Guild Wars 2

Ranger in PvE General, not going into PvP for now:

WEAPONS
The variety of weapons is quite alright, I do like how many we can choose from, the fact I don’t like are such as:

1. Greatsword: greatly unbuffed the damage for release, it’s a really cool weapon, it just doesn’t pay off to use it versus other weapons.
2. Longbow: “auto attack” damage, makes sense the as more range more damage, but short of I don’t think is a good way to go since you can’t be always at 1500, and this weapon is clearly a really strong base when it comes to “all-in-one”, supportive, AoE, survavility, group help.
3. As for the rest of weapons, I do really like them, in a side note, 1H-Sword sometimes auto-attacking really don’t work with dodge, you should really check this Arenanet guys.

SPIRITS
They became one of the “nostalgia” GW1 features for me, but not as powerful or useful as they were:

1. Their range is short, really short, and the buffs has a “chance” to trigger, this is totally horrible, when I see a warrior putting 2 banners, being immortal and having a buff all the time up, which is better than mine, makes it totally worthless.
2. The only one you can say it does a nice job is the Elite Skill, but that’s about it, since it aggro everything around and dies in a couple of seconds.

PETS
I have a really good feeling with them when it comes to solo PvE, but when it comes to dungeons;

1. I must disagree with just “you need to command it better!” sorry but this is not a fair point for me and much others anymore, they feel clunky, don’t response well to the command come back, and the worst of it is “I come back to you, but keeping a range from you of 5-10 meters!”, does aggro everything or just pull mobs randomly (like the sparks at Dwayna in Arah…)
2. My DPS gets really cutt’d off like 30% (when it’s dead or just calling it all time to not die, or even putting it on “relax mode..”), others say 40% don’t know can be as well dependent on build. I really don’t like this on bosses, like “Giganticus, dwanya priest, CoE bosses…” or any other one that does AoE damage. As much as you want your pet to be near you, is going always to be 5-10 meters away from you as close (as stated before), this makes it get killed, take to much damage, is not viable.
3. Why Arenanet didn’t implement like in GW1 to withdraw the pet on your will, why it needs to be a substantial amount of my dps going into it. Some people made really good post about this, as example: give us 25% buff damage if we withdraw the pet! (is just an example), so a good answer will be appreciated.
4. Said this: I have absolutely respect for anyone wanting to play with pets, I like it too, just sometimes is totally inconvenient or unnecessary.

ARROWS
Alright, this is the biggest problem of this game when it comes to a ranger, pop-up quickness, shoot arrows, enemies moving, obstructed, miss. Please, what is this, they were not evading, not rolling, not covering damage, not buffing themselves, just moving side to side laughing in my face in WvWvW, and as PvE.. mob runs to next target, I miss half of my shots. This is just to much guys, and I hope you fix this soon enough, I didn’t see an answer for this, and makes me worry a lot.

This are my thoughts guys, I might have some misspelling in English, sorry about that. I just really wanted to share this with everyone, I found my class to be not really complete and a bit left out, which made me quite sad.

Well! Thanks!

EDIT: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Bug-List/first

So when your projectile doesn’t hit them, you still deserve damage?

Sorry but when I’m fighting on level ground with the mob right in front of me or if I’m on a hill attacking down I don’t think I deserve to see 2 out of 6 attacks saying obstructed.

The evaded, invulnerable stuff is there also…

But this kitten obstructed bug needs fixed.

I’m sick and tired of being on level flat perfect ground with nothing around and the mob or player right in front of me and having the obstructed error pop up every 2 out 6 attacks.

I agree I experience these issues too. Random obstructed… And also things just running and having things miss. I see invulnerable a lot too even with melee I’m not sure why, not range not anything… Like events when mobs spawn and run to target destination, that kind of invulnerable where things are at a standstill or perhaps I am taking damage, it surely is buggy rather than anything on our part

Posts like these make me worry, that Arena net has to consider your plea at all, even if they don’t answer it, it’s now in their minds or part of a discussion topic.

I LOVE MY RANGER, granted a few tweaks and reworks on things, like EVERY OTHER CLASS IN THIS GAME, is needed.

People ARE just so use to the kitten cookie cutter, every WOW clone MMO, and it’s poisoning your judgement for GW2.

OP take a step back, analysis hard and really hard, try and tap into intelligence you thought you never had and really think, now if I got all that I wanted how stupidly, mind boggingly broken is my class now.

Cheers.

Pets needs to have reduced damage taken when it is from aoe attacks
it’s sad to see my pet geting one shoted every time when some elite does aoe

Longbow auto attack needs to be looked at because for eg. most dungeons doesn’t rly allow us to stay at max distance it hits slow enough so a lil increase in dmg will be fine

Also i agree on the obstructed thing it happens even if i can see my target clear

That random Obstructed is really annoying. It can be caused by your pet or other players running into your shot WHICH happens alot during group events. I have piercing arrow and I still get that message. That needs to be fixed.

As for pets, I think they’re fine, maybe just increase their vitality/toughness because they die to quick from AoE. Managing them takes some work but can be done.

“Aesseus.4596

Posts like these make me worry, that Arena net has to consider your plea at all, even if they don’t answer it, it’s now in their minds or part of a discussion topic.

I LOVE MY RANGER, granted a few tweaks and reworks on things, like EVERY OTHER CLASS IN THIS GAME, is needed.

People ARE just so use to the kitten cookie cutter, every WOW clone MMO, and it’s poisoning your judgement for GW2.

OP take a step back, analysis hard and really hard, try and tap into intelligence you thought you never had and really think, now if I got all that I wanted how stupidly, mind boggingly broken is my class now.

Cheers."

I don’t agree with everything that Alur said, mainly about some of the weapons but he has a very valid point about some things needing fixed. One of the things being arrow hit box. You can literally just tap left and right consecutively and dodge 90% of the arrows shot at you. I’ve done it to see if it was true and I’ve seen people do it to me in PvP. The game tries to calculate where the target will be after the arrow has been shot and tries to put the arrow there. The problem is that after the game does its calculations the target has already switched from going left to going right. The game thought the person was going to run 10meters to the left when in reality the person is in the same spot just moving left and right. Looks like they are dancing.

“Florgknight.1589
So when your projectile doesn’t hit them, you still deserve damage?”

When a person actually dodges or goes behind cover to get out of the way then no, no damage should be done. When the arrow is obstructed for no reason or the person is using the exploit said above, then we have a problem and yes, we deserve to still damage them.

Look people, I like this game to, but just like many other games it has its bugs. That’s fine, but when people bring the bugs up so they can be fixed or to talk about them don’t tell them they need to use their brains. They just did.

Aesseus.4596, your post is not contributing at all to the post and is completely invalid. There are parts of this class that are broken and ANet isn’t really making it an important issue to cover because of fanboys like you who don’t want to see the flaws.

I agree with everything he mentioned in this post and it has been echoed in a lot of other posts. ANet really needs to address these problems or else the Ranger will never be able to stand with the other professions.

My personal problems;

- Arrows show “obstructed” and “out of range” when the target is within direct range and plain sight
- Longbow knockback takes 2-3 seconds to cast which ruins the skill since the enemy runs through you by then
- pets aggro mobs, stand on the edges of walls and ledges giving enemies below a clear target. I am on the wall and my pet decides to walk to the very edge of the wall and enemies spam AoE forcing me to stay far away from any edges
- downed state pet heal sucks. pet runs over to your location and doesnt get set to full health. They easily die before they reach the ranger.
- Greatsword damage is really crappy
- Our skills are horrible. Most classes have superior versions of our best skills. less than half of our skills are actually useful.
- Our traits trees are designed horribly. 30 point major traits are mostly crap and I can’t spec deep into a tree unless I want to use a specific weapon.

1. I do agree fully in this point, is the worse thing having a pet on you in this case and bosses.
   - pets aggro mobs, stand on the edges of walls and ledges giving enemies below a clear target. I am on the wall and my pet decides to walk to the very edge of the wall and enemies spam AoE forcing me to stay far away from any edges

1. Sometimes it comes to you, and doesn’t heal at all. I must add this too besides the full heal.
   - downed state pet heal sucks. pet runs over to your location and doesnt get set to full health. They easily die before they reach the ranger.

I too noticed that I would get a random “Obstructed” message when firing…until I realized I was pumping arrows into the backside of my pet. The problem was that I simply wasn’t paying enough attention to what I was doing. To be fair, I was distracted by the fact that the sky was falling.

My biggest problem is being the slowest class in the game. It’s harsh in so many ways. You get chased down by everything, you can’t hold the range that you depend on for damage and despite being RANGERS we’re always the last to get to wherever we’re going.

The obstructed thing is annoying too and so is having to rely on flimsy pets for so much of our DPS.

Oh and Vitigis, you’re right about the reasons for the obstructed thing, but given that pretty much everything else clips through everything without issue (including people through people, people through siege engines etc) it seems a little uncharitable that our arrows don’t do the same. It’s not as if they’re particularly dangerous when given a clear shot on account of their slow movement speed.

Oh, please, someone from Anet, look at this, it’s really frustating >_<

I cry every time my spirits die in ONE SECOND, and the pets… well, the pets are stupid xDD

I’ve been really underwhelmed by the Ranger profession in this game. Alur, you summed up my frustrations and then some. Thank you for posting this.

Having years of experience as an MMO player, including “hunter-type” classes like the Ranger, I felt I came into this game with a good grasp on this archetype. At the time of this post, I’m level 62 – plucking along, taking my time to 80. But during that time, I’ve become more and more upset by the nuances of this profession.

First, pets. The pet AI is horrible. Pathing, cast times, cast responsiveness, and most importantly: they die easily! From what I understand, the Ranger’s damage was nerfed from the beta because ArenaNet felt that a large portion of that damage should be coming from the pet. However, in most situations I can’t afford to send my pet into the fray. AoEs rip apart pets and they can’t be called back fast enough. The cast times on every F2 ability is short ranged and miss most of the party/opponents. Lastly, having my pet run ahead of me when I stop to harvest a node, only to pull aggro has been the most frustrating thing while leveling.

Second, spirits. When I read about a spirit build, I was ecstatic! Because this game was suppose to destroy the Holy Trinity of tank/healer/DPS roles, the idea of a support based “ranged DPS” got me excited! The idea of standing on a wall or at the back of an army with my spirits buffing the mesmers, elementalist, other rangers and ranged DPS was titillating! Running a dungeon and buffing my party members was also a really exciting concept. Come to find out, the spirits were nerfed to hell and can barely survive a wicked glance much less a few ticks of an AoE attack. The range on their buffs also was horribly dismal, benefiting only those standing directly near them.

Lastly, the bows themselves. I read it elsewhere on these forums that the Ranger is the 4th best ranged class in the game. There are also only four professions who can spec as a ranged class in this game. The damage on the longbow at maximum range is horrible and slow. The damage of the shortbow is more favorable but its positional requirements and its unfocused abilities (am I direct damage or am I condition based?) are mind-boggling. The fact that one of the abilities, when fired, gives your pet a chance to apply three consecutive Bleeds is confusing (again, back to the pet thing).

With all the rare dyes , map exploration and time I’ve put into my Ranger, I’m reluctant to let it go – doubly so since I’m so close to hitting 80 for the first time. The Ranger could be a fun class, but these issues really put a damper on things. I hope we can hear about ArenaNet’s thoughts on the profession and where they plan to go with it in the near future.

Rangers have few problem in pve at least . Try leveling a thief or a neco ! They level very slow and will die if very fast. Ranger the king of pve with my pet I can go anywhere fight any mob or boss I can kill up close or far away or better yet just let my pet do it. Sure longbow or GS needs to be twisted alittle to make them alittle more playable but by far the ranger the funnest class to play and never seems like work like some of the other classes .

My first 80 was an Elementalist, I found little to no problems with it and I found a lot of viable builds, so I don’t find them weak or crippled. Fast forward to my second 80, my Ranger. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of bugs and problems. Some of these things just don’t make sense.

- PETS : They shouldn’t be effected by AoE’s or they should take reduced damage from AoE’s. They get one shot in most situations and even when I recall them, chances are they won’t make it out in time. This makes Pet builds unviable in both PVE, PVP and WVWVW. Also, their AI is terrible and their F2 skills take too long to use which makes it clunky. I also hate how I can’t control all of my pet skills and I can only tell them how to use their F2 ability. I’d like to time the rest of their skills too please! (Knockdowns, burst damage, etc). I’d be all for a “stow your pet” option for boosted stats. I don’t care if I lose the utility of my dead pet’s skills, since it’s just laying on it’s back most of the time or standing next to me dying from AOE’s on the Keep walls in WVWVW.

- SPIRITS : Worthless. The only way to make these things work is if you use them for CC / want them to die. Otherwise, their buff range is too short for no good reason and they die the second anything looks at them.

- RANDOM OBSTRUCTION : Physical Projectiles will randomly get Obstructed / missed / out of range for NO reason. None. Zip. Notta. Channeling a Rapid Fire? Obstructed. Why? -shrugs- Because there’s apparently an invisible obstruction in the way of course! This is my biggest problem with my Ranger and this happens with all Physical Projectiles as far as I know (Engineers, Thieves, Warriors). It might have something to do with the hit boxes.

- LONGBOW : The auto attack requirements really turn me off. The Longbow is my favorite weapon for it’s aesthetics, however it’s auto attack requirement doesn’t seem justified by it’s slow and low damage output. Maybe if it hit more like a truck and less like a wet noodle, I’d see the justification.

This is my build with the longbow its use full for pve and for those who like the longbow,i finally manage to tweak a way to use the longbow to its full potential..the reason i choose the spider pet because of their immobilizing skill that is keep me save..and don’t forget to lay down traps before start of the fight..lay down the spike trap first before the frost trap because of its cool down..for those who is believe that short bow is the best weapon for the ranger..think again..enjoy my build..i hope u like it..for those who is a fan of the longbow weapon..i never switch weapon during battle because longbow is enough..unless i want to run against the group event monster..http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMEQNBjODbEpKuOvSzC1OAsesXfAyeYojP+K0aJX6J

Florgknight.1589:

So when your projectile doesn’t hit them, you still deserve damage?

It’s called an exploit.
People are exploting this bug as arrows “miss” when your target strafe side to side, when its clearly hitting them. -.-

The “miss” bug can be done on our axe attack too. I dodge rife shots too . Been playing "dodge hits "last week with friends and mobs and “victims” lol

So ran into more “obstructed” and “out of range” crap today on my ranger. Funny thing, first obstructed was an enemy RUNNING STRAIGHT AT ME!!! with nothing blocking arrow’s path. It then proceeded to give me a “out of range” message before my attacks started landing.

And 2nd time, on stationary npc objects I had to destroy.

As you can see, I tried both sides, and didnt take kitten of it but also “Obstructed” when I switched to Axe.

I just leveled my first 80 ranger yesterday.

Most if not all of the problems have already been mentioned more than once so I will only address the ones that I noticed right away.

The movement of the pet. They should stay close to the ranger and behind, not in front, always behind. The ranger is the master not the pet.

The “hide pet” should also work in combat. Like most people said about the damage, just give a damage bonus or something when the pet is hidden.

Also, there should be a “Stay” command. This can simple be added to the “Return to me”. When the pet is close to you, it will change to “Stay”, when the pet is attacking or wondering around (not suppose to!) it will change to “Return to me”