Guild Wars 2

Ranger was my first GW2 character from head-start days. It was fun…for a while. Once I became familiar with the game and its combat mechanics, ranger became boring. I felt like there were a multitude of weak utilities and traits in places that made no sense. I abandoned ranger and eventually found joy with other professions (specifically, engineer, mesmer, and guardian).

However, I’ve always loved the ranger-type class. In GW it was my main. And, after more than a year away, I’d love to make a triumphant return to ranger when the upcoming balance patch launches (whenever that is).

That being said, what is exciting about ranger (or will be)? What utilities make combat with ranger fun & dynamic? What build styles are going to be strong and exciting to play? What pets have cool synergy with the ranger playstyle? What am I missing or should I focus on to make ranger a fun, dynamic, and strong class to play?

I am 100% PvE. I typically run zerk gear for my characters, but am more than open to deviation from the speed-clear metas.

Sword aa, despite its flaws, makes the fight dynamic, you jump all over the place, it looks great. Luckily, the dungeon meta involves the 2 funniest weapons for a ranger, greatsword and sword. I love axe offhand for some reasons, can’t really tell you why, but it feels good as well. Pets are still a pain and will die in any aoe heavy fight, no matter how good you are at micro managing, but seeing dem crits with a panther is cool. moar crits= moar fun. If you want some dynamic playstyle, quickening zephyr and lightning reflexes are fast paced action, contributing to that “wow i’m a ninja” feeling. For the strong part, well you probably know that but as a ranger you must bring spotter and frost spirit. Keep in mind that you’ll need some time to get used to sword aa.
tl;dr: the meta build is the strongest, and the funniest imo.