I have started my ranger at day 1, got him to 20. Then leveled my mesmer to 80 and did all that fun stuff. Now im looking to finish my ranger, but i see alot of people talking about how bleh they are. Is it just in pvp that this is the case? i mostly stick to dungeons and pve with a splash of guild WvW.
My question is are rangers fun for pve and can they be efficient in orr and working towards end game stuff?
You absolutely can, if you enjoy the playstyle and are willing to move past broken pets and weak skills. Rangers are really good for leveling and any kind of solo PVE. They also have an easy acces to swiftness and quickness. Their elites are actually good, compared to a lot of elites other professions get (hello Tornado).
A lot of the issues in dungeons come with the fact that pets die almost immidiately, especially to the one shot mechanics some bosses have that they can’t dodge.
They’re ok. The problem is that there aren’t multiple viable builds. Support is lackluster due to spirits being extremely weak and unreliable. Going with a pet synergy build is ok except the pets AI is horrible and their F2 takes 2-5 seconds to activate. Speccing DPS is difficult as the pets actually do a good bit of damage but die too quickly. DPS’ing by yourself is a little weak. I’ve played with multiple weapon combos and the sword seems to be one of the better DPS weapons, BUT, you’re rooted in place, so kiss your mobility goodbye. Being specced for condition damage might be the most viable build we have. I used it before and had some fun with it. I’m trying glass cannon right now and we’ll see how that goes. I think I’ve used the longbow once too. I don’t want to sound like a hater or anything, but things could be much better. And I think most rangers aren’t screaming, “Give us tons of DPS!!” I think they just want multiple viable builds that are as effective as any other profession.
By the way, I mostly play PVE and dungeons as well. Rangers have lots of potential. We thought we had nowhere to go but up, but after the last patch, that’s questionable as well.
That is all good to hear, i am not really to worried since i mained a mesmer to 80 with nothing but pve witch is not the strong suit for them. I also heared that we have some buffs incoming at “some point” down the line?
Yes, ranger will get more improvements eventually. The problem is a lot of people just want to get more damage while all the ranger needs it’s not really a damage boost (in general, some stuff could use more damage).
Rather easy to solo PvE. Mobs will have a hard time bringing you down, unless your pet is downed, but there are play styles and builds to make things a bit more cherry and have fun, for what it’s worth.
If you can get over lackluster damage, clumsy, ineffective pets and an overall shoddy utility skill set, there is enough to enjoy, but you better play it because you love it unconditionally, not because it’s superior.
Sounds good guys, thanks for the feed back, One of thing is how do rangers do with mob tagging in orr? or high end farming in general? maybe some one can share some builds the have had success with?
Mob tagging as ranger is ok, not the greatest but not the worst either. With traps trait, shortbow piercing arrows and longbow barrage you can tag mobs quite well.
For leveling i advice you 15 points in beastmastery to reduce the pet swap cooldown, then the rest either on markmanship (20 points to get 10% damage boost with full endurance and piercing arrows) or Skirmishing (30% pet crit damage, 20% bows cooldown, being able to throw traps, etc).
But it’s up to the kind of ranger/build you prefer, i’m not that much into condition builds.
Also good for mobtagging is flametrap, with the trait that makes it able to be thrown and longbow Barrage.
As for builds, I use shortbow and axe/warhorn, with Rampage as one. Also, take Healing Spring, it rules, especialy in dungeons. The Warhorn and RaO will ive you a lot of swiftness to help you reach everything in PVE faster.
Also, whatever I do I take 5 points in Wildreness Survival for that awesome endurance regeneration minor trait.
