Guild Wars 2

“Range” r…..is now “Melee” r. It is the new “support” class. You can tank, heal, cast boons, debuffs. But if you want damage or to get kills..you have to KS for them cause you wont be able to 1v1.
I’ve been experimenting with almost every build in everyway. Unless a GW2 employee can actually tell me what I’m doing wrong (not some number monkey, which flood these forums) Then i can honestly tell you without a doubt. the Ranger class has no place in the top spots either in Spvp, WVW or PVE.
I would absolutely love, in everyway, an employee prove to me I am wrong. Show me a build that works in Roaming WvW /SCouting and i will back down and apologize. Other than that I am not playing a game that “Baits n Switches”. (which is illegal btw)

A game that you spend more time number crunching, tweaking, and researching MORe than you actually get to play is not worth playing. I just spent the last 48 hours preparing, implementing , rehearsing and executing almost every build there is in the game with almost every peice of gear there is in the game for our class. NONE of them can scout properly.

I get out ranged, out meleed, out healed, out CC’d and out escaped better by every other class.

I refuse to reroll. My time is to precious to me. I will wait till this unsung hero can show me the secrets of this new patch and how it is implemented in the game with the Ranger , excuse me, the Meleer class.

Thank you for reading,

well…………….

^^ oh shoot he’s actually holding a bow there XD

It gets worse than that.

Vhampire.4132:

I get out ranged, out meleed, out healed, out CC’d and out escaped better by every other class.

This is the most accurate and concise statement ever made about the Ranger!

A short explanation for those missing the mild fun of it:

It has been a popular meme on these forums lately, that every time rangers get nerfed to the ground (that’s like, every single balance patch), fanboys start pouring out en masse, screaming "zomg go QQ ur noobz teh Aragern was teh ranger and he was only using teh sword man lol!!!" in quite perfect unison.

Reality check: He wasn’t.

Idk if it’s because I’ve played a ranger from gw1 or what (i know, they’re very different), but I really don’t have that much of a problem as a ranger. Really i just run shortbow and axe/warhorn, focus on survival skills and don’t have a problem. Idk if it’s because I can mitigate my damage more or what… I can hold my own in most battles in SPVP, WvW, and am just a little squishy in PvE, but keep up with sufficient damage. All in all though, I’m pretty satisfied with the changes for the ranger, except for pet debuffs

Here’s a video of me roaming with 1-2 other people. Rangers can roam just fine with the BM build. (I know, there should be more than 1 build)

1.) pre patch
2.) cool. Now ur GS has more range than my short bow
3.) nice vids

Spaceman.1063:

A short explanation for those missing the mild fun of it:

It has been a popular meme on these forums lately, that every time rangers get nerfed to the ground (that’s like, every single balance patch), fanboys start pouring out en masse, screaming “zomg go QQ ur noobz teh Aragern was teh ranger and he was only using teh sword man lol!!!” in quite perfect unison.

Reality check: He wasn’t.

isn’t ranger or isn’t using only sword?
reality is – that scene that was pointed above is only scene in the movie where he is actually using that bow
more interesting is that rangers of the north was more speced in chainmails helmets shields and spears
more “bowman” style of rangers in tolkien books was Rangers of Ithilien (Faramir :P)
and the whole idea of “ranger” class was merged rangers of the north with rangers of ithilien.

when i see posts like these, I laugh and think on my head “rangers aren’t bad, there’s just too many players that do not know how to play them”… and to be honest the “nerf” didn’t even hurt me at all can still kill any1 in spvp in a 1v1.

Vhampire.4132:

I would absolutely love, in everyway, an employee prove to me I am wrong. Show me a build that works in Roaming WvW /SCouting and i will back down and apologize.

While I am not an employee, I can tell you that when I roam with full Apothecary gear, trinkets, and weapons, with 0/0/30/10/30 I can kill about every class that comes in my way. Now say you’re sorry.

I always preferred pure melee. Goody!

Vhampire.4132:

Blablabla

Try conditions. They actually work great.

It would be so easy to fix this class…

-Return Shortbow to 1200 range
-Increase Longbow range to 1500 (anything higher than shortbow will do, really, but we are RANGERS, we should be able to outrange other classes)
-Undo pet changes made in patch

Just those 3 things would make ranger class so much better and enjoyable to play. Not to mention viable.

Sorry here’s a video post patch. BM ranger still works just fine.

I really don’t care about PvP.
In PvE I’m just crap now, I reworked my Traits to try the Might stacking but without the points in BM my pet just keep dieing, even the drakes and bears…

Re: WvW

I don’t know what you expect to be able to do. It’s a proven fact that some players dominate on their Rangers. In fact, the recent nerfs are because of that domination.

The good players will still dominate after the patch. Although that isn’t truly an indicator of a classes strength. I would agree with you if you said Rangers are currently a tad under powered compared to the rest of the classes. Still, in WvW you can still compete just fine.

I have no opinion on dungeons since I don’t participate

I assure you there are really good players right now in PvP with bow power builds doing really well…

I understand your frustration. first off ( im not sure why im even addressing this lol) the Bait and switch legality is more about getting what was packaged. if they said hey you!..yeah you over there…here is a Epic MMO..and you got it home and it was pong..thats bait and switch. On the box it says that play experience will change frequently.

now moving on lol. I feel you on the Bow section of the ranger…it could really use some work..i have been singling out every bow ranger i can find since the patch and im able to kill them in under 12 seconds without fail. Im not sure what would help though. I mean…i think from the melee perspective …rangers are pretty kitten decent. sure we need more trait change and skill fixes..but overall its not bad.

The Bows….not so much lol…i really think the devs planned on people to use bows at range then switch to melee when folks got close…and thats why they arent as well rounded as they should be.

jaxx

Malcastus.6240:

I always preferred pure melee. Goody!

Ditto. I usually do range when I’m lazy.

Aiishe.3240:

It would be so easy to fix this class…

-Return Shortbow to 1200 range

Yeah it sucks BUT this is how it should have been since release. Short (range) bow vs Long (range) bow. This was effective in GW1, so was confusing when wasnt the same in GW2. Anet’s mistake was taking tooo long, almost 1 year to make this change so all of us were accustom to the range.

-Increase Longbow range to 1500 (anything higher than shortbow will do, really, but we are RANGERS, we should be able to outrange other classes)

We already have highest range on longbow when traited. Getting a range of 1500 + more with traits is OP especially in WvW with Keepsand Fort battles.

-Undo pet changes made in patch

Agreed. I think pets were perfect the way they were up to the patch (minus a few AI problems). Their damage was great if specced into BM, good if it wasnt. It was at a perfect state. They could have done many other things like move the minor adept trait (which I hate since 5 into BM was great) but it made sense.

The word “ranger” does not come from “range” …

Spaceman.1063:

fanboys start pouring out en masse,

Everytime someone disagrees with the direction things are taking, they trot out the ‘fanboy’ statement as if that would somehow make their point valid.

It has the opposite effect.

We could sit here and run around saying ‘all those haters ever do is blah blah blah’ and it would be the same thing in reverse… and that wouldn’t get us anywhere.

We might not agree, and we can debate the points. But don’t trot out cheap shot comments.

Some dislike the change, some like it, many don’t care. But reasons go deeper than ‘fanboy’ or ‘hater’…

The only thing about ranger that got nerfed was pet damage. The bow changes are buffs – more damage to the non-autoattack skills so that they can move into the rotation giving better access to varied conditions. And a shift to medium range means closer to the action for applying boons and benefiting from other’s boons. As for longbow – it got faster.

So we’re left with a pet nerf… and as pets only did a portion of a ranger’s damage anyway (what was a pet attack, 50% or 2/3 damage or something?) – the loss is smaller than the percentage implies. If you use shortbow, the boost to the non-autoattack skills more than makes up the difference: resulting in a net damage boost.
- Basically we’re being told that we have to play, and not let our pet do it for us. Rangers that were weak before were weak from too much pet reliance. The pet’s meant to be like a mobile engineer turret. If an engineer popped out one turret and then just auto-attacked – they’d be weak too…
- Shifting damage off of pet and onto the ranger makes not playing this way more beneficial.

If anything, melee rangers like me are the ones who should be complaining. My axe (which is actually my range option) got some buffs, but I got not 14% damage boost to any of my abilities, yet my pet suffered the same damage loss as the bow folks did.

What i find funny is Aragorn, what the term Ranger means has zero to do with Guildwars 2 the last patch and why a ranged profession is worse than non ranged professions that also use bows…

Why the last patch wasn’t just for sPvP tells me the balance team wouldn’t know what balance was even if it came up and hit them in the face..

I dont understand why LOTR and Aragorn are continually brought up on these forums.

Just because he could be seen as the basis (maybe) for the ranger class is some games doesnt mean every game from now until forever will have their ranger class based exactly on what he did and didnt do.

Anet dont care what JRR Tokkien’s idea of a ranger was and frankly neither do I.

Now, I do think rangers in GW2 should be the strongest class at range, and thats not because Ranger has the word “range” in it.. its because in ANets own description of the class we are "Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance ".

So can we please oneday move past assuming all rangers should be aragon, or all ranger should use range because of the name, and just go by what Anet has told us their vision for the class is in this game which is “rangers can adapt to any situation”. All that to me implies that rangers have a stronger focus on ranged combat than most but are capable in close combat fighting as well, which frankly is exactly what we are.

With that said I think we arnt actually that bad at range, the longbow for all its failings actually has pretty big DPS at 1000+ range. If you use it for that, and then swap out to another shorter range weapon set if/when people approach you its actually quite a good weapon. Its just not a “use this at all times always” weapon like the SB can be.

Considering that the class got a buff to its ranged damage… I think one could say it still is a strong ranged class…

But it is also more than just ranged – and that is why Aragon has been being mentioned recently. While Legalos was an archer, Aragon was a ranger.

A ranger does it all, and not just one thing – so back to back pictures of him with a sword then with a bow: that’s the model. Switching it up for the situation as an ideal skirmisher would.

Tywele.7812:

The word “ranger” does not come from “range” …

Actually, it does. However, more in the context of ranging over ground, not ranged combat.

ranger (n.)
late 14c., “gamekeeper,” agent noun from range (v.)). Attested from 1660s in sense of “man (often mounted) who polices an area.” The elite U.S. combat unit is attested from 1942 (organized 1941).

Cufufalating.8479:

I dont understand why LOTR and Aragorn are continually brought up on these forums.

Just because he could be seen as the basis (maybe) for the ranger class is some games doesnt mean every game from now until forever will have their ranger class based exactly on what he did and didnt do.

Anet dont care what JRR Tokkien’s idea of a ranger was and frankly neither do I.

Now, I do think rangers in GW2 should be the strongest class at range, and thats not because Ranger has the word “range” in it.. its because in ANets own description of the class we are "Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance ".

So can we please oneday move past assuming all rangers should be aragon, or all ranger should use range because of the name, and just go by what Anet has told us their vision for the class is in this game which is “rangers can adapt to any situation”. All that to me implies that rangers have a stronger focus on ranged combat than most but are capable in close combat fighting as well, which frankly is exactly what we are.

With that said I think we arnt actually that bad at range, the longbow for all its failings actually has pretty big DPS at 1000+ range. If you use it for that, and then swap out to another shorter range weapon set if/when people approach you its actually quite a good weapon. Its just not a “use this at all times always” weapon like the SB can be.

The point isn’t that every ranger has to do it like Aragorn it’s that the word “ranger” has nothing to do with “ranged combat” in this context wich IS a common misconception, I know you don’t think this way by your post but others do so it’s just an example for those people, a ranger can use ranged combat or he could not but neither is what makes him a ranger you could pick Benjen Stark if you like as example he’s a ranger because he patrols and so is Aragorn.

The point about arenanets description of the ranger class is the one that should be made but it commonly isn’t that’s why people bring up Aragorn and now perhaps Benjen

Edit: I posted Aragorn with a bow deliberatley to make fun of this btw but that is probably pretty obvious.

The pet debuff hasn’t made me any easier to kill, they didn’t debuff my dodges or me irl, but my damage has been cut. In order to reach my OLD level of damage I must work to buff my pet but…. DAT A.I. !!!
The pet debuffs would be OK for me if I could somehow get my pet to somehow HIT my enemy. Personally, other ranger’s pets don’t hit me unless they are a jag. If they could just how give the pet a little more reliability as a source of damage or give us some way to make it evade I wouldn’t be as mad. To make me actually happy I would like a way for the actual toon itself to do more damage. A pet tends not to last in a zerg or against things in dungeons like the spinning lazer death chamber in the Aetherblade dungeon or the AOE of champions and when that happens, it is a little like losing part of your character’s weapon. I just want my ranger with a down pet to be at least near another class without their class mechanics.

Funkentelechy.6472:

Tywele.7812:

The word “ranger” does not come from “range” …

Actually, it does. However, more in the context of ranging over ground, not ranged combat.

ranger (n.)
late 14c., “gamekeeper,” agent noun from range (v.)). Attested from 1660s in sense of “man (often mounted) who polices an area.” The elite U.S. combat unit is attested from 1942 (organized 1941).

I responded to OPs first sentence. Wasn’t it clear what I meant?

Hax.8701:

While I am not an employee, I can tell you that when I roam with full Apothecary gear, trinkets, and weapons, with 0/0/30/10/30 I can kill about every class that comes in my way. Now say you’re sorry.

Then in the interest of improving WvW roaming, allow me to suggest that you teach your elite skills to the other Rangers in your guild as they are in terrible need of instruction.

Some of you are missing my point. Let me clear it up for you.

I started this game 4 weeks ago. I tried every profession and seemed to love the “ranger profession” more than the others. I invested time and money into, Not just play time, but time to get good. First indication to me how bad this class is should of been when i really couldnt find any stand-outs or any really good information concerning the profession. Most ppl i talked to or read were very unclear as to how the ranger worked specifically. Not alot of technical skill videos, montages, or at play vids could be found that werent under 3 + months old. But I ventured on.
Now I have come to understand fully that this class is really broken on so many levels. The truth is, Not one of you can purley tell me how this class is to be presented in the context of this game. There is no definition to this profession at all by ANET. There isnt 1 build that works over another build. There isnt even a build that stands out more than others. I promise you, take any other class skill for skill gear for gear, and you will find it does most of the sand box better than this class.
look online and you can see stand outs all over in the other classes with virtually 1-3 possible builds that work very effeciently.
Point is – in 2 weeks i was 80 and working hard at my gear. The gear i decided on was to out range, evade in up close combat, kite and allow my pet to do 50% of the work. What i found was astonishing. I found that play style does now work. So i compromised. I went to melee, and that my friends is where the patch came in. Now, to enjoy this game i had a choice. 1.) do WvW to get all those badges back to buy gear that may or may not work with a new build, or 2.) run PVE to get that same gear (which i loath), or 3.) buy it from the auction house.
This is unacceptable to me. If someone told me, “hey come play this game, choose a professions, level it up, and then spend countless hours tweaking, gearing and regearing till you find something that actually works to meet your play style, but oh you wont find it”. I would of told them to kitten off.
So, here we are. None of you guys can legitamatley tell me what works and what doesnt work. We are all argueing about whether or not the profession should excel at range or close corders….but your all missing the point.! We dont excel at anything for any reason. And for me to spend another countless amount of hours trying out another build, running around gearing up for it, buying runes, getting legendarys, just to find im kittened? no thanks… If i want to play this game it will have to be with a class that works.
Dont miss understand me, every class has some limitations. I truley understand that. But this is broken and you guys should be mad as kitten for it. You paid good money and here we are with a pet that can not even stay on target, a bow that stops auto attacking for unknown reasons and 5 different pairs of gear to that take hours to equip, plus countless other glitches and designer mishaps, just to try out the class.
My time is valuable to me. I choose to play online games for the fun of it. This isnt fun. Less than a month ago i paid money for a game that was suppose to work. It doesnt IMO. And we as a community can allow developers to develop a game while we sit and wait patiently for “our turn” or we can demand it to work now!

Thanks for your time,

Ranger Vs. Thief (s/p & sb), Mesmer shatter, Engineer and necro cd are little OP.
I dual several times with my ranger (s/d or s/t & sb (before nerf) . Don’t get me wrong some thief’s a ranger can take; the others from above sentence, not so much. Ranger can give them a long fight but at the end the ranger wont make it. For ele’s , wars, ranger vs. ranger, and guardians are more fair fights for rangers. This is just my opinion on the matter.

Vhampire.4132:

Some of you are missing my point. Let me clear it up for you.

I started this game 4 weeks ago. I tried every profession and seemed to love the “ranger profession” more than the others. I invested time and money into, Not just play time, but time to get good. First indication to me how bad this class is should of been when i really couldnt find any stand-outs or any really good information concerning the profession. Most ppl i talked to or read were very unclear as to how the ranger worked specifically. Not alot of technical skill videos, montages, or at play vids could be found that werent under 3 + months old. But I ventured on.
Now I have come to understand fully that this class is really broken on so many levels. The truth is, Not one of you can purley tell me how this class is to be presented in the context of this game. There is no definition to this profession at all by ANET. There isnt 1 build that works over another build. There isnt even a build that stands out more than others. I promise you, take any other class skill for skill gear for gear, and you will find it does most of the sand box better than this class.
look online and you can see stand outs all over in the other classes with virtually 1-3 possible builds that work very effeciently.
Point is – in 2 weeks i was 80 and working hard at my gear. The gear i decided on was to out range, evade in up close combat, kite and allow my pet to do 50% of the work. What i found was astonishing. I found that play style does now work. So i compromised. I went to melee, and that my friends is where the patch came in. Now, to enjoy this game i had a choice. 1.) do WvW to get all those badges back to buy gear that may or may not work with a new build, or 2.) run PVE to get that same gear (which i loath), or 3.) buy it from the auction house.
This is unacceptable to me. If someone told me, “hey come play this game, choose a professions, level it up, and then spend countless hours tweaking, gearing and regearing till you find something that actually works to meet your play style, but oh you wont find it”. I would of told them to kitten off.
So, here we are. None of you guys can legitamatley tell me what works and what doesnt work. We are all argueing about whether or not the profession should excel at range or close corders….but your all missing the point.! We dont excel at anything for any reason. And for me to spend another countless amount of hours trying out another build, running around gearing up for it, buying runes, getting legendarys, just to find im kittened? no thanks… If i want to play this game it will have to be with a class that works.
Dont miss understand me, every class has some limitations. I truley understand that. But this is broken and you guys should be mad as kitten for it. You paid good money and here we are with a pet that can not even stay on target, a bow that stops auto attacking for unknown reasons and 5 different pairs of gear to that take hours to equip, plus countless other glitches and designer mishaps, just to try out the class.
My time is valuable to me. I choose to play online games for the fun of it. This isnt fun. Less than a month ago i paid money for a game that was suppose to work. It doesnt IMO. And we as a community can allow developers to develop a game while we sit and wait patiently for “our turn” or we can demand it to work now!

Thanks for your time,

I totally agree and with you on that statement. I my self have a Ranger (main), all I play, still trying to play around with my traits and gear. Spend to much rl money and in-game time (WvW) and still get out played from 4 classes ( you all know what they are). And I refuse to to re-roll, that’s just to much time and effort. Maybe they have future plans for Ranger? I sure hope so.

There are actually a few simple things they could do to fix the bow issue.

Change Eagle Eye to:
Increases range of Short bow, Long Bow and Harpoon gun
Increases Short Bow, Long Bow and Harpoon gun damage by 5%

Swap it with Remorseless Moving it from X to XII

This change would put it on par with other classes as nearly every class has the ability to increase the damage of all of their weapons by 5-10% as it is.

Change the effect of the trait Remorseless from “regain opening shot when you kill a foe” to “Short bow no longer requires you to be flanking or behind a target to apply bleeds.”

No other classes bleed attacks with a ranged weapon require that you be behind or to the side of a target. At least with this trait rangers would be on even ground with warriors and thieves ranged attacks that apply bleeds from every direction.

Allow rangers to stow their pets and gain a buff for doing so. There are so many issues with the pet AI that we could write a small book about them. If rangers were given the option of a buff to stats and no pet or a pet I think Anet would be amazed at how many rangers would be running around with out a pet… They would exchange the “utility” provided by the pet for raw power and precision. Most Sigs add 180 to a given stat. Perhaps by putting away their pet rangers could receive 180 power and precision.

Laiboch.4380:

There are actually a few simple things they could do to fix the bow issue.

Change Eagle Eye to:
Increases range of Short bow, Long Bow and Harpoon gun
Increases Short Bow, Long Bow and Harpoon gun damage by 5%

Swap it with Remorseless Moving it from X to XII

This change would put it on par with other classes as nearly every class has the ability to increase the damage of all of their weapons by 5-10% as it is.

Change the effect of the trait Remorseless from “regain opening shot when you kill a foe” to “Short bow no longer requires you to be flanking or behind a target to apply bleeds.”

No other classes bleed attacks with a ranged weapon require that you be behind or to the side of a target. At least with this trait rangers would be on even ground with warriors and thieves ranged attacks that apply bleeds from every direction.

Allow rangers to stow their pets and gain a buff for doing so. There are so many issues with the pet AI that we could write a small book about them. If rangers were given the option of a buff to stats and no pet or a pet I think Anet would be amazed at how many rangers would be running around with out a pet… They would exchange the “utility” provided by the pet for raw power and precision. Most Sigs add 180 to a given stat. Perhaps by putting away their pet rangers could receive 180 power and precision.

I like the “option to have or not have pets”. I like your train of thought.

Vhampire.4132:

So your point is you don’t want to regear? I’ve told you BM builds still work in wvw, showed you a video even.

Last Warrior Lord.7248:

Ranger Vs. Thief (s/p & sb), Mesmer shatter, Engineer and necro cd are little OP.
I dual several times with my ranger (s/d or s/t & sb (before nerf) . Don’t get me wrong some thief’s a ranger can take; the others from above sentence, not so much. Ranger can give them a long fight but at the end the ranger wont make it. For ele’s , wars, ranger vs. ranger, and guardians are more fair fights for rangers. This is just my opinion on the matter.

Depends on what build you’re running. BM build s/t a/d can pretty much solo any class np. A good engi is the only class that gives me problems (and they were the fotm, it’s necros now though)

My beastmaster wasn’t terribly hit it seems. (talking PvE + WvW)

• I runs a somewhat standard 0, 10, 30, 0, 30 spec (the 10 Skirmishing is Pet’s Prowess, +30% crit damage).
• Weapons are axe/torch & greatsword, which were slightly buffed (+1s chill on axe 3).
• Gear is a mix of apothecary and shamans. Undead runes. Corruption and energy sigils.

So, the patch changed a few things. No easy quickness on pet switch, that’s the biggest thing along with the nerfs to river drake, jaguar and carrion devourer. Raven and owl look a little stronger, and my personal damage looks the same.

As far as the bows are concerned, I gave up on shortbow pre-patch in favour of axe/torch for heavier conditions. Greatsword is there for mobility, block, evade, bleed and stun + pet buff. My warrior is honestly the better archer and she’s a pure archer at that without a pet tagging along. If any ranger wants to play an archer without a pet then you’re playing the wrong class: roll a warrior and rain zerg-smashing fiery death. (or if you just want cheezy aoe spam from 1500 range roll an engie and go to town on grenades…)

Ok, so back to the ranger. As of now we have… 1 build? Or 2 if you add the spirit build, but I hear that’s very passive and… dull?

In open world PvE I can run more zerker gear and use the bows, dual wield axes and such and that’s fun, but it’s also very casual and easy. Those are the only places those weapons seem easily viable, except perhaps the offhand axe has some niche roll in sieges with the pull + missile reflection skills.

My 2c.

Ranger is a class that requires real skill now. All I’m going to say is it is trash rangers who fought for the pet buff and now they are all going to go cry because they cant run a BM build anymore. Now the rangers who really know the class will succeed, the way it should be. Im not telling you traits but in PvE. Condition/traps build. I drop more condi’s than some necros. PvP? Kiting build. Kind of like a thief but no stealth, just a ton of evades. Think OUTSIDE your build specced 30 into BM. Because thankfully… Those days are gone.

Dante.1508:

What i find funny is Aragorn, what the term Ranger means has zero to do with Guildwars 2 the last patch and why a ranged profession is worse than non ranged professions that also use bows…

Why the last patch wasn’t just for sPvP tells me the balance team wouldn’t know what balance was even if it came up and hit them in the face..

If you want to get bring LoTR into this Aragorn mixed up melee and ranged a lot, but tended to do more melee combat once real fighting started. Legolas is more of the bow users type of character as he fought 80% of the time with his bow, but he also switched to melee when situations demanded it. In otherwords all weapons have a specific time/place to be used. It’s not difficult to hit the tilda (~) key and melee a bit when someone closes the distance if you can’t keep them at ranged. Besides, both swords (sword / greatsword) have gap closing / opening moves attached with them, so if nothing else you can swap to them to gain some distance before plugging away with your bow again.

Kichwas.7152:

Considering that the class got a buff to its ranged damage… I think one could say it still is a strong ranged class…

But it is also more than just ranged – and that is why Aragon has been being mentioned recently. While Legalos was an archer, Aragon was a ranger.

A ranger does it all, and not just one thing – so back to back pictures of him with a sword then with a bow: that’s the model. Switching it up for the situation as an ideal skirmisher would.

Uh Legolas does it all too…. he uses swords and daggers as well, and guess what that’s all meaningless to Guildwars 2…this isnt Lotro..

Aragorn sure does look good with his bow…shame it only fires as far as he can throw a axe…

Obviously, Aragorn was not a Ranger at all…just a cover story…must of been a warrior…

Meglobob.8620:

Aragorn sure does look good with his bow…shame it only fires as far as he can throw a axe…

Obviously, Aragorn was not a Ranger at all…just a cover story…must of been a warrior…

Well actually, how far can the axe bounce? Because, the axe can actually hit further than the bow.

BM Bunker still works….It actually works slightly better now just because of Weakness being so bloody overpowered.

Setun.4368:

Dante.1508:

What i find funny is Aragorn, what the term Ranger means has zero to do with Guildwars 2 the last patch and why a ranged profession is worse than non ranged professions that also use bows…

Why the last patch wasn’t just for sPvP tells me the balance team wouldn’t know what balance was even if it came up and hit them in the face..

If you want to get bring LoTR into this Aragorn mixed up melee and ranged a lot, but tended to do more melee combat once real fighting started. Legolas is more of the bow users type of character as he fought 80% of the time with his bow, but he also switched to melee when situations demanded it. In otherwords all weapons have a specific time/place to be used. It’s not difficult to hit the tilda (~) key and melee a bit when someone closes the distance if you can’t keep them at ranged. Besides, both swords (sword / greatsword) have gap closing / opening moves attached with them, so if nothing else you can swap to them to gain some distance before plugging away with your bow again.

Sword is bugged to all hell on Asura Characters, cannot evade and cannot dodge while using it, you are totally locked into combat and it has not been fixed in a year since opening..
Greatsword…i’d play a Warrior or Guardian if i wanted to use a greatsword not a Ranger because they can actually survive melee toe to toe..

Axe is terrible just shockingly bad..

Honestly at this time my build is Sword/Dagger – Shortbow, the last patch just made my build useless and i’m not going to fix Anets mistakes for them and waste more money on another build for my main.. I’ll just not play it far simpler..

Ranger doesnt mean ranged only, if that was the case Army Rangers would only be snipers. Idk how many times I’ll have to say that, but prolly alot more.

If you can’t play ranger after “SO” much effort maybe you should quit gw2 or play another class.

My BM ranger runs SB/GS and I haven’t lost a 1v1 in WvW since the patch, sooooo….. I guess I have to make a video or be a anet employee but you know it can be done. Go to the store and buy some kleenex and rework your build again.

Vhampire.4132:

I started this game 4 weeks ago.

Now it’s all starting to make sense. 4 Weeks is not long enough to learn very much about pvping at all, whether it is in wvw or spvp. Declaring a class as broken because you can’t succeed at it after a mere 4 weeks of starting the game is more an indicator of your impatience rather than the state of the game balance. Although I don’t entirely disagree with you, the class does need work (as they all do) but Ranger is not broken.

Pvping is just as much about fully understanding how your opponent’s classes work, as much as understanding how your own class works. Get characters of each class to 80 and play and understand them properly. If that’s too much of a time investment, try games that don’t require time investment.

Dante.1508:

Sword is bugged to all hell on Asura Characters, cannot evade and cannot dodge while using it, you are totally locked into combat and it has not been fixed in a year since opening..
Greatsword…i’d play a Warrior or Guardian if i wanted to use a greatsword not a Ranger because they can actually survive melee toe to toe..

Axe is terrible just shockingly bad..

Honestly at this time my build is Sword/Dagger – Shortbow, the last patch just made my build useless and i’m not going to fix Anets mistakes for them and waste more money on another build for my main.. I’ll just not play it far simpler..

You can turn off auto attack in the 1h sword chain so it doesn’t lock you in place. That’s a common theme with all races playing rangers, not just asuras. As for greatsword / standing toe-to-toe I do just that against warriors and guardians all day. Hell, I have 2 videos (albeit my editing skills still aren’t very good) that show it can be done; the evade on the 3rd autoattack occurs more often than you think, and with a block skill and an interrupt skill on top of the evade greatsword is an amazing utility powerhouse.

Axe/axe is an awesome combo, especially with winter’s bite and the new pull effect on path of scars you can REALLY screw someone’s endurance regen over which makes them easier targets to kill. Seems like you’re being stubborn about change and dismissing everything without having really trying out other options.

Vhampire.4132:

“Range” r…..is now “Melee” r. It is the new “support” class. You can tank, heal, cast boons, debuffs. But if you want damage or to get kills..you have to KS for them cause you wont be able to 1v1.
I’ve been experimenting with almost every build in everyway. Unless a GW2 employee can actually tell me what I’m doing wrong (not some number monkey, which flood these forums) Then i can honestly tell you without a doubt. the Ranger class has no place in the top spots either in Spvp, WVW or PVE.
I would absolutely love, in everyway, an employee prove to me I am wrong. Show me a build that works in Roaming WvW /SCouting and i will back down and apologize. Other than that I am not playing a game that “Baits n Switches”. (which is illegal btw)

A game that you spend more time number crunching, tweaking, and researching MORe than you actually get to play is not worth playing. I just spent the last 48 hours preparing, implementing , rehearsing and executing almost every build there is in the game with almost every peice of gear there is in the game for our class. NONE of them can scout properly.

I get out ranged, out meleed, out healed, out CC’d and out escaped better by every other class.

I refuse to reroll. My time is to precious to me. I will wait till this unsung hero can show me the secrets of this new patch and how it is implemented in the game with the Ranger , excuse me, the Meleer class.

Thank you for reading,

So… basically you’re asking for proof from the community but explicitly stating that you will only accept proof from the Dev’s. If you won’t accept ‘number crunching’ from a ‘number monkey’. What evidence from the community do you want? Video’s? Video’s can either be staged, or shots of a very skilled player fighting below average or underleveled/geared players. All classes can excell at all roles in this game, if you build for it. That isn’t to say you can make a tanky ranger that has ungodly burst potential, you have to choose what stats you want to focus in. If you are finding you die a lot or lose in 1v1 encounters then I would propose that you are less skilled than your opponents (at whichever rank/wvw tier you are fighting).

Out ranged? Ranger Longbow goes up to 1500 units range. The only other class that can match that is Engineer with grenades.

Out escaped? In addition to some of the best non-boon regeneration of ANY class, you also have a 1100unit leap on your greatsword, in addition to a block (that will continue to block for the duration until a melee attack is blocked, at which point it ends, thus u can block an infinite number of ranged attacks during the duration). Also: ranger has an extremely powerful downed state, surpassed only by the thief and the elementalist.

Out healed? See the above paragraph.

I’ll grant you that most other classes have more cc however.