Guild Wars 2

Ranger to me feels so vanilla, especially the longbow, compared to main who is a guardian. Most of the weapons feel so boring and work with little thought and simply pressing things when they come off cooldown. I love the idea of the class but I can’t seem to enjoy it at all.

Obviously don’t say “well don’t play it then” because I won’t be at the moment, but I would just like to know before I delete the ranger, does anyone know how to make it fun?

Assuming you’re level 40+:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMAQJAVDjEV11xVC2BguAmiDd8L4i7OZC
You have to constantly swap your weapons and pets to gain benefits, use your pets’ abilities and throw AoE spells around.
I find in fun having to do so many things simultaneously, dunno if it’s also your definition of fun.
Instead of the Longbow you can also your Sword or Axe and Warhorn.

That’s exactly the point, all the weapons are just auto-attack + use up the cooldowns —> switch set and use up cooldowns. The difference being the ranger attacks look plain boring and don’t feel ’good to use in comparison to other classes. You can get the whole weapon swapping experience from all the other classes anyway. I just find it frustrating a class I was really looking forward to playing is so boring/stale.

I really can’t get enough of my ranger. I use Shortbow and Axe/Torch, but sometime also Sword/Dagger. The third shortbow skill, and 2, 3, and 4 on the Sword/Dagger are definitely not just skills you should spam. Instead wait and watch your enemy. All of these skills when used correctly will let you evade and counter attack, dramatically increasing the durability of the ranger. In addition I also went trap spec and the added zoning + combo fields give me a lot more interactions to work with.

Well, what is so fun about the Guardian that you enjoy so much?

The Ranger, in my opinion, is heavily reliant on positional play. The Guardian is more `static’ in that he has one effective range (face it, Sceptre and Staff suck) and gains no particular advantage standing here compared to there. The Ranger has skills that are more effective when close/far away or when attacking from a flanking position.

The Ranger has more of a skirmisher play-style. By moving in and out, or moving around, you can optimise your damage. The Ranger is less about flashy all-purpose tools and more about getting to the optimal position for X, then move to the optimal position for Y.

Micromanaging your pet also adds an extra dimension that is unique to this class.

Its fun and rewarding when you know what you’re doing, I solo’ed a Champion today with mobs without getting hit due to pure awesomeness of the class and skill. Relying on cripple, poison, Flame Trap and constant pet swapping for Quickening Zephr, fun freakin time. Find that one moment makes you feel that the class is amazing and fun, not just one that stands there and shoots all day.

Himei.5379:

Its fun and rewarding when you know what you’re doing, I solo’ed a Champion today with mobs without getting hit due to pure awesomeness of the class and skill. Relying on cripple, poison, Flame Trap and constant pet swapping for Quickening Zephr, fun freakin time. Find that one moment makes you feel that the class is amazing and fun, not just one that stands there and shoots all day.

EDIT-^Care to show us your traits/weapons sets/pets?

Rangers boring? Stop playing cookie cutter builds and try something else that isn’t pure dps and kite fest.

Ever tried pure melee ranger ? I’ve been runing this since day 1 and it’s been a blast. You can benefit from all combo fields and being melee boosts your traps usefulness insanely even untraited. You have a lot of different dodges and there is much more timing involved in surviving, especially in Explorer Mode.

Compaired to a Ranger the Guardian feels like a lifeless blob.

That’s just my point of view, so don’t feel offended. You might like a very different playstyle than me. I love being pushed to my limits and my build even if not optimal provides just that.

Have fun !

Piercing Arrow, Long Bow, good positioning – still find that fun, even though the class IMO needs some attention.

It’s pretty much all about the pets. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out which pet works for a given situation in a dungeon, and I also keep changing pets for normal questing just for the fun of it. Sometimes I need a tank for a situation, other times I need more damage. If a boss is in a place that doesn’t allow melee damage, I need to use a devourer or spider for ranged damage. If a boss deals a lot of damage, then I need a pet that can cast skills like chill to slow down the damage output. There’s also some micromanaging with the pet when you’re fighting a boss. For instance, when a boss does an AoE attack around himself, you need to call back your pet so it doesn’t die from the burst damage. Then you have your F2 pet skill that you need to activate whenever you can. If you’re using the skill Search and Rescue, you need to decide if it’s best to let the pet keep tanking, or if you can let it run over to revive an ally. There’s a lot to consider just for the pets.

Next to that you have different choices with the spirits, different signets to use, different elite skills to use. Do you need a spirit that can give protection, or a spirit that can give swiftness? Do you need Signet of Renewal to remove condition damage, or can you use Signet of Stone to make your pet more durable? Do you need Spirit of Nature to revive your party, or can you go with more damage from Rampage As One? Weapon choice is just the beginning..

Helos right. Perhaps ranger have many options but not more than other classes. But almost all weapon based only on one usable ability. All other useless trash. Oh… and suppa-duppa funy and interesting gratesword has damage like s….t

I started with a Ranger. They’ve always been my favorite class, but I feel sort of stale playing lately. I love using the GS, but I don’t feel like it does much damage at all. I also use shortbow, but I get really bored. I switch up my pets a lot to try new skills, but I’m just not feeling it. I switched to Mesmer and am loving that. Mesmer seems to be all about managing your clones, condition damage, and combos. I’ll get back on my Ranger eventually. Probably just need to research some different builds.

I find guardian boring and ranger fun. Main was a necro but have mainly been tPvPing on ranger last few days.

I love this game and I love my Ranger. That said, as I become comfortable with all of the basics I am increasingly confused by what seem to be contradictions. My signature Ranger weapon (longbow) is strongest at long range but the moment I hit anything it closes to short range. My opening strike only works inside of 900 feet when I am traited at 1500, so again, if I want the one good long shot to hit, I give up my OS. I can shortbow, strafe, trap and kite but for me that just seems to be leaving on the ground some of what I had hoped to be flavor parts of the game. Just unsatisfying for a game I want so much to love.

yeah i echo what everyone is saying! I love ranger, when i thought that I’ve developed the build and skillset that i feel fits me the most, today I try something new, different weapon combinations and all of a sudden i was like wow, this is super fun and effective. It’s a very versatile class and you can literally find strategies with almost anything in your arsenal. Rather than just pressing buttons, ranger is a thinking class, you plan out carefully and you react carefully as well as to what you need depending on situation. It’s a very strategic, tactful, effective class. Today I solo’d swarms of mobs in Orr during an event, and only other player who was there for the beginning was a warrior who died many times, where as i was long range luring in picking some off before rushing in with two melee weapon sets and creating a big storm of AoE around me and cleared them out quite fast. It’s so much fun! You can do so much and try so many different things. If you’re only using a longbow i suggest you go in melee because it’s super fun. With dodging, evasion, bleeds and lots of skills that keeps you super active and mobile. Next I’m going to try to head into pvp with traps/pet builds something like that and try something different. I believe ranger is one of the most versatile, one that can survive the longest, and one of the most interesting classes. You don’t need your flashy moves and those skills that SEEM so powerful or useful, the skills rangers can have are quite effective if used correctly. The more i use this class, the more i realize there’s a lot more to learn about how to play this well.

I have filled up all of my 5 free slots and I always end up returning to ranger. Thus far I also I have a Mesmer, Elementalist, Necro, and Guardian (I actually haven’t really played the Necro, but I created it one night when I was feeling bored).

I have a trap/condition damage ranger. Right now I am using sword/torch and axe/warhorn. In the past I have switched out the axe/warhorn for one bow or the other, depending on whether I was skirmishing or defending.

Anyways, I’d say that on average about 70% of my damage is done by my traps, which melt mobs, and I can ground target my traps which enables me to stay ranged with the axes and hit multiple targets. Using traps keeps you constantly on your feet. Less and less I am using my sword/torch (because the auto-attack really does take a lot of the control away) but it does much better melee damage (which means I am taking more damage).

With traps, it’s a whole lot of run to be zipping around on your feet (while using the axe/warhorn) and placing traps where you think they need to be. In WvW I usually feel comfortable approaching a group of about 3 plays solo, at 4-5 it depends on how reckless I feel, and more than that I use the warhorn to try and get out fast hahaha. I am typically just in the most trouble if I get rooted.

My ideal stats are power, toughness, and condition damage. If you haven’t tried a trap/condition damage ranger, you should!

Nope. Its probably the most engaging class I’ve played.

To play it well you need to juggle your pets and various skills with positioning and movement being really important for some builds. A longbow sniper is more of a stationary build, but can be fun knocking people of buildings and so on.

Its also fun because you can stand out of combat a little and assess whats going on, unlike straight melee classes. The cat and mouse against thieves/guadians etc is also a lot of fun and really rewarding when you pull it off.

I love my Ranger. However, I’m 43 and the shortbow (while awesome) has gotten boring. I’ve taken to running alternate weapon sets for the variety. Btw, sword/axe with some traps and my warthog is awesome!!

Ranger is my favorite class so far, at least in my PvE soloing travels (haven’t done much WvW or PvP)…

Long Bow/Short Bow is a good mix for me (lock down the target with F1 pet-send then open with long bow at range, then swap to short bow for circle-strafe/kite/conditions; when target is dead long bow is off cooldown and switch back for the next mob). My play style is highly mobile so the mobs can’t run up into my face and gob-smack me, which feels right for a Ranger. TO ME anyway…

And collecting pets from all over the map = cool. Hopefully they’ll add some new ones soon!