Guild Wars 2

(Note: If you do not want to read a wall of text, feel free to scroll down and see the TL;DR at the bottom )
Before the shortbow nerf, at least 75% of rangers were using shortbow as their primary weapon. This is not because the shortbow was so OP, it’s because every other weapon set was vastly inferior (some of the ranger’s off-hand weapons are great, but their main hand weapons are mediocre at best)

Now that Anet has nerfed the ranger’s only effective weapon set, everyone, and i don’t blame them, is getting angry. These days, even if you build a ranger to full DPS, it’s damage will still be much less than any other profession’s DPS build (excluding guardian, but they make up for it with amazing support/survivability, and necro, which is a class that needs to be worked on too IMO)

Anet might say “well ranger’s have pets which hit hard so having low damage weapon sets balances this out”. This is true WHEN the pet’s actually hit something, but then pet’s can’t really hit anything unless it’s not moving.

So my suggestion to Anet is to either:

1. Fix the pets responsiveness/ability to attack moving targets. If they do this, then it will actually be true that pets damage balances out the low damaging weapons sets.

2. Buff the other mainhand weapons. Only small changes would really help.
Greatsword – Increase auto-attack damage by 10-20%. Honestly..this will make a world of difference.
Sword – FIX the animation that roots you. Maybe the damage on the autoattack could even be nerfed a bit then..
Longbow – Increase auto-attack damage by 7% on attacks from mid-range, 10% on attacks from close range. Again, just a small change since longbow is mostly useful for it’s cooldown abilities anyways.

Shortbow: I’m not even calling for a buff..it’s still a decent weapon.

These are all either small changes or bugs that can be fixed. If Anet would make some other weapon sets viable and fix the pets, the ranger would become the great profession it’s supposed to be: A master of the wild, jack of all trades who can perform in any role: range, melee, support, DPS, tank/bunker.

TL;DR The reason why everyone is angry at the shortbow nerf is NOT because the shortbow has suddenly become a bad weapon, it’s because most of the other weapon sets, along with pets, are mediocre to borderline terrible. I suggest one of two things to Anet: Buff the other mainhand weapons or fix the pet’s responsiveness and ability to hit a moving target

Finally, some common sense around here.

I agree 100%. People weren’t using Shortbow/QZ builds because it was the “FotM noob-stomper”, it was just the only* build that was competitive.

Ironically, most of the weapons and build options were great at one point, but were systematically nerfed over the course of the beta events. Reverting the nerfs from the beta events would make a plethora of new builds viable overnight.

Until then, may I suggest Trap Ranger builds? Excellent control with great damage and support.

*there are other builds, like Axe/Torch condition damage, Bunker, BeastMaster, etc. Unfortunately, they’re either bugged or not strong enough compared to what other professions can bring.

Aye Decently Evil, I wholeheartedly agree with your post. Those small changes alone would make all the difference. As an avid fan of beastmaster builds since the first game I’ve felt pretty annoyed that Anet has not fixed the issues with pets, our core mechanic, already.

I agree with you but to DoomBunny and ‘’finally some common sense’‘, this has been said numerous times already. We were FORCED to use the SB because everything else wasn’t viable. The SB was the best we could do. Also, we are angry at the SB because warriors do better than we do on them and they have a ton of other viable weapons. We’re angry that we were LIED to with an animation fix …Yes we’re all sure there was an animation problem lol

So I disagree with the title. The problem is everything inc the shortbow. I’m toughing it our for a while but soon enough, even the most patient of us will quit the ranger. You will see much less people in game and those who are left will be wars, thiefs, mesmers. So Instead of guild wars, they can name it War between thiefs, mesmers and wars. Which one of the 3 will land on top?

I love the Short bow/ longbow combo. I do believe that the ranger should be the deadliest class out there. Look at history. Soldiers and even knights were terrified of archers, especially the English Longbow.

I play a lot of WvW now and I have noticed one thing that really chaffs my hide. When I’m defending on a battlement, I’m looking down at the enemy below. Most times, to shoot them, I must jump up on the part of the wall that is to protect me, otherwise I get obstructed warnings. My longbow cannot hit targets because they are out of range. Really? A longbow can shoot over 100 yards with ease, but here, on this wall, with elevation on my side, I can’t hit enemy players 20 yards away. Plus the aoe skill has even less damage. I can literally not have a green target area below me but a red one. Longbow should have twice the range it has now. In my traits, all my arrows are armor peircing, but you wouldn’t know it. Heavy armor pretty much ignores my SB and LB attacks. Even light armored targets take forever to kill.

I was in a battle with a warrior that pulled out his longbow. I was defending a tower in WvW. While I had a hard time hitting him due to obstructions and him being out of range, he had no problem hitting me with his exploding arrows, and lobbing his aoe fire arrows up there. I had to put myself in dangerous position just to fire down at him. Terrible. I had to retire and move away from him farther down the wall. When a warrior can do more damage, have better skills for his bow than the actual class designed to use bows, something is wrong.

I wish that one skill slot, like lets say, slot 3, would be a skill that we could change and select from a skill list for each weapon we use. That way, we could actually use a more viable skill. I love the SB, but I personally hate the poison spread skill. I’d rather use a single target flaming arrow that burns the target, a exploding arrow that hits single target hard with good splash damage, or a single target poison cloud arrow.

Anyways, that’s my 2 cents. I love the game, love the hunter class, wish pets would have grown in size as I leveled.

Yes indeed.

We use SB because it’s the best that we have available, and within SB we use skill #1 because the other skills are all situational / control.

It’s not a case of “SPAM 1 FTW!!”, it’s the best of what we have on offer!

Ye, sword skills are awesome, too bad that 1 chain attack root you in place. Almost all offhand skills are good. I would like to see a incrase travel speed for longbow arrows (not faster attack just make them fly faster so they can actually catch up with enemy at 1000+ range), maybe trait for it in nature tree? (something like wind enchant on arrows, just idea) . Ranger can fit many roles and thats what i like about it.

Seeing loads of other classes wipe out mobs very quickly while I’m pew pewing and walking backwards. Rangers are underpowered imo.

I don’t want to ONLY fix pets so that they can hit mobile targets, but something has to be done about the damage they receive too. What’s the point of a pet which is a huge part of our DPS but can only take at most 4 hits and you’re penalized with a 20/60 sec cd to switch to your other pet.

Excellent post, OP. I’m in complete agreement.

I prefer longbow, but I’m heavily spec’d to make it work in PvE; I don’t PvP much due to the horrible state of WvW atm.

Longbow has excellent utility, and need a small upgrade in damage to be competitive with other classes.

I would like a better melee option. Greatsword has good skills, but they lack damage (again, the story of the Ranger).

I’ll continue to play my ranger as my main, but I’d sure be happier if ANet made some minor tweaks.

Please note: whenever talking about how strong your pets are, defensively or offensively, please state the amount of trait points invested in BM.

Thanks.

Jestunhi.7429:

Please note: whenever talking about how strong your pets are, defensively or offensively, please state the amount of trait points invested in BM.

Thanks.

I got 30 in BM, and my pet still dies. The problem is that pets have stupid stats or something.

Cause lets compare. Bears have supposedly 4000 vit+ at level 80. At level 40, CM is a level 40 dungeon if it scales down perfectly, bears will have 2k vit here. Each point of vit is supposedly 10 hp at 80.

This means at level 80 a bear should have well over 40k hp. Thats more then double the base highest HP in the game. That means with just Stats a bear should be able to tank twice as hard as a warrior.

But those were stats from the wiki, my level 60 rangers bear has 2.5k vit in LA with 30 specced into BM, thats still a whopping 25k hp, So why does my bear die in dungeons in a few hits? Why cant he thrash anything? At his hp/Toughness(He has 1050) he is tankier then a warrior of my level, so why is his life lost in dungeons so often? not even to AoE! but to trash mobs!

This tells me, Pet stats dont work as player stats do, and dont tell me the full story they should. As with the stats the pets have, they should be able to EASILY tank without problems, but time and time again fail to do so.

All this is assuming the pets have ZERO base hp, and just run off vit. if they have some base HP, that means my bear should have well over 25k hp.

I agree with Decently Evil.
I may un-shelf my ranger if this comes to pass.

I totally agree with OP, I played Ranger all throughout the BWE’s and Stress Tests, and I really liked it. I tried all of the weapons and liked all of them. My affinity for the Ranger diminished as time passed. After Headstart, I was grounded for like a month, but once I got my Laptop back I took my Ranger up to 21, but then ditched it in favor of a Guardian and an Engineer. The Pet is great while it’s effective, however that rarely happens. They do significant damage, but are lacking in health and utility. As stated above, they refuse to attack anything that isn’t a Mob. Oh, you wanted a large part of your damage to attack that gate? kitten shame. The pets need a buff. The weapons all have very good skills, but they just don’t do any damage. If there was a moderate damage increase across the board of Ranger weapons, it would be great. Of course if the Pets were fixed then the damage increase would be a little bit less. I admire the Ranger a lot, and I really want to like to play it, but with the Ranger in its current state, it’s kind of hard.

The class is just mediocre at even its strengths. Shortbow can be out bowed by thief now when you add in all their utility. Going full toughness regen dolyak armor you still blow up faster than a war and have less dps output. 1 handers are okay but don’t compare to thief or other melee users if you have tried to go toe to toe with a decent one. Monarch should be just changed to a gap closer period. GS may not be as bad as we once thought since the nerf bat seems to be swinging for all GS users now.The problem is not that ranger really sucks its just it has no niche anymore it isn’t good at anything and so it is outclassed in a few aspects by every class. We also have to deal with half the kit being useless like spirits. If we could get that fixed, even to the lvl of spirit weapons. Maybe add in cameoflage as a skill not just a trait then that would be start. The answers don’t have to be just raw dmg.

I swear up and down I outplay quite a few mesmers and thiefs but 9 times out of 10 I end up eating dirt against them no matter what spec I try. I would like to whip out sword/dagger and be evenly matched or have some slighlty less clone generation ability on mesmers. I can still even after nerf jump on my pistol whip or heart seeker thief and use half my brain and kill more people.

We just lack in the fact that nothing really works. If i go full beastmaster with all the traits the pet is still useless as kitten in spvp. If I go spirt build again useless. Shortbow, outgunned. Gs outgunned. 1 handers outgunned.

Couldn’t agree more. Everything else doesn’t work properly. The nerf is uncalled for, it’s a matter of principle. I won’t take 7% less fries at McDonald’s for no reason, not that I’m going to starve to death without that 7%.

I don’t hear complaints that rangers down thieves or mesmers left and right. At the end of PvP matches, who do we see on the top of scoreboard? Rangers? Necros? That means something is off, ranger people just need to go learn2play? Of course, may be if you use trap build with certain playstyle, you can still kill other classes effectively. Sooner or later, traps will get nerfed. Then what?

You see thieves with backstabs, pistol whips, heartseeking. You see mesmers with GS, Staff, shatter build, bunker elementalists, GS/LB warriors, Hammer warriors, rifles, etc.
I wanna see varieties of rangers, LB rangers, GS rangers, not strawberry shortcake rangers with silly pets that people can just kite around.

This is MMO, it’s what works for the mass, not just some wizkids.

Couldn’t agree more, can’t enjoy my ranger with the weapons I wish to use because sadly it’s just not viable. I enjoy pve with my pet but going into a dungeon means using a ranged pet and going into WvW means putting him on passive and using him to buff everyone…. such a waste.

Never noticed till reading this post. Was too busy 2 shotting people in RvR with a long bow farming the cliffs and dumb zerglings.

… Falls off cliff, immediately starts raining arrrows on top of himself killing all the sheeple that jumped down after him, then finishes off the the occasional Guardian with a knock back arrow sending him further off the cliff….

I have noticed that the 60% runes aren’t really 60%. After 1000 shots they are working out to be only about 10% rather then 60%.

I know rangers are supposed to have pets but why must he build around them .We should be able to play without them and have builds that don’t depends on the pet for damage.

Look at the Neco by no means does he have build around his minions or his profession skill Death shroud very very few build around after they nerfed it in beta plus a if played right all their weapon set do good damage.

So getting ranger which must be played with a pet and good % of his trait are pet base and broken weapon set you are left with no choice but for every ranger to pretty much be play in the same way .The nerf was to bancle the ranger out but all it did was to break him more ! Would have been a much better move to nerf up some of his other weapon sets giving else other choices besides SB .

Redrumickey.9672:

I know rangers are supposed to have pets but why must he build around them .We should be able to play without them and have builds that don’t depends on the pet for damage.

Look at the Neco by no means does he have build around his minions or his profession skill Death shroud very very few build around after they nerfed it in beta plus a if played right all their weapon set do good damage.

So getting ranger which must be played with a pet and good % of his trait are pet base and broken weapon set you are left with no choice but for every ranger to pretty much be play in the same way .The nerf was to bancle the ranger out but all it did was to break him more ! Would have been a much better move to nerf up some of his other weapon sets giving else other choices besides SB .

All necros use Deathshroud.

You know why I dont play a necro? I love minions, and I love the necro, was one of my mains in GW1.

I despise playing one in GW2 because deathshroud feels so lame as a “mechanic” the rangers mechanic is integral to their game play, and I like that! it makes me want to abuse what my class has to offer.

Death shroud does not really. I understand it makes you mega hard to kill because it is a second life bar, but its skills outside of 4 in DS are boring and feel weak. 1 is alright.

I could play a necro and never need or feel the urge to use DS unless I wanted to tank a bit more in pve.

Rangers mechanic is much more important to them, as its like having a second character almost. My feline can do upwards of 4k crits at level 60, just with normal attacks, meaning when I hit sic em and QZ, and stealth him up, he blows things up. Of course this does not work well in dungeons where damage is useless and you need survivability. But that calls for a diffrent tool a ranged pet, which luckily, rangers have!

imo if you dont like the pet, you need a new class. Cause saying “I want buffs if I lock my pet forever!”

I want a new profession mechanic for my necro then that gives me a permanent bone critter that I can micro like rangers pet mechanic. The class was designed as a pet class, and you either treat it as such, or play a new class.

Getting beaten by every other ranged class in a straight shoot out kinda makes this class the kickin’ dog.

We’re already squishy, how about some love? Changing specs doesn’t work, already tried all of them, and none allow us to match up against almost every other class… kinda lame right?

I 100% agree with the mentality that SB was the best of the worst.

With that said however, the pet issue is going to be a problem for quite some time. The same delayed AI that pets suffer from is the same thing you see in PvE. It’s every melee mob in the game. I can circle strafe champions with my GS for hours and never take a hit.

So it’s a double edged sword.

The question is, is this an artificially injected delay or is this a problem they can’t correct? If it’s artificial, they can correct it. If it’s not… we might be waiting awhile.

even if the pets could hit a moving target. all the player need to do is stop jit it once and no more pet. pet die why to fast

Id like a little more than 7-10% damage buff on longbow. It should be our hardest hitting spike ranged weapon, not shortbow. GS should do more damage than 1h sword, or atleast as much, but falls behind by a small amount. I want them to bring the beta longbow back, thats a 30% damage increase across its board, fix the obstruction bug, increase arrow flight speed via new trait or just new mechanic, and maybe increase longbow range so its not the same range as a shortbow when not traited, or just nerf shortbow range since having 1200 range on it makes little too no sense since u fight at 600-900 range anyways.

Samfisher.7942:

What’s the point of a pet which is a huge part of our DPS but can only take at most 4 hits and you’re penalized with a 20/60 sec cd to switch to your other pet.

You do realize that those 4 hits will take out an entire Elementalist, whereas you just lose a bit of dps?

You do know WvW is almost never just 1v1?

100 % agree with this post we are soooo weak compared to war/thiefs with the same weapons. Why are melee classes stronger at range then the range class ?

Can I get stronger than the melee class at melee it only fair !!

NUMBER 1 issue – Fix pets so they can hit moving targets , and can handle AOE ( even it is a BM trait) .

ThiBash.5634:

Samfisher.7942:

What’s the point of a pet which is a huge part of our DPS but can only take at most 4 hits and you’re penalized with a 20/60 sec cd to switch to your other pet.

You do realize that those 4 hits will take out an entire Elementalist, whereas you just lose a bit of dps?

What kind of mega pet do you have ? I am full BM , and my pet CAN NOT TAKE OUT anyone in 4 hits !!!! I wish !!! if my pet crits ( cat ) each attack , he might lose 30 % of his life .

In BM my cats crit for a lot dmg.Ive seen 4k and once 5k in a warrior with haste :P

Definitely agreed.
I’m wondering which other build should I use ‘cause i’m bored of short bow. It’s boring, auto-attack and that’s all folks. Also it has poor range. In the beta event I loved playin ranger and that’s why I started a ranger but now I’m considering to reroll a warrior, thief or engineer.

It is sad to me that Ranger players think a 4-5k crit is “a lot of damage”.

It is a decent chunk, sure. But a lot? No… no no no.

You fully spec into somethhing, to get the most dps out of a pet, and really think 4-5k should be the damage it does? And, that that is a “lot”…

That says more about the state of rangers than any amount of complaint could.

I think that the bows range should be about triple what it is now! i mean if i have to shoot at a range so close that someone could charge up and hit me. Its not really giving me the full stealthy ranger experience! They should make the ranger class do a lot more damage and fix pets!

Decently Evil.9648:

TL;DR The reason why everyone is angry at the shortbow nerf is NOT because the shortbow has suddenly become a bad weapon, it’s because most of the other weapon sets, along with pets, are mediocre to borderline terrible. I suggest one of two things to Anet: Buff the other mainhand weapons or fix the pet’s responsiveness and ability to hit a moving target

The reason everyone is angry is that the shortbow was the only truely viable weapon, but was still subpar to almost everything else the other profs have available. Even post nerf it’s better than the other Ranger weapons, because they’re even worse.

Possible longbow buff?
Add a 1-2 second cripple to 4,
allow 5 to be casted while moving (at -66% move speed), and
reduce the attack speed of 1 by .15s

thoughts?

I originally was going to suggest a reduction of .25s for 1 but with the other additions, it may make it too strong of a buff.

Ravnodaus.5130:

It is sad to me that Ranger players think a 4-5k crit is “a lot of damage”.

It is a decent chunk, sure. But a lot? No… no no no.

You fully spec into somethhing, to get the most dps out of a pet, and really think 4-5k should be the damage it does? And, that that is a “lot”…

That says more about the state of rangers than any amount of complaint could.

What I find funny is that I spec glass cannon (me, not pet) and my pet is out critting me. Atm i’m not in full exxo, which could explain it but still. getting outcrit by about 60% (atm i’m in a lv 65 area and I’m critting about 600-800 on mobs while my pet is hitting 1200-1500).

Kirito.3591:

Ravnodaus.5130:

It is sad to me that Ranger players think a 4-5k crit is “a lot of damage”.

It is a decent chunk, sure. But a lot? No… no no no.

You fully spec into somethhing, to get the most dps out of a pet, and really think 4-5k should be the damage it does? And, that that is a “lot”…

That says more about the state of rangers than any amount of complaint could.

What I find funny is that I spec glass cannon (me, not pet) and my pet is out critting me. Atm i’m not in full exxo, which could explain it but still. getting outcrit by about 60% (atm i’m in a lv 65 area and I’m critting about 600-800 on mobs while my pet is hitting 1200-1500).

Don’t worry. At 80 with full exotics, the only way you can outcrit a feline pet is to use the LB and stand at max range and HOPE you get a good crit. My cat can crit for 2.4-2.7k damage IF it’s alive (doubtful) or if the enemy is stationary. I don’t even use my cat for WvW /: