Guild Wars 2

Hi Ranger community I appreciate anyone who reads this and cares enough about our profession to speak their opinion as well. I’d like to think ArenaNet is a dedicated group of developers. I’m sure if we let our concerns and our suggestions be known, they won’t let us down, therefore I am here with a few of my own.

I have played GW2 using the Ranger profession since BWE1. I spent most of the beta and a good chunk of time since release doing spvp and have preformed very well, getting mvp a decent amount of the time… last night I played 5 different matches switching my weapon sets, utilities and traits each time and came out dead last 3 matches and 2nd to last the other 2. Have I been drained of my spvp skills and need to L2p all over again, or has my favorite profession taken too many hits to the head to get a shot at the heavy weight belt? I ask that you hear me out and then tell me what you think fellow Rangers.

Throughout the beta and since release we have seen nerfs to…
-Greatsword got a damage nerf because paired with the survivability we had at the time, it gave us glass cannon strength with little risk involved. For me it became more of a killing blow weapon after the nerf, meant for use after the enemy was lower than half health. It can still be viable as a player killer IF we get an increase in toughness, more stunbreakers and a better #4 skill on the weapon itself. The Greatsword should be our burst melee weapon of choice, but we can’t survive the time it takes to down someone with it.
-Spirits (hurt Greatsword wielders significantly.) This was to be expected in a way, but since release I haven’t seen one spirit ranger in pvp or pve because the nerf was just too harsh. I’d love to see them make a comeback, as they could be useful in groups (not just for spvp but for dungeons as well.)
-Longbow saw a nerf to power rendering it to more of a control weapon than a player killer… this is unfortunate because our other bow, the Shortbow is far superior at single-target control. I feel the Longbow needs its bite back; more power or even a faster auto attack would have me sold on it.
-Shortbow has recently had a nerf to its damage output (stated to only be a 40ms animation fix) preventing players to stack as many bleeds as before (anywhere from 2-4 stacks were lost depending on the player) without influence of quickness, and a significant loss of damage output while under the influence of quickness. It would seem that hardly anyone from the community (if anyone at all) noticed the animation bugs in the auto attack and by no means did anyone ask for a Shortbow nerf. Now, as the 10+ pages of outraged Rangers will tell you, the utility of the Shortbow has dropped.
-One-handed Sword with the right sigil and off-hand is actually a decent option, but because it roots the user, it is a risky move.
-There are other weapon combinations available of course, but these are what I have most experience with. I welcome feedback on the other options we have.
-Pets have their own set of issues as well. These issues have been pounded in the ground so I will just mention the one that pains me the most: they can’t attack while moving which hinders their potential in spvp especially.
Now I have never been one to insult other professions or whine “OP this and OP that” and I won’t start now. As a matter of fact, I think most professions in the game are where they should be ie. Thieves need to be able to pull off quick kills from the shadows, Warriors need to be able to land hard hitting melee bursts, Mesmers should be confusing and a challenge to face 1v1 etc. Every profession has a unique quality about them that makes them viable in spvp. We Rangers used to have a quality about us too: versatility. Players knew that fighting a Ranger (“master of ranged combat”) at range was most likely a losing battle, and were uneasy about closing the gap because we may just have a melee trick up our sleeve. Now players don’t have those same fears, nor should they; almost every profession can do what we do better.
In conclusion, I ask that if I am wrong please give me insight as to how I can improve my quality of gaming and become a competitive force once again. I have had great fun with my lv.80 Ranger and have dedicated a lot of my time and money to him. I refuse to give up on my profession, my fellow Rangers, and ArenaNet’s ability to hear the community’s voice and apply their players’ feedback to the game.

Thanks.

Sorry but it feels useless after the official response of “You’re holding it wrong” and the QZ bug won’t be fixed.

Only way to fix this is to stop play ranger altogether in any mode or stop playing the game and see their drop in population. I for one WILL keep playing because I love this game and ranger class but it pretty much sucks for us.

Plain as day bug fixes doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, only bugs we never noticed. I mean there’s a whole stickied post of ranger bugs in the forums yet none of those were touched upon. Faith in ANet lost but still incredible game so will keep playing with all it’s flaws.

It is sad to hear your post, but it feels more true each day that passes with no fix/change to or even a response about Rangers.
I don’t know why our group is being overlooked like this.
You’re right about the “holding it wrong response.” It felt like a heavy Falcon-punch in the gut when the official response to 9+ pages of concerned, dedicated players including myself was a nonchalant “~Crossfire isn’t fun.”
Personally for me the shortbow was a blast, Bleed is my favorite condition to stack because of the Crossfire skill. Kiting around a boss or dodge rolling into a player to get behind him, Concussion Shot then pressure-cook ’em with Crossfire were my favorite strategies.

I still don’t understand why PvP balancing is going on when so many classes have bugged skills, traits, and mechanics. Even runes and sigils are bugged. I can’t get completion of half of the maps because I’m missing a single bugged skill point. I stand in a DE area for 10 minutes waiting for waves of enemies only to realize that it is just a bugged out event.

It makes more sense to me to work on fixing the bugs, and worry about balance later unless there is something that is going around insta-killing everyone. Nobody knew this animation bug that nobody knew existed until it was “fixed”, but there are huge stickied lists of actual issues that are being pushed aside.

Disclaimer: About the bugs, they can get frustrating, but this is actually a pretty good game. The sound and graphics teams did great work, it’s beautiful. The devs gave me a wicked case of alt fever.

andybmcc.8751:

I still don’t understand why PvP balancing is going on when so many classes have bugged skills, traits, and mechanics. Even runes and sigils are bugged. I can’t get completion of half of the maps because I’m missing a single bugged skill point. I stand in a DE area for 10 minutes waiting for waves of enemies only to realize that it is just a bugged out event.

It makes more sense to me to work on fixing the bugs, and worry about balance later unless there is something that is going around insta-killing everyone. Nobody knew this animation bug that nobody knew existed until it was “fixed”, but there are huge stickied lists of actual issues that are being pushed aside.

Disclaimer: About the bugs, they can get frustrating, but this is actually a pretty good game. The sound and graphics teams did great work, it’s beautiful. The devs gave me a wicked case of alt fever.

Yes this is definitely true. The game is one of my favorites and if completely polished and fixed, it might even be a contender for GOTY, but these critical issues must be fixed first.

I’m sure they have multiple teams spread out to each department, so every area is being worked on touch by touch. I also feel like this must be extremely overwhelming to be hit with bugs, bots, hackers, exploiters, imbalances, server overloads, millions of support tickets and not to mention a forum full of cynical (yet dedicated) players after years of pouring their hearts and souls into their baby.

Now that I’m done advocating for them, I will say their priorities seem to be jumbled, and unfortunately certain player groups (like Rangers) see little support in this most hectic of times.

No, it doesn’t need to be heard. As long as there are still troll threads about, the ranger community’s “voice” shouldn’t be heard.

Most of the threads in the ranger section can’t be taken seriously, we got people still saying “oh greatsword is still powerful when it comes to-” when you say something like that, the devs will put it on the bottom of their list to check out.

“I actually feel that shortbow might be a little too op” YEP, who’s side are these people on? Have they not played any other class, to think that this was overpowered?

Then you got people trying to say the pro’s to longbow, as if they make up for the cons, once again if a dev is reading that, then he’s just putting ranger on the bottom of the list, since the community starts saying it’s perfectly fine.

We got people saying things like “oh man, do you know how awesome ranger is when it comes to the pet that can chill? WOWZORS!?!?” When the pet skills are kinda trash because it takes like 5-6 seconds for them to actually use them, for such a weak duration/effect.

Rangers not going to get any serious attention, since we got a bunch of white knights, and stupid threads. “will greatsword get nerfed?” When most of the threads in other sections like necromancer, has people complaining, which is why they buffed necro over ranger, and worry about their bugs more.

No, I don’t think the ranger community should be heard, all it would lead to is fail “buffs” and more nerfs to shortbow and greatsword.
People who think “oh I think we should have 1 more second on chill” as if that’s a good buff.

My only suggestion for ranger would be to have their pet skills activate almost instantly when you press f2. But nope, that change won’t happen I’ll get attacked by a bunch of white knights claiming how overpowered that will be (people who never played a class that wasn’t ranger, doesn’t realize the instant cast times other classes have for their 15 second chills, and 3-5 second immobilizes, with crazy range and lower cooldowns)

Devs already announced they’re working on necromancer and elementalist at the moment, ranger isn’t a current priority for balance because the people in the necro/ele sections, know how to properly complain

andybmcc.8751:

I still don’t understand why PvP balancing is going on when so many classes have bugged skills, traits, and mechanics. Even runes and sigils are bugged. I can’t get completion of half of the maps because I’m missing a single bugged skill point. I stand in a DE area for 10 minutes waiting for waves of enemies only to realize that it is just a bugged out event.

It makes more sense to me to work on fixing the bugs, and worry about balance later unless there is something that is going around insta-killing everyone. Nobody knew this animation bug that nobody knew existed until it was “fixed”, but there are huge stickied lists of actual issues that are being pushed aside.

Disclaimer: About the bugs, they can get frustrating, but this is actually a pretty good game. The sound and graphics teams did great work, it’s beautiful. The devs gave me a wicked case of alt fever.

Because Pro-Esports = profit $$$$$

Almaz.2860:

No, it doesn’t need to be heard. As long as there are still troll threads about, the ranger community’s “voice” shouldn’t be heard.

Thanks for the opinion, but i can’t agree with you if you’re saying a community of players that is responsible for a thread that hit 500+ replies in 3 days (not including the other sb threads) full of concerned rangers who are serious about abandoning their Ranger and re-rolling another profession because they feel our profession is dying and in dire need of support should not be heard.

Almaz.2860:

Devs already announced they’re working on necromancer and elementalist at the moment, ranger isn’t a current priority for balance because the people in the necro/ele sections, know how to properly complain

This wasn’t in your original post but since you added it, I will say, I partially agree with it. I don’t think the other communities are better than ours, we just need to be more vocal…hence my post ;-)

The game’s only been out for six weeks and everyone is talking like a battle weary veteran. Lets just see what happens in the coming weeks. After all ranger isn’t the only profession that needs some tweaks and likely Arenanet need to be directing most of their resources to core gameplay issues.

Designers who had the skill to design the weapon skill sets in the first place are not going to suddenly lose their grip when it comes to tweaking them up a bit.

roqoco.4053:

The game’s only been out for six weeks and everyone is talking like a battle weary veteran. Lets just see what happens in the coming weeks. After all ranger isn’t the only profession that needs some tweaks and likely Arenanet need to be directing most of their resources to core gameplay issues.

Designers who had the skill to design the weapon skill sets in the first place are not going to suddenly lose their grip when it comes to tweaking them up a bit.

In a way you are right; the game is young, we must have patience and all that. It’s just kind of nerve wracking I suppose, to have spent so much time and money on a character and then literally have to take a break from spvp.
Since BWE1 it’s like the entire spvp system has changed…for better or worse? I can’t say for everyone, but for the Ranger…worse. I just hope they are going to give us more intimate support in the future.

It may have been out for a short while, but with several open beta weekends, many of these issues have been noted for some time now. In addition, because of these beta weekends, the game has been familiar to a large portion of the players.

Despite being a new player to Guild Wars 2 I am quite familiar with MMOs. One might say that over the years I have acquired a very particular set of skills. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go n—oh, wait wrong scene.

ANYHOW! There are some glaring flaws and bugs in the Ranger profession that make the class broken. Broken in the sense that core mechanics simply do not work; pet attacks and movement not the least among them.

If ArenaNet wishes to tout Guild Wars 2 as a premier eSport game, then balance among all professions must be addressed quickly. In an eSport environment, all classes must have an equal chance at being represented, and as you said, LiveLucid, we’re not in the running for the heavy weight belt right now.

deepwinter.9015:

If ArenaNet wishes to tout Guild Wars 2 as a premier eSport game, then balance among all professions must be addressed quickly. In an eSport environment, all classes must have an equal chance at being represented, and as you said, LiveLucid, we’re not in the running for the heavy weight belt right now.

Good point Liam :-p
It concerns me a tad when there are talks of expansions and eSport movements when bugs and imbalances plague sections of the game.
Why would I pay for a tournament I’m most certainly going to get destroyed in? It’s just bad business.

@xLiveLucidx

You could always run a Warrior……or some other class.

Coming from a FPS like BF3, one build standing head over heels above the rest is not that surprising. To elaborate on the BF3 example, the Assault class was pretty much forced to use the M16A3 to be competitive since it just flat-out outperformed every other choice in pretty much every situation. There will always be hipster out there that want to be different or people who love a particular setup for whatever reason, but that doesn’t deny the fact the with some number crunching build will crap on others.

So you can continue to play a ranger. Yes you’ll be able to log in and play, maybe even kill a few people. However, you could always do better with another class. Ranged DPS? Rifle Warrior does better from a pure numbers point of view. Bursting? Kinda of the job of the of thief….Support? Guardians and Elementalists, and even Engineers to a lesser extent.