Guild Wars 2

Before the game was released, rangers were that, rangers and a pet class, and there was a dedicated ranged class known as marksmen. What we got was a kittenized version of both these classes and it doesn’t function very well.

The common problem for the ‘Ranger’ is the pet. In PvE it is strong because the mobs (generally) allow for the pet to perform its function, while the ranger performs his. But that is under the most ideal of circumstances. The mob must be standing still and focusing its attention upon the pet while the ranger stands back and does his job. No real brainer here, and it ‘ideal’ situations as these, the ranger is a balanced class.

Now, when you put a ranger into the ‘real world’ application (WvW or sPvP) the pet is more of a liability and less of a utility. Sure, it can be used accordingly, and even well, but it still loses much in transit, as itself, cannot perform well while moving.

Since the seperation of PvE and PvP is not in effect, a ranger looses 1/3-1/2 half of his DPS because the pet is supposed to supply the rest of it. But in the fast action ‘e-sport’ of competative PvP pets suddenly are left in the dust because they cannot compete, thus limiting the rangers overall competativeness.

If you make a class solely dedicated to the love of ‘ranged’ artillery (and not just bows) you open up a unique role where people might feel the most confortable with without the need to say you messed up with the ranger, or ‘buff’ or ‘nerf’ rangers anymore than they have already suffered.

My idea kinda goes along the same lines as elementalists and elemental attunements.

While a marksman is at 1200-200 range (yes, I know the game can handle distances…just think jormag) the marksman would have a set of skills for long range combat.

If an opponent is within 600-1200 range, the marksman would have a set of skills for ‘medium range’ combat, and if an opponent is in melee, he would have a new range of abiities. You would be limited to one type of weapon at a time, much like an elementalist, but then again, you’d be getting 3 different sets of abilities, just like an elementalist (except without the 4th bar switch).

A Marksman would be granted things like:

Rifle
Dual pistols
Longbow
Shortbow
Spearguns

Thoughts?

i agree whole heartedly that they ruined 2 class with this merge, i would love to the split happen but instead of ranged combat switch for the class mechanic id go with something closer to GW1’s old preperations.

You guys are in a nice little illusionary world there… The reason they merged them was because they were almost the exact same prof, there was almost no difference between them, infact the only difference was pretty much one had pets and spirits and the other one didn’t

“PvP pets suddenly are left in the dust because they cannot compete”

PvP pets in fact assit you greatly in spvp – they are rather useless in wvw though unless you are fighting in a small scale situation.

There’s a reason they were merged. Having a “ranged weapon” profession and a “pet user” profession were two very narrow and dull concepts. Putting them together allows for more variety, where you could play as either one depending on your spec, or a mish-mash of both.

Either way, we’re way too far into the game to completely split a class. This would have had to been done in early alpha testing at latest. You can’t just tear a class in half, that would be a serious amount of work at the risk of upsetting people who enjoy the Ranger class.

Also, there’s a reason A-Net merged them.

While I understand that the DEV’s concept of marksmen and rangers ‘were’ very similar to each other, that the decided to combine them, my versions of these two would vastly differ.

First off…marksmen would be ranged weapons only that ‘can’ be used in close range combat, where as the ranger would remain where it is.

I can understand that they had decided to combine the two they had, but while the F2 functionality is useful in some situations, it is almost argued entirely that pets in fact make the ranger weaker overall, and canot perform to standards in competative play.

In PvE, sure, they are fine, but in PvP, where rangers need the maximum amount of output, they are severely kittened because pets are a large portion of their damage, and cannot perform that role, except in a utility capacity….

Ranger does not mean one who uses ranged weapons. The classic ranger is one who is a master of woodland arts and such. Look at Aragorn from LoTR, he primarily used a greatsword. I usually hate it when people come into threads and say stuff like this (Im not trying to be one of those people), but it seems a pretty common misconception these days.

This cant happen couse its opposite of game’s philosophy. All roles, melee and ranged dps at the same profession. (not thats working atm, just saying)

It does make sense to keep it split INMHO. Although, Marksman might actually get too similar to warrior – just with access to pistols and shortbows and not greatweapons.

Anyway, I think there definitely is room for both with Ranger emphasizing the outdoor survival and nature side while marksman (or perhaps soldier?) is front-line, but range focused fighter.

As for Aaragorn, he used a weapon wholly under-represented in the world of video games: the hand-and-a-half (or kitten) sword in the movies. These were designed to be used either one or two-handed. True greatswords were larger and pretty much required two hands to use. A kitten sword could be an interesting weapon to bring more variety to the ranger class.

I take issue with this topic because…you know. This is ANET’S Ranger. I’m not saying never criticize it. I’m saying don’t criticize the base concept, because you’ll always loose. Not because ANet is ignoring you. It’s because you’re ignoring the intent of the creators. This thread only exists because someone thought “This doesn’t connect with what →I<- think a ranger is!” It doesn’t have to. Just because you don’t think it’s a ranger, and no matter how much you throw around “inspirations” and things of that nature doesn’t mean this isn’t what ANet calls a ranger. At the end of the day, this is the class ANet branded with the name Ranger. Letting labels be the class instead of just being a name is a little absurd.