Guild Wars 2

Ok…I’m levelling up my ranger..and I don’t know how or why..but im fighting enemies up to 7 leverls above me..which was IMPOSSIBLE to do on my ele and tough on my warrior. Seriously, I’m like..wow..are they really as bad as they were made out to be? My weapons are longbow and torch and axe3…I find the snares and conditions great and the knockback on longbow cool….Have they been misjudged….? Admitedly I’m only level 28 at this stage..but I can’t help but feel they have been unfairly maligned
?

Rangers are probably the best profession for leveling in pve.

It’s not until level 60-70+ content that the flaws start to show. Before that Master’s Bond + a Canine pet can pretty much do everything for you. Literally, everything.

Somewhere around the time you get to Orr the pet system starts to break down due to stat scaling (10 points in BM at level 20 practically doubles your pet’s stats at level 80 it’s more like a ~6% increase), harder mechanics, and more enemies.

I’m definitely not one of the “Ranger is terrible” people but I’m not blind to the faults either. It just really does take until higher levels for the problems to show themselves. You may also notice issues if you go into dungeons and/or WvW.

I think you need to get to level 80 and the higher end zones and WvW before you make a statement like that.

Then you’ll start to see how rubbish the pet is and how the Ranger is lacking and lacklustre in all aspects.

Meanwhile in Arah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKy67S6uvNU

Solid Gold.9310:

I think you need to get to level 80 and the higher end zones and WvW before you make a statement like that.

Then you’ll start to see how rubbish the pet is and how the Ranger is lacking and lacklustre in all aspects.

Way to encourage a player who seems to be enjoying the class. No one likes a Moody Mandy.

OP:

Rangers arent as bad as people make them out to be, sure there are bugged traits and ridiculous traitlines, silly utilities and mediocre elites. More classes than the Ranger suffer from those issues

Well I guess it’s true you cannot make a final judgement until 80..but although I don’t think it comes anywhere close to Warrior or Mesmer..I am finding I survive more than I thought I would and it’s a LOT better than my necro that I levelled up to a similar level. It has a LOT of p[otential as a class and I hope ANET flesh it out a bit more. I’m not saying it’s perfect by any means, but it is better than I was led to believe.

I lost patience with my Ranger last week and deleted it, but Ranger isn’t as bad as people say. It really depends what you want to do. Personally I like PvE, PvP and WvW. And I plan on doing WvW fully once I get high enough level. And Ranger is awful at PvP. Because Rangers damage is awful, to balance out the pets. And in PvE where the pet will actually attack your target it’s not bad. But in PvP where your pet will either die instantly or have no idea what it’s doing. You have half the damage of anyone else, and killing takes a long time.

Ranger has bugs and the pet is a considerable pain but we are not at all as bad as people say.

Run dungeons and end games all the time. Pet systems are bugged, but I am convinced that part of it too is the player mentality is broken and refuses to adapt and overcome.

again, not saying pets are perfect yet and there are instances where pets are borked liked Jade Maw and high end agony fractals… but by and large most of the other complaints I have heard can be fixed with the tools the ranger has been given.

I’m a ranger and my team uses me as the main damage dealer in WvW. I’ll out burst just about any class and tank 10 times harder. Why cause I understand the ranger extremely well now.

Ranger is extremely hard class to beat in 1v1. Rangers do insane amounts of damage in WvW.

So don’t listen to people say rangers are bad, only bad part is there hard to learn once learn’t your a killing machine.

Leveling is great on a Ranger. I’ve killed Champion’s accompanied by Veteran’s on numerous occasions while leveling.

Get into a dungeon though at 80, you’ll start realizing your classes flaws. The biggest eye sore is watching your pet die before the Swap CD is even up (and the poor pet is unable to make it out of the AOE damage before it’s too late, or your pet dies to unavoidable Agony in Fractals). And with your pet dead, a large percentage of your damage is gone, thus making you the weakest link in your party. The next is watching your arrow shots getting Obstructed for no reason. Lastly, when you realize your Search and Rescue doesn’t work 50% of the time and 60% of your utilities are garbage and impractical. Oh, and when you realize a big chunk of your traits are centered around your pet – that’s dead more often than not.

D: Sorry for raining on the parade. But hopefully over the next 3 months will bring Ranger buffs, balances and fixes.

Rangers aren’t perfect, but I like them enough to have leveled two of them to 80 now.

One thing most people don’t do enough of is micromanaging their pets. They just leave them in there and hope that either the pet swap or heal CD is up before they die. Even while doing simple farming, I’m typically doing at least one attack/recall rotation without even thinking about it. It’s just a habit. Against bosses, I send them in when I think I can get them back out again safely. And I use two frail little birds, not two burly bears, so identifying when an AoE or big hit is incoming, is critical. I don’t even have a maxed out BM — it’s only twenty.

Rangers are solid at every PvE aspect of the game and at every level. I won’t speak to their PvP viability because the few times I’ve tried it, I know it was my weakness as a player that accounts for my many deaths. I’ll defer to others with more PvP experience. They still aren’t as overpowered as Warriors though. Not at all. But they are ten times more enjoyable to play. And you get the collect-the-pet mini game that no other profession gets. Win!

Sol.4310:

I’m a ranger and my team uses me as the main damage dealer in WvW. I’ll out burst just about any class and tank 10 times harder. Why cause I understand the ranger extremely well now.

Ranger is extremely hard class to beat in 1v1. Rangers do insane amounts of damage in WvW.

So don’t listen to people say rangers are bad, only bad part is there hard to learn once learn’t your a killing machine.

You confuzzle me greatly, good sir. In some other topic you said something along the lines that you have rerolled a new character because as a ranger you feel useless when it comes to Wv3?

Ranger takes a long time to get rolling on high lvl play. Ignore the negatives and learn the class…there’s a ton of complex combos you can pull off with rangers that are fun. Are they the best for high-level play for tPvP? I don’t know, but I do great in random sPvP and in WvWvW and FOTM and have tons of fun.

Mitch.4781:

tough on my warrior.

You might want to actually learn how to play the Warrior first, if you honestly believe this.

The Warrior is the best PvE class in the game, by a far, far, far margin, even better than the Guardian, you know the class many Warriors complain about? I can quadruple any damage you do on the Ranger, even if you’re in full glass spec with my Warrior, and my Warrior isn’t a damage spec.

And get this, the Warrior brings far more benefits to the group, being able to keep regen, fury, swiftness, and 3 stacks of might up permanently for his entire group.

The Warrior is the fourth best PvP/WvW class in the game, only behind Thief, Mesmer, and D/D Elementalist for obvious reasons.

<walks away shaking his head>

Unfortunately, everyone on the forum is extremely negative. Almost every class seems to hate their class.This is probably one of the reasons I had trouble picking a class when I first started the game. I ended up leveling an elementalist to 80 first. This was after I leveled at least a couple other classes up to 30 first. However, when I got my Ranger to 80 that’s when I truly started to have fun.

And yes, leveling Ranger is amazing. I leveled her to 80 in only a week and she could handle content levels above her. At 80, I had the same fun. She hits like a kitten truck. I love running dungeons with her, I just started WvW on her and it’s fun, dynamic events and dragons are always my favorite.

And you know what? My pets are great. My pets don’t die. I’ve been fairly convinced my Fern Hound was immortal my entire 1-60 leveling experience until he died fighting Tequaltl. He dies a few times in dungeons but a majority of the time he is alive and I really don’t micro manage him.

Sure they have issues and bugs, all classes do. But if you enjoy the class and try your best to learn and work around things you can be amazing and you can have a ton of fun. Which is what playing a game is all about. It’s about having fun and loving what you do. Don’t let people dissuade you from playing a class. Find out for yourself.

I have a lvl80 Ranger and I’m nearly indestructible in PvE. Except in Orr, because Orr is stupid. I have a trap build for PvE. Haven’t tried PvP, and I don’t have the need to. In WvW, my Ranger is at it’s weakest for me as I can’t seem to get the right build for WvW. Dungeons are a bit of a challenge for the Ranger compared to other classes, but look at what your skill are meant to do that play on those.

A Ranger is not a Warrior or a Guardian, nor will they every be. You will not get the damage they create, not will you ever have their heath. You wear medium armor for crying out loud…

If you’re looking for OHK, mind numbing, easy game play without any thought or trial and error, this is not the profession for you. The Warrior is for you. I know because, I’m leveling one right now. 100Blades, please… How easy is that.

Just get used to what the weapons and skills can (and can’t) do and adjust your play style accordingly. Same goes for the pets. Yes they are not perfect, but they have more to offer then one may think. I run a Brown Bear and a Fern Hound.

Negative comments are being said for a reason. Rangers fail at 80. You can find another class to do anything they do, better.

Leveling a ranger is misleading cause you have a pet to tank for you while you pewpew but once you do Dungeons, WvW or S/Tpvp, your pet dies before it can actually do anything which kills your overall dps.

SpreadCheeks.3801:

Leveling a ranger is misleading cause you have a pet to tank for you while you pewpew but once you do Dungeons, WvW or S/Tpvp, your pet dies before it can actually do anything which kills your overall dps.

This is what happened to me. Played a little Guardian and Warrior during the beta weekends, but decided on Ranger on release. Ran with a Brown bear and longbow and everything pretty much pre-Orr, stayed focused on my tank bear which never seemed to die. Just ran from enemy to enemy.

Then came Orr… find a target, have bear attack, start my attack pattern…. wait… why is this guy attacking me?!? Leave me alone! No, seriously, go away! Attack my bear, attack my bear! WHY OH WHY WON’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

I went full class cannon (30/30/5/5/0) once I reached level 80, with full Berserker’s gear. and Ruby Orbs on the armor. I could normally down an enemy long before they ever reached me, but if I got too many on me at once things got hairy. The annoying would always be watching my bear run to the enemy, hit once or twice, enemy run towards me, bear finally take chase, I knock the enemy back, bear stops, turns directions, starts running, enemy gets up runs back towards me and past the bear, bear stops, turns, starts chasing… Ugh.

I quickly realized it was time for a change in my approach to which pet and how I took on enemies with my pet.

Though not a One or Two button WIN class there is a lot of good to be said about the class. Steady and consistent if not spectacular damage from range while constantly moving has its merits.

I run a completely ranged Bow Ranger (AKA Gimp spec) and have a ton of fun with the class regardless of role..PvE, WvW, Dungeons. I have never been denied participation in any game content based on my class. In the end its about having Fun and like anything else…it will be what you make it….

As far as WvW I dare say I enjoy as much if not more success than the regular friends and guild mates I play with who all are playing “vastly superior classes” if I were to use feedback on the Ranger boards as a benchmark.

Do yourself a favor, play the class the way you want to. If you enjoy it then disregard all the feedback you see here and don’t look back. If you don’t enjoy it try something else. Don’t allow all the negative spin on these boards to discourage you from playing the class as it’s no where near as bad as many here would have you think.

I think the adage “The Grass is always greener…” has taken root on the Ranger boards..

Honestly, for me it was realizing I couldn’t play a Ranger the way I wanted to play them. I wanted to be an unsurpassed bowman with a decent sword backup while my pet(if I wanted to use him at all) performed harassment duties. Unfortunately, the game forces you to build around your pet, instead of the other way around.

I run a 20/20/20/10/0 build in W3, and I can’t for the life of me figure out where I’m going to take the points from to put into BM. I need both LB and GS cooldown reduction traits. I alternate between the “pierce targets” and “LB dmg/range” traits depending on the situation. And without “Nature’s Protection” I would die a lot more than I already do to backstabs. Any suggestions?

You don’t need points in BM. You can do just fine without them there. Though as a question, how well does your build do. I’d personally take the 10 points from Nature Magic and put them in Wilderness Survival for Bark Skin, but that’s me.

jkctmc.8754:

Mitch.4781:

tough on my warrior.

You might want to actually learn how to play the Warrior first, if you honestly believe this.

The Warrior is the best PvE class in the game, by a far, far, far margin, even better than the Guardian, you know the class many Warriors complain about? I can quadruple any damage you do on the Ranger, even if you’re in full glass spec with my Warrior, and my Warrior isn’t a damage spec.

And get this, the Warrior brings far more benefits to the group, being able to keep regen, fury, swiftness, and 3 stacks of might up permanently for his entire group.

The Warrior is the fourth best PvP/WvW class in the game, only behind Thief, Mesmer, and D/D Elementalist for obvious reasons.

<walks away shaking his head>

Why do people have to get so personal all the time? Did you actually read the post? All I said was that in the early stages of levelling I was suprised at the level of enemies I could take on with my ranger that even were challenging with Warrior. This is probably due to the distraction of having two pets and being able to swap them. It’s not a comment on the later stages of the game. Of course I know warrior is great..I use one for basically all my dungeon runs in Knights gear and am now levelling him through fractals…He survives brilliantly and still does awesome damage. So I am well aware that they are probably the best class in the game with the highest damage.

RyuDragnier.9476:

You don’t need points in BM. You can do just fine without them there. Though as a question, how well does your build do. I’d personally take the 10 points from Nature Magic and put them in Wilderness Survival for Bark Skin, but that’s me.

Well I use Melandru’s runes(and the karma armor that it came with) for better toughness. So having that 5 seconds of protection during a burst is really handy. And I use purity sigils for my weapons because I hate Healing Spring in W3.

As far as how well I do…I’d say it’s mostly because of my slow fingers. I’m like 3/1000 vs thieves, 10/100 vs ele’s, and I usually lose to other rangers if they run shortbow/sword. GS damage is low and slow, but I simply can’t pass up on its mobility. At least I can get away now if I have to. :/

The ranger is definitely a fun class, but once you get to the higher levels (around 70-ish and above) most people start to see major flaws.

Pets really stop being of any real use at this point because of their crappy AI; I tell my pet to attack enemies and end up watching the pet essentially chase its tail, not being able to hit (like the pet and npc just run in back and forth through each other or will run in actual circles doing nothing else). The f2’s can be horribly unresponsive (like sometimes not working at all) and when the f2 is a support effect, the pet will often run off to an enemy and use it instead of near you (even when set into passive mode).

In dungeons pets can do okay against normal mobs, if you have a few points into BM, but are usually awful against most boss level enemies. If you are fighting a boss that does just single target attacks, being ranged you can usually micromanage the pet decently enough to keep them alive. The problem is that most Champion level enemies have a good amount of AOE attacks that they like to spam and pets just often won’t make it out of there in time (at least my pets will usually run back and forth very, very confused, when I try to call them back to me; since I am usually melee, this also require me to dodge out of range and hope that an unresponsive pet will actually get out of the way in time). I can dodge the enemy attacks just fine, pets on the other hand usually just die and then you lose out on a huge amount of your class damage.

In fractals of the mists, pets lack any amount of agony resistance and are guaranteed dead (I mean why the heck don’t they share AR with the player???)

Anyways, the problems most players rage about are usually with the pets… There are some things that need to still be adjusted with the player character, but they are a lot more minor in my opinion than the issues with the pets.

Rangers definitely have some of my favorite attack skills though; the sword and greatsword are just amazing fun and feel right (well except for the back breaking twist the ranger sometimes does with sword 1 =_=‘). Longbow is in a decent place, although it could use some amount of tweaking (hitting enemies directly below you attacking walls in WvW for example). The skills all just feel and look nice on the ranger (I hate the warriors skills; boring as kitten. I’ve done a bit of Fencing and Kendo, as well as other combat sports and the warrior just feels… too straightforward and boring in combat).

It just kind of sucks when you lose out on a major part of your damage and utility because of an unreliable mechanic (most of the other classes at least feel like they have control over their mechanics…)

Obsidian.1328:

Honestly, for me it was realizing I couldn’t play a Ranger the way I wanted to play them. I wanted to be an unsurpassed bowman with a decent sword backup while my pet(if I wanted to use him at all) performed harassment duties. Unfortunately, the game forces you to build around your pet, instead of the other way around.

I run a 20/20/20/10/0 build in W3, and I can’t for the life of me figure out where I’m going to take the points from to put into BM. I need both LB and GS cooldown reduction traits. I alternate between the “pierce targets” and “LB dmg/range” traits depending on the situation. And without “Nature’s Protection” I would die a lot more than I already do to backstabs. Any suggestions?

Just roll with what you have. The pet is nothing but a liability in WvW. I only really use it for the various F2 utility skills and as a bit of added pressure on a downed enemy that I can’t reach to stomp. Other than that, they really don’t do much unless you go full BM in which case you will die very, very quickly because no one is going to go for the pet instead of you regardless of your build.

It’s the same basic problem they had in the first game and in GW1 the pet was a beefcake and a half, not kitten NPC that you have to micromanage like a little sibling your mother made you watch all day.

Even just letting us set a mode where it automatically attacks what you attack, switching targets immediately and breaking off combat the same way would be a huge improvement.

FrouFrou.4958:

Sol.4310:

I’m a ranger and my team uses me as the main damage dealer in WvW. I’ll out burst just about any class and tank 10 times harder. Why cause I understand the ranger extremely well now.

Ranger is extremely hard class to beat in 1v1. Rangers do insane amounts of damage in WvW.

So don’t listen to people say rangers are bad, only bad part is there hard to learn once learn’t your a killing machine.

You confuzzle me greatly, good sir. In some other topic you said something along the lines that you have rerolled a new character because as a ranger you feel useless when it comes to Wv3?

Yep, that was before I went into hardcore training mode with heap of mates to work my ranger out better.

Thing we found is sure the ranger can’t do a “Kill Shot” but over say 10-20 seconds ranger throw allot of damage. Was matter finding combo’s and using right sigils.

Sol.4310:

FrouFrou.4958:

Sol.4310:

I’m a ranger and my team uses me as the main damage dealer in WvW. I’ll out burst just about any class and tank 10 times harder. Why cause I understand the ranger extremely well now.

Ranger is extremely hard class to beat in 1v1. Rangers do insane amounts of damage in WvW.

So don’t listen to people say rangers are bad, only bad part is there hard to learn once learn’t your a killing machine.

You confuzzle me greatly, good sir. In some other topic you said something along the lines that you have rerolled a new character because as a ranger you feel useless when it comes to Wv3?

Yep, that was before I went into hardcore training mode with heap of mates to work my ranger out better.

Thing we found is sure the ranger can’t do a “Kill Shot” but over say 10-20 seconds ranger throw allot of damage. Was matter finding combo’s and using right sigils.

Still wondering how you can tank 10 times harder than any other class, like guardians for example, and still do insane damage that out bursts other classes? Would be nifty if you could share your findings.

Actually, the reason rangers are able to take on so many and so strong enemies at low
levels, is because of how Troll Unguent scales. At level 5 you have like 600hp, and it will
heal 900 hp over 10 seconds, while other professions only heal like 250 at that level.

Troll Unguent stays overpowered for quite a while, healing much more than your
maximum health pool per use. But at higher levels the disadvantage disappears and
you notice how weak the profession really is without the overpowered low level
healing.

The problem is just damage, all the weapons do an incredibly low amount of damage,
and the only weapon, shortbow, with damage somewhat comparable to other classes,
only hits a single target and has totally lackluster abilities other than the autoattack. I
am including the pet damage when I say how low damage the ranger does by the way.
The pet does damage to a single target, and even against stationary targets it just does
not perform, and your weapon damage combined with pet damage is just too low.

Longbow and greatsword, weapons designed for power, are so weak that you just don’t
do enough damage at higher levels. At lower levels you can use the shortbow, but then
later on even the shortbow will not do enough damage, and has no decent abilities.

The problem with shortbow is that its abilities suck, the problem with all other weapons
is that their damage, even combined with high damage pets, is far, far, far too low. A
ranger just can’t bring anything valuable to a group, and doesn’t do enough damage
to serve as gold grinder, it takes too long to kill even single enemies.

By the time you whittled a single monster down to half hp with your bows, the warrior
next to you has destroyed a group of ten monsters without having to kite or heal.

It’s just too cool to have controllable pets though.

I never experienced that brick wall when it came to lvl 80 in Orr, quite possibly because of my switch to close combat tactics. The thing is, if I jump in and attack, throws down a frost trap and then starts cutting loose with sword or greatsword, then the undead doesn’t chase me. Thus my pet will hit, and hit hard.

The thing that amazed me once I switched tactic in there was how survivable the ranger is in a close fight. I generally am the last survivor in my group. However, if you want to hang back and rely on your bow there… yes, there will be trouble.

So I would say that instead of the ranger turning useless at 80, our viable tactics gets cut down a lot. Which is sad.

Malin.2490:

I never experienced that brick wall when it came to lvl 80 in Orr, quite possibly because of my switch to close combat tactics. The thing is, if I jump in and attack, throws down a frost trap and then starts cutting loose with sword or greatsword, then the undead doesn’t chase me. Thus my pet will hit, and hit hard.

The thing that amazed me once I switched tactic in there was how survivable the ranger is in a close fight. I generally am the last survivor in my group. However, if you want to hang back and rely on your bow there… yes, there will be trouble.

So I would say that instead of the ranger turning useless at 80, our viable tactics gets cut down a lot. Which is sad.

I agree completely. Rangers make extremely hardy combatants, and you can focus purely into tanking if you go BM and still keep your DPS fairly decent. lay down some CC and your pet will go to town on whatever unfortunate sap is unlucky enough to get caught in it. I am really impressed with the melee skills available for ranger. Only time I carry bow now is if I feel like zerging.

As Malin mentioned I am typically last man standing for whatever party I’m in outlasting warriors and guardians alike. Typically why I opt to play medic since I can rez and still keep DPS pressure up through the pets.

If you pack wolves, they bring their own CC

Zsymon.8457:

Actually, the reason rangers are able to take on so many and so strong enemies at low
levels, is because of how Troll Unguent scales. At level 5 you have like 600hp, and it will
heal 900 hp over 10 seconds, while other professions only heal like 250 at that level.

Troll Unguent stays overpowered for quite a while, healing much more than your
maximum health pool per use. But at higher levels the disadvantage disappears and
you notice how weak the profession really is without the overpowered low level
healing.

The problem is just damage, all the weapons do an incredibly low amount of damage,
and the only weapon, shortbow, with damage somewhat comparable to other classes,
only hits a single target and has totally lackluster abilities other than the autoattack. I
am including the pet damage when I say how low damage the ranger does by the way.
The pet does damage to a single target, and even against stationary targets it just does
not perform, and your weapon damage combined with pet damage is just too low.

Longbow and greatsword, weapons designed for power, are so weak that you just don’t
do enough damage at higher levels. At lower levels you can use the shortbow, but then
later on even the shortbow will not do enough damage, and has no decent abilities.

The problem with shortbow is that its abilities suck, the problem with all other weapons
is that their damage, even combined with high damage pets, is far, far, far too low. A
ranger just can’t bring anything valuable to a group, and doesn’t do enough damage
to serve as gold grinder, it takes too long to kill even single enemies.

By the time you whittled a single monster down to half hp with your bows, the warrior
next to you has destroyed a group of ten monsters without having to kite or heal.

It’s just too cool to have controllable pets though.

yeah, single target is sort of lacking, that’s why I pull 5 something mobs at a time and melt them all together. Speeds up the process tremendously. Can the bows do this, no not really. but sword, GS, axe, off hand axe, and torch certainly can. Don’t forget the awesomeness of traps.

Sarlack.4096:

Though not a One or Two button WIN class there is a lot of good to be said about the class. Steady and consistent if not spectacular damage from range while constantly moving has its merits.

I run a completely ranged Bow Ranger (AKA Gimp spec) and have a ton of fun with the class regardless of role..PvE, WvW, Dungeons. I have never been denied participation in any game content based on my class. In the end its about having Fun and like anything else…it will be what you make it….

As far as WvW I dare say I enjoy as much if not more success than the regular friends and guild mates I play with who all are playing “vastly superior classes” if I were to use feedback on the Ranger boards as a benchmark.

Do yourself a favor, play the class the way you want to. If you enjoy it then disregard all the feedback you see here and don’t look back. If you don’t enjoy it try something else. Don’t allow all the negative spin on these boards to discourage you from playing the class as it’s no where near as bad as many here would have you think.

I think the adage “The Grass is always greener…” has taken root on the Ranger boards..

This is poetry.

DaisyRogers.6837:

I agree completely. Rangers make extremely hardy combatants, and you can focus purely into tanking if you go BM and still keep your DPS fairly decent. lay down some CC and your pet will go to town on whatever unfortunate sap is unlucky enough to get caught in it. I am really impressed with the melee skills available for ranger. Only time I carry bow now is if I feel like zerging.

As Malin mentioned I am typically last man standing for whatever party I’m in outlasting warriors and guardians alike. Typically why I opt to play medic since I can rez and still keep DPS pressure up through the pets.

If you pack wolves, they bring their own CC

Yeah, I go team medic if there’s no guardian around. Even had an Orr build for a while that focused on mobile spirits… it was not that bad, but suffered fast in larger battles. The spirits really need to be tougher. And if I run with QZ, the speed ress is awesome.

I need to go back and try the canines again, currently I am going with the Lynx and the Riverdrake. The drakes might be broke, but it is durable, hits hard, and since I have the trait that gives bleeding on basic attacks for drakes/felines they are not too bad. And lightning breath is a good crowd cleanser.

Funny thing, my orr beastmaster build is actually okay in WvW too. Haven’t died yet in one on one combat and I survive thieves and warriors well with the help of signet of stone.

Mitch.4781:

Ok…I’m levelling up my ranger..and I don’t know how or why..but im fighting enemies up to 7 leverls above me..which was IMPOSSIBLE to do on my ele and tough on my warrior. Seriously, I’m like..wow..are they really as bad as they were made out to be? My weapons are longbow and torch and axe3…I find the snares and conditions great and the knockback on longbow cool….Have they been misjudged….? Admitedly I’m only level 28 at this stage..but I can’t help but feel they have been unfairly maligned
?

Leveling a ranger is easy mode in pve. . But maybe you want to wait till your 80 and participate in wvw before you fully review your ranger. I still love mine at 80 but there are issues and Lvl 28 pve isint a good way to judge them by.

Ranger is never weak in 1v1. The problem is ranger maybe the hardest class to master since it need quite a bit skills. The more I play ranger the more I realized that we rangers has the best melee weapon among all classes —- if you are not using sword, you won’t be a good ranger (at least in 1v1). Many ppl complain about sword, but in fact it’s pretty OP when you know how to use it (need quite a bit skills, but once you know how to do it, you will feel lucky that you play ranger), you just melt any melee classes. I will post a tutorial about how to use sword after 1/28 patch(I don’t want to do it now coz I don’t want it to be nerfed since it’s our last stand weapon, then most of us can enjoy for a while until the next patch).
However, lack of AOE is really a pain especially in wvw (don’t arguee with me with LB5 or traps, they are just jokes when compared with other classes no matter damage or the risk to use them)

CRrabbit.1284:

Ranger is never weak in 1v1. The problem is ranger maybe the hardest class to master since it need quite a bit skills. The more I play ranger the more I realized that we rangers has the best melee weapon among all classes —- if you are not using sword, you won’t be a good ranger (at least in 1v1). Many ppl complain about sword, but in fact it’s pretty OP when you know how to use it (need quite a bit skills, but once you know how to do it, you will feel lucky that you play ranger), you just melt any melee classes. I will post a tutorial about how to use sword after 1/28 patch(I don’t want to do it now coz I don’t want it to be nerfed since it’s our last stand weapon, then most of us can enjoy for a while until the next patch).
However, lack of AOE is really a pain especially in wvw (don’t arguee with me with LB5 or traps, they are just jokes when compared with other classes no matter damage or the risk to use them)

I actually love the melee aspect of ranger I’ve been trying lately. Still it’s completely different from the character I thought I would be getting when I started this class. Most of the videos of rangers winning spvp fights are running melee. Does anyone else think this is weird for what most new players thought they would be playing? (which is a mostly ranged kiting class?)

Kellnor.5428:

Sarlack.4096:

Though not a One or Two button WIN class there is a lot of good to be said about the class. Steady and consistent if not spectacular damage from range while constantly moving has its merits.

I run a completely ranged Bow Ranger (AKA Gimp spec) and have a ton of fun with the class regardless of role..PvE, WvW, Dungeons. I have never been denied participation in any game content based on my class. In the end its about having Fun and like anything else…it will be what you make it….

As far as WvW I dare say I enjoy as much if not more success than the regular friends and guild mates I play with who all are playing “vastly superior classes” if I were to use feedback on the Ranger boards as a benchmark.

Do yourself a favor, play the class the way you want to. If you enjoy it then disregard all the feedback you see here and don’t look back. If you don’t enjoy it try something else. Don’t allow all the negative spin on these boards to discourage you from playing the class as it’s no where near as bad as many here would have you think.

I think the adage “The Grass is always greener…” has taken root on the Ranger boards..

This is poetry.

Thank you Sir!

Pneg.7302:

Solid Gold.9310:

I think you need to get to level 80 and the higher end zones and WvW before you make a statement like that.

Then you’ll start to see how rubbish the pet is and how the Ranger is lacking and lacklustre in all aspects.

Way to encourage a player who seems to be enjoying the class. No one likes a Moody Mandy.

OP:

Rangers arent as bad as people make them out to be, sure there are bugged traits and ridiculous traitlines, silly utilities and mediocre elites. More classes than the Ranger suffer from those issues

He wasn’t being moody, he was just stating the fact that due to the pet mechanics ranger isn’t as good end game and in instances. IE Kholer’s spin kills your pet always.

Ranger’s isn’t as bad as most people think but adding a “Pets take 65% Less dmg from AoE” mechanic would do WORLDS of good for their end game.