Guild Wars 2

Now I can’t be the only one that feels like ranger is a forgotten class, we have so many things that still need tweaking, Only recently I’ve realised how Low resolution the pets are but thats beside the point. I’ve come to a point in my Ranger life that when I showcase the class to people interested I always lead with “Ranger can do everything, BUT every other class can do it better” it’s like we’re an underpowered jack-of-all-trades and because of that it has left a sour taste in the mouth of the community, both rangers and others. A perfect example of this is say “LFM Fotm 49, Zerk only, No rangers”

Now let me throw this out to the Ranger population and see what response I get.
How many of the 45 pets ingame have you used?
Most Power rangers I see and speak to usually respond with 3 main ones, Bear, Jaguar, and Wolf.
Most Condition rangers respond with Lynx, Or a Spider of some sort.
In my honest opinion I’ve used very few mainly because I feel obligated to, If I dont take Wolf, if I dont take Jaguar, if I dont take Lynx, I’m losing a massive power that the class needs. I will say the AI changes (Or upcoming, because I haven’t noticed anything) to pets have/will be good but not enough to justify rangers as a “Master” of something.

How many times have you felt useless when you’re doing anything, be it WvW, PvP or PvE?

Now this is just one example of how we might be considered a Jack-of-all-trades, or “We can do everything but everyone else can do it better”
__
Shortbow condition ranger – Bleeds on Auto attack IF beside or behind.
Pistol/Dagger condition thief – Bleeds on Auto attack.

Ranger- Access to evade and Daze
Thief- Blind and Stealth
__
If you really look you can find many aspects of the Ranger profession, better in others.

Now I’m going to Harp on this, PETS arn’t the saving grace of this class, Dont get me wrong I love my Pets but they arn’t the mechanic in this game that makes the Ranger a “Master” of something, just a friendly reminder that putting complete faith in an AI that you have minimal control over and is forced to Tank in a fast paced-Dodging-Invulnerability frames combat system is beyond absurd.

There are so many issues with this class that need attention that it has become tiring listing them over, and over to try and raise awareness. Please, Pleaseeee feel free to add things to this you think need addressing, We need activity in the Ranger Community for anything at all to be done, create your own threads, Raise Hell, do anything! just try and get ranger in the spotlight. I’ve ranted and Raved about stuff that probably doesn’t make sense anymore so I’ll reiterate.

“Now I can’t be the only one that feels like ranger is a forgotten class”

Susanoo.2586:

How many times have you felt useless when you’re doing anything, be it WvW, PvP or PvE?

Never.

Of all the complaints people have for rangers, the one I disagree with the most is the one about most pets being unused. ANet have actually done extremely well at making so many pets and still having so many of them being useful… Hell they’ve done a better job on that than they have on all utilities being used equally.

I mean..
All Canines are used, often
All Cats are used
Birds are used often, some more than others but still
Drakes are often used, some more than others
Spiders are often used
Moas are used less often, but some are used
Bears are overused But do actually have their place, especially the brown bear

The only pet catagorys which really isnt made the most of are the pigs, and thats really because of the RNG on their F2, and Devourer’s, simply because they are like spiders without the CC (though do have a niche use with RoA).

Susanoo.2586:

Now let me throw this out to the Ranger population and see what response I get.
How many of the 45 pets ingame have you used?

How many times have you felt useless when you’re doing anything, be it WvW, PvP or PvE?

- throughout me playing my ranger, i’ve gone in between drakes, birds, canines, felines, spiders, and a few others probably. I enjoy the selection of pets honestly.

- in WvW, sometimes, though honestly a lot of the time it’s because I’m lagging
in PvP… eh, I don’t really pvp that much and I don’t really care about winning when I do… take that as you will
in PvE I always feel pretty useless. that’s not really to do with being a ranger though, rather than to me, pve always feels like either a) world bosses where I see no reward for my efforts or b) small group content that just feels like a warrior could replace me without any consequence

I’m a bit relunctant to say that we’re forgotten. maybe i’m an optimist but i’m under the hope that they’re taking their time to really consider everything when balancing the classes. I’d rather them do that than constantly put out buffs/nerfs that could honestly make it worse

Susanoo.2586:

How many times have you felt useless when you’re doing anything, be it WvW, PvP or PvE?

PvP I never feel useless and I play power ranger not even the group utility spirit meta PvP has a high skill cap for ranger so it takes getting used to. PvE it doesnt matter much because the mechanics for most things are stack and burn, any classes can do that really and with frostspotter build at least you can give some utility, as for WvW if you want to zerg you’re not going to do that well mainly do to our only ranged aoe having very little damage but rangers can be very good in small groups.

Honestly the things I want to see for ranger (In no particular order):
1. A fix for the sword 2 evade and leap, the evade takes too long to be reliable, I wish it worked like lightning reflexes.
2. Legendary pets that I can raise to my liking or the abililty to change my current pets skills.
3. Another cleave weapon that doesn’t lunge me all over the place besides greatsword, which has great utility but attacks way too slow, my greatest hope would be a complete overhaul for mainhand axe to make it a melee cleave weapon instead of a bad dps ranged one. (Don’t get me wrong I love the sword auto, it’s a godsend in pvp but lunging around at tequatl isn’t much fun and I hate having to greatsword that guy.)
4.Not having to trait to use my own signets.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

small group content that just feels like a warrior could replace me without any consequence

I think it’s a mistake for you to feel useless. Warriors do more damage as individuals than rangers, but rangers bring unique party support that literally makes them irreplaceable.

Over simplifying, there are only two situations where a additional warrior would be the better choice than the first ranger. 1) You suck and/or don’t know what to do, or 2) you aren’t running a meta build and are drastically bringing the party down.

On the other hand, anyone is replaceable at any time, as was the goal of Anet. One time I did a 50 or 60 something fractal with 4 rangers and a necro. It’s just not the perfect comp.

I tend to swap my pets around based on current F2 needs.

Fluffball.8307:

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

small group content that just feels like a warrior could replace me without any consequence

I think it’s a mistake for you to feel useless. Warriors do more damage as individuals than rangers, but rangers bring unique party support that literally makes them irreplaceable.

Over simplifying, there are only two situations where a additional warrior would be the better choice than the first ranger. 1) You suck and/or don’t know what to do, or 2) you aren’t running a meta build and are drastically bringing the party down.

On the other hand, anyone is replaceable at any time, as was the goal of Anet. One time I did a 50 or 60 something fractal with 4 rangers and a necro. It’s just not the perfect comp.

Meta is not the End-All Be-All for builds. There are those of us that would rather play a non-meta build because it’s not meta. One of my favorite things to do in GW was to make a R/P beastmaster and go to RA. The other team would ignore my pet until it oneshot their Ele/Necro/Monk/Mes. People can run non-meta builds and be just as beneficial to the group as a meta build.

Galphar.3901:

Meta is not the End-All Be-All for builds.

No, it’s not. But if you were replaced by a meta warrior, the run would probably be faster and smoother. That’s not really helping this guy.

BTW, if you want to talk non-meta in GW1, I’m all over that. I have some ridiculous hero builds that were very high skill cap, yet high reward. Unfortunately it does not work that way in GW2.*

*Edit: I should add unless you mean full berserkers melee, which is basically the equivalent of what I would vanquish with in GW1. I did a lot of of zones with no healer and just a lot of melee damage.

Fluffball.8307:

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

small group content that just feels like a warrior could replace me without any consequence

I think it’s a mistake for you to feel useless. Warriors do more damage as individuals than rangers, but rangers bring unique party support that literally makes them irreplaceable.

Over simplifying, there are only two situations where a additional warrior would be the better choice than the first ranger. 1) You suck and/or don’t know what to do, or 2) you aren’t running a meta build and are drastically bringing the party down.

On the other hand, anyone is replaceable at any time, as was the goal of Anet. One time I did a 50 or 60 something fractal with 4 rangers and a necro. It’s just not the perfect comp.

1) while i’m not great, I don’t really think i suck. for the sake of being humble i’m going to leave it there ;P

2) no, i’m not running a meta build. at least not a pve meta build. if you look around i’ve posted my build in quite a few places, but to be put shortly, i designed my build around wvw roaming, not pve. though at the same time I don’t think i’m bringing “the team” down. maybe if I was doing high level fractals or such (not sure how difficult they are) but dungeons i’ve ran seems fairly easy, so me doing bad won’t ruin the dungeon, unless they’re the “hardcore mlg uber pro speedrunners” but in that case I don’t really care if they think i’m slowing down the dungeon :P

put simply, I’m just saying I feel useless because i’m not doing anything… remarkable? notable? not sure how to put it… I mean, I could technically trait spotter and frost spirit, but I don’t feel like changing my build (I guess that’s kinda my fault, but i enjoy playing the fun way, not the most efficient way :P)

tl;dr i didn’t mean that in a “rangers are bad” way

Here’s another example: I bet atleast 6 of the teams are going to run warrior/ele/ele/guardian/thief for the DnT Tourney.

When everyone else is going meta…. you kinda have to as well to remain competitive.

Also, there’s a pretty distinct difference between bad and non-meta (It’s just that most people who hate the meta don’t understand why it’s good and make bad builds). ie. a bearbow ranger is bad and doesn’t contribute to the group, while a condi ranger with spotter/frost spirit can atleast buff his party, but won’t be as efficient as the meta build. And like Fluffball said, you’re pretty much better off using a different class if you’re not going to use the Ranger’s best build. As far as PvE goes anyways.

NormalPerson: Of course you’re going to feel useless if you’re running a WvW build in a PvE environment. No self-respecting warrior runs toughness and vitality with a hammer in a dungeon.

You get free trait respecs now: give ’em a whirl.

Edit: Turtle, I think ranger/ele/ele/guard/thief would be effectively equal. No point at all that I’m making, other than one could bring something the other couldn’t and vice versa. Warriors will be favored due to the “no deaths allowed” rule though.

Fluffball.8307:

NormalPerson: Of course you’re going to feel useless if you’re running a WvW build in a PvE environment..

that’s why i said i felt useless..? as I said, I didn’t mean it in a “rangers are bad” way, I was just answering the question :P if anything, it was more of a rant about pve not requiring diversity

Ha! Ya I you knew you weren’t complaining about anything. It’s just sort of weird, like saying you can’t eat applesauce with a knife, and refusing the spoon in the drawer.

Fluffball.8307:

Edit: Turtle, I think ranger/ele/ele/guard/thief would be effectively equal. No point at all that I’m making, other than one could bring something the other couldn’t and vice versa. Warriors will be favored due to the “no deaths allowed” rule though.

IIRC, I think a single warrior buffs his party by like 35% or some ridiculously high number, while a ranger buffs his party by 15%. Don’t remember where I saw that warrior number though.

Warrior also has stronger CC.

I suppose Rangers may get their time to shine when (if) FGS gets nerfed and you actually have to fight things without pressing 4 on a wall.

This is getting super off track but where is that number coming from?

I see fairly similar buffs of might and fury (with average builds, obviously warriors can provide massive might and ranger perma fury). Both of these are likely null from the two eles.

Both have irreplaceable damage buffs in FS/Spotter and the 2 banners. Not seeing a huge discrepancy so far. Or are the banners just THAT much better than FS/Spotter?

Finally a slightly intangible bonus from HS and the elite banner.

Edit: I’d also question the CC bit. Neither meta build provides anything noteworthy.

Fluffball.8307:

This is getting super off track but where is that number coming from?

I see fairly similar buffs of might and fury (with average builds, obviously warriors can provide massive might and ranger perma fury). Both of these are likely null from the two eles.

Both have irreplaceable damage buffs in FS/Spotter and the 2 banners. Not seeing a huge discrepancy so far. Or are the banners just THAT much better than FS/Spotter?

Finally a slightly intangible bonus from HS and the elite banner.

I had to search a lot for this lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jme_2kUY3eM outdated, but Nike mentions banners around 6:06 and EA 5-10% according to his guide

Hmm ya, as I tried to add up all these intangible elements in my mind (crit damage is a big one I think) it started to add to the warrior. It’s not a blow out. I just find it weird Anet said on friday they consider the warrior a selfish class that doesn’t help others and that is a major weakness of it.

Regardless, two warriors do NOT provide this same benefit, so if NormalPerson was running meta he would indeed be contributing quite a lot to the team.

Fluffball.8307:

Regardless, two warriors do NOT provide this same benefit, so if NormalPerson was running meta he would indeed be contributing quite a lot to the team.

Yeah, I don’t mind having rangers as long as I know they are decent and can run meta. Otherwise, I’d rather have the 2nd warrior since their DPS is pretty decent when they don’t have to run EA and they’re also less likely to die.

But we can’t use the pet we like to if it doesn’t help the build we like to use…
Skins and Stats not matching…
Huge design flaw in Next-Gen era…

As a Ranger, sometimes the best you can do is to lure people away from focus, when they think you’re easyloot. You may really are, but at least there is an attack of opportunity for your team, or a little time gained. It’s one of the reason why most of ranger go Bunker. May not doing anything else than leeching with hit-tagging, but at least he’s there and “playing”. No mutch problem with this… for now.

Monday I’ve met a Ranger who played some kind of bunker, kept her HP at ~40% stucked, and the minor DMG she made just tripled within a blink of an eye, no spike, no signet activations, nothing… Then when both of us were at low HP, an ally came to help me, we chased her underwater, where she with a very very stable ~20% HP just downed 3 fullHP+Buffed of us, and we weren’t beginners…

That evening WWW, I’ve encountered some more people who just totaly ignored a lot of effects, like my stealth, my block, and 2 hit-kill my ~22k HP. But we’re not allowed to talk about these kind of stuff…