Guild Wars 2

Friendlier and more helpful to other rangers. I’m sure there are exceptions haha. This is just from my observation in hotm and pvp. Even on the forum, there’s less toxicity from rangers. Not sure how they are in pve though, haha.

In matches, it’s common to see thieves, guardians and warriors criticize others with the same profession. Thieves mostly. It’s a hard class to master and the really good ones I admire. And when the rangers got the buff last year, they formed some sort of camaraderie, which I thought was cool…even though I was an outsider coz I played condi at the time.

We are probably friendlier and more helpful than others due to the benefits of owning a pet.

I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that Ranger player are more likely solo players. Unlike other classes (Warrior <- -> healer syndrome).

So by meeting another adventurer like that makes you feel you have something in common. After all, we cherish the things we do not really have the most.
But ugh, if a selfish bearbow crosses my way, I swear to god… That’s not even a Ranger. That’s an insult to the class itself.

most other classes Take what they have for granted , as most of them have always been good-ish and only recivied mostly buffs up untill the last few patches where things are becoming properly balanced.

most of the longer term rangers have learned to deal with what they have and then give opinions constructive ones on how to improve the ranger , rather than ask for power creeps (like the current on going Give warroirs fast hands base line) such a iconic system of weapon swapping why should only warroir get that as a bonus , it clearly is power creep itself as its giving one class a benifiting power over others which do not have that option.

and thats how most rangers think they have learnt to ask for what is good for them , not what is better.

most of the time , its the players fault for simply not being good enough or in the wrong time or place , i’d rather encourage good relations and explanations to help those players ether have more joy in the game than give empty threats, which i read a lot of in other fourms.

one big example is the " do not use healing signet stuff " which is totaly Viable to use it just depends on the build and they seem obsessed with Maxing efficiency even though they are only normal gamers that play PvE or a few pvp matches a week.

even if they are hardcore players they’d flame those for trying different methords that lead to game changing events or even new skills and team comps from being created just because they are too stubbon , to try somthing new for the fun of it rather than for the Win.

if they are playing for Top guild team or a championship fair enough but in a general ranked match theres no need to go all tournament heavy on people asking questions..thats just rude and inconsiderate.

though yes We’re a happy bunch. :P

Tragic Positive.9356:

But ugh, if a selfish bearbow crosses my way, I swear to god… That’s not even a Ranger. That’s an insult to the class itself.

Then obviously this topic isn’t about you.

Holland.9351:

Tragic Positive.9356:

But ugh, if a selfish bearbow crosses my way, I swear to god… That’s not even a Ranger. That’s an insult to the class itself.

Then obviously this topic isn’t about you.

And that’s fine.
I prefer helping people who need or at least appreciate the effort. For being nice to everybody including the arrogant ones – I have you guyz, don’t I?

Necro and Ranger have the best community (internally) in my opinion. And ironically have had it the worst throughout the game. And just as funny, engineer and thief have one of the harder communities to crack.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Holland.9351:

Tragic Positive.9356:

But ugh, if a selfish bearbow crosses my way, I swear to god… That’s not even a Ranger. That’s an insult to the class itself.

Then obviously this topic isn’t about you.

And that’s fine.
I prefer helping people who need or at least appreciate the effort. For being nice to everybody including the arrogant ones – I have you guyz, don’t I?

Ok maybe I don’t understand what you were saying. What’s selfish about bearbows? To me it just sounds like the popular lingering hate they’ve been getting for years, eventhough the longbow has been great for over a year now (since Read the Wind).

Anet is slowly learning, that the nice guys deserve nice things as well

Holland.9351:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Holland.9351:

Tragic Positive.9356:

But ugh, if a selfish bearbow crosses my way, I swear to god… That’s not even a Ranger. That’s an insult to the class itself.

Then obviously this topic isn’t about you.

And that’s fine.
I prefer helping people who need or at least appreciate the effort. For being nice to everybody including the arrogant ones – I have you guyz, don’t I?

Ok maybe I don’t understand what you were saying. What’s selfish about bearbows? To me it just sounds like the popular lingering hate they’ve been getting for years, eventhough the longbow has been great for over a year now (since Read the Wind).

Well, 1st of all, Longbow has it’s uses, but it’s DPS is still way too low to be the DPS weapon. The weapon is safe – thus the damage can be used efficiently in WvW small roaming groups.

The bear also has it’s uses. While stacked against groups of mobs that bomb with AoE (AC P2 has such a phase near end boss). But the DPS is way too low to be useful anywhere else.

So to sum it up:
Bearbow is a selfish player who ignores the party – being a negative addition to the composition by almost healing instead of dealing damage (they usually run Signet of Stone, Renewal and Hunt) because they don’t even care about making a Zerk armor and they don’t receive any boons, drawing NPCs out of stack corners.
They care about their own personal comfort and ego more than other players and will sincerely send you to hell if you tell them what’s wrong. Regardless of which way you tell them their system is worthless and toxic.

Make no mistake. Bearbow is not a Ranger using bear as a pet and Longbow as a weapon. But you can tell that a player who uses nothing else that this setup is most likely the one.

I once had a ranger with LB and Bear in fractals. But he saved our lives twice, cleared half of the condis and brought Frost Spotter to the table. That was something completely different from Bearbow.

Ok so you’re mostly talking about PvE, which is fair enough since Read the Wind only shines in PvP/WvW.

Holland.9351:

Ok so you’re mostly talking about PvE, which is fair enough since Read the Wind only shines in PvP/WvW.

Yup, that’s the case.
Now that I think of it, I haven’t really said in any of my posts about Bearbows that it’s pretty much PvE excluded. That would be my bad.

Thanks for pointing that out. I never thought of that.

Pimsley.3681:

Rangers In General Seem…Friendlier and more helpful to other rangers…

Misery loves company

I’m not miserable on my Ranger. I enjoy beating others with a non-meta class :-p

In general we are friendly cuz we share the same pain (pet).

When you cross another ranger path, you immediatly create a bond when you see that he also drags that anoying minions that we call pet.

When anet slighty fixes rangers, we throw a party here in the party!

I don’t even try to attack fellow rangers WvW or PvP tbh, but if I am attacked, its like “BETRAYER!” and I go off lol.

ronpierce.2760:

Necro and Ranger have the best community (internally) in my opinion. And ironically have had it the worst throughout the game. And just as funny, engineer and thief have one of the harder communities to crack.

I’m very critical of other rangers, a lot of them tend to be just plain bad.

The Ranger profession seems to attract the inept players more so than other professions.

Toxicity towards rangers from non rangers is WAY higher than for most classes imo.

It’s a relic of the past still living and breathing. Rangers had quite a few nice upgrades since launch of gw2 that made them a good, viable choice. We may not be guards in dungeons, but we’re nowhere near the necro station atm.

nearlight.3064:

Toxicity towards rangers from non rangers is WAY higher than for most classes imo.

That’s why we stick together. Rangers are a family and well, for anyone who feels like abusing our members there’s always the “Sick’Em!” button.

From my experience it seems:

• People who like to troll tend to lean towards Rogue-like classes. This is why the Thief community is what it is. It has good people, but a higher number of trolls.
• People have this misconception that a Warrior is a big dumb brute so it attracts people who aren’t “thinkers”. It has smart people, but a higher number of “others”.
• Pet classes are a mix. They attract people who like having a companion as well as people who like to solo. The former is generally more social, etc. while the latter usually doesn’t want to be bothered with you … so you see more of these two types of people in the Ranger community.

The other classes are a bit harder to peg in my mind as to me they don’t fit many MMO archetypes as well.

nearlight.3064:

Toxicity towards rangers from non rangers is WAY higher than for most classes imo.

False Lol. Though rangers have garnered a lot of criticism from the other classes over the last few months thanks to the Pew Pew LB Spec, by far the most hated class that receives toxicity is Thief.

Honestly, due to stealth, there has never been any classes which has had as much of a pitchfork hate mob for as long of a time as Thief, go to their subforum and see.

To OP:

I honestly think this is a thread made of personal experience and bias, backed up by the same personal experience and bias. Not everyone’s experience with classes is going to be the same, and you can’t just pretend there is an overall attitude in classes which applies to everyone’s experiences. Example. Here are my experiences:

Ranger – Quiet and generally only speak when spoken to, but don’t have much to say on any other class. They tend to shy out and not give much retaliation if told something negative about their class. I.E. “Your class is no skill no brainer.” “Longbow Ranger is ez.”

Necros – Depressing af. Literally, it is so hard to meet a positive necro about any aspect of the game, whether that is warranted or not you can decide. They will herald every change as life or death, and usually it wont meet their expectations then half of the community will rally that it is okay and they can work with it, and the other half will call doomsday.

Thief – kitteny, somewhat arrogant but if recognized and acknowledged as decent they will soften up quickly. However in the flip side if you slight their ego by killing them in a PvP match for example they will hunt you all game.

Elementalist – Very whiney. I have a very good friend who has mained elementalist for 3 years and even he says it. They often complain about a lot, and despite them having just as many good players as any other class, they are very vocal about any small change, reflex like in their hyperbole of it. Also they believe they are the pinnacle of skill.

Mesmer – Are very biased towards their profession, to the point they will defend against any nerf. The love they have for their class is admirable however, and they show an endearing passion in all aspects Mesmer. In fact, they are the only class to have their own subforum guild in game. Official Mesmer Forum Guild.

Warriors – Are another class dunked on a lot and have been since the start of the game by others. Almost as much as thief, and they don’t even half stealth. Due to this I imagine, they have grown a very thick skin and tend not to be very open to outsiders who don’t play the class. That said, they also offer very constructive criticism of their own and are very quick to dispel anyone who doesn’t contribute anything but negativity over a patch. Very hardy. They tend to resemble a frat house at times.

Guardian – A polar opposite to warrior. They have had a lot of love, and appreciation since the start of the game, not just by developers or anything, but players too. This has given them a smiley persona and they are quick to help others. Sadly due to this in my opinion they find it hard to deal with criticism and of late have been lulled into a false sense of skill due to the notorious Med guard build pretending to be such.

Engineer – They are opinionated and very passionate about Engineer, just as much as Mesmers are. In fact, interestingly enough on http://guildwars2viz.com/ it shows them both as the least played class. It wouldn’t surprise me if their niche play style and tight-knit community were the reasons for such a hardcore love for their class. They also like Elementalists believe they are the skill- class. Uniquely, they are also generally very quirky and have weird humour which takes time to appreciate.

Obviously, all of this can be completely opposite to what you experience, and that is the point, this is all a subjective experience on what you have encountered.

As for me? I main Engineer right now. Though I have had extensively play time and exposure to most classes and their communities.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t even try to attack fellow rangers WvW or PvP tbh, but if I am attacked, its like “BETRAYER!” and I go off lol.

I always attack other rangers and target them first in group fights because the majority of them are easy bags.

If I get in a 1v1 with a good ranger I won’t stomp him, I’ll down them, bow and whisper them ”good fight”.

Since the buff to longbow I have run into maybe 3 rangers that have received this treatment.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t even try to attack fellow rangers WvW or PvP tbh, but if I am attacked, its like “BETRAYER!” and I go off lol.

I always attack other rangers and target them first in group fights because the majority of them are easy bags.

If I get in a 1v1 with a good ranger I won’t stomp him, I’ll down them, bow and whisper them ”good fight”.

Since the buff to longbow I have run into maybe 3 rangers that have received this treatment.

I also target Rangers first, they are by far the easiest to kill. Engineer is easy too as well as thief, if he doesn’t stealth quick enough. Mesmer can be easy too. Necro is just annoying with double health bars and elementalist moves half way across the map while downed, which makes him almost impossible to finish. Warrior and Guardian just have a lot of health with good survivability and healing, which makes them my least favorite target.

I have no problem with stomping another Ranger. I don’t treat them any better than anyone else. However, I do love to see a Ranger on my team.

(Talking about WvW)

PistolWhip.2697:

Mesmer – Are very biased towards their profession, to the point they will defend against any nerf. The love they have for their class is admirable however, and they show an endearing passion in all aspects Mesmer. In fact, they are the only class to have their own subforum guild in game. Official Mesmer Forum Guild.

What? Mesmers will declare almost anything on the class as OP and accept any change they recieve as the strongest thing ever and hate people who disagree.

They have a weird S&M thing going on over there.

PistolWhip.2697:

In fact, they are the only class to have their own subforum guild in game. Official Mesmer Forum Guild.

Liar x.X
We Rangers do actually have a subforum guild x) , and yes it still exists.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Favorable-Winds-Wind-Ranger-Guild/first

What I really like are the amount of newer players popping up on the forums lately that are open to changing their builds and playstyle.

In the past people would actually get angry when another player would suggest things like “maybe you shouldn’t run dual bow” or “maybe you should try another pet instead of running only devourers”. They would go on a rant about how “you can’t tell them how to play” and not only carry on running something that didn’t make sense, but also recommending their subpar playstyle to new players, and continue complaining that people kicked them from groups for running it.

Levetty.1279:

PistolWhip.2697:

Mesmer – Are very biased towards their profession, to the point they will defend against any nerf. The love they have for their class is admirable however, and they show an endearing passion in all aspects Mesmer. In fact, they are the only class to have their own subforum guild in game. Official Mesmer Forum Guild.

What? Mesmers will declare almost anything on the class as OP and accept any change they recieve as the strongest thing ever and hate people who disagree.

They have a weird S&M thing going on over there.

I did disclaimer that everything about this thread and my reply is all a subjective experience. Without a doubt you have probably experienced just what you wrote and that is now your opinion of the Mesmer community.

Hepatolith.6389:

Liar x.X
We Rangers do actually have a subforum guild x) , and yes it still exists.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Favorable-Winds-Wind-Ranger-Guild/first

Apologies! I didn’t know this. I haven’t seen them around really, and often I saw the Mesmer one, so I was fairly sure there was only a Mesmer one. I know another class at least tried and failed at this due to lack of interest, can’t remember which one though.

Tragic Positive.9356:

So to sum it up:
Bearbow is a selfish player who ignores the party – being a negative addition to the composition by almost healing instead of dealing damage (they usually run Signet of Stone, Renewal and Hunt) because they don’t even care about making a Zerk armor and they don’t receive any boons, drawing NPCs out of stack corners.
They care about their own personal comfort and ego more than other players and will sincerely send you to hell if you tell them what’s wrong. Regardless of which way you tell them their system is worthless and toxic.

Make no mistake. Bearbow is not a Ranger using bear as a pet and Longbow as a weapon. But you can tell that a player who uses nothing else that this setup is most likely the one.

I once had a ranger with LB and Bear in fractals. But he saved our lives twice, cleared half of the condis and brought Frost Spotter to the table. That was something completely different from Bearbow.

Hell that was harsh… I use a similar set up in my ranger: signet of stone, hunt and renewal .
Also i use spotter, spirit of the nature and moas as pet, and with that i could say i’ve may have save more than once my group. Although the spirit need serious rework, the delay between cast skill and cast the spirit effect it too long, and make very difficult to revive other players with it.
I think your way to categorize rangers is way to simplistic and toxic as make other players to tag the rangers for the utilities they have chosen although is proven that those 3 are the most useful to sustain ourselfs, aspect that our class seriously lacks.

yes, in general ranger players seem to live in their own little bubble of positivity and fantasy. it can be really nice, for example when youre a new player seeking advice. but it can be bad too because a lot of these players are disconnected from reality when giving pvp advice, and they tend to talk up their bad builds. so the advice you receive on the forums at least is often incorrect and not informed by experience. I suppose this is a small problem in all the profession subforums, but this one is worst by far due to lack of experts playing the profession.

Don’t know about the rest of you but when I see another ranger in WvW, my first initial reaction is, he dies first…..

Not that I don’t like my fellow Rangers, but the LB pew pew meta that’s going on is quite annoying to deal with.

@Mistsim:
This happens in every class forum. Plenty of forums and most of them don’t provide anything to back up what they suggest … not even logic.

@Noobie:
That’s because that build is a glass cannon … you don’t leave a glass cannon alone to freely DPS you no matter what class they are.

Sebrent.3625:

@Mistsim:
This happens in every class forum. Plenty of forums and most of them don’t provide anything to back up what they suggest … not even logic.

@Noobie:
That’s because that build is a glass cannon … you don’t leave a glass cannon alone to freely DPS you no matter what class they are.

Well you can make a power pewpew ranger tougher than the glass cannon meta. Actually i don’t like metas because they are so extreme on their concept, like if you are damage build all goes to damage.

This is my char, before any buffs or food, to that you had to add spotter. It’s strong enough to give a fight 1V1 although as i said many times, rangers has a deep problem lacking sustain, so if the fight does not finish fast I’m as dead as any.

PvP i said many times because i think i’m right: We have an acceptable burst damage, but lack sustain, sustained DPS and mobility to make it work. Other classes like thief, ele or warrior has a better burst and sustained DPS plus mobility or sustain (or both).
Also there are a lot of skills/traits that are broken or have being nerfed to oblivion.

That’s what this class is missing, survivability. What is completely wrong with the concept of a ranger that i have: about living in the wild, we should be the survivors.

Luckily i’ve read that the new trait system is going to be implemented soon, and i’m eager to try if they new changes brings more variety to the table.

[whining time] Someone like a ranger should bring more insta-reveals (has none), resistance (cleanse or the new resistance boon, resistance to damage also) and evades that has right now to make this one work without bringing heals to the class. I accept ranger shouldn’t be a cleric but a least we need more sustain… Please Anet make them more resilient. Also more cripple (longer and present in more skills) would be fine if you don’t want to give more mobility to the ranger.

Holland.9351:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t even try to attack fellow rangers WvW or PvP tbh, but if I am attacked, its like “BETRAYER!” and I go off lol.

I always attack other rangers and target them first in group fights because the majority of them are easy bags.

If I get in a 1v1 with a good ranger I won’t stomp him, I’ll down them, bow and whisper them ”good fight”.

Since the buff to longbow I have run into maybe 3 rangers that have received this treatment.

I also target Rangers first, they are by far the easiest to kill. Engineer is easy too as well as thief, if he doesn’t stealth quick enough. Mesmer can be easy too. Necro is just annoying with double health bars and elementalist moves half way across the map while downed, which makes him almost impossible to finish. Warrior and Guardian just have a lot of health with good survivability and healing, which makes them my least favorite target.

I have no problem with stomping another Ranger. I don’t treat them any better than anyone else. However, I do love to see a Ranger on my team.

(Talking about WvW)

I’ve noticed this as a ranger as well, either in PvP or wvw im always the 1st to be targeted. It’s almost as if everyone expects you to be full glass with a Lb. It’s really funny seing a med guard or thief bum rush me, only to find out I run a spec just as tanky as his bunker guard friend

@anduriell.6280
I feel like we are playing in two completely different worlds…

Can you please explain to me how “Ranger lacks sustain”?

We went over this in another thread where you claimed that we didn’t have sustain, I pointed out several sources, you were unaware that one of those traits actually heals us too (because its tooltip doesn’t say so) nor were you aware of the coefficients and how well it all stacked together.

More evades?

• Sword has 2
• Dagger has 1
• Shortbow has 1
• Lightning Reflexes is an evade
• Greatsword AA #3 is an evade

How much more evade options do we need on our Ranger?

More survivable? On top of those evades, we also have block on Greatsword, stealth on Longbow, a very low CD Knockback on Longbow, access to additional CC from our pets, Signet of Stone invuln and Protect Me pseudo-invuln.

How does ranger lack sustained DPS compared to other classes?

I feel like you really just want a Warrior with current Healing Signet and Adrenal Health or an Elementalist.

@anduriell
I believe I explained what the point is.
I used the word “usually”, and said that not every bear pet means a bearbow, neither longbow does.

As you said yourself – your build is to save your group in addition to dealing damage. But you won’t be able to do that with 1500 range on longbow – where both the signet and spirit are utterly useless, right? And if in melee range – you’ll find the SoS useful, right?

Bearbows are selfish. And that’s what 95% longbow-excluded users are. For PvE that is.

Sebrent.3625:

@anduriell.6280
I feel like we are playing in two completely different worlds…

Can you please explain to me how “Ranger lacks sustain”?

I feel like you really just want a Warrior with current Healing Signet and Adrenal Health or an Elementalist.

Yes we did have a conversation and as i stated your points were wrong. We DO have healings but not as much as any other classes and we lack serious sustain/mobility.
We are like a weak version of the reaper where instead chill we apply cripple.

For the list you gave me, again is misleading. You can have as many as 2 evades at the same time with 2 weapons sets, and the shortest is 10 seconds CD. And we don’t have a reliable source of healing or source of mobility if you want to keep those.
The rest of the skills are or broken (LR with the you go back where ever you character is looking and not the camera ) too long CD (60 seconds on SoS…). The pets i stated and can be confirmed with anyone are useless in almost any escenario (PvP,WvW and PvE with a lot of AoE) so just let’s keep them aside.
You keep saying ranger is strongest i just say you don’t see any ranger in high pvp rank.

Tragic Positive.9356:

@anduriell
I believe I explained what the point is.
I used the word “usually”, and said that not every bear pet means a bearbow, neither longbow does.

As you said yourself – your build is to save your group in addition to dealing damage. But you won’t be able to do that with 1500 range on longbow – where both the signet and spirit are utterly useless, right? And if in melee range – you’ll find the SoS useful, right?

Bearbows are selfish. And that’s what 95% longbow-excluded users are. For PvE that is.

Yes you are right, a lot of rangers that play ranged (LB) are selfish, but that doesn’t mean all of them or even the majority. I use LB when in boss fights unless there is a warrior/guard involved in melee, but that doesn’t mean i can’t get close while pewpew-ing and drop the spririt. I’ve done it thousands of times in dungeons or SW when fighting bosses, it is amazing to see all the downed tags vanish from the map.

The only bad thing is the loose of DPS because you miss all the boons the melee players are dropping (might for example), but having in mind that we die easy that the best choice. Also you don’t need to be at 1500 to get the max DPS from the LB.
Although i think you are right on that: LB damage ranges should be reworked, the stages just promote players to play safe from more than 1500 units.

@anduriell
I would like to avoid any negative feelings but…
… If you are using longbow only – there’s a bit of wrong in how you play. In efficiency that is. We all know that anything in melee range does higher DPS than a ranged spec.

That being said… It works only if everyone is in the ranged zone. Stacked. Which means it takes 4 seconds till the “ranged” group becomes melee (boss comes). And there it’s not even a question to swap for melee weapons when the boss is already in melee… Because… Melee always does more DPS.

Playing all ranged without the boss getting in melee is called kiting – which is one of the slowest strategies to take a boss down.

And if not all of you are stacking at 1 place – you are doing PvE wrong. Loosing tons of boons, you can’t DPS to full potential (cleave) and so forth. Which leads me to conclusion and a question I’d like to ask:
- Regardless of how helpful you might want to be… Don’t you think you would be ten times more useful with melee weapons? Isn’t longbow again a tool that promotes selfish comfortable playstyle, even if your intentions are to help?

Tragic Positive.9356:

@anduriell
I would like to avoid any negative feelings but…
… If you are using longbow only – there’s a bit of wrong in how you play. In efficiency that is. We all know that anything in melee range does higher DPS than a ranged spec.

That being said… It works only if everyone is in the ranged zone. Stacked. Which means it takes 4 seconds till the “ranged” group becomes melee (boss comes). And there it’s not even a question to swap for melee weapons when the boss is already in melee… Because… Melee always does more DPS.

Playing all ranged without the boss getting in melee is called kiting – which is one of the slowest strategies to take a boss down.

And if not all of you are stacking at 1 place – you are doing PvE wrong. Loosing tons of boons, you can’t DPS to full potential (cleave) and so forth. Which leads me to conclusion and a question I’d like to ask:
- Regardless of how helpful you might want to be… Don’t you think you would be ten times more useful with melee weapons? Isn’t longbow again a tool that promotes selfish comfortable playstyle, even if your intentions are to help?

Kiting is sometimes the only viable way, look at HotW p1 i.e. you don’t want nor can you stay in range for very long. His damage, especially on his AoE can drop Tanks quickly. And if you’re not kiting you’re at least hopping in and out of the fight.

So no, ranged weapons are not only selfish and useless. Also I might add that you don’t need all the boons flying around in melee range. Basically against a melee boss you’ll only need Might (Which can be stacked by a ranger himself through food, runes and sigils). Prot, Regen, other boons? If you’re good you won’t get hit so it’s not an issue.

And as others said, nothing stops you from dropping spirit in range then backing out – It’s better to put the Spirit between you and the melees anyway as that prevents the Spirits death through cleaving damage or AoEs.

The only – and really only reason – to hate on range is the movement of the boss. He aggros you? Great he’ll run from your melees and out of AoEs. Frankly that shouldn’t be an issue with a good ranger though as you can drop Aggro asap with Hunters Shot Stealth. Oh and that also means you’re effectively dealing the highest dps there. Yes, our sustained damage is super strong.

I’ve been running Longbow/Greatsword or Sword/Warhorn for as long as I played Ranger – I got flamed for taking LB, I got flamed when I changed my Pet to the bear in a condition heavy bossfight and I got flamed for simply being a ranger in the marionette fight.
Guess who survived and solo’d some bosses with high melee damage, cleansed his group from 25 stacks of confusion (Lyssa) and made p1 marionette boss super easy with the pet tanking it while everyone could freely attack from behind (fyi that boss was invul from the front).

The thing is, most of the time when people complain they are referring to ‘those rangers’ or ‘all rangers’ while blissfully ignoring that you’ll always have some bads in the mix which should not be measured as the standard.

P.S. Sorry for directing the whole post at you, I just meant to answer on your range-point. The rest was meant to be a general heads up for all naysayers.

Pimsley.3681:

In matches, it’s common to see thieves, guardians and warriors criticize others with the same profession. Thieves mostly. It’s a hard class to master and the really good ones I admire. And when the rangers got the buff last year, they formed some sort of camaraderie, which I thought was cool…even though I was an outsider coz I played condi at the time.

This is why I am debating to stop playing/ maining my thief…do one thing thats not meta and people lose their kitten. Besides Thief is little too sqwooshy for my I think o.o

Akuni.8604:

The only – and really only reason – to hate on range is the movement of the boss. He aggros you? Great he’ll run from your melees and out of AoEs. Frankly that shouldn’t be an issue with a good ranger though as you can drop Aggro asap with Hunters Shot Stealth. Oh and that also means you’re effectively dealing the highest dps there. Yes, our sustained damage is super strong.

I’ve been running Longbow/Greatsword or Sword/Warhorn for as long as I played Ranger – I got flamed for taking LB, I got flamed when I changed my Pet to the bear in a condition heavy bossfight and I got flamed for simply being a ranger in the marionette fight.
Guess who survived and solo’d some bosses with high melee damage, cleansed his group from 25 stacks of confusion (Lyssa) and made p1 marionette boss super easy with the pet tanking it while everyone could freely attack from behind (fyi that boss was invul from the front).

The thing is, most of the time when people complain they are referring to ‘those rangers’ or ‘all rangers’ while blissfully ignoring that you’ll always have some bads in the mix which should not be measured as the standard.

I couldn’t think a better way to explain myself. I do use melee (sw/axe) but only when is viable.
Jumping into the melee zone just to die as quickly as i jumped in is not of any help to my group. So LB is my main weapon and if there is other player that can drive the aggro to himself, as i said a guard or a warrior i will get in melee if possible. The ranger hasn’t got the same sustain/dps as those classes and thus should not behave like them.

Tragic Positive.9356:

@anduriell
I would like to avoid any negative feelings but…

You shouldn’t. Range is a good option as any and with the ranger doesn’t seem much a difference. You shouldn’t tag all the LB rangers as bad and selfish players because that’s not true and sound like a player with a warrior as main would say. Anyone that has been playing melee ranger knows that you only can stay in melee for short time and then is really difficult to disengage or get back the hp lost.

That’s why i did ask for more ways to disengage. From all the actual evades from the ranger the only ones that work are SB#3 and SW#2. The other ones are mimics : GS#1 is so sort that you are lucky if you see it working, SW#3 most of the times fail to hit and you are still in melee range. LB#3 is mostly useless against other players because of the sort and constrained stealth, the only use that has is to redirect aggro.
So yes, more means of sustaining ourselfs so we don’t depend exclusively in our only healing skill and more means to disengage a melee combat (thief has shadow step and stealh, ele has also great mobility and TP same as the mesmer) to be able to rotate to the LB. Only one skill to clear conditions that relays on the pet to be alive or exchange an actual healing for a mild healing that is HS that is not good enough to keep us alive. No traits or skills to strip boons and we are the only class that hasn’t got that. Something that is a must against the Karkas..

Right now we still lack sustain and mobility with a medium armour that is like butter againts the DPS from other classes and that really root us at the bottom of PvP ranks.

@anduriell:
If it wasn’t for the fact that new rangers might read your garbage, I’d probably just chalk you up as a waste of time and ignore completely …

Yes, in that other thread where you claimed that Ranger has no sustain, I directed you to the combination of Regeneration, Troll Unguent, Signet of the Wild, and Natural Healing. you stated that my points were wrong … which was met by several others telling you that they were actually right… like the example I mentioned with Natural Regeneration … and the amount of healing all of that adds up to … and how if you take healing but don’t gear/spec properly for it it’s the same as taking conditions but not taking condition damage …

But hey … selective memory and lack of logic seems to be working well for you ./eyeroll

If you’re having trouble in melee, perhaps you should look as some of the videos by Wizzo and others where they are having success not “just dieing” in melee.

You’ll notice in some of those videos that they are quite capable of (1) Sustain (2) Disengaging … it’s the craziest thing seeing that you say Rangers have trouble with these things but we have several showing that we don’t and even more saying that we don’t.

But hey, you’re the same person that was complaining earlier about Ranger not having many evades … and then I showed you a list of them … and now you complain about what can go wrong with skills … because using things correctly is an issue I guess …

I have mostly found ranger players niave. Not sure why possibly because they can afford to play the game while half paying attention. Which translates to WVW as them appearing to react slowly or make very bad positioning choices. Of course I know some exceptions.

Pugsley.9627:

I have mostly found ranger players niave.

this is probably the best adjective. out of all the professions, id say rangers have the most players who think they have an amazing build but in fact are running something goofy and extremely inefficient. people just don’t test their builds enough, and unfortunately many don’t have the opportunity to play against excellent players.

mistsim.2748:

Pugsley.9627:

I have mostly found ranger players niave.

this is probably the best adjective. out of all the professions, id say rangers have the most players who think they have an amazing build but in fact are running something goofy and extremely inefficient. people just don’t test their builds enough, and unfortunately many don’t have the opportunity to play against excellent players.

Or, you know, something goofy turns out to be viable enough to flip the meta despite not being ‘the most efficient’. Especially if you look at the grand picture and not just a tiny view you want to add to your argument. Want an example?
Celestial gear on Ele. When we got it in PvE it got hated on for not having enough power etc etc. Some people still tried it on Ele and Engie (I did too, I thought it just had to work if you use all of the stats well). Time passed and it was introduced to PvP. Guess what’s the meta now…
And yes, celestial might not be the meta in PvE but it lead to a PvP flip and offers you enough viability in PvE to do stuff like solo’ing Champs easily.

Same will happen with LB, believe it or not: With the new traits this weapon revieves a buttload of damage and cc potential as does the greatsword. The rest of the weapons? They don’t get much besides more movement for PvP shenanigans.

im just pointing to players not testing their builds before claiming theyre the next best thing. it happens on these forums the most I would say. there is no scientific method, just ego and a lot of bad players. only the most efficient and tested builds became playable in the meta, like the glassbow and survival condi bunker.

you really have no understanding of history behind the cele meta. celestial was popularized by wvw players almost 2 years ago, mostly frontline guardians and roaming engies. in conquest its use was a response to the zerker/bunker meta, and people wanting to phase out the bunker guard. players wanted to have sustain while doing damage. there was nothing goofy or inefficient about celestial becoming a thing. it came from a year and a half of testing.

@OP:

The camaraderie likely stems from rangers previously being a bottom-tier class really sub-par at… everything. The community of ranger players could only really try to help improve each other to justify themselves to everyone else.

Since the changes, this is definitely shifting, however. A lot of players have picked up pew pew ranger as a means of easy kills. It’s a bitter satisfaction to the more original longbow/GS pewpew players (alas I am one of them), for their builds are now viable, but at the expense of garnered kills as being justifiably “too easy.” My motto regarding skilled rangers comes from their capacity to fight with their secondary set.

You’re probably seeing a lot of criticism come from the Thief and Guard communities because the professions when not played properly are absolutely abysmal, and that these professions have some complaint-worthy builds that even enthusiasts of the professions themselves dislike seeing and consider an insult to the playing population.

I’ve been a thief/ranger dual main since launch, so I can only truly speak for the thief community in that there is nothing more frustrating than seeing really naive-starry-eyed newcomer thieves refuse advice and cause huge losses for the team (you’re aware of the difficulty as you mention), or watching your class get nerfed over and over due to the existence of a few very, very, very overpowered skill/trait/gear combinations (P/D dire perplexity in WvW) while those players brag about “skills”/trash-talk and the very essence of these builds only gets buffed over time and never addressed. Because of these builds, you also get rude/toxic bandwagon players wanting the newest FoTM faceroll build (like pewpew ranger) who like to talk smack when they win and talk smack when their allies don’t.

@mist:
The celestial “meta” only really came into existence in sPvP after ANet buffed celestial stats in sPvP to a mathematically-imbalanced value, where very simple theorycrafting would demonstrate there was almost zero mathematical reasoning for all classes except the thief to use anything else. Engineers and Elementalists just benefit the most from these amulets due to a variety of high-scaling hybrid damage sources already within their more standard builds’ grasps.

^yes, but im saying specifically when and where it came from. Akuni was saying cele meta came from people goofing around with some PVE spec, which is a ridiculous notion.

mistsim.2748:

^yes, but im saying specifically when and where it came from. Akuni was saying cele meta came from people goofing around with some PVE spec, which is a ridiculous notion.

Yeah because WvW obviously was the only gamemode experimenting… Do you even listen to what you’re saying? They started with hybrid builds based on Valkyrie etc. Celestial wasn’t a thing from the start in WvW.
While WvW players were still calculating PvE tried it out asap.
It was not just WvW and especially how durable classes became was the reason it was jumped on in PvP when they got the amulet. Remember how Ele was sorta ‘meh’ until that change due to dying to fast to support with his utility (Everything except 1-5 faceroll staff, that is).