Guild Wars 2

TL;DR: Staff Ranger = Druid

So this post http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/11sw6m/if_they_added_a_weapon_to_your_class_what_would/ really really got me thinking. I love using a staff as a ranger Guild Wars 1 as a beast master focus build, I felt all druid-y. I also used a staff when I played a Spirit build on my ranger, I felt SUPER druid-y then.

An odd idea, I know, but I feel like it would really add to the whole “nature druid” section of the ranger’s theme. I mean, they have and trait line called “Nature Magic” and can summon spirits. They also have a “Beast Mastery” Trait line. Those two together fit amazingly to make the ranger feel more like a Druid/Shaman.

I figured it would be used to fill the lack of support the ranger has. Yeah warhorn, but what else? Spirits and Pets. That’s pretty much it. Spirits (other than the elite) die way to fast to be all that useful, even when traited. Also, what build would you use them with? With the trait to get them to follow you you cant go into melee so sword (the main Boon duration weapon for ranger) is out of the question. Axe has no boons to apply so no dice there. None of the weapons really do well at range with +boon duration.
Pets with Boons are kinda useful, but all those boons aren’t affected by your +boon duration or your gear at all.

Here are my staff skills & traits that affects staff skills (including ones already there, I add one)

I welcome any suggestions on how to change a skill so it’s not overpowered/underpowered.

• Auto Attack: range 1200 – ?s cast time – 300 aoe around your target, deals low base damage (Scales well with power) and applies 1s of vigor to you and to allies in the attack’s area. This is meant to help in fights by allowing yourself and allies more chances to dodge.

• 2: Hunter’s Mark: 1200 range – 3/4s cast – 8s Recharge Deal damage medium damage (scales well with power) and mark your foe for 4 seconds. Allies who hit the marked foe gain fury for 1s when they hit that foe. Mainly this was thought up as a way to buff the pet’s damage since the ranger’s pet is the main source of damage when you have this weapon out, then I thought “Hey! why not make it allies!”

• 3: Cry of Purity: Shout – range 600 – 0s cast time – 15s recharge – Remove one Condition from Allies (max 5) and one boon from foes (max 5) Benefits from having the “Shout Mastery” Trait bringing the CD to 12s. This was added since I have a background in MTG and enchantment hate is big in green – for those who don’t get this Nature hates unnatural magic, it likes purity – it also makes me feel happier that rangers have more condition/boon removal, it was prevalent in Guild Wars 1(well except the boon removal, but it fit thematically) and in Guild Wars 2 it’s kinda lacking

• 4: Bramble Trap: Trap – 900 range – 150 aoe (think a bit bigger than Mind Stab Mesmer skill) – 20s Recharge – 3s duration – place a trap that when activated deals moderate damage per pulse and immobilizes enemies for .5 seconds per pulse and applies 1.5s of retaliation per pulse to allies in the aoe. I love the idea for this skill. A lot. So, this is meant to snare an enemy for an ally(your pet)/ kite an enemy, and buff your allies to stay alive. So the theme is brambles come out of the ground and lash at your foe making it so they cant move, it also wraps around your allies punishing foes for attacking them. – It’s affected by the “Trapper’s Expertise” trait, making it a 225 aoe and increasing the range to 1200. – It’s also affected by the “Trap Potency” bringing the CD to 16s and making the immobilize 1s per pulse.

• 5: Camouflage: 1/2s Cast time – 45s recharge – Stealth for 4 seconds. As long as you are stealthed by this skill your pet has quickness. Stealth breaks on movement or skill use. I loved the stealth that broke on movement that they had in the beta, this made a great defense/offense version of it. This needs major tweaking, if I could add this to the game I’d test the crap out of it to make it perfect.

Trait’s
Trap Potency: Conditions caused by traps last twice as long and traps recharge 20% faster.
Trapper’s Expertise: Trap skills use ground targeting and are 50% larger.
Shout Mastery: Shouts recharge 20% faster.

- my new trait –
“Staff trait…thing (Name subject to change)”: Staff skills cooldown 20% faster and when you apply a boon to your pet with a staff skill you get that boon as well.

This would be a 20 point Nature Magic trait, boon duration & all. The problem is that the spirit skills traits tend to take up the entire Nature magic line if you want your spirits to be even remotely useful, and this weapon is supposed to work with a spirit build (being a druid & all that).

I personally think many ranger traits are pretty underwhelming (I’m looking at you “Natural Healing” and “Moment of Clarity”…), so I’d combine the “spirits have more health” and the “spirits activate their skill on death and the skills are bigger” traits into on as a 10 point nature magic trait. Then I’d put the staff skills as a 20 point naturemagic trait.
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I also had weapon swapping and weapon preference in mind when figuring out the skills.

High damage Staff + Longbow Build: open with staff 4 to root them, followed by staff 2 to damage & mark them, swap to longbow and hit longbow 2 skill to hit 8 times and get 8s of fury.

Condition Damage, Crit, Boon Duration Staff+Shortbow: Open with staff 4 to root them, followed by “Spike Trap” to root them more, followed by staff 2 to damage & mark them, swap to Shortbow (get swiftness & fury), dodgeroll to close the gap, hit them with your sbow 2 (5s of fury), sbow 3 to jump back & gain swiftness, sbow 5 to daze/stun before you hit Quickening Zephyr and pile on the sbow auto attacks from the side stacking 1-3 bleeds per hit (if you crit & stuff) and gain 1s of fury per hit.

You can see where I’m going with this. There are plenty of possible builds that would be fun on the ranger and just dont work on par with other classes because we just dont have the weapon for it. Most classes have a support style weapon (staff guardian, staff Ele – water, staff necro, staff Mesmer)

So I’d love to hear what you folks think about my idea
Thanks for readying this far ^^

Neat idea.

As the #1 advocate of Staff Rangers way back in the pre-Alpha days, I fully endorse the idea of magic-wielding Rangers.

Unfortunately, the idea was shot down for a number of reasons. 1) We have enough Staff-wielding professions. 2) Some people want to keep the Ranger as physically-based as possible. 3) Ranger “Nature-Magic” was really just an excuse for Spirits, and never implied actual magical skill. 4) There are more gun-advocating Rangers than Staff-advocating Rangers

Either way, I think it would be an awesome idea for an expansion, and would spice up the Ranger quite a bit. It’s just probably best saved for such, as I’d rather A-Net fix what we have in the class already before adding new stuff.

If you’re really interested, there was a massive thread on the GW2Guru discussing staff Rangers, I’ll try to find it if I have the time.

EDIT: Bonus points for Hunter’s Mark. Never realized how much I missed that skill until I don’t have it anymore. Animation must include the obnoxious floating arrow that serves the bonus purpose of alerting the ever-intelligent masses which enemy is the boss.

i love the idea of a staff, but not so much the idea of it being mainly a support weapon. in an attempt to make the skill feel more unique to the other staff wielders, i would want the staff to attack in melee range instead of long range

props to putting so much work into your idea

I actually like the staff/support idea way better than using guns. We’ve got plenty of range options with longbow, shortbow, and mh axe. As it is, for support roles all we really have is our horn and that’s just for one skill. Axe is meh for support. It basically lets us stay at range so we don’t die when we try to contribute some damage. Staff support would be sweet and could really benefit from other “nature magic” like our spirits.

If we had a staff that would make my job on deciding what weapon to use even harder…

This is a good idea, but I would also consider giving Rangers the rifle. After all, its one of the few weapons only usable by two professions.

I might even go as far as saying they could swap out greatsword for the rifle, since the greatsword has little usage as it is now.

This staff/druid idea should really be implemented to the game. It’s a great idea and totally get what your saying. It would also be a great way of them buffing spirits/sorting pet AI out aswell.

I’d rather have a Scepter than a Staff if a magic option gets added. Ranger already has two 2H ranged options, I want another 1H ranged attacking option (mainly because the axe aggroing yellows with auto-attack is REALLY annoying), especially since all of Ranger’s offhand weapons have at least 1 ranged attack.

A low-damage basic is a no-no from me (at least comparative to our other weapons, though you could say all of our weapons are lower damage due to the pet). A small AoE buff would be fine, perhaps have the attack a 3-attack chain with the 3rd shot causing a buff around the target hit ala Mesmer’s Scepter chain, but not at the cost of damage (for comparison look at something like the Guardian Hammer or Mace, they both have support but aren’t bad for damage). I’d do something besides Vigor though, Vigor is nice for allied players but useless for pets, so something that could support pets and players both would be preferred. Maybe Regeneration, since Nature Magic has a large healing focus.

Hunter’s Mark sounds really cool, so that as the second ability would work.

Not sure about the 3rd ability. Shouts and Traps seem better suited as utilities than weapon skills (very few classes have skills shared between utilities and weapon skills, only Mesmer really and thats a special case since its what the entire class is built around), though I suppose it would make them fairly unique. Stationary camo seems useless to me, all it would be in PvE is a tool to lose aggro and in PvP it’d be completely pointless (you can still hit an invisible enemy and if you can’t move you’re a sitting duck, invisible or no).

@Doombunny
It makes me really happy to know that other folks had a similar idea to mine My initial thought was suggest adding staff rangers when we go to Cantha for the first time. Since it’s all spirit-y there & stuff.
I see what you mean about staf being a well loved weapon already. And I still think the ranger is a bit more druidy that just casting those spirits. Looking at what a ranger could do with his spirits in GW 1 really shows that you really can be more of a druid/shaman than just a skirmisher who sleeps outside. Folks who want to keep the ranger 100% physical are missing out on a huge aspect of being a ranger instead of a class like the Warrior or Thief.

An interesting idea might be to make it a long range dagger weapon (900 range) since dagger’s not too too busy of a weapon and it’d be better to have more mainhand options for ranger instead of another 2 hander.

@Delevin
Hmm, that would actually be really really cool. If it was melee…Auto attack chain could do damage/damage & gain vigor/damage and cause regen (or burning? that would be interesting)
I’d leave hunter’s mark and make it a 900 range skill
Make bramble trap a 1/2s cast at your feet, you’d benefit from it more often since it’s a melee weapon.
The stealth would hard to do, since even when invisible not being able to move causes lots of damage, especially at melee range.

@ electro
I was thinking about making it a scepter as well. That’s not a bad idea, and yeah I was working on an idea for a new 3 skill (came up with a skill called summon the storm, you charge the skill for a few seconds and when you release it deals a number of hits based on hw long you charged it for. Felt a bit too elementalist-y). That shout really is more of a utility skill, I think maybe make that a 25s utility skill and it would be good. You make a good point about the regeneration and having regen on the third attack sounds good to me. Maybe have a setup like such:
1: AA: Chain – damage the first time, damage the second time & gain vigor, damage the third time and apply regen in an aoe.

2: Hunter’s Mark – 1200 range – 3/4s cast – 8s Recharge Deal damage medium damage (scales well with power) and mark your foe for 4 seconds. Allies who hit the marked foe gain fury for 1s when they hit that foe.

3: Bramble Trap: Trap – 900 range – 250 aoe – 20s Recharge – 3s duration – place a trap that when activated deals moderate damage per pulse and immobilizes enemies for .5 seconds per pulse and applies 1.5s of retaliation per pulse to allies in the aoe.

When I said low damage (scales well with power) I had in mind what the staff would be used for in lots of builds. If you had a lot of power it would deal high damage, but if you had low power, not so much. A power build wouldn’t be using the pet for damage as much so that would balance the ranger’s damage I feel. On the other hand if you had high pet stats and went with the staff you would be focused on buffing your pet and setting up a good time for it to burst down your foe with the bramble trap+camo skill+hunter’s mark.

Hmm, I could dig a scepter/Warhorn Beastmaster build. 30 in skirmishing (pet’s prowess, Trap potency, Trapper’s Expertise), 20 in nature magic (Nature’s Bounty, Scepter Cooldowns Trait), 20 in Beast Mastery (Master’s Bond, Commanding voice). Focus on sustained damage from traps while you try to set up for a burst with your pet. I’d probably take the flame trap, the cripple trap, and signet of the wild. Rampage as one for 25 stacks of might on your pet

Staff would be awesome. Or scepter. Scepter would be cool, because then we could use it with our warhorn and it’s buff.

I think it would make a LOT of sense for us to get a staff or a scepter, because without one “nature magic” seems like a stupid and pointless name for a tree. Spirits alone don’t suffice for an entire talent tree.

But, if we can’t get staves and scepters, I do think they should put some kind of a nature druid/shaman type character into the game.

Though my understanding is that the ranger is supposed to be said kind of class, so I don’t fully understand why we can’t get staves and/or scepters…

Lucky Charmz.5089:

Staff would be awesome. Or scepter. Scepter would be cool, because then we could use it with our warhorn and it’s buff.

I think it would make a LOT of sense for us to get a staff or a scepter, because without one “nature magic” seems like a stupid and pointless name for a tree. Spirits alone don’t suffice for an entire talent tree.

But, if we can’t get staves and scepters, I do think they should put some kind of a nature druid/shaman type character into the game.

Though my understanding is that the ranger is supposed to be said kind of class, so I don’t fully understand why we can’t get staves and/or scepters…

I agree with this, i personally think Staff would fit better with ranger though because it still allows for the whole “Martial” aspect (IE we could still bash people with our staff where a scepter, not so much…) not to mention that in GW1 quite a few rangers used staffs, where no rangers (that i know of) used scepters.

Staffs were used for Heavy Spirit, Traps, and Beast Mastery builds in GW1 (IE a majority of your skills were for one of those 3 skills, EASILY 5 – 8 of your skills, out of 8, were those), so they have that whole lore aspect behind why staff would be used over scepter.

That being said i would love to have another ranged 1 hander… so if we could get both i’d be a VERY VERY VERY happy ranger, the fact we got neither staff nor Hammer (2 very common GW1 weapons for ranger) is upsetting…

Durzlla.6295:

I agree with this, i personally think Staff would fit better with ranger though because it still allows for the whole “Martial” aspect (IE we could still bash people with our staff where a scepter, not so much…) not to mention that in GW1 quite a few rangers used staffs, where no rangers (that i know of) used scepters.

Staffs were used for Heavy Spirit, Traps, and Beast Mastery builds in GW1 (IE a majority of your skills were for one of those 3 skills, EASILY 5 – 8 of your skills, out of 8, were those), so they have that whole lore aspect behind why staff would be used over scepter.

That being said i would love to have another ranged 1 hander… so if we could get both i’d be a VERY VERY VERY happy ranger, the fact we got neither staff nor Hammer (2 very common GW1 weapons for ranger) is upsetting…

I see, I never play GW1 so I wouldn’t know. I agree with the physical aspect of the staff.
I don’t know if hammer really makes sense (too bulky and the ranger has more finesse), but the staff really seems to fit.

In regards to another 1h ranged weapon…I’m sure if we get rifles, the pistol won’t be too far behind..

Just thought of an idea, and I thought I’d throw it out there.

What if we got a staff and it had 2 “basic attacks.” One would be kind of like a ranged magical nuke, like the Elementalist Fire Staff 1 ability. And another would be a a combo of three melee twirly-staff like skills, just as many melee weapons have a combo of three.

I don’t think it would be OP or anything, just different. The typical “1” skill is just a filler, and isn’t typically main damage, so we would give up one powerful CD skill for more utility and diversity – two effective ranges, 1 weapon.

I rather have them make us rangers some neat 1-hand and 2-hand crossbows. They could act more like our shotguns and pistols.

But i think the type of shaman/Druid/Beastmaster you look for would be cool as new proffesion.. Could possibly have more pets, like 3-5 of them were one is elite. And summon whirlwinds and such. Hmm..

Avathor.1849:

I rather have them make us rangers some neat 1-hand and 2-hand crossbows. They could act more like our shotguns and pistols.

But i think the type of shaman/Druid/Beastmaster you look for would be cool as new proffesion.. Could possibly have more pets, like 3-5 of them were one is elite. And summon whirlwinds and such. Hmm..

Well i’m expecting Crossbow to show up during some expansion (maybe cantha?) because face it, quite a few profs would likely use crossbow, ranger, warrior, thief (if there’s 1 handed ones, -maybe- 2 handed, but those seem as if it’d be to clunky), engineer, maybe even ele.

However for staff and scepter i’d imagine they could implement that (as well as other weapons that are already in existence for other profs, maybe main hand pistol for mes, don’t know what else for the other profs, don’t really play them) in a patch of some sort instead of holding off for an expansion or something.

@Hammer being to bulky, well even Nente (ranger boss in AC storymode) uses a hammer as a throw back to the “Bunny Thumper” build that rangers had. The point of the build was to use rangers agility to quickly close the gap on an enemy with their pet, smack them to the floor, and then pump out a lot of burst on them while they’re KD, ending them shortly after they get back up (IF they get back up).

I feel like the ranger might be the “nature class” with the pet and spirits and nature magic and the ability to call birds and such.

And I feel like we might need to add a “scout” class or something that is like the ranger, but without the nature aspect. So he is a master or bows, guns, etc.

Which ever way it goes, we either need a druid class and the ranger to be more physical or a scout class and the ranger to be more magical.

Lucky Charmz.5089:

I feel like the ranger might be the “nature class” with the pet and spirits and nature magic and the ability to call birds and such.

And I feel like we might need to add a “scout” class or something that is like the ranger, but without the nature aspect. So he is a master or bows, guns, etc.

Which ever way it goes, we either need a druid class and the ranger to be more physical or a scout class and the ranger to be more magical.

Well lore wise the rangers shunned the technological advancements that were made and instead embraced magic more than they previously did, so I doubt rangers will EVER get guns, and as such they should be able to use staffs. Not to mention I don’t see why having the ability to use a staff means the ranger should become any less martial while using other weapons.

PS: they -did- have the ranger split into two profs, but they combined them because there was way to much overlap to keep them split.

Just wanted to toss my hat in on loving this idea. I know it’s been beaten to death but… maybe it’ll happen. I kind of fell for the ranger during the Beta Weekends, but gave up initially. After doing the rounds on the other professions, I found myself recently back on the Ranger and still loving both the aesthetic and the play style… but I would totally dig a staff (or scepter or mace… or anything really) with some more indirect Nature magic type abilities.

Overall, I like the skills the original poster put up there (since they are designed to synergize with a couple trait lines). However, I would suggest that Bramble trap replicates Entangle and Muddy Terrain type functionality (but more powerfully). I like the idea of brambles though… maybe create a ring or wall of destroy-able terrain that absorbs projectiles and prevents enemy crossing until destroyed.

I’d much rather see ArenaNet make the Ranger more into an " 1950s military ranger", then a “druid ranger”. But sure, why not. I would love to see what kind of skills we would get with a staff.

I think ArenaNet would make a LOT of Ranger players very happy, if they added both a rifle and a staff to the Ranger, though. Then we could each have a choice of what type of Ranger we wanted to play; elven (bow), druid (staff), or military (rifle).

This idea has been throw around the forums for ages now… lets just hope ANet listens and agrees.

Kasama.8941:

I’d much rather see ArenaNet make the Ranger more into an " 1950s military ranger", then a “druid ranger”. But sure, why not. I would love to see what kind of skills we would get with a staff.

I think ArenaNet would make a LOT of Ranger players very happy, if they added both a rifle and a staff to the Ranger, though. Then we could each have a choice of what type of Ranger we wanted to play; elven (bow), druid (staff), or military (rifle).

I personally would be a little angry if we could use a rifle because that’d be them going back on what the ranger is… However, we do use Harpoon Guns, maybe allow us to use those on land to make Rifle Rangers happy because they’re essentially the same thing except you’re firering spears instead of small pellets xD

Kasama.8941:

I’d much rather see ArenaNet make the Ranger more into an " 1950s military ranger", then a “druid ranger”.

I think the class you’re looking for, then, is either the warrior or engineer.

How many military riflemen have a giant brown bear following them all over the place and can call birds and spirits of nature at will?

The engineer has grenades and bombs and pistols and rifles, and the warrior is a great sniper with a rifle.

That’s not a ranger like class.

A ranger with a rifle screams “hunter” to me, and so I guess the question is are they the same thing? Nature lover or nature predator?

As a predominate Beastmaster Ranger with a staff for Gw1 i really like this idea of a staff on the ranger.

However if it can not be a ranged weapon, why not create it into a melee one? Where you have certain effects in the chain for #1 skill cause a support skill to pop up. If it is going to be a support, i can see several advantages it could bring.
(ie: an attack that heals for aoe on crit/or successful hit| an attack that immobilizes enemies hit for 5 secs|)

Although with your camouflage idea, it does seem promising. However there may be one problem with it. If a group of rangers with the skills “guard” “sick-em” and RaO, in WvW you could wipe siege off walls extremely fast.

But i do like all the ideas for it.

I made a post once about the addition of a quarterstaff into the game – I think it would be cool, and it would make more sense than a regular staff in the sense you speak of it, Jarettellis.

I’d rather have a one handed melee option besides sword, to be honest. But mostly because the sword autoattack rooting bugs the hell out of me.

Durzlla.6295:

I personally would be a little angry if we could use a rifle because that’d be them going back on what the ranger is… However, we do use Harpoon Guns, maybe allow us to use those on land to make Rifle Rangers happy because they’re essentially the same thing except you’re firering spears instead of small pellets xD

A rifle doesn’t change who the Ranger is. That’s like saying a pistol changes who the Mesmer is. Being a Ranger isn’t about using a bow.

Lucky Charmz.5089:

I think the class you’re looking for, then, is either the warrior or engineer.

How many military riflemen have a giant brown bear following them all over the place and can call birds and spirits of nature at will?

The engineer has grenades and bombs and pistols and rifles, and the warrior is a great sniper with a rifle.

That’s not a ranger like class.

A ranger with a rifle screams “hunter” to me, and so I guess the question is are they the same thing? Nature lover or nature predator?

What? This is a fantasy game, use your imagination. People in the real world have ethical relationships with all sorts of animals, including bears.

I’m not sure how adding a rifle to the Ranger suddenly makes him a Warrior or Engineer class. The aesthetic of a class is more then the weapon it uses. Adding a rifle only does just that; it adds a rifle to the Ranger. You aren’t taking anything away.

Rangers are attuned with nature, they aren’t magical fairies who protects nature. You kill animals all the time in the game..

Kasama.8941:

Durzlla.6295:

I personally would be a little angry if we could use a rifle because that’d be them going back on what the ranger is… However, we do use Harpoon Guns, maybe allow us to use those on land to make Rifle Rangers happy because they’re essentially the same thing except you’re firering spears instead of small pellets xD

A rifle doesn’t change who the Ranger is. That’s like saying a pistol changes who the Mesmer is. Being a Ranger isn’t about using a bow.

Lucky Charmz.5089:

I think the class you’re looking for, then, is either the warrior or engineer.

How many military riflemen have a giant brown bear following them all over the place and can call birds and spirits of nature at will?

The engineer has grenades and bombs and pistols and rifles, and the warrior is a great sniper with a rifle.

That’s not a ranger like class.

A ranger with a rifle screams “hunter” to me, and so I guess the question is are they the same thing? Nature lover or nature predator?

What? This is a fantasy game, use your imagination. People in the real world have ethical relationships with all sorts of animals, including bears.

I’m not sure how adding a rifle to the Ranger suddenly makes him a Warrior or Engineer class. The aesthetic of a class is more then the weapon it uses. Adding a rifle only does just that; it adds a rifle to the Ranger. You aren’t taking anything away.

Rangers are attuned with nature, they aren’t magical fairies who protects nature. You kill animals all the time in the game..

Um…. They do protect nature, they also only use weapons that’d be able to work (and work very well for essentially unlimited amounts of time) in the wild, a rifle, would not, you run out of ammo an you’re kittened.

Rangers as a whole shun technology, it is not somethin they want to rely on, just as an elementalist doesn’t want to rely on tech, or their physical strength, to overcome obstacles. Asking for a ranger to do a gun would be like asking an anti-industrialist to work in a factory, sure you’re not hurting nature or embracing technology for doing so, but they’re sure as hell never going to do it!

NOTE: Mesmers use pistols because they’re DUELISTS btw, anet even said that they’re DUELISTS that use illusions to gain the uperhand (IE don’t play fair), which is why they have a DUELIST trait line.

EDIT: i’d actually be ok with guns on the ranger so long as they aren’t used as actual guns (IE using actual ammunition) but fire out lightning or fire or something of the sort instead i feel like it’d kinda hammer home the whole embraced magic side, and there’s nothing wrong with using the ammunitionless gun to protect nature, i mean for kittens sake i use more metal crafting a spear head rather than the metal on the gun.

Forget a staff,Give me a 2h Hammer.

Durzlla.6295:

Um…. They do protect nature, they also only use weapons that’d be able to work (and work very well for essentially unlimited amounts of time) in the wild, a rifle, would not, you run out of ammo an you’re kittened.

Rangers as a whole shun technology, it is not somethin they want to rely on, just as an elementalist doesn’t want to rely on tech, or their physical strength, to overcome obstacles. Asking for a ranger to do a gun would be like asking an anti-industrialist to work in a factory, sure you’re not hurting nature or embracing technology for doing so, but they’re sure as hell never going to do it!

NOTE: Mesmers use pistols because they’re DUELISTS btw, anet even said that they’re DUELISTS that use illusions to gain the uperhand (IE don’t play fair), which is why they have a DUELIST trait line.

EDIT: i’d actually be ok with guns on the ranger so long as they aren’t used as actual guns (IE using actual ammunition) but fire out lightning or fire or something of the sort instead i feel like it’d kinda hammer home the whole embraced magic side, and there’s nothing wrong with using the ammunitionless gun to protect nature, i mean for kittens sake i use more metal crafting a spear head rather than the metal on the gun.

What the hell are you talking about?! You’re completely making the Ranger into something you want it to be. The Ranger description simply says; “Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself”. Nothing ells. Stop making up stories. A rifle changes none of what the Ranger is, at all. I say it again: You are only adding something, you aren’t taking anything away!

You’re completely mixing the Ranger together with an elver. Guild Wars 2 is not Lord of the Rings. If you take a charr Ranger, it totally makes sense for him to have a rifle. Gunpowder is part of the lore. An Elementalist doesn’t need a rifle or a bow, because he relies on magic. The Ranger does not rely on magic, but uses weapons. And a rifles is just that; another weapon. It’s a tool you use to kill things, just like a bow is.

I don’t think you have any idea of how a rifle works, or what gunpowder is made of. You should read up on that, you will be surprised.

I want crossbow, i could care less about staff.

Rannulf.9417:

I want crossbow, i could care less about staff.

Crossbow would be sweet – and I’m assuming this will be the first new weapon the ranger gets. It’s just more straightforward than the gun and the staff – It’s a bow. xD

It would be sweet if it had a long cast time snipe like ability.

Also, Kasama and Durzlla – we’re sharing opinions here, not sharing facts and saying what SHOULD happen.

Kasama.8941:

Durzlla.6295:

Um…. They do protect nature, they also only use weapons that’d be able to work (and work very well for essentially unlimited amounts of time) in the wild, a rifle, would not, you run out of ammo an you’re kittened.

Rangers as a whole shun technology, it is not somethin they want to rely on, just as an elementalist doesn’t want to rely on tech, or their physical strength, to overcome obstacles. Asking for a ranger to do a gun would be like asking an anti-industrialist to work in a factory, sure you’re not hurting nature or embracing technology for doing so, but they’re sure as hell never going to do it!

NOTE: Mesmers use pistols because they’re DUELISTS btw, anet even said that they’re DUELISTS that use illusions to gain the uperhand (IE don’t play fair), which is why they have a DUELIST trait line.

EDIT: i’d actually be ok with guns on the ranger so long as they aren’t used as actual guns (IE using actual ammunition) but fire out lightning or fire or something of the sort instead i feel like it’d kinda hammer home the whole embraced magic side, and there’s nothing wrong with using the ammunitionless gun to protect nature, i mean for kittens sake i use more metal crafting a spear head rather than the metal on the gun.

What the hell are you talking about?! You’re completely making the Ranger into something you want it to be. The Ranger description simply says; “Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself”. Nothing ells. Stop making up stories. A rifle changes none of what the Ranger is, at all. I say it again: You are only adding something, you aren’t taking anything away!

You’re completely mixing the Ranger together with an elver. Guild Wars 2 is not Lord of the Rings. If you take a charr Ranger, it totally makes sense for him to have a rifle. Gunpowder is part of the lore. An Elementalist doesn’t need a rifle or a bow, because he relies on magic. The Ranger does not rely on magic, but uses weapons. And a rifles is just that; another weapon. It’s a tool you use to kill things, just like a bow is.

I don’t think you have any idea of how a rifle works, or what gunpowder is made of. You should read up on that, you will be surprised.

You clearly know NOTHING about Guild wars lore if you think a ranger is just a martial prof that only uses weapons to kill things. Charr ranger would be the ONLY one it makes sense on btw, human rangers wouldn’t touch a rifle because it completely goes against the whole being in tune with nature thing.

And I’m not making it up, Anet flat out said pre-launch that some of the professions, like warriors and thieves, embarrassed the advancement of technology, where other profs like ranger and ele completely shunned it and embraced magic even more than they did previously. Just because -you- don’t know lore doesn’t mean it shoul be trampled so you can have a pretty little gun.

And we don’t use magic? Please, tell me what QZ, Muddy Terrain, Lightning Reflexes (notice the lightning explosion around you?), Entangle, any of the spirits, the ghostly images of animals, healing spring, our ability to passively regen metric kitten tons of health, and our downed 2 are if we don’t use magic.

Rannulf.9417:

I want crossbow, i could care less about staff.

I’d rather staff than cross bow, but I -would- love to see cross bows in the game…. Mostly for my engi though…. Oh the move sets that would have xD.

Durzlla.6295:

You clearly know NOTHING about Guild wars lore if you think a ranger is just a martial prof that only uses weapons to kill things. Charr ranger would be the ONLY one it makes sense on btw, human rangers wouldn’t touch a rifle because it completely goes against the whole being in tune with nature thing.

And I’m not making it up, Anet flat out said pre-launch that some of the professions, like warriors and thieves, embarrassed the advancement of technology, where other profs like ranger and ele completely shunned it and embraced magic even more than they did previously. Just because -you- don’t know lore doesn’t mean it shoul be trampled so you can have a pretty little gun.

And we don’t use magic? Please, tell me what QZ, Muddy Terrain, Lightning Reflexes (notice the lightning explosion around you?), Entangle, any of the spirits, the ghostly images of animals, healing spring, our ability to passively regen metric kitten tons of health, and our downed 2 are if we don’t use magic.

Wow, you completely reject the reality of the game and substitute your own. Your idea of what aesthetic a Ranger should have, is not what the Ranger is. Nor what ArenaNet says it is, according to the website. It is simply just your view of it. I just picked up a canon today, as a human Ranger, and used it to shoot down a dragon. Are you going to try and argue that I was wrong for doing that, because my Ranger did something that didn’t match your idea of what the Ranger should be like? Nothing has to make sense beyond what we want it to be ourselves. Players play sylvari Engineers and charr Elementalists attuned to fire, all the time. If I were to play a Ranger with a rifle, it would have no effect on you, at all. Only on me.

What ArenaNet said pre-launch, and what the game is now, are two different things. The Ranger as it is now, can have many different aesthetics, not just one. The Ranger is simply what the individual player makes of him. What ArenaNet wants the Ranger to be can be seen in the skills we can use.

I don’t know how many times I have to write it for you to understand it: Giving a rifle to the Ranger does not “trample” anything, it only adds something.

Yes, we have magic powers, but we do not rely on them. An Elementalist can only use magic. All I have to do to play a non-magical Ranger, is pick a shout, signet, or trap utility skill, and Rampage as One. None of our weapons rely on magic.

Let me just make it clear to you again, before you reply: Giving a rifle to the Range changes nothing, it only adds something. I get an extra weapon that I think is cool, and you can continue to use whatever weapon you are currently using for your Ranger. Nothing is lost.

I’m not addin stuff, Anet has -said- rangers rejected technology, so why would they use rifles? A canon is one thing, or picking up a nearby rifle to fire a shot or two off but relying on it as your main weapon?

If Anet adds rifle to ranger then you’d be right in your assumption, but until then it’s clearly not the case.

PS: you using a canon to kill a dragon is like Obi kittenenobi using a blaster pistol to kill Grievous, he will -use- a blaster but it sure as hell isn’t going to be his main weapon.

I really like the idea. I used to use a staff on my gw1 pure beastmastery build for the extra energy an so did R/N touch rangers. The weapon quite suits the class imo.

On a side not Obi kittenobi made me laugh. XD

It’s a good idea, but if we can add a new weapon to Ranger it would be more interesting a bullwhip, with skills focused, for example, on pulling foes, crippling.

Buenaventura.2137:

It’s a good idea, but if we can add a new weapon to Ranger it would be more interesting a bullwhip, with skills focused, for example, on pulling foes, crippling.

I’m really surprised that they have all these animations for whips, yet not a single whip weapon is available in game for the players… The question is would it be a main hand or off hand (or both) ankittenhe only one that thinks it’d be a very supporty weapon kinda like the beast master nightmare court members?

PS: WTB whip cyclone skill they use in TA that pulls you in and then cripples, bleeds, poisons, and vulns the kitten out of you.

As a ranger, a lot of time, it feels like I’m playing another class or a similar version of that. I can make builds based around our elite skills + heals.

Like a Warrior: Greatsword/Longbow. Elite – Rampage As one. Gear focus towards P/T/V with Troll Unguent + Fern wolf heal for nearly constant regen. High survivability, low damage.

Like a Thief: Shortbow/Sword Dagger. Elite – Entangle. Gear focus towards Power/Precision/Condition Dmg (can go bezerker tho). Healing with Heal as One for those quick heals. High damage, very weak, lots of CC.

And this is what I would love:

Like a Elementalist: *Staff. Elite = Spirit of Nature. Gear focus towards Toughness/Healing/Boon Duration. Wtih 4 spirits providing buffs and heals, an off hand axe/warhorn providing 24-27sec buff – I would love a staff to provide boons, water cleansing heals, water combo fields and Nature themed animated skills. Healing skill: Healing Spring, which is just amazing.

*I just use the Axe/Warhorn.

Wow! I decided to pop back to see if folks had added anything to this recently.
Lots of cool ideas!

I do think it’d be great to have another one handed melee option for the ranger, while I really like the sword, I can really understad that it’s style is very odd and not everyone likes it.

@ Stevens
I totally agree how it can feel like you’re playing another class depending on your build!
As an aside, I run a mix between your first build idea (The warrior) And the last build Idea (The Ele) Super Boon tank greatsword Ranger!

@ Lucky Charmz
Your idea of having two AA’s is cool, but I dont think it’s needed. If the ranged AA had a progression like a melee AA (Damage on target → AoE Damage + Buff self with Vigor → Aoe Damage and apply regen in an Aoe around your target, these wouldn’t be a projectile but an effect created on your target, still dodgeable mind you.) it would still feel the same. You’d get more out of it since you’re applying regen to yourself with the last AA so it’s more worthwhile to be in melee. Perhaps they could code a separate animation for the melee AA of the staff so it looks like you hit them with the staff.

Another thought is that the skill can be ranged but progresses like melee AA and only gets the additional effects while in melee range (this would be kinda clunky since it’d be super vulnerable to kiting of any kind. But as a trade off you could still deal the damage while at range…hmmmmm…. (>__<);)

P.S. I’m just thinking of what would be cool/fun, not so much whether this will get added. But hey! If a Dev stumbles across this and gets some cool ideas I’d say it’s worth it, not to mention it’s fun to think about anyhow.

I know of this other game where rangers use rifles, cant egzactly remember name…oh wow i almost had it now its gone again. Could that certain game’s rangers be reason why some wants rifles so badly?