Guild Wars 2

As a disclaimer Ranger is not my main, but I do have all 8 professions at level 80. I’ve recently revisited my Ranger in the hopes of unlocking some of the secrets of making them feel unique among the other professions.

The main obstacles I’ve been seeing have been regarding the Ranger’s ranged abilities, especially how these interact with groups.

I don’t intend for this thread to be a discussion of what Rangers ‘should’ be or the viability of ranged vs. melee in general, but to give some feedback to help the profession have at least a consistent ranged option in group combat.

While I understand that Rangers aren’t intended to be solely a ranged or archer class, I keep running into traits & skills that seem to work against ranged combat entirely, especially in groups.

A few examples of how ranged abilities seem to work against each other:

Encourages range from target:

• Longbow – Long Range Shot (skill 1) – Shoot your foe from long range. The farther the arrow flies, the more damage it does. This encourages the Ranger to keep the target (and thus any melee players/pets attacking the target) at range from the player.

• Longbow – Point Blank Shot (skill 3) – Push back your foe with a point-blank shot. The closer they are, the farther it pushes them back. Enables the Ranger to stay at range by launching the target away from them and any melee players/pets. This can be, well… annoying for any melee players in the group so must be used wisely.

• Longbow – Eagle Eye (trait) – Increases longbow and harpoon gun range. Longbow and harpoon gun damage is increased. Increases possible range of the Ranger from target (as well as any melee players/pets).

Discourages range from target:

• Spotter (trait) – Increases precision of nearby allies. Only effects players/pets around the Ranger, thus only fully useful in melee (or in the rare situation where all allies/pets are grouped at range from the target).

• Spirits (untraited) – Effects of spirits are centered around themselves so is either beneficial to the Ranger only (if at range) or to the melee group/pets only (if placed near the target).

• Spirits (with Spirits Unbound trait) – Effects of spirits being centered around themselves and thus only effect the Ranger unless they go into melee range. Could also effect any ranged players or pets nearby but again, this is rare.

So it seems at first glance that the Longbow in particular is meant to be a solo weapon only but without any utility skills that could enhance that playstyle. But even in solo situations the buffs provided by spirits or Spotter are not even shared by the Ranger’s pet unless the pet is ranged (which also means the mob will just charge into melee with the Ranger anyway).

So my proposal to fix this Ranger ranged identity crises is this:

Focus passive buffs like Spotter or Spirits around the target, but include the Ranger & pet automatically regardless of range.

This could be accomplished in any number of ways. Here are a couple I’ve come up with:

• A new trait that makes any attack by the Ranger paint a ‘crosshair’ on the target that all allies see. All passive bonuses are centered around that target but automatically include the Ranger & pet. This would include Spotter and any spirit passives. All spirit ‘active’ effects would still be centered around each spirit.

• Simply add the above mechanics to the Spotter trait. This to me is a much more elegant solution and actually makes a lot of sense with the name of the trait itself. Also seems relatively easy to implement.

• A new utility skill that would paint the crosshair on the target and function the same way as above. Similar to the Necromancer heal skill Signet of Vampirism but with no cooldown. Like above would just shift all passive bonuses to be centered around the target while still including the Ranger and pet.

I think something like this would go a long way to help ranged Rangers contribute more in group encounters without feeling forced into a melee only profession.

These trait do work for group play. Just as melee assume that everyone will stack on them Ranger traits are for those fighting at range.

This is content that is dominated by range combat like the Claw of Jormag. SB and the great destroyer have a lot of range combatants. Just as people build up stacks of might they should be doing the same when ranging.

Sometimes melee is the best for the job sometimes range. What needs to happen is people need to start coordinating range combat like they do with melee.

The player that is not using the best option is not helping the group whether he be melee or range.

There need to be more content that is geared toward range combat. This idea that everyone need to shift to melee is misguided. Again one should use the best option.

Even with what the OP proposes range damage is inferior to melee and this is why melee is normally the better option. Buffs and support aside Damage is why melee is the preferred method. I don’t believe that range should be equal to melee damage so all in all the mind of the players need to change when using range and there need to be more range combat.

Range combatans can always create advantage as well with good positioning.

Good points. I kind of forgot about the fights that are mainly ranged, although there really are more that are melee.

I guess with things like Spotter & spirits the fact that even if the fight is ranged it’s still unusual for the ‘rangers’ (hehe) to be stacked up in order to get the benefits, especially if a lot of kiting is involved. The ones staying at range usually form a ring around the boss or are running around and thus get pretty spread out. So traits like Spotter or spirits in general are usually less effective if the fight is ranged and almost useless if melee (with Ranger at range).

Maybe the way to go about it would be a type of toggle that the Ranger would have access to, probably a utility skill. Although I don’t see a huge trade-off from just making Spotter act as I’ve described, except in those rare cases when everyone is stacked at range of the target.

Definitely agree range should still have less damage than melee. But I look at my Guardian for instance and when using ranged weapons (scepter/focus/torch) there is no actual damage penalty for getting into melee to share boons, shouts etc with ranged weapons. With longbow in order to share buffs like Spotter or spirits you have to sacrifice the damage you do at range.

Just seems a little backwards. Even solo I have to be in melee range in order to share those buffs with my pet. Spotter is the one that bothers me the most since its one of the more powerful traits but is really only optimal if going melee.

As it is now when doing content that requires range people do it with an afk mentality.
This is one of the reasons range damage performs so poorly.

At The Claw of Jormag few people build up might stack. They stand in the same spot taking all the damage.

In factal fighting the fire boss it is a must that you keep moving. That doesn’t mean that people must do it without buffing each other. While people rely on guardians to reflect it also makes them taking burning damage if they stand in place.

moving from left to right (or up and back or clockwise) as a group can allow players to combo and buff each other. To use ranger effectively require more understand of the content you are facing as well as more coordination.

People rely to much on verbal commination. Some of the most skill drill teams and strike team in the world rely on very little verbal communication.

But I guess that is beyond this post point is we need to optimize range combat as much as possible.

Ranger on teq can stand at max range and buff on another and end up doing more damage than if they would melee stack. Since they will never go do and they never have to dodge or worry about the watery grave attack.

While not necessarily true Ranger are view as the Ranged class. If anything is going to change in the way to tackle range combat I believe it ranger that will need to lead the way.

More good points, in fact you’ve got me re-thinking my entire line of reasoning.

When I dig a little deeper into the ‘problems’ with Ranger’s ranged combat it more boils down to how much content is done by just stacking in a corner in melee range. In these situations the Longbow of course becomes less effective than melee weapons, or even other profession’s ranged weapons.

With mechanics that don’t necessarily optimize melee stacking Spotter longbow & spirits make perfect sense the way they function now. Makes complete sense to be hanging back at range between say a staff Mesmer and a grenade kit Engineer buffing them with Spotter & spirits while the Guardian & Warrior stand in melee with the boss protecting & buffing each other. The Ranger can still jump into the fray with melee weapons whenever necessary of course.

I suppose the way things are it actually allows the Ranger to be more flexible instead of what I originally proposed which would end up just buffing melee fighters.

Good talk, seems there’s a lot more to Rangers than meets the Eagle Eye.