Guild Wars 2

Now, I love Ranger, and I have Ranger mains in both GW1 and GW2, but some of the weapon skills for the Ranger are boring/lack style, especially when compared to the weapon skills for other classes.

Ax:
I found this weapon to be the worst offender in terms of lack of interest or flair, possibly because it is the only Ranger MH/2H that doesn’t have at least one movement-based skill. I like the ax’s focus on AoE/multi-target, but the weapon skills just need to be reworked to be more interesting to use.

Longbow:
Whenever I see the longbow autoattack, all I can think is “the Mesmer greatsword autoattack already does this, and it looks far cooler at that.” Also, from a lore perspective, it makes no sense for an arrow to do more damage the farther away the target is. Hunter’s Shot is also rather boring.
what I would do is:
1 – Autoattack causes vulnerability instead of depending on range. maybe has chance to grant swiftness to pet.
2 – Unchanged
3 – Lay down a fire field a lá Bonfire. This also would synergize well with all the other longbow skills (use it to augment the damage from Barrage, put it in front of you before unloading Rapid Fire, or even Point Blank Shot a foe into the field)
4 – Unchanged
5 – Unchanged

Torch:
The skills cause Burning and . . . Burning. Pretty boring when you consider that mes torch makes her INVISIBLE or guard can set himself on fire with his torch. I would like to see the #5 skill changed to something more interesting, maybe a cone of blinding smoke or even a support skill.

Sword:
This weapon sorely needs a leap, which is ridiculous considering that it already has two “leaps” (Pounce and Monarch’s Leap)
Either make the #2 go Monarch’s Leap > Hornet Sting, or make Pounce the opening autoattack and increase its range slightly.

I agree completely, your suggestions sound awesome. I hope anet sees this and thinks about it.

I find a lot of the rangers weapon skills are weak knock offs from the warrior/thief. Warrior when dual axe’s for instance can move when spinning them, and they seem to do more damage. Thief with shortbow has a better AoE (IMO! it’s not as reliable since the cluster is a bit random, but it’s more fun and can do some rather large damage) and their evasive shot move can be used a couple times and even then initiative grows faster than our cooldown, or at least similar levels. The greatsword has similar but far worse abilities than a warriors, and our 1hand sword while one of my favourites, is no where near as good as a warriors (for spvp at least) and hey, we’re rangers,

I’ve always seen a ranger as a class that’s proficient in dexterity type weapons, fast and agile with a bond to nature (some nature spells and able to talk with animals and “summon/command” them for a short time, not keep them always, yet the thing that bugs me most of all, we can’t dual wield swords/daggers. Is it really harder to use a dagger in the mh than offhand??.

I love the ranger but currently it’s so broken with the pets always up in front aggroing and the cursed F2 ability not working. We have no flashy abilities (Hell, even the thiefs shortbow’s autoattack looks more interesting, or the warriors longbow shoots pretty fire)

We have so many utter trash traits, especially in the grandmaster’s tree (we do have some good ones) and our builds seem rather counter productive at times. Let’s not even mention how the ranger, a very dexterous class, has to trait for a 10% movement speed signet while the warrior in plate gets superiour speed. Same as the rogue (albeit understandable) Hell, in “most” ranger lore, the ranger is a bit of a jack of all, and has some minor but weak stealth abilities, especially in the wild.

I do love my ranger but it feels too much like a “hunter” from WoW, with cheap knock off yet worse abilities than the other classes which should in theory be designed more for the ranger, while having nothing flashy for eye candy and suffers from the targetting issues more than any other class (As an ele I can run away from a mob while still spamming ice shards 180 degrees behind me, if I try to jump shot as a ranger, well, good luck, first you get slowed down, second there’s a good chance you’ll change your target, third the cone of fire isn’t really that large and forth, you could end up just hitting something else (doesn’t warriors arrows automatically pierce things btw? unsure of that)

Besides all that, our armour isn’t very rangerish (again, just my opinion) I also find our evasive shot is sluggish and not very fluid, and we’re extremely easy to shut down in melee range, though we output good melee damage, we have silly abilities as mentioned with the 1h sword.

Don’t even get me started on spirit builds and spending like 9 seconds summoning them all for them to actually be dropped in a single AoE in spvp even when traited fully into everything for them.

I feel I do amazing in sPvP but with that said, I’m forced into a very boring build, or I could take my chances with a fun build but get torn to shreds easily, while other classes also suffer from it, don’t feel as punished for it (bar perhaps the engi, I feel they could also do with some love but I don’t play one).

1v1 we are very good, but maps are so small, you don’t get 1v1s very often, wvwvwv is a zerg fest (but we shine there) and our downed abilities are so PvE orientated it feels like a large portion of what we got seems like the dregs that they didn’t dare give another class.

I agree that, while it is possible to be extremely effective in battle as a ranger, many of their abilities are not flashy enough/boring

The only weapon Rangers have that doesn’t have completely boring abilities also happens to have an autoattack chain that roots you.

Really, the bow abilities are so vanilla, they’re something I’d expect a warrior class to have, but even the warrior bow has the fire/burning thing going for it.

Your comments about the ranger ring true as my friends and I have all needed to take short breaks from playing this profession because of the skills. It’s not that the ranger’s skills aren’t powerful compared to other professions, but there’s not that many skills to choose from, and because of that playing the ranger gets repetitive. I find myself using the sword/warhorn or axe/axe combo not because I like those skills (melee on a RANGEr seems wrong) but because I get sick of the longbow and shortbow. The ranger has something like 32 weapon skills compared to the elementalists’s 60+, and if you want to be a traditional ranger and go bow only you have a whopping 10. We need more bows! Recurve bow, flat bow, horn bow, CROSSBOW (dual wielding crossbows!).

Longbow: My favorite weapon. I love rapid fire, barrage, and point blank shot. Barrage is about the flashiest skill in our arsenal.
Shortbow: I like all of the conditions this weapon can inflict, except that concussion shot never seems to stun even when I’m for sure standing behind a foe.
Greatsword: My absolute least favorite weapon. I feel clumsy wielding it. Counterattack would be more useful if the timer was longer.
Sword: Entertaining, but I usually aggro additional enemies with all my acrobatics.
Axe: I really only like it in my offhand when I can use whirling defense.
Dagger: Whimpy.
Torch: Both skills do burning, which is predictable. Maybe one of the skills could push your opponent back, cause blindness, reflect projectiles? Something?
Warhorn: No complaints. I love both these skills.

Traps are useful, especially if you unlock the trait that lets you throw them. (Otherwise you have to command your pet to retreat, or most enemies won’t get close enough to trip them.) Spirits die way too quickly, and the range of their triggered abilities is far too short. You have to assign traits to improve them, but even then they’re not very strong. Could the cooldown be made shorter? That would help a little. And I sure wish the F2 skill for the pets would work.

Anyway, that’s my rant for the ranger. My complaints are mostly related to the lack of really fun weapons, specifically bows. Adding a bow or two exclusive to the ranger would go a long way to making the profession more unique and fun to play.

agree, i hate using axes but i have no choice (i think) i am running a condition build and axes is kinda a most. I like using greatsword but GS with shortbow seems kinda weird lol, i haven’t seen a ranger using that combo.

Same happen with the longbow, most boring weapon to use, slow and lack of skills. Is just auto attack and the 2 skill, if mob get close 4 skill and repeat. Thats why i use SB.

I would wholeheartedly support pounce being moved to the first attack of the 1hand sword. What I find funny is Ranger NPC’s actually do have pounce as their first attack on 1H sword attacks??

Sheriff Bullock.3859:

Your comments about the ranger ring true as my friends and I have all needed to take short breaks from playing this profession because of the skills. It’s not that the ranger’s skills aren’t powerful compared to other professions, but there’s not that many skills to choose from, and because of that playing the ranger gets repetitive. I find myself using the sword/warhorn or axe/axe combo not because I like those skills (melee on a RANGEr seems wrong) but because I get sick of the longbow and shortbow. The ranger has something like 32 weapon skills compared to the elementalists’s 60+, and if you want to be a traditional ranger and go bow only you have a whopping 10. We need more bows! Recurve bow, flat bow, horn bow, CROSSBOW (dual wielding crossbows!).

Longbow: My favorite weapon. I love rapid fire, barrage, and point blank shot. Barrage is about the flashiest skill in our arsenal.
Shortbow: I like all of the conditions this weapon can inflict, except that concussion shot never seems to stun even when I’m for sure standing behind a foe.
Greatsword: My absolute least favorite weapon. I feel clumsy wielding it. Counterattack would be more useful if the timer was longer.
Sword: Entertaining, but I usually aggro additional enemies with all my acrobatics.
Axe: I really only like it in my offhand when I can use whirling defense.
Dagger: Whimpy.
Torch: Both skills do burning, which is predictable. Maybe one of the skills could push your opponent back, cause blindness, reflect projectiles? Something?
Warhorn: No complaints. I love both these skills.

Traps are useful, especially if you unlock the trait that lets you throw them. (Otherwise you have to command your pet to retreat, or most enemies won’t get close enough to trip them.) Spirits die way too quickly, and the range of their triggered abilities is far too short. You have to assign traits to improve them, but even then they’re not very strong. Could the cooldown be made shorter? That would help a little. And I sure wish the F2 skill for the pets would work.

Anyway, that’s my rant for the ranger. My complaints are mostly related to the lack of really fun weapons, specifically bows. Adding a bow or two exclusive to the ranger would go a long way to making the profession more unique and fun to play.

Melee on a Ranger seems wrong?!
Wait what, you do realise Ranger in this context does not mean a person that uses ranged weapons right. You do know, that misconception is dumb, and I feel too many people have it. A Ranger is a trained person in various guerrilla domains. ’That person ranges across the country side protecting the wilderness. ’

Stop picking on my axe/torch! It’s an amazing weapon set.

The burn duration difference from Bonfire vs the tossed torch #4 skill is so huge that I would be really upset losing either. You want more flash? Fine, beg for additions, but don’t take away my different burns for different situations. :P

Ricochet is great, giving you a multi-hit ranged auto-attack. Excellent for when beset by large numbers of enemies. I love seeing my axes bounce, and I would hate having to plink each enemy down one-by-one like you do with the other weapons (because face it, Barrage is one skill with a long cool down).

Split Axe (#2) gives a very nice stack of bleeding as long as you’re willing to get up in something’s face, and do you know what else? The axes do not stop on the first target they hit. So if you’re aware of your positioning and can line up multiple enemies, you can regularly drop 5 stacks of bleeding on 2-3 enemies. There doesn’t seem to be a built-in limit to how many enemies you can drop your full 5 stacks of bleed on, just a personal skill limit to how many you can convince to stand on top of one another at a time.

Kiting around just out of melee foes’ reach, but ready to duck in for a moment to drop Bonfire and Split Axe on them is one of the most interesting play styles I have come across.

And don’t dare mess with my shortbow fun. #5, even if you only hit the daze portion rather than the stun, is an interrupt. I love interrupting. It has been one of my favorite roles to play for years and years, and while interrupting is not as prevalent in GW2, it does still live! The ranger has precious interrupts, and if anyone threatened mine I’d be likely to sic my rabid jaguar on you! The greatsword has one daze, but it requires melee range and you may not be in the right place at the right time to maximize the payoff from an interrupt. The shortbow’s being a ranged interrupt means you can see that big guy winding up over to the side, about to smash your friend, and stop him in his tracks. This is one way that a DPS character can help with support without needing to trait for anything particularly support related.

Moral of the story: not everyone plays like you do. If you think this skill or that skill should be more like <insert other class here> then by all means, go play that other class!

Not everyone wants to be super flashy all the time. Sometimes I want to be low-key, underestimated, and totally ready to rock those unsuspecting enemies.

And lastly, because I just can’t resist...

if you want to be a traditional ranger and go bow only

Traditional rangers use a sword! Just ask Aragorn. :P

Melee on a Ranger seems wrong?!
Wait what, you do realise Ranger in this context does not mean a person that uses ranged weapons right.

Traditional rangers use a sword! Just ask Aragorn. :P

Traditional rangers meaning rangers from Guild Wars 1, which didn’t support the wielding of melee weapons. Yes, you could wield a dagger or sword, but you got no benefit from your Marksman points, most Preparation skills, and (naturally) Bow Skills. Unless you were a “touch Ranger” in PvP you used a bow 99% of the time. That’s why melee weapons on the ranger seem wrong to me.

Don’t touch the torch, it’s my favorite weapon for the ranger. Having two fire skills, both with high durations and reasonably low recharge allows me to tear through entire wave of pve DE’s on my own with speed and ease.

Sheriff Bullock.3859:

Melee on a Ranger seems wrong?!
Wait what, you do realise Ranger in this context does not mean a person that uses ranged weapons right.

Traditional rangers use a sword! Just ask Aragorn. :P

Traditional rangers meaning rangers from Guild Wars 1, which didn’t support the wielding of melee weapons. Yes, you could wield a dagger or sword, but you got no benefit from your Marksman points, most Preparation skills, and (naturally) Bow Skills. Unless you were a “touch Ranger” in PvP you used a bow 99% of the time. That’s why melee weapons on the ranger seem wrong to me.

Only reason why rangers being exclusively ranged in GW1 was because there were dual professions. Like monk being exclusively a healer.

Range, verb:
``to pass over or through (an area or region) in all directions, as in exploring or searching’’

Ranger does not mean `ranged weapon user’. That would be more along the lines of `Marksman’ or `Sniper’. Rangers are wilderness survivors, skirmishers and often use nature magic —- terms that seem familiar in the game, for some reason. This misconception among newer RPG players is really beginning to bug me.

Why………..can i not use rifles or pistols? Just blows my mind. I know ranger does not mean hunter or “marksman,” but to me, these still seem like standard weapon classes for this character archetype. I mean, when has the ranger class NOT been identified with ranged weapons? Hit level 80 on my ranger yesterday, and then asked myself why. Definitely bored with it, and dislike the pet mechanics. Might just let my ranger rot until they change some of the skills/mechanics. Thinking I might re-roll thief or warrior, but man I wanted to like this class more than i did.

Rangers are often associated with bows, but I cannot recall them ever using black powder weapons. It just goes completely against the theme of the class. You know, Rangers cannot wear metal armour either. The class has been like this in RPGs for nearly 40 years. It is well established: ArenaNet’s Ranger fits the standard Ranger class perfectly.

Melee Rangers? Tolkien (Aragorn was the original Ranger), D&D, Seiken Densetsu, just off the top of my head. It is hardly something groundbreaking. Rangers have used swords and spears since the beginning, but over the years tended to be increasingly associated with bows.

To OP:
I agree with you completely with regard to Longbow. It needs an aoe/combo field generator.

Disagree with you about the Torch. I love it and use it when questing. The #5 skill is a nice combo field generator (leap out, swap to shortbow or leap out & back in for fire aura). Sword+Torch = poison & burning plus quick attacks and multiple evades.

Dagger and Ax offhand need to be re-worked. As it is, nobody uses them. They just don’t have anything that would make them preferable to Horn or Torch.

Elric of Grans.7684:

Rangers are often associated with bows, but I cannot recall them ever using black powder weapons. It just goes completely against the theme of the class. You know, Rangers cannot wear metal armour either. The class has been like this in RPGs for nearly 40 years. It is well established: ArenaNet’s Ranger fits the standard Ranger class perfectly.

Melee Rangers? Tolkien (Aragorn was the original Ranger), D&D, Seiken Densetsu, just off the top of my head. It is hardly something groundbreaking. Rangers have used swords and spears since the beginning, but over the years tended to be increasingly associated with bows.

Considering how much nature magic they use it would really feel out of place using technology like that.

Don’t see druids coming out of the forest in their plant armor whipping out a shotgun to blow heads off lol.

I have to disagree with some because I think all of the weapons are great except the sword, longbow and shortbow with exception to barrage. The sword needs fixed imo, although fun you get locked into melee with it which makes dodging and the likes annoying.

The bows sometimes fun gets boring very fast and I think rangers need more combo fields or finishers. The most fun weapons I use often is axe, torch, dagger and greatsword.

As much as I love the ranger and time I put into mine I am rolling up a Mesmer in the meantime but holding onto my Ranger hoping they get some interesting moves like many other classes have.

Knote.2904:

Don’t see druids coming out of the forest in their plant armor whipping out a shotgun to blow heads off lol.

Depends. Is it a Zombie Apocalypse? If so, shotgun. If not, pointy stick. Rotting berries optional

Ranger skills were boring in GW1 as well, but you didn’t notice as much because you had dual-classes back then.

That is my main QQ about GW2: the loss of dual-specs. I loved how my monk could bust out a huge ranger longbow when not healing or buffing. Or a ranger could start casting elementalist spells when they needed AOE. Oh well.