Guild Wars 2

Don’t get me wrong, I love the game, and I will probably move to playing a Thief a lot more with the DeadEye thing, but I kind of thought that by now I’d maybe/kinda/sorta be able to do more long range work with my fav class, Ranger.

Yes, it’s because I suck at the game overall, and I’m a mess in close melee, but you know, considering I like everything else in GW2, I have to complain about something

I kind of cried when we got Druid, and shed a tear at seeing DeadEye for thieves, a class that normally is all close-range work, and now with the new expansion, Ranger adds MORE close combat focus.

sniffle

Why be sad when you now have more game opened up to you? Now you can use your level boost to get a Thief or Rev to max and play something new. Other professions have long ranged options you can try too, thf and rev are just some newer options being added.

To be fair, the Ranger has more ranged than melee options:
Longbow, Shortbow, Staff and Axe are all ranged weapons. Yes the Axe is used primarily at mid- to close-range, but at 900 range it is as much a ranged weapon as the Shortbow is.

Greatsword and the Sword are the only melee options a Ranger has, half of the ranged options.

When looking at the offhand weapons to be paired with the Sword or Axe, you can only truly consider the Dagger a melee off-hand.

I’m glad they decided to add a melee Elite spec to the Ranger, to open up class diversity.

Flatley.1620:

I’ll agree with Taurondir here purely from my own perspective of sucking mightily in melee combat. I find I almost always use my LB, switching to axe/torch (maybe horn) in specific situations.

Legolas fixate much? Naaah, not me!

Ranger has more of a ranged focus than any other class, really. I think they have plenty between shortbow, longbow, staff, and axe.

Personally, I love that rangers have decent melee options. I hate when games make fighting classes completely melee or completely ranged – they aren’t mutually exclusive playstyles and can complement each other. Besides, “ranger” means “wilderness roamer”, not “ranged weapon master” as a lot of people seem to think.

900 range is a crappy range and both axe and short bow don’t qualify as long range weapons. Really your only long-ranged options are staff and longbow. Reverting the nerf to Short Bow range and putting it back to 1200 (at least when traited), would be welcome.

Thelgar.7214:

900 range is a crappy range and both axe and short bow don’t qualify as long range weapons. Really your only long-ranged options are staff and longbow. Reverting the nerf to Short Bow range and putting it back to 1200 (at least when traited), would be welcome.

1200 range doesn’t seem overly short. :P

If the SB goes to 1200, then I’m voting for 2400 on the LB. With the piercing arrows trait able to punch through anything thus removing the chance to be “obstructed!” by anything. In this way, a meta ranger could kill a bandit highwayman by firing from Divinity’s Reach.

Thelgar.7214:

900 range is a crappy range and both axe and short bow don’t qualify as long range weapons. Really your only long-ranged options are staff and longbow. Reverting the nerf to Short Bow range and putting it back to 1200 (at least when traited), would be welcome.

Ranger Longbow has a range of 1500…. the longest range on any other class before Deadeye was 1200. The whole reason Shortbow was made 900, and Longbow made 1500 was to try and differentiate them more in sPvP and WvW.

It seems really odd at first, until you looked at how the weapons were being used. Under the old traits, Longbow projectiles were really slow, practically needing Read the Wind to be reliable at its 1200 edge range. Shortbow also used to have noticeably higher DPS, given its higher attack rate, short cast times, but only does so when flanking. So in order to get that benefit, you’d have to circle around your target….. which is a long walk when you’re kiting at the edge of the Radius.

Also consider the weapon pairing options for Power and Condi builds. Sword or Greatsword pairs with Longbow to address Longbows poor up close performance, while Axe/Torch being in the same range (and both weapon sets have a Fan attack that needs to be up close to land all its hit) was meant to allow the weapons to play better together, and swap frequently. It also encouraged Condi rangers to get in close, where they were more dangerous anyway with the addition of traps.

Being a Ranger main at launch, I can tell you the extent of the Ranger game play with 1200 short bow is to kite at max range, and not really do anything else. And unlike long bow, Shortbow doesn’t have burst options…. so you’re punished for not Autoattacking as much as possible.

That’s not accurate. Look at the patch notes from the change. Short bow was nerfed to make long bow more attractive because it wasn’t being used. Then long bow was buffed because nerfing one thing to make another thing attractive predictably didn’t work. But short bow never got it’s range back. I was also a ranger main at launch, until the range nerf, and the short bow/greatsword gameplay was the most enjoyable in the game with rapid fire and frequent dodges as you floated around the battlefield. Range 900 isn’t like being ranged at all.

Thelgar.7214:

That’s not accurate. Look at the patch notes from the change. Short bow was nerfed to make long bow more attractive because it wasn’t being used. Then long bow was buffed because nerfing one thing to make another thing attractive predictably didn’t work. But short bow never got it’s range back. I was also a ranger main at launch, until the range nerf, and the short bow/greatsword gameplay was the most enjoyable in the game with rapid fire and frequent dodges as you floated around the battlefield. Range 900 isn’t like being ranged at all.

Yep, if we all remember and have been here since the first day SB was nerfed to make longbow look good. I haven’t had so much fun with a ranger since the SB/GS days. In fact i have a legendary dreamer in the bank, doing nothing because well i made it before the famous nerf and after that longbow became the new hot thing.

NemesiS.6749:

Thelgar.7214:

That’s not accurate. Look at the patch notes from the change. Short bow was nerfed to make long bow more attractive because it wasn’t being used. Then long bow was buffed because nerfing one thing to make another thing attractive predictably didn’t work. But short bow never got it’s range back. I was also a ranger main at launch, until the range nerf, and the short bow/greatsword gameplay was the most enjoyable in the game with rapid fire and frequent dodges as you floated around the battlefield. Range 900 isn’t like being ranged at all.

Yep, if we all remember and have been here since the first day SB was nerfed to make longbow look good. I haven’t had so much fun with a ranger since the SB/GS days. In fact i have a legendary dreamer in the bank, doing nothing because well i made it before the famous nerf and after that longbow became the new hot thing.

Ugh, it still hurts. Piercing SB was a delight in large wvw fights. But then, even if the range was still there, there’s so much projectile hate these days that it’d probably be useless.

Taurondir.7698:

Don’t get me wrong, I love the game, and I will probably move to playing a Thief a lot more with the DeadEye thing, but I kind of thought that by now I’d maybe/kinda/sorta be able to do more long range work with my fav class, Ranger.

Yes, it’s because I suck at the game overall, and I’m a mess in close melee, but you know, considering I like everything else in GW2, I have to complain about something

I kind of cried when we got Druid, and shed a tear at seeing DeadEye for thieves, a class that normally is all close-range work, and now with the new expansion, Ranger adds MORE close combat focus.

sniffle

Youd be surprised that marauder lb still has its options in spvp, and has good synergy with 33% runspeed trait and root on dmg trait in druid. I recently statrted n hit plat with it, but im droppinga biit now as im playing other new classes for the league prof achis. Thief surely eill b fun, especially as its elite mane u able to restealth on 5 sec cd on demand for repositioning + cc on openers. Still i will hold onto the ranger in waiting for an epic lb leg, i just love those arrows/lb feel

starlinvf.1358:

Ranger Longbow has a range of 1500…. the longest range on any other class before Deadeye was 1200.

Not true.

Engineer’s mortar kit also a 1500 range on all of its skills.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elite_Mortar_Kit