Guild Wars 2

You guys remember them right? A staple in any Rangers build… Glass Arrows, Apply Poison, Kindle Arrows etc. Where’d they go? Why were they not brought into GW2? Ranger at the minute has no uniqueness and no use. Theres nothing a ranger can do that another class can’t do better. I mean Anet talk of balance and simplification, but they refuse to fix one of the most disliked classes out there. Not 2 hours ago I saw a dungeon group advertising “No rangers!”. Obviously you don’t join those groups as they are what we call elitists, but seeing as almost any other profession is welcome, kind of points out a massive flaw in their game. We’re not even the most mobile class, something that we absolutely are supposed to be, and right now we’re not even the best duellers, an ethos that was strong in GW1.

I feel that bringing Preparations back could change that. Maybe giving us enhanced speed preparations, or AoE bleeding like what Glass Arrows did. If they then buffed bleeding damage, we could have a purpose. Same would go for AoE burn. Of course there are a lot of problems with the Ranger and they aren’t all gonna be fixed, but it could be a start…

Then again, when was the last time you saw anet post in the Ranger forum thread that was actually meaningful to class development? all other classes have 2 or 3 in the first 5 pages, not us.

Adding new stuff won’t ‘fix’ Rangers, because old stuff will be still underpowred. Buffing some stuff across the board, e.g. Spirits/Traps and underpowred traits* would help Rangers being in line with other classes.

I didn’t say adding new stuff will. I said it would be a start. And you’re right, spirits could be a great way to give a Ranger a more unique role, if only they had more health, moved without the need of a trait (which was removed anyway) and had 80% chance to work. Shame I would still never take one in PvP as the Survival skills/signets are infinitely more helpful for the current Meta.

Traps again could be great and some of them already are. (but when have you ever seen a ranger run frozen ground or w/e the chill one is called). But they just don’t warrant the ranger still wanting to be used and had around.

I feel like they have no direction, and they also have too many skills that should be the defining factor but can’t be because on their own they just aren’t good enough. We need more skills that work on their own and which work well.

Guard is a useless shout, the frozen ground trap is trash, and I’m sure sic ‘em is used more often now but still not that great. I’d like to see a resurgence of preparations

Adding new stuff will ofc fix Ranger, if they add those things that the Ranger is lacking.

Oh, and yes, I would love to see Preparations back, they really made Ranger what it was in GW1. Too bad they stripped the Ranger down and gave everything great to other classes, like preps to thief in the form of venoms.