Guild Wars 2

I’m a newish player, trying to find my feet with a couple of alt characters now iv hit 80 on my main. I quite like the hunter, good ranged burst, but why…WHY can’t I use pistols or a rifle, I mean seriously is this some kind of joke?

Anet went with a nature approach. No weapons involving tech. Could all change in future elite specs.

I do hope so, despite its drawbacks I do like the class for spvp, but the “phtew” of a wooden arrow just bugs the hell out of me, give this prof a rifle option at least, better yet a gunslinging look would be cool.

I think the idea is that a ranger would be able to go out into the woods for a year or more and survive on whatever they find. You can make more arrows (even if you have to use flint points), but you’re not going to make more powder or lead shot so easily. Potassium nitrate doesn’t just grow on trees, you know.

Pistols I can understand, but I think Rifles fit the marksman aspect of our class.

AimEd.3519:

Pistols I can understand, but I think Rifles fit the marksman aspect of our class.

The marksman aspect, but not the survival/nature magic aspect. So, debatable.

Loki.9412:

give this prof a rifle option at least, better yet a gunslinging look would be cool.

Play thief or engie then, the ranger archtype Anet went with has little do nothing to do with guns.

Lazze.9870:

Loki.9412:

give this prof a rifle option at least, better yet a gunslinging look would be cool.

Play thief or engie then, the ranger archtype Anet went with has little do nothing to do with guns.

Warrior has rifle, although that’s sort of a gimmick in PvP. Also, p/p sucks with the thief. For guns, go either p/p flamethrower condition engineer, or elixir rifle engineer.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Lazze.9870:

Loki.9412:

give this prof a rifle option at least, better yet a gunslinging look would be cool.

Play thief or engie then, the ranger archtype Anet went with has little do nothing to do with guns.

Warrior has rifle, although that’s sort of a gimmick in PvP. Also, p/p sucks with the thief. For guns, go either p/p flamethrower condition engineer, or elixir rifle engineer.

I didn’t say anything about viability, those two profession are simply the most gunslinger-ish characters you can get in this game.

Enginer is obviously the only viable profession you can play while still pulling off the gunslinger look.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

AimEd.3519:

Pistols I can understand, but I think Rifles fit the marksman aspect of our class.

The marksman aspect, but not the survival/nature magic aspect. So, debatable.

But why ignore that entire part of the Ranger? We’re already getting the nature magic love with Druid. It would kinda be underwhelming if all the elite specializations shared the same theme.

not to be a kitten, but in all fairness, this is a primarily medieval themed mmo, so why expect guns from what has historically (gaming history) and traditionally been a class about bows/swords? Are you familiar with the “typical” ranger m.o.?

personally hate guns in medieval mmo’s, especially machine-gun type skills from firearms. I love that the ranger doesn’t use them. the natural weapons only really sets us apart from thieves, engies and warriors imo.

to each their own i guess.

Medieval themed…with asura gates, teleporting, airships, and the list goes on. I do get the ranger/hunter theme perfectly, and primarily, it’s about taking your enemy out from range with long range weapons. I wasn’t suggesting changing the theme of the ranger entirely but a rifle seems to be reasonable, especially given the technology provided by allies in tyria, if we’re going down that rp thought train. Anyway, I went with engi as it lets me play all the guns, which is what I wanted most.

Loki.9412:

Medieval themed…with asura gates, teleporting, airships, and the list goes on. I do get the ranger/hunter theme perfectly, and primarily, it’s about taking your enemy out from range with long range weapons. I wasn’t suggesting changing the theme of the ranger entirely but a rifle seems to be reasonable, especially given the technology provided by allies in tyria, if we’re going down that rp thought train. Anyway, I went with engi as it lets me play all the guns, which is what I wanted most.

I don’t think you understand the word “themed.” Did you play gw1? GW2 is a continuation of the very medieval themed gw1, with the early immergence of magi-tech. you just listed the most prominent asuran tech. Only airships were a joined effort of the human and asuran. Most of the technogies the asuran have is kept to themselves and intend on doing so for now. With the exception of the very crude war-themed technology of the charr, and the stuff the the pact have recently created, the other 90% of the world is your typical fantasy medieval world, kings, queens, knights, vikings, pirates, medieval villages, farmers, weapons, castles, blacksmiths, armorsmiths, etc .

Loki.9412:

Medieval themed…with asura gates, teleporting, airships, and the list goes on. I do get the ranger/hunter theme perfectly, and primarily, it’s about taking your enemy out from range with long range weapons.

No, its primarily about being a nature focused class with a connection to the land and animals. Yes, Longbows are the class signature weapon, but they are so because they are the definitive archtype weapon (ala staves for mages) and not because they are ranged.

I mean our elite spec IS called “Druid”, I don’t think Rangers want to have anything to do with firearms from a thematic standpoint.

Zatoichi.1049:

Loki.9412:

Medieval themed…with asura gates, teleporting, airships, and the list goes on. I do get the ranger/hunter theme perfectly, and primarily, it’s about taking your enemy out from range with long range weapons. I wasn’t suggesting changing the theme of the ranger entirely but a rifle seems to be reasonable, especially given the technology provided by allies in tyria, if we’re going down that rp thought train. Anyway, I went with engi as it lets me play all the guns, which is what I wanted most.

I don’t think you understand the word “themed.” Did you play gw1? GW2 is a continuation of the very medieval themed gw1, with the early immergence of magi-tech. you just listed the most prominent asuran tech. Only airships were a joined effort of the human and asuran. Most of the technogies the asuran have is kept to themselves and intend on doing so for now. With the exception of the very crude war-themed technology of the charr, and the stuff the the pact have recently created, the other 90% of the world is your typical fantasy medieval world, kings, queens, knights, vikings, pirates, medieval villages, farmers, weapons, castles, blacksmiths, armorsmiths, etc .

Just a nitpick, but charr technology (despite its appearance) is anything but primitive. Mechanized gun turrets with breech-loading, magazine-fed cannons? Self propelled artillery pieces? That is turn of the century (1900s) technology, at least. They even have machine guns, as I recall.

OP takes the word “ranger” too literally lol

The real question is what would a rifle bring to the class. We already have 3 ranged weapons two of which are completely overshadowed by the long bow.

A rifle wouldn’t enhance the class it would either be sub par or overshadow what we now have.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

The real question is what would a rifle bring to the class.

Roleplay.

We’re hunters.
We have dogs.
We have outrageous mustaches.
We have a… bow?!?

I should be able to have my dog track a boar before we gank it 10 vs 1 with my hunter buddies, and expose the trophy above the fireplace while drinking spirits, not summoning them.

There are a few reasons why a rifle/pistol isn’t baseline for a Ranger. Many have said it’s off -theme for what the ranger represents. What I feel was the deciding factor is, what would the rifle do?

Shot
Cripshot
Powershot
Stunshot
Netshot
Poisonshot

A rifle doesn’t provide anything particularly interesting and has a hard time getting interesting skills that differentiate it from the warrior or engi. I guess it could be a condi weapon, but we have shortbow for that.

A pistol is another story. Mechanically speaking, it can provide the Ranger with a real mainhand ranged weapon. Rather than the hybrid-damage melee projectile mess that the axe is, likely originally intended as the Ranger’s multi-target and one handed ranged option, it’s gotten weird since launch. Of course, this is one of the perfect candidates for an elite spec.

HotHit.6783:

There are a few reasons why a rifle/pistol isn’t baseline for a Ranger. Many have said it’s off -theme for what the ranger represents. What I feel was the deciding factor is, what would the rifle do?

Nothing. The only positive thing about it would be me not having to read cafard’s comments about dogs and moustaches and hunters and whatnot any longer, but that’s hardly worth it

HotHit.6783:

What I feel was the deciding factor is, what would the rifle do?

I feel our weapons don’t synergize nearly enough with our pets. There’s skills here and there, but overall, i’d have loved to see each weapon skill set buff/use the pet in a specific direction, like LB could boost the pet’s direct damage, SB could get it to deal more conditions, etc. In that spirit, and with the modern hunter archetype, i’d really dig the rifle as a pet-tracking weapon, with skills that grant the pet cc and reveal skills. You could also make it a unique mechanic through having some of the shots only happening after the pet has used the attached cc skill:

press 3 → pet runs to target and immobilizes → shot happens (whether the immob was dodged or not)

Also we have some ranger skills which buff the pet on its next attack: the rifle, as a pet-hunting oriented weapon, could come up with reverse skills: pet does a special attack/cc, and if it connects, it buffs the ranger’s next attack.

ranger may not have rifles or pistols but they do have guns! deez guns http://www.muscleandfitness.com/sites/muscleandfitness.com/files/styles/full_node_image_1090x614/public/media/muscular-arms_0.jpg?itok=v0asY6NA

ayy

The class was a mash together of left over ideas with the term Ranger slapped on it. Nature magic, longbow man and beast master come together to create this Ranger for GW2.

Sicarius.4639:

The class was a mash together of left over ideas with the term Ranger slapped on it. Nature magic, longbow man and beast master come together to create this Ranger for GW2.

Nature Magic, Marksmanship, Beast Mastery & Wilderness Survival were literally the Ranger attribute lines from GW1. The GW2 ranger uses almost 1 for 1 the same things the GW1 ranger did, it’s not a mash of left over ideas. The only major difference is the GW2 ranger has beast mastery as a core mechanic where as it was a side thing in GW1.

On topic, the core GW2 ranger doesn’t have guns, that’s not going to change, they have more naturalist leanings. Now with Druid being the first elite spec the nature magic side of ranger is getting really played up, so there’s nothing stopping future elite specs from playing up the marksman side of ranger and giving them a gun.

The only hard part will be making a rifle or pistol interesting and unique among the Ranger’s other weapon selections, it’s no good to make the rifle another 1500 range pew pew weapon just because you like the aesthetics more than the longbow.

Daharahj.1325:

I mean our elite spec IS called “Druid”, I don’t think Rangers want to have anything to do with firearms from a thematic standpoint.

Are we sure about that? Everyone thought engineer would get “forge”…Personally I was blindsided when I saw “scrapper”!

Thematically it’s not very different from the D&D ranger. That had an animal companion, a set of nature-themed spells (past a certain level) and a fair bit of bow use as well. Bow wasn’t compulsory, though, there was also a dual-wielding aspect I think – which we kind of see with dual axe. Not that main-hand axe has much in common with off-hand axe in gameplay terms.

Expertise, not nature magic. And honestly, as I’ve said before, the core mechanic should have been preparations…but that’s another issue entirely.

Salamander.2504:

Daharahj.1325:

I mean our elite spec IS called “Druid”, I don’t think Rangers want to have anything to do with firearms from a thematic standpoint.

Are we sure about that? Everyone thought engineer would get “forge”…Personally I was blindsided when I saw “scrapper”!

to the best of my knowledge, the word forge was never officially released, unlike Druid which was officially released as the first specialization when they revealed HoT.

Whether or not they have changed their mind since then, on what the druid was to become, that’s a different story…

Salamander.2504:

Daharahj.1325:

I mean our elite spec IS called “Druid”, I don’t think Rangers want to have anything to do with firearms from a thematic standpoint.

Are we sure about that? Everyone thought engineer would get “forge”…Personally I was blindsided when I saw “scrapper”!

The name Druid has already been confirmed. I think it was at the first reveal of the expansion. Druids are also already part of the maguuma jungle lore since Guild Wars 1. None of the other elite specs are from existing lore I believe.

Holland.9351:

Salamander.2504:

Daharahj.1325:

I mean our elite spec IS called “Druid”, I don’t think Rangers want to have anything to do with firearms from a thematic standpoint.

Are we sure about that? Everyone thought engineer would get “forge”…Personally I was blindsided when I saw “scrapper”!

The name Druid has already been confirmed. I think it was at the first reveal of the expansion. Druids are also already part of the maguuma jungle lore since Guild Wars 1. None of the other elite specs are from existing lore I believe.

True, although as a matter of trivia chronomancer was going to be a class in GW Utopia, but that release was changed into an expansion (no new professions).

Loki.9412:

I’m a newish player, trying to find my feet with a couple of alt characters now iv hit 80 on my main. I quite like the hunter, good ranged burst, but why…WHY can’t I use pistols or a rifle, I mean seriously is this some kind of joke?

No thx, i love that ranger has no rifle, or guns and i hope if they ever get them, to not be a priority weapon by any mean. For next specialization i hope ranger will get main hand dagger with natural/survival/condition playing style of melee ranger.

Firelysm.4967:

Loki.9412:

I’m a newish player, trying to find my feet with a couple of alt characters now iv hit 80 on my main. I quite like the hunter, good ranged burst, but why…WHY can’t I use pistols or a rifle, I mean seriously is this some kind of joke?

No thx, i love that ranger has no rifle, or guns and i hope if they ever get them, to not be a priority weapon by any mean. For next specialization i hope ranger will get main hand dagger with natural/survival/condition playing style of melee ranger.

i’d love to see a oh-sword. Power based (we already have dagger), with long (900) bursty ground targeted leap (ala thieves staff pole-volt) and a parry skill (block attacks non-stop for 3-5 seconds, everytime you get hit you deal damage back to the attacker (without stopping blocking the way GS4 does).

Serraphin Storm.2369:

The real question is what would a rifle bring to the class. We already have 3 ranged weapons two of which are completely overshadowed by the long bow.

A rifle wouldn’t enhance the class it would either be sub par or overshadow what we now have.

Actually I would love to have a long range condi weapon. Axe and SB are technically condi, but both barely fill that role at all, and both are close/melee range weapons.

Also, randomly, there is a rifle wielding ranger in the personal story mission in the Temple of Grenth in Orr. He has a raptor pet, too.

Honestly guns at this point would be nice, I know you can do combos and I do not have much experience with the ranger yet but I find shooting arrows as a ranger incredibly bland, allot of rpgs have something along the lines of ice arrows/fire/ and other kinds of kinds like piercing. The combos seem really situational and I would be forced to use traps just to have flavor, really if the ranger had some more flavor with bow I would love this class, the melee animations far outshine the bows.

Iv’e always felt like, in games you should choose how to play your character yourself because usually it’s more fun when your character looks and plays the way you like it and looks cool to you. But they went pretty much with a “forced” hippie ranger theme who has respect for nature. Which i personally like the theme of, but I can see other people wanting to play a rifle wielding charr or a almost thief-like human with double pistols.
When you think about it the ranger fits mostly to the norn lore than the others.

Zatoichi.1049:

I don’t think you understand the word “themed.” Did you play gw1? GW2 is a continuation of the very medieval themed gw1, with the early immergence of magi-tech. you just listed the most prominent asuran tech. Only airships were a joined effort of the human and asuran. Most of the technogies the asuran have is kept to themselves and intend on doing so for now. With the exception of the very crude war-themed technology of the charr, and the stuff the the pact have recently created, the other 90% of the world is your typical fantasy medieval world, kings, queens, knights, vikings, pirates, medieval villages, farmers, weapons, castles, blacksmiths, armorsmiths, etc .

While the Asura are more individually brilliant, the Charr are actually the better engineers according to lore, because they Asura lack the ability to work together to and to refine their designs into practical applications that can be produced and maintained on a large scale.

The charr invented the internal combustion engine (see the “Sea of Sorrow” novel) and the tanks, subs, and helicopters the Pact uses were invented by charr.

charr technology looks horrible…it looks good in the artworks but in the game it looks way to modern…it should look like warhammer dwarf or empire tech…that would look much better and much more period/world fitting…but well

If we can use spearGUNS underwater, then why cant we use rifles on land? If my char is great on the trigger underwater, why would my char suddenly have no trigger skill on land?

I wouldn’t be opposed to an elite spec for ranger that gives him rifle.

There is a key distinction between the definition most people use for “Ranger” and what a “Ranger” typically is, and how the Ranger class represents the latter. I’ll explain.

Often times people attribute a Ranger to being somebody who “fights at range”. The reality of the name is that it doesn’t have anything to do with combat in particular. The Ranger is a class that focuses on nature, using natural magic, and has an affinity with animals. This parallels real-world rangers who take care of nature reserves and parks. Fighting at range is more often just a trope of being a Ranger because you typically have an animal ally that can’t fight at range so you have them go to the front and you stay back. Thing is, Rangers have a number of melee weapons too and they aren’t just for show.

Guns do go against the philosophy of the natural, so it makes sense that a core ranger would not be able to use them or rather would choose not to. They may get them as a future elite spec as others have stated, but this is why they don’t have it now.

MiniEquine.6014:

Guns do go against the philosophy of the natural, so it makes sense that a core ranger would not be able to use them or rather would choose not to. They may get them as a future elite spec as others have stated, but this is why they don’t have it now.

Swords aren’t exactly something you find growing on trees either. I guess you could craft yourself some black powder for crude blunderbuss type thing if you were unusually crafty.

There is a 2nd definition of ranger that I’ve always felt was just as appropriate: a member of a body of armed men, in particular, a commando or highly trained infantryman.

To me that fits exactly the playstyle of a ranger, especially in WvW. Basically a scout (not the WvW definition of scout.)

/ramble

Loki.9412:

I’m a newish player, trying to find my feet with a couple of alt characters now iv hit 80 on my main. I quite like the hunter, good ranged burst, but why…WHY can’t I use pistols or a rifle, I mean seriously is this some kind of joke?

Because the class is based upon nature, more like a shaman. Not like the american invaders (sry settlers) guys who were called “rangers”.

cafard.8953:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

The real question is what would a rifle bring to the class.

Roleplay.

We’re hunters.
We have dogs.
We have outrageous mustaches.
We have a… bow?!?

I should be able to have my dog track a boar before we gank it 10 vs 1 with my hunter buddies, and expose the trophy above the fireplace while drinking spirits, not summoning them.

that’s a hunter, not a ranger

Rangers are not named because they fight at range. It’s because they “range”. The verb.

Range: verb (used without object), ranged, ranging.
- to move around or through a region in all directions, as people or animals.
- to rove, roam, or wander

A good way to think of it is Aragorn from Lord of the Rings was a ranger.

Norjena.5172:

Because the class is based upon nature, more like a shaman. Not like the american invaders (sry settlers) guys who were called “rangers”.

Rangers are all over the world, not just something the US usurped. Aragorn was the same type of ranger as Texas Rangers and forest rangers (both of whom carry firearms), all same word origin. If aragorn had access to a blunderbuss, he definitely would have carried one.

GW2 Druid is probably shaman like, but base ranger is a most definitely not a shaman. It’s a martial class that supplements his martial attacks with nature magic.

In GW1 my main profession was Ranger so the way I see it, Rangers are defined by their ability to understand and manipulate nature which also helps them when traversing the terrain. This is why ranged weapons are a natural choice for Rangers since they use the environment to their advantage. As others above have said, due to Rangers affinity towards nature, they would most likely use more organic weapons or weapons that don’t have to be maintained regularly in the wilderness. However, I could probably understand the progression of ranged weapons from bows to guns.

That said, on a sentimental level I wouldn’t want to see Rangers using guns but that’s probably just because Rangers from GW1 have a place in my heart.

But you see, Ranger IS getting a rifle. It’s so obvious!

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

But you see, Ranger IS getting a rifle. It’s so obvious!

ANEY WHYYYY!!!! This is not what rangers need and proof that Anet doesn’t care about rangers!!!