Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

I am a casual player who leveled a ranger to 37. I have been reading in this forum many complaints about the ranger, although it’s hard for me to separate truth from fiction since I do not know the other professions so well.

I was wondering if you would advise switching profession. I don’t play often enough to be able to level many toons and I don’t want to level up a ranger to 80 and get stuck in dungeons and other content because the profession has issues. I am mostly interested in PvE and dungeons, perhaps WvW although I have not tried that yet.

I like the ranged aspect of the ranger. I would not mind going more into support/healing. Damage focused professions like the warrior seem less appealing.

Is there a better class out there for this type of playstyle? Guardian or elementalist perhaps? Anyway I wanted to hear from the experts whether ranger is viable or is best left alone at this point in time.

Narya

I have a level 80 Ranger if you mostly PvE and rarely do Dungeons you’ll be ok on Ranger.

PvP of any kind and Dungeons Rangers are severely lacking in every way..

For a most fun experience go Guardian.

Guardian’s pretty solid if you don’t like the Warrior or Thief. It is also the one that is most associated with support and seems to always be in a better spot balance-wise than the elementalist.

Pick a Mesmer. It allows you to eat at the Computer whilst the AI win for ya.

It’s like fashion; you just know how poor someone is from their wardrobe~

Well from my experience, PvE and dungeons are doable.

PvE for the most part anyone with any build can do.

For Dungeons, Rangers mostly end up as offensive support with Warharn and Combo fields from traps. I have yet to run into such a hardcore group that was inspecting everyone before being admitted into their group.

Never under any circumstances melee a veteran mob. You’ll die really quickly. Stick to the axe and bows and you’ll do fine.

Also, use ranged pets. I personally like Lashtail/Canyon Spider

As for PvP, hotjoin is sorta okay if you want to mess around, just build defensively, I never leave home without Lightning Reflexes and traited Signet of Stone.
Yes, that only leaves us with 1 optional utility. It ain’t easy being a Ranger.

tPvP I’ve never played and thus cannot make any meaningful comments. However, one can assume that with pre-mades and guild groups these teams would very organized and highly efficient. Expect mesmers and guardians getting preference.

as a casual player, it may be safe to say that by the time you hit 80 and competitive content, the class will have significant changes made. That being said, based on how much work it needs, this might not be the same class you learned to play when you hit 80.

Ranger needs some love, it would be dishonest to say otherwise.

…but that’s not because it just somehow magically got more worse off in the PvE content that’s been sitting around unchanged for months and months. The ranger’s the same state in PvE it’s always been. It’s just that the forum’s in a bit of an upset, and there’s no short supply of gloom tinted glasses right now.

Truthfully, dungeon running is the only thing I really do in this game, and I’ve never had a hard time with Ranger or been turned down a slot. That said, there are areas of concern you should be aware of. A good number of utilities and traits are a bit lackluster leading to problems with build diversity. There’s a truly unfortunate collection of bugs and hiccups that seem to be conspiring against glass cannon damage-centric builds specifically. And managing Pet HP swings drastically from incredibly easy to incredibly hard dependent on game mode.

So, ultimately I think it depends on what you want to do and whether or not the current problems with the class present an actual obstacle for you. For example, if by saying ‘ranged aspect’ you’re hoping for Sniper-esque gameplay, I’m afraid that’s just not in the cards right now. If it’s more like you just sort of want a character that can comfortably operate at a range – that’s a different story.

Thanks for the replies. That was really helpful.

@Vox Hollow: by ranged, I mean in the sense that the ranger can fight from a distance, not engaged in a melee. This was one of the reasons I picked the ranger. The pet goes to the front and holds aggro and I can bring down the rain from a distance. Whatever the condition of the ranger right now, that remains a strong combination.

@Moustached (cool name by the way): that’s one thing I had in mind. Things come and go. Today ranger is low; tomorrow it might be a strong profession.

I might consider the guardian. It’s a different playstyle but the support/healing aspect seems nice.

I played a warrior in WOW for a long time and was looking for something different.

Thanks everyone!

Narya