives the most issues.

The post header states laughing stock of dps, that’s untrue. However to satisfy the players needs a bit more there should be more available than just a dodgy longbow and stubborn pets.

Id love to play a professional marksman archer, sadly, ranger cant pull it off. Arrows move too slow atm. Id love to be able to do more damage than my pet but the only way to do that atm is to not use a raven, and that would be stupid. I want them to add the perma stow option with a % damage buff while its stowed, that way I can be that pro marksman and snipe nukkas from massive range.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Xsorus.2507:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Xsorus.2507:

Winch.2657:

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!

A. We’re not free kills to anyone if you pick the right build. In fact i win 90% of the one vs ones I get into.

B. Shortbow is one of the worst weapons in this game, Why people still insist on using it I’ll never know. It does low damage, and it’s utility is crap, and It uses up two Weapon Slots. Sword/Dagger = Far Great Weapon Combo then Shortbow…. If you say “I won’t be able to range people down” I’ll say..You can’t do that against anyone competent anyway with Shortbow…If you want to range people..You’re pretty much going to be forced into a Berserker Set with Longbow and Zerg Surf.. and you simply won’t use it in SPvP as it blows.

A. No we arent free kills, but there is no right build. Ranger has no viable pvp builds, spvp doesnt matter, 1v1 doesnt matter, sure evasion tank can kill most people 1v1, but in a group fight its fairly useless.

B. Thinking shortbow is one of the worst weapons in game pretty much ruined your credibility. Its one of rangers best weapons, while not being one of the best weapons in game its far from the worst, longbow is much worse. Reasons, shortbows auto attack hits as hard as rapid fire, think of it as a perma rapid fire with a bit slower attack. It gets a cripple, an evade, a stun/daze, and a pet bleed which is kinda useless, the only thing LB has on shortbow is barrage, and its cd sucks. Longbow is far too easy to counter, that gives shortbow an edge.

A. We have Traps build in SPvP, Some power builds work alright, Mostly using Bird Pets to Burst someone.. but it’s basically Traps and more Traps… Those do fairly good in SPvP because people fight on points, it’s useless in World vs World though.

B. Shortbow is awful..and i’m not saying Longbow is the greatest weapon either, I’m saying Shortbow is awful and longbow is better then it. Shortbow’s Auto Attack can hit like rapid fire all it wants, It’s still an awful weapon (By the way, Rapid Fire at least still gets the benefit of QZ unlike Shortbow) The Knockback alone is better then most of the Abilities in Shortbow, Auto-attack is superior to Shortbow as well when dealing with World vs World…. I mean if you really want to use bow.. and i mean if you really really want to..You’re pretty much like I said going to be humping zergs with a PowerCrit Build and using Longbow….If i was going to do any sort of SPvP, I wouldn’t touch either bow with a 10 foot poll because they’re both crap compared to our other weapons. Shortbow simply isn’t anywhere near our best weapon…It’s our worst. The only time it was ever remotely useful was when QZ made it fire a billion times a second.

Ah you are speaking WvW, k well I cant comment on them since Im gonna finish lvling my ranger before going hardcore wvw but in spvp, and pve longbow is inferior for many reasons. In WvW Im sure longbow is better, it has better reach and aoe, and long ranged shot. In spvp and tpvp and pve shortbow is better than longbow in every way, but you are right, both bows suck big ems. I just hope ranger buffs come sooner than later, idk if Ive got it in me to wait a fricken month for another small kitten minor and almost useless set of buffs.

Shortbow is better for PVE, You can’t take advantage of the range really on Longbow. SPvP like i said, i wouldn’t touch either… If you had to use one, you’d use Shortbow. World vs World, If you’re going to do either, you’re going to use Crit build with Longbow.

Those thieves in WvW really get my back up. I’m a level 80 in full exotics and I have been 2 shotted by thieves on a number of occasions. At first I reported the 1st thief. I thought how the hell is it balanced for a class to be able to 2 shot another class? He must be hacking. Other’s arrived and fought the thief and said, no this is just the thief and you are a ranger.
I have a level 8 elementalist and I can put down far more aoe damage in wvw than any ranger build.
lvl 8 ele in white hear > lvl 80 ranger in exotics
:(

Division.9618:

Xsorus.2507:

B. Shortbow is awful..and i’m not saying Longbow is the greatest weapon either, I’m saying Shortbow is awful and longbow is better then it. Shortbow’s Auto Attack can hit like rapid fire all it wants, It’s still an awful weapon (By the way, Rapid Fire at least still gets the benefit of QZ unlike Shortbow) The Knockback alone is better then most of the Abilities in Shortbow, Auto-attack is superior to Shortbow as well when dealing with World vs World…. I mean if you really want to use bow.. and i mean if you really really want to..You’re pretty much like I said going to be humping zergs with a PowerCrit Build and using Longbow….If i was going to do any sort of SPvP, I wouldn’t touch either bow with a 10 foot poll because they’re both crap compared to our other weapons. Shortbow simply isn’t anywhere near our best weapon…It’s our worst. The only time it was ever remotely useful was when QZ made it fire a billion times a second.

Shortbow still gets the benefits of rapid fire. It just gets about 14% less benefit than it did before the 40 ms nerf.

Longbow autoattack only does better damage than shortbow autoattack at max range when the target is looking right at you. Once you get close it becomes pathetically bad. Even at long range it isn’t good because long ranged attacks in general can miss if the enemy isn’t standing still.

Shortbow is probably the best weapon to use in sPVP, and you saying it’s horrible compared to our weapons is so wrong i wonder if you even set foot in the sPVP mists before. Compared to our sword that constantly roots us in place, the axe that does meh damage in general and is really bad for 1v1, and the greatsword that does horrible damage and only works as a sub-par tanking weapon and for running away, the shortbow is downright amazing.

Not only does its basic attack outdamage the longbow 9/10 times, it also gives far better mobility, a quick snare, a evasive attack for kiting, quick access to poison to reduce healing, and an interrupt that comes out quickly and can actually interrupt things unlike the longbow knockback.

The only advantage longbow has is range.

A. It gets the benefit, but it’s so small it’s just not worth wasting a Utility Slot on QZ, you’re better off Swapping pets and getting the benefit from it (Which actually does work on Shortbow like the old QZ)

B. Like I said, Longbow you’re going to Hug the Zerg and Pop people with it, With Full Crit Gear I can hit people with longbow for 3500-4000 damage with my Auto Attack. Solo, It’s awful… but so is Shortbow.. so yea. It’s the best of a bad situation….and Barrage = Win though with Crit Build in WvW.

C. If you’ve not figured out how to turn off Auto Attack on your Ranger 1 handed Sword yet then i don’t know if i can help you, but i can tell you this, Don’t spam 1 handed sword, The only time you’re going to be spamming it is when you’re chasing someone and you swap pets, It’s good then for the cripple… It is not an Attack Spam Weapon, You’re basically using it for the Dodge mostly. Sword/Dagger = 2 Dodges (3 If you use the Leap Back somewhat) A Good Solid Bleed + Cripple, and 20+ seconds of Poison that you can apply to the target.

Axe Is equally amazing Weapon for 1v1, Not only do you have a solid bounce attack for getting rid of clones, you have the Cone attack that if you play properly can apply 5 stacks of bleeds instantly. The 3rd Attack is a Chill+Weakness as well, Making it absolutely amazing for 1v1 Fights. It simply out does Shortbow any day of the week in a 1v1. Offhand, it’s your choice, Horn (Which can replace dagger but I like dagger a lot) Or Torch, I prefer Torch personally because Throw Torch is brutal damage wise. If you’re going to be spamming any attack, It will be the Axe Bounce, Otherwise you should be swapping weapons as much as possible reapplying conditions to the target.

Shortbow is just an awful weapon like I said, Once you master a melee ranger you’ll never use that crap weapon again.

there’s no doubt ranged specs need love. our 1h weapons are good & pets are strong, so those specs are doing fairly well. shortbow is good utility, but it is a skirmishing weapon for mid-range combat. longbow should be the ranged dps weapon. it just needs numbers tweaked, the abilities are all good. a longbow power build with opening strikes & hunter’s shot SHOULD be able to put up big numbers that opponents should be worried about.

the perma-stow with dmg % buff could work, would need a lot of testing.

The problem I am running into is that whatever build you try and go into, you run into the wall of being forced to only use those weapon you trait for. Its either I am a melee ranger that relies on well timed cooldowns or an axe/bow ranger that gets bored with waiting for cooldowns. There is no middle ground and that is the problem I am having.

I am a casual gamer and do not have time to build 3 different sets on armor for different situations. Its either full crit or full conditions. I can either use a longbow or short bow. Neither has much carry over to be able to swap.

The most consistent damage I have gotten in pvp is with sword/warhorn and long bow. Its very cooldown and crit based but it gives me the potential to be viable in group or solo.

Mesmer/Thief are the only two classes which are real issues to me in any WvW. Since there is no real carry over between weapons and trait lines its either you are built with axe for mesmers or sword for thief.
SPVP is just a crapshoot that is totally team dependent as any class that goes in solo.

I really enjoyed the class between beta and game opening. It has lost a little of its excitement when I lost the big number aspect toward end game. I am a big numbers gamer and was let down at the inability to create my character that way. (I had a much different impression of what the ranger was going to be end game then it turned out to be. So much for greatsword/longbow big number build)

Kurow.6973:

That aside, I don’t want another burst ranger. There was enough of that in GW1…and Aion. That’s not how ranger should be. A ranged high burst class is stupid.

I would like to have the GW1 Ranger: Master of Interrupts and Conditions; apply Poison to your opponent, interrupt their most damaging skills and self-heal and then watch them slowly bleed to death.

certainly we could use 1 or 2 more interrupts, considering we have traits for them but rarely have more than 1 in a build, on long CDs.

we have shortbow 5, longbow 4, greatsword 5. any others i am missing outside of pet cc?

DesertRose.2031:

Kurow.6973:

That aside, I don’t want another burst ranger. There was enough of that in GW1…and Aion. That’s not how ranger should be. A ranged high burst class is stupid.

I would like to have the GW1 Ranger: Master of Interrupts and Conditions; apply Poison to your opponent, interrupt their most damaging skills and self-heal and then watch them slowly bleed to death.

Yea I miss the playstyle of my gw1 ranger. Being petless, sniping from insane ranges with my flatbow, dropping someone to 50% in 2-3 shots and killing them before they ever reach me….the good old days.

They made a design mistake. Pet classes need to be the highest single target DPS, but with the downside that part of their DPS can be negated by simply killing the pet. Instead, they made the Ranger the lowest DPS and part of their DPS can be negated by simply killing their pet…

Kirito.3591:

If they didn’t want ranged burst then why give warriors killshot? why are mesmers able to 2-3 shot ppl in under 3 seconds? the one class that’s suppose to excel at ranged dps is at the bottom of the ladder in terms of ranged dps… real.

The solution to a broken skill on one class is not to break the skills of another class.

arcaneclarity.5283:

…Pet classes need to be the highest single target DPS…

Not gonna beat around the bush…but this proclamation made me laugh really hard.

i for one am a fan of the greatsword and find it very hard to balance the ranger on any form of melee. I have tried a plethora of specs from glass cannon type builds to pure tank, none of which appeal because they still lack, While other classes have utilities that give them survivabilty and health regen, a ranger lacks things to give him health regen or any reliable lasting form of surviving skills. which is quite ironic considering they are a ranger and supposed to be the forest hunting survivabilty type.

I like the heal from healing spring, but i would like that regen to be a bit more powerful; considering i am waiting a longer duration to recieve the full heal from my skill and could easly be moved out of my skills healing range.

I simply hope that the ranger will become more user friendly across all of their weapon platforms in new patches. And dont tell me that perhaps i am not skilled or used to the ranger. I have spent a decent amount of time in PvP and WvW only using a ranger attempting to make them a competitive class and have become well acquainted with their skills and dying trying to use them :P ( i do perfectly fine with a shortbow, but want to be capable of using other weapons, like weapons i enjoy using XD )

Private Joker.5903:

…a ranger lacks things to give him health regen or any reliable lasting form of surviving skills…I like the heal from healing spring, but i would like that regen to be a bit more powerful…

AKG SIGHALE ARIGLHS AGHHH…………WHAT?!?

Some of these things people ask for is ludicrous. You claim you play ranger a lot, yet, I get the feeling that you really do not perform well at the class at all. Just because one plays a character a lot, does not necessarily make one skilled at the class. Just saying!