Guild Wars 2

What are rangers?

Everyone has their idea, but if we want to generalize, it is warrior who channels power of the nature. In GW1 this concept was realized better since you could specialize in different ways, in GW2 being tied in to Beastmaster is a major flaw , but this issue was beat to death already so I will move on.

Since ranger is reflecting aspect and power of nature in some ways we see this in design of weapon styles and skills. I will focus on weapon styles and propose my idea how I see them defined now and you guys can then comment on how you interpret them yourself.

Without looking at warhorn and torch secondary (you guys post your ideas about them), we can see following styles: Longbow, Short bow, Sword and Dagger, Greatsword, Dual Axes. Yes I generalize a bit since we can mix off-hands with main hands, but I am talking more about themes then all combinations available to ranger.

So when looking at these styles, what type of ranger do I see based on current design of weapon styles? Here is some of my ideas (again comment based on your views please):

Longbow – Warden ranger he defends or hunts for people in settled areas. He or she is barrier between civilized and the Wild.

Short bow – quincential hunter. Using speed and deception (conditions) to take out their enemies.

Greatsword – Another version of the Warden type, but this one closer to the Wild. Power of spirits of animals flows through his blood and is released during combat.

Longsword and Dagger – between warden and hunter types. If you want reference, think of Aragon from LotR. Wanderer through the wild who uses guile in combat.

Dual Axe – Wild man. Channels power of nature by reflecting seasons.

Now you might not agree with my assessment and that is ok, but based on this view of rangers I have some idea on how to fix axes. I like axes so will talk about that , I leave to rest of weapon styles to all of you to comment on and post here.

When you look at abilities of axes you can see already emergence of wild man but it is half finished. Lets look at specific abilities and see what they have and what are my ideas about how to make them better thematically. Also before I start I like to point out that axes are power based weapons and since rangers like to hybrid stuff they mix range with melee. I also will talk about seasons since this is theme with 2 out of 5 axe abilities, so I will stick with this reflection of nature in use of the dual axes.

Ricochet – it is already designed to be reflection of this wild man ranger. As you close in with enemies you pump your self up (you gain might). More enemies you hit and close in with stronger you get. I like this ability as it is.

Splitblade – as it currently stands it is half finished idea. It just does not fit. The concept of cone aoe is great, but in power weapon set applying weak bleeds is just silly and makes no sense. It also does nothing to reflect power of nature which ranger should embody. My idea is to link it to season of Spring. For this to work you need 2 things. You need to improve damage a little to make it reflect the power which this set is . Also instead of bleed, put in its place small life steal per target hit to reflect renewal power of Spring.

Winter’s Bite – it reflects power of winter. Upcoming addition of aoe component will put this skill where it should be.

Path of Scars – some argue that is not good ability. It is good nuke but it is missing some elements to make it fit ranger better. For one it is again not linked to concept of the power of nature. My idea is to link it to Summer. To polish this skill off not sure if damage has to be increased (considering I can crit with dual hit for over 9k now). I defiantly needs increase on speed of flight of axe to show power not only through damage but through sheer force of axe, as it is at the moment it is too slow (usual complain on the forums). Also adding possibly short duration weakness debuff to reflect heat of summer draining strength. Name might need then modifying

Whirling Defnese – do not like the name but a decent skill. Not sure if it needs changes, but if you look at it closely enough you can see it already channeling Autumn in semblance of winds and leaves swirling around ranger. If anything needs better name.

I did not focus purely on damage and such but should be closer to longbow since it is power weapon, but I am not looking to make this OP set. The proposed changes also focus on power and debuffing enemies. Which I think fits with concept of crazy Wild Man image of this type of ranger.

While some of you will argue that this is crazy or stupid, it is just my idea on how to make axes more thematically more of the “ranger” weapon. Others can post ob how they see other weapons need to if they do to be modified to fit image of ranger better.

As it is ranger is just to generic and feels half finished.

I’d say that it does or doesn’t make sense.

What you say are statements based on personal preferences and personal “pictures”.
From which all are subjective (so they may or may not be objective).

While you may or may not be right, there’s several thousand people who’ll see it the opposite way / won’t bother / prefer gameplay / have a cosmetic suggestion of totally unrelated kind.

I personally think of Rangers as skirmishers that learned to survive in the wilderness and use their tricks for battle, such as taming beastly attributes and beasts themselves, just as mastering all kinds of weapons to survive in the wilderness.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think of Rangers as skirmishers that learned to survive in the wilderness and use their tricks for battle, such as taming beastly attributes and beasts themselves, just as mastering all kinds of weapons to survive in the wilderness.

This is how I imagine Ranger also. One other thing I would add is adaptability.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think of Rangers as skirmishers that learned to survive in the wilderness and use their tricks for battle, just as mastering all kinds of weapons to survive in the wilderness.

Editing your words down to this and I can 100% agree.

I can see what you are saying and on one level I agree, but the way GW2 introduced ranger and animations they use, they imply at least for some types of rangers that we channel nature. Not all times .

Other type rangers are skirmishers like you said and those are bow users, trap users, using tricks, but when you look at animation of melee weapons ans some the names, and powers like spirits, spring of renewal, even signets those imply channeling power of the nature. those at least how GW2 presents are not just things someone picked up and learned by living in nature and surviving there.

Cristoff.2481:

I can see what you are saying and on one level I agree, but the way GW2 introduced ranger and animations they use, they imply at least for some types of rangers that we channel nature. Not all times .

Other type rangers are skirmishers like you said and those are bow users, trap users, using tricks, but when you look at animation of melee weapons ans some the names, and powers like spirits, spring of renewal, even signets those imply channeling power of the nature. those at least how GW2 presents are not just things someone picked up and learned by living in nature and surviving there.

Don’t forsake yourself.
… Think of 50 shades of grey. Even such a garbage can tell that not everything is black and white and there still might be something in between. I know you can do better than this =)
Blaming the designer of your personal preferences is not something I consider cool. They did they game just fine. Some might like it, some might less.

There’s always X+1 correct possibilities.