Guild Wars 2

Greetings ranger community -

I am playing around with an elementalist and a ranger as alts (both around level 13). Obviously they are very different.

On the elementalist, you use 15 abilities to kill one mob.

On the ranger, I auto attack shortbow and use the CC as needed.

I’m playing around with all weapon sets and I like the idea of the ranger, but I just seem to get bored.

How much does the ranger change as you level and gain traits?

axe warhorn / shortbow – weapon swap with the buff/hawk/aoe bleed and aoe sigil

Uhh..honestly…it doesn’t. Leveling is pretty straightforward with shortbow/axewarhorn for speed boosts and conditions. It’s pretty vanilla…spam 1 and use your other abilities when needed (which is almost never if you run with two bears)

I’m leveling an elementalist as well now and it’s so much more for me.

I love the heck out of my ranger right now, who just hit 22. It’s fun and mobile and I’m dodging everywhere and flipping out like a ninja with fun melee AoEs and all sorts of combo fields and finishers to play with.

I’m running sword/dagger and axe/axe with Flame Trap and Healing Spring most notably. I haven’t found myself missing the range of a bow or really missing the speed on a warhorn (though I do use the speed boost signet). I mostly autoattack on my 33 dual dagger elementalist… both of them mostly need to use lots of buttons in tough/big fights.

Personally, I feel like my ranger needs to press half as many buttons as my elementalist in sticky situations, but each press is twice as effective. I definitely don’t feel bored on either.

Rangers rely heavily on their trait bonuses, so variety isnt great until you can open up the trait paths more

that said i’m lvl 41 and i find it entertaining enough. once you get the ability for arrow piercing combat becomes much more positioning heavy.

Ranger has so many weapon combinations, cannot see how you can get bored with this. The important thing is to find out what works best for you and learn to use them properly. Oh, and don’t force yourself into using weapons based on what you read in this forum.

And then you have the pets, again finding and using the ones that best suit you will take a long time.

Shortbow is a pretty straightforward weapon for Rangers. Try other combos like Sword/Torch or Greatsword. Experiment with pet/weapon combinations too. Some synergize well with various builds. And like Sci said, variety comes into play more with traits.

They feel very straight forward and simple compared to other classes but require you make full use of positioning. Pet AI is basically attack/stay/command skill. Most of their utilities can be simplified to “pursue” or “kite”.

Power/Crit Ranger is one of the more powerful options in the game. Longbow, GreatSword, Sword and to some extent the Axe are all very heavy hitters that also provide a lot of utility and some control.

Condition Damage Ranger is limited to shortbow and axe/torch but also very powerful since stacking 20+ bleeds and burning wont be an issue though it requires very good positioning.

Support ranger is more or less reliant on Healing Spring and boons that your pet can provide to your party. Spirits are very powerful if traited or placed correctly. Clever use of traps and the utility your weapon skills provide can be used to the same effect.

For me I can see how rangers may seem boring, but they’re a lot of fun. I’d say as I have in other threads that rangers are versatile but are more tactical I think. Traps, going in and out of long range/melee, AoE, sending in the pet in and out, using different pets and their pet skills, and on wards… It’s quite colorful if you use it all effectively. I personally go sword/torch and longbow. Sword torch is so fun, lots of evades and moving around but flashy fire as well, plus traps around you, dishing out so much aoe. longbow is more boring but its very tactful and can be fun if you enjoy that. Not every enemy demands it but thats to be expected right? Easier ones are straight forward, but if you have something tougher, you can really think things through and use everything to its potential. You might still survive if u spam autoattack, but its more effective to use everything in your arsenal. The skills in my opinion have a great variety, and you can work out quite interesting tactics, combos, and builds.

Even without the traits its already alot of fun! I think its a personal preference thing, if you like casting and all those kinds of things then sure elementalist is fun. I like non-“casting”, tooth and claw, versatility which ranger provides

Thank you for your responses.

I’m hoping either rangers or eles get tweaked today in the patch and make the decision easier :P

Try killing 5 mobs 3 lvls above you at the same time. Thats the type of fight you should look for.

Forum just killed the reply I wrote so here is the short version

Shortbow is effective but rather straight forward.

I switch up my weapons and pets every so often to keep things fresh.

Longbow becomes viable when you get higher tier traits but the auto attack on it needs changing.

Elementalist is the most engaging class by far. There’s just no payoff for the effort though, so even if you master all the buttons you’ll still be no better than the Ranger, Warrior, Thief, Mesmer, or whathave you. You just spend a lot more effort to so it.

Fun, but not rewarding.

Long bow in PvE is actually my go-to weapon for group and meta events – it’s perfect for when you want to stand back and let the melee classes whale on something while adding constant DPS and control via Barrage. If/when you end up drawing aggro (which will typically happen a few times if you’re standing at long range so your longbow DPS is maxxed out) then just wait for them to get right in your face and use #4 for the big knockback. If that doesn’t get them off you, you can swap back to short bow real quick and start strafing/dazing/conditioning, then swap back to long bow when someone else pulls agro away. Long bow is also great for tactically executing the weird little adds you sometimes get in big group event fights as well as saturating a choke point with damage via Barrage for those events where some defendable objective/choke point is getting swarmed by henchman-level mobs… Definitely a versatile weapon…

Oh, and don’t forget to constantly re-position yourself to take advantage of combo fields – necro poison rings, elemental burning/freezing lines, various types you can lay down with all sorts of skills, etc…

Switch to sword/axe axe.torch drop traps/flame fields and practice combo fielding at melee as well as dodge practice vigor trigger practice.

SB is so powerful on it’s autoattack you can kill/kite reds using GT CC to strip adds indefinitely for exp + bonus EXP hugeness. Yes it’s boring but easy.

Ranger playing melee with offhand varients is pretty enjoyable however as you do get to think.

Paaah. Don’t listen to them. Ranger really REALLY boring. After playing ranger all classes seem varied and fun to me. Even necromancer delights. Ranger has no tacticity as described above. In PvE you just stand behind the mob and drills him with one ability, while your pet tanks. If there are a lot of mobs and pet is not a tank – you throw a trap on the ground and continue to drill em.
Ranger is like a class for those who like… eeem…. “standard” styles of play. Like in WoW or smth. There’s even about not using dodge. Either there is no sense or regret 10% damage. Exactly this, I believe, is meant as pve ease – stand and use “1” when pet tanks. If u like it – this class for you.

Oh, and i should mention that the rangers can not be complete support class and has abyss of useless skills.

Rusha.4725:

Try killing 5 mobs 3 lvls above you at the same time. Thats the type of fight you should look for.

That’s exactly what I was gonna say. And I think a good ranger will pull this off. I’ve come close!

Challenge yourself!

I’ve handled +2 amnd +3 multi-mob pulls all the time with my Ranger in PvE – they’re fun!

MeGaZlo.9516:

Paaah. Don’t listen to them. Ranger really REALLY boring. After playing ranger all classes seem varied and fun to me. Even necromancer delights. Ranger has no tacticity as described above. In PvE you just stand behind the mob and drills him with one ability, while your pet tanks. If there are a lot of mobs and pet is not a tank – you throw a trap on the ground and continue to drill em.
Ranger is like a class for those who like… eeem…. “standard” styles of play. Like in WoW or smth. There’s even about not using dodge. Either there is no sense or regret 10% damage. Exactly this, I believe, is meant as pve ease – stand and use “1” when pet tanks. If u like it – this class for you.

Oh, and i should mention that the rangers can not be complete support class and has abyss of useless skills.

WOW. lol total hater xD and definitely someone who doesn’t use a ranger well. If that’s all you’re doing then something’s wrong with your build and gear…. Take it to Orr and see if you can still do that… every class gets screwed in there. If that’s still all you need to do then experiment with different builds and weapon sets once again as I’ve said before. Be effective but you can have some fun still. I’m pure melee right now. so much havoc and fun XD. If you go more tactical thats a lot of fun too. But the idea that you just stand there and do nothing … will get you killed.

Rangers aren’t too boring. They are extremely easy to play, though. They’re much closer to WoW hunters than GW1 rangers.

They’re easy to play in easy situations lol but if you have to go solo a swarm or event, or find your place in a dungeon, trying to stay alive and effective in PvP/WvW, i dont think its any easier than any other class… really gotta be on your feet and use the right stuff at the right time, i.e. evasions, traps/condition, heals/pet swapping, pet skills, switching between melee / off hand skills and long range, there’s a lot in our arsenal that you need to make use of to stay alive in tough spots i believe. Perhaps I’m just seeking challenges all the time and don’t hesitate to go take on a huge swarm or solo a dungeon boss while everyone else was downed and still respawning xD

takatsu.9416:

MeGaZlo.9516:

Paaah. Don’t listen to them. Ranger really REALLY boring. After playing ranger all classes seem varied and fun to me. Even necromancer delights. Ranger has no tacticity as described above. In PvE you just stand behind the mob and drills him with one ability, while your pet tanks. If there are a lot of mobs and pet is not a tank – you throw a trap on the ground and continue to drill em.
Ranger is like a class for those who like… eeem…. “standard” styles of play. Like in WoW or smth. There’s even about not using dodge. Either there is no sense or regret 10% damage. Exactly this, I believe, is meant as pve ease – stand and use “1” when pet tanks. If u like it – this class for you.

Oh, and i should mention that the rangers can not be complete support class and has abyss of useless skills.

WOW. lol total hater xD and definitely someone who doesn’t use a ranger well. If that’s all you’re doing then something’s wrong with your build and gear…. Take it to Orr and see if you can still do that… every class gets screwed in there. If that’s still all you need to do then experiment with different builds and weapon sets once again as I’ve said before. Be effective but you can have some fun still. I’m pure melee right now. so much havoc and fun XD. If you go more tactical thats a lot of fun too. But the idea that you just stand there and do nothing … will get you killed.

And you, it turns, ranger-lover? I played a ranger more than 300 hours. I was standing in the one place fighting mobs in locations 1-15, so it continues in the Orr. Not necessary here to tell tales about how it is difficult. All complexity: you spend 30 seconds on mobs pack instead of 15. There are situations when you need to kite, for example, the champion. But that can happens with any other class. Maybe you use a wrong equip or build what you think it is so difficult?
Or better try to play any other class, for comparison. You’ll understand what means “fun” maybe.

takatsu.9416:

They’re easy to play in easy situations lol but if you have to go solo a swarm or event, or find your place in a dungeon, trying to stay alive and effective in PvP/WvW, i dont think its any easier than any other class… really gotta be on your feet and use the right stuff at the right time, i.e. evasions, traps/condition, heals/pet swapping, pet skills, switching between melee / off hand skills and long range, there’s a lot in our arsenal that you need to make use of to stay alive in tough spots i believe. Perhaps I’m just seeking challenges all the time and don’t hesitate to go take on a huge swarm or solo a dungeon boss while everyone else was downed and still respawning xD

Ppls try to tell u that ranger so boring, not because he’s so easy to play. He’s so boring because he is just boring. Just in addition to this, he is also easy to play. In our arsenal, can be many things. But in 90% of cases, you use only a “1”. Because almost everything – unbalanced crap. Situations you described above can occur with all other classes. But just believe me, with playing any other class, it’ll seems much more interesting to you.

Right now all I use in pve is shortbow #1.. but I am hoping that the devs will fix the 1h sword so it doesn’t immobilize you anymore, and once that happens I will use the sword as well as the shortbow, and I reckon playing will be a lot less boring then. I would use the greatsword, it has really cool skills, but it does way too low damage.

My shortbow isn’t bad for pve, it doesn’t do anywhere near the damage a warrior does, even to a single target, which the warrior does to 5 at once, but it’s good enough to not get frustrated with low damage as long as I update my gear every 5 levels with runes and sigils and jewels.

takatsu.9416:

They’re easy to play in easy situations lol but if you have to go solo a swarm or event, or find your place in a dungeon, trying to stay alive and effective in PvP/WvW, i dont think its any easier than any other class… really gotta be on your feet and use the right stuff at the right time, i.e. evasions, traps/condition, heals/pet swapping, pet skills, switching between melee / off hand skills and long range, there’s a lot in our arsenal that you need to make use of to stay alive in tough spots i believe. Perhaps I’m just seeking challenges all the time and don’t hesitate to go take on a huge swarm or solo a dungeon boss while everyone else was downed and still respawning xD

Well I’m mostly basing the comparison against my original character, a thief. But so far my ranger has had an easy go of it. Thief would die against veterans, ranger can solo them with nothing but shortbow auto-attack thanks to a powerful bear pet. even mostly-soloed a champion destroyer harpy, until someone else came by at about 10%. That was fun, but still really easy between the pets and circle-strafing with a shortbow.

Lol maps 1-15 is completely different from higher level maps, regardless of how relative it seems or should be. 1-15 is super easy it’s intended for people’s learning curve… You have a much more difficult time in high level territory with swarms of skill spamming mobs with conditions and knock downs and so forth.

However the point that it is still easier on ranger is indeed true, but it is absolutely not spamming 1 autoattack…. Of course if you up your beast mastery and have ur pet tank everything that’s your build. But I don’t do that I am a heavy dps ranger myself, my pet functions synergistically. As well if u stand there from a distance rooted and press 1… It really doesn’t work on Orr when u have things coming at u from all directions, and they will attack you rather than ur pet aggro ing everything. I don’t know how you have been playing or not been playing in Orr but literally Orr is frustrating stuff when mobs have such huge range and are so aggressive as any level 80 player knows. Especially malchor

Nevertheless with the pet it does increase survivability but I don’t think it is that much a difference. You still die quick when you get overrun, challenging things are challenging things, if ur hitting one thing then no problem.

I have played other classes and they’re fun, super fun, I know what they can do. But I prefer the versatility and what you can do with a ranger, I find myself thinking ALOT more using ranger than other classes where it is mainly reaction based and alot of skill spam since u have the dps to kill them super fast before anything else happens. Else it’s easy to die if you don’t kill them. That to me is more simple than rangers. Other classes well maybe Mesmer thief and warrior mainly takes down things quick, but rangers take a while to kill something. A warrior can one shot kill in 1-15 but it takes my ranger two strikes at least this applies in higher level maps, and I use a lot more strikes an skills before something goes down. This is is true with any build I believe. I have interacted with a lot of rangers and watched them fight. Ranger requires a lot of thinking and is definitely not boring

takatsu.9416:

Lol maps 1-15 is completely different from higher level maps, regardless of how relative it seems or should be. 1-15 is super easy it’s intended for people’s learning curve… You have a much more difficult time in high level territory with swarms of skill spamming mobs with conditions and knock downs and so forth.

However the point that it is still easier on ranger is indeed true, but it is absolutely not spamming 1 autoattack…. Of course if you up your beast mastery and have ur pet tank everything that’s your build. But I don’t do that I am a heavy dps ranger myself, my pet functions synergistically. As well if u stand there from a distance rooted and press 1… It really doesn’t work on Orr when u have things coming at u from all directions, and they will attack you rather than ur pet aggro ing everything. I don’t know how you have been playing or not been playing in Orr but literally Orr is frustrating stuff when mobs have such huge range and are so aggressive as any level 80 player knows. Especially malchor

Nevertheless with the pet it does increase survivability but I don’t think it is that much a difference. You still die quick when you get overrun, challenging things are challenging things, if ur hitting one thing then no problem.

I have played other classes and they’re fun, super fun, I know what they can do. But I prefer the versatility and what you can do with a ranger, I find myself thinking ALOT more using ranger than other classes where it is mainly reaction based and alot of skill spam since u have the dps to kill them super fast before anything else happens. Else it’s easy to die if you don’t kill them. That to me is more simple than rangers. Other classes well maybe Mesmer thief and warrior mainly takes down things quick, but rangers take a while to kill something. A warrior can one shot kill in 1-15 but it takes my ranger two strikes at least this applies in higher level maps, and I use a lot more strikes an skills before something goes down. This is is true with any build I believe. I have interacted with a lot of rangers and watched them fight. Ranger requires a lot of thinking and is definitely not boring

We both understand you’re just trying to embellish the facts. Take any weapon (yes, yes, absolutely any), gather in orr 3-5 mobs, throw a flame and spike traps and just press auto attack. Do you think there will be many differences in comparison to your “way of playing”? I have no idea what you’re wearing, but I fully equiped for power precision and crit dmg. Even when I use builds without any survivability and 0 in beast mastery I calmly kills 5 + mobs, standing still in one plase and usually even don’t switch pet.
Let’s just no threat. U better just test thoroughly different weapons, such as a short bow. Look at the casting time and damage of abilities, their functionality. And maybe, you notice that the use of something other than AA only reduces your effectiveness.

Yes, you use it, you’re interested. But other players will think “but what for?” And do not find an answer. The class is extremely badly balanced. It still needs to work. Lot of work. And because of people who do not care about this imbalance and argue for those who see the flaws, believing that no one but them just don’t know how play, developers, may, believe that all wonderful.

MeGaZlo.9516:

takatsu.9416:

Lol maps 1-15 is completely different from higher level maps, regardless of how relative it seems or should be. 1-15 is super easy it’s intended for people’s learning curve… You have a much more difficult time in high level territory with swarms of skill spamming mobs with conditions and knock downs and so forth.

However the point that it is still easier on ranger is indeed true, but it is absolutely not spamming 1 autoattack…. Of course if you up your beast mastery and have ur pet tank everything that’s your build. But I don’t do that I am a heavy dps ranger myself, my pet functions synergistically. As well if u stand there from a distance rooted and press 1… It really doesn’t work on Orr when u have things coming at u from all directions, and they will attack you rather than ur pet aggro ing everything. I don’t know how you have been playing or not been playing in Orr but literally Orr is frustrating stuff when mobs have such huge range and are so aggressive as any level 80 player knows. Especially malchor

Nevertheless with the pet it does increase survivability but I don’t think it is that much a difference. You still die quick when you get overrun, challenging things are challenging things, if ur hitting one thing then no problem.

I have played other classes and they’re fun, super fun, I know what they can do. But I prefer the versatility and what you can do with a ranger, I find myself thinking ALOT more using ranger than other classes where it is mainly reaction based and alot of skill spam since u have the dps to kill them super fast before anything else happens. Else it’s easy to die if you don’t kill them. That to me is more simple than rangers. Other classes well maybe Mesmer thief and warrior mainly takes down things quick, but rangers take a while to kill something. A warrior can one shot kill in 1-15 but it takes my ranger two strikes at least this applies in higher level maps, and I use a lot more strikes an skills before something goes down. This is is true with any build I believe. I have interacted with a lot of rangers and watched them fight. Ranger requires a lot of thinking and is definitely not boring

We both understand you’re just trying to embellish the facts. Take any weapon (yes, yes, absolutely any), gather in orr 3-5 mobs, throw a flame and spike traps and just press auto attack. Do you think there will be many differences in comparison to your “way of playing”? I have no idea what you’re wearing, but I fully equiped for power precision and crit dmg. Even when I use builds without any survivability and 0 in beast mastery I calmly kills 5 + mobs, standing still in one plase and usually even don’t switch pet.
Let’s just no threat. U better just test thoroughly different weapons, such as a short bow. Look at the casting time and damage of abilities, their functionality. And maybe, you notice that the use of something other than AA only reduces your effectiveness.

Yes, you use it, you’re interested. But other players will think “but what for?” And do not find an answer. The class is extremely badly balanced. It still needs to work. Lot of work. And because of people who do not care about this imbalance and argue for those who see the flaws, believing that no one but them just don’t know how play, developers, may, believe that all wonderful.

Yes i agree it needs a lot of work, but many believe its underpowered compared to other classes. we kill a lot slower. we have a lot of complaints about how our skills aren’t as effective as other classes. i’m really not sure how you can stand in one place in orr and kill off a swarm of mobs with auto attacks. i’m also built for power/precision/crit dps + some survivability. you defintely dont stand there and do nothing because you die in orr easily when you have a swarm, 3-5 u can usually take though. but so can any other class… i’m talking about any challenging situation, every class you would need to actually use all your skills and thinking. including rangers. you can’t just stand there and do nothing in tight spots. it’s the same for any other class. how is it boring in a not so boring situation? the only reason we survive longer is because we have a pet too. so we’re trading off some dps for survivability and to me that’s fine.

I don’t even use SB in PvE. I use GS/Axe+Torch to keep the fights engaging. I fight right up in the fray with my bears, and when I need to duck out to range I have my Axe which also does AE damage. You get a decent amount of combos from this, Flame Shield with GS+Torch and burning with Axe+Torch. Not to mention plenty of bleed stacks, chill and cripples.

It’s only going to be as fun/challenging as you make it and that goes for any profession, really—though maybe for some more than others in regards to challenge. Personally I still think classes are lacking some balance as far as traits and such go anyway.

OP, the class is what you make of it. I’ve always enjoyed range archetypes, the woodsman/archer/hunter themed character in games. But I’ll admit I got a little bored at 37 and just moved on to other toons(doesn’t help that I’m an altaholic). The general feeling I had was “meh” so I came back to my ranger. I was playing around today in harathi(the 40 zone with the huge centaur Zerg event)? And partook in the the big Zerg event there.

Previously, I was pretty much SB/Axe/horn and stuck with it. I had used other weapons, but not to much extent. Today I took a different approach and engaged myself in what I was doing and had a blast. I’ll give you a for instance, we went through the back part the the grub cave the kill the giant, and made it to the camp, but didn’t have enough people to hold off the centaurs, so we got pushed out into another camp. I told people it was going on and we ended up getting more to come and managed to push. But all the while, this time around I was adjusting my gameplay to what I was used to. For the zergy pulls I went GS/LB and QZ with a few traps/RaO. I would drop volley on a group, swoop in, drop traps and beat on stuff for a while, dodge out and switch back then pick off the few remainders. I had never really thought about, until I had played other classes, how see less the ranger could transition from ranged to mellee and back again, and once I realized this, I had great fun(not just in a “switch weapons” sense but actually charge in and quickly get out of a FUBAR zergfest).

After a few minutes of bouncing in and out of clusterkittens the Zerg pushes up the main centaur camp where the champion events take place, so I switch up my tactics and drop my traps for spirits and get out Healing spring, as well as taking GS out for SB. Keep in mind I’m lvl 37 doing a lvl ~42 event, so I think I saw more “glancing” than bleed DMG. But I still managed to gobble up all the aggro from the champion centaur and spent half of the fight in downed state because he would instantly start humping me again when I got ressed. That may not seem very “fun” but on lesser champions(ones without ranged one shot mechanics :|) I take enjoyment(and relief…) in being the guy who is controlling the pathing of a giant wrecking ball(as well as pride in being able so solo bleed cap), especially when I’m -5 lvls of the content…

I have done this event on other toons and its probably one of my favorites. And I haven’t had this much fun playing since launch. My overall points being OP, is that don’t be afraid of the hate, I enjoy necro too, even tho they are “so godawful” in the communities eyes. I use the GS and LB even though they “suck” or aren’t as “Strong” as other weapons. Everything has a niche, and you can cycle weapons/slot skills from fight to fight and still produce good results. Some are better, sure, but in PvE you will not be totally kittened based on choice, as long as you can play it. So, OP, if you so choose to use bear/bear and auto attack with SB from 1-80, yes you will get bored(like….I WAS!). But if you mix it up and change you style, you will have fun, and be constantly met with new moments of realization about your class and its abilities, leading you to better understand and craft future skill/trait mixups and combinations. This is true of any class though, So go with a S/D trap ranger if you want, or a GS/Axe/Torch Tank, Who cares! Just have fun and play around.

When I started out playing my ranger I found it to be simple, however in later levels, (I am now lvl 29) I have come used to swapping weapons and pets and positioning really makes the class exciting. Sure you could stand back and auto attack short bow until a mob dies but once you start using everything at your disposal it really is a fun class.

I am currently using axe/warhorn and short bow…I used to have sword and dagger but it felt weird when short bow skills were cool down to have to swap and run up to a mob. Anyways, I am going to try axe/torch and shortbow tonight

Dark.6083:

Elementalist is the most engaging class by far. There’s just no payoff for the effort though, so even if you master all the buttons you’ll still be no better than the Ranger, Warrior, Thief, Mesmer, or whathave you. You just spend a lot more effort to so it.

Fun, but not rewarding.

^ – Eles use more abilities and swap skills more than anyone else probably. If you enjoy the constant stance shifting and using tons of abilities, ele is the way to go.

Pvp.2758:

axe warhorn / shortbow – weapon swap with the buff/hawk/aoe bleed and aoe sigil

How does this even remotely answer the OP?

In all seriousness OP, no it doesn’t. You will notice a change around 65+ish; that’s when your pet stops taking aggro from mobs, so more kiting involved, traps and conditions to slow them down

To answer your question.

No they are not boring. My main is a level 80 ranger. I have a blast. Whoever says they only use shortbow number one that’s there own fault. I use traps, spirits, different animals then the bear, Greatswords, pretty much everything. It was fun doing map completion and collecting the animals as I found them. i purposely did not look up any pet spoilers so I had to find them.

Now elementalist I actually found boring.

Thief isn’t bad but I just started it.

Mesmer is fun. Not as fun as the ranger. Almost done leveling her. 61 so far.

Warrior seems fun but I deleted it cause it was charr. They move weird, didn’t like. I’ll roll it a human in the future and try it again.

So I tried a bunch and hands down love the Ranger. I like having an animal buddy and wrecking monsters.

I also used to think ranger was kind of boring.

More than any other class, I kind of got the feeling I could coast on auto-attack. Then I noticed some pets were using or prioritizing the use of their family skills once certain conditions were met. So I sat down and really took some time to figure out ranger’s profession mechanic. Personally, trying to figure out every pet family’s AI idiosyncrasies is and continues to be (because some families still allude me) one of the more entertaining things I do in open world PvE. For dungeons I find alot of enjoyment out of applying my knowledge by trying to purposefully manipulate the circumstances of a battle in order to coax my pet to meet the conditions and use their skills. Looking back on it now, I find it cast alot of the #2 – #5 skills I’d previously written off as too situational in an entirely new light and now I use them alot more often than I used to. Because now I’m not only considering what’s situational for me but what’s situational for my pet as well.

But, I’m a beastmaster kind of person, so I was bound to enjoy the kitten out of this sort of thing. AI Abuse and all the micromanagement that entails is definitely not for everybody.