The curse of playing Ranger

The curse of playing Ranger

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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

Yes, this is not a joke topic. I am so kittening fed up with other classes now.. Ive been playing Ranger/Druid since december 2012 (aka 6 months after launch).
And to be frank, no other class feels worth playing. yes objectively you can do more DPS on a thief, you can do more tanking on a guard, you can do more portals on a portalbot mesmer, you can do more AOE on a ele, you can do more heals on a healbot ele and so on…

But you cannot do it all, which is what the ranger does… And god does that kitten me off.
So i started playing ranger. Then i got bored, then i mained warrior. Quickly learned that warrior was far inferior in every way other then tanking zerg frontline (which can be argued these days). Mobility outside of roaming builds is terrible, like 4/10. GS isnt a zerg weapon. Thus
So then i went to main ranger again. Got bored of it, so i went to main ele. And sure, staff ele is great, i still love it. But it is so frikking squishy, and outside of AOE DPS and waterfields/lightning fields, its not that good. I mean, mobility (unless specifically speccing for a roaming build) is 6/10 at best
So then i mained ranger again…. And i enjoyed the brutal LB DPS, coupled with staff mobility, high sustain through healing….
But then i decided that i had to do the obvious. Be the “teamplayer”. So i crafted full ascended for my guardian. Guardian is kind of nice, but it is still inferior to a Ranger/Druid. Sure you can grant stability and protection, and heal conditions like nobodys business… but hey, if you L2P ranger, you can go in and out of druid mode so often it makes no difference in terms of “condi cleanse upkeep”. Ranger wins HANDS down if you decide to go down that route….
But the worst with guardian is its 2/10 mobility outside of combat. NOTHING can improve it. Only a necro is worse (which is why i never got around to main a necro, because it was too slow)….

So here i am, fed up with boring niche classes that does one thing very well and has to be carried by other classes to make their skills work… Sure, ranger mobility in SW/WH + GS/Staff is extremely high, and iv’e been quite spoiled by that…. but guardian taught me the most valuable lesson.

Whatever your class can do, doesnt matter, if you cannot move about the battlefield effectively, you are WORTHLESS, you WILL get caught, you WILL get ganked and you WILL go down…. Regardless of your invulnerabilities, mist forms, evasions etc…

Perhaps this is all due to my extensive experience with the Ranger class. Perhaps i am simply “too good” as a ranger to be held back by its deficiencies. I mean, i have indeed spent 4 years working around limitations, theorycrafted builds, perfected tactics and honed my counter-manouvers game. But still, i wish other classes weren’t so kitten square and boring. They are just a selection of boxes. Nothing else. You either chose this, or that, or that. You don’t mix. If you mix, you die.

However i have one major grief with rangers. It is not our inability to effectively share stability. It is our inability to maintain and share protection and might… If we had a skill, heck, even a elite or long cooldown skill, perhaps Druid form “4” (protection per pulse)… that would be it. I dont want 100% uptime. Just the ability to give it when needed without having to tell your allies to stand still for 3 seconds.

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

The curse of playing Ranger

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Posted by: Wondrouswall.7169

Wondrouswall.7169

TL:DR – I enjoy playing Ranger so much I can’t play other professions.

Rangers can also share might, stability, and protection – it’s just tied to Spirits and their GM trait. Ask for the return of Spirits Unbound and there will be less grief on that.

PET PRECISION & DPS TESTS -OUTDATED-
Will update once Path of Fire releases.

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Posted by: Larathia.5284

Larathia.5284

Same. I love my Ranger, and I’ve gotten good enough with it that a very good player once told me ‘yep, ranger is your tanky class’ because he kept getting downed and killed, whereas I might get downed, but was never killed. Okay, I don’t do max DPS and I do not do traps often (I much prefer being a ranged ranger) but I can not only solo a lot of content but get the achieves for it as well.

I’ve tried other classes, but I always wind up missing some aspect of being a Ranger when I do.

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Posted by: Hepatolith.6389

Hepatolith.6389

How i feel, when not on my ranger

Cayline Oakheart, Ranger – Drakkar Lake
Covenant of Bloodthirst [IvsI],
Favorable Winds [Wind]

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Posted by: Zenos Osgorma.2936

Zenos Osgorma.2936

how feel when not on my ranger.
for some reason playing ranger makes me more mentaly tired than when on other classes (where i just fall asleep at the keyboard)

(edited by Zenos Osgorma.2936)

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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

TL:DR – I enjoy playing Ranger so much I can’t play other professions.

Rangers can also share might, stability, and protection – it’s just tied to Spirits and their GM trait. Ask for the return of Spirits Unbound and there will be less grief on that.

Not really. Ranger is kinda boring due to it being easy…. Not really any challenge with it anymore.

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

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Posted by: Wondrouswall.7169

Wondrouswall.7169

You are correct. It’s more: “Druid is the only thing that doesn’t bore me.”

PET PRECISION & DPS TESTS -OUTDATED-
Will update once Path of Fire releases.

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Posted by: Dadnir.5038

Dadnir.5038

Correct me if I’m wrong but in essence what’s said in this thread is that the OP have a blast with ranger since launch (or almost), tried other profession to find that all of them have their pro and cons and find it difficult to accept that the ranger is the same : limited by pro and cons.

I have a feeling that it mean that the profession is somehow balanced when I read this.

NB.: I have the feeling that the issue is still always the same : Pet skills need a serious balance patch because their cast time and cool down is a real mess for the pitiful effect granted in the end.

No core profession should be balanced around an optional elite specialization.

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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

Correct me if I’m wrong but in essence what’s said in this thread is that the OP have a blast with ranger since launch (or almost), tried other profession to find that all of them have their pro and cons and find it difficult to accept that the ranger is the same : limited by pro and cons.

I have a feeling that it mean that the profession is somehow balanced when I read this.

NB.: I have the feeling that the issue is still always the same : Pet skills need a serious balance patch because their cast time and cool down is a real mess for the pitiful effect granted in the end.

I totally agree on the pet reworking. Their skills are far more situational then functional. However with experience, that too can be planned ahead for during combat.
————————————————————————————————-

To answer the rest of you. No, i find ele far more FUN then ranger/druid. But it’s limitations means it’s is far more situational then i’d like it to be. However it is not that i find ranger “fun”. Like i said, it is outright boring to play. I know the moves, i know the results of almost any fight i go into. I know if i will lose or not, and i will intentionally waste an enemies time if it means the “objective” of the match will benefit of it. It is not that i find the ranger/druid omnipotent, that is far from the truth.
It is more that the class, for all its perceived flaws, are versatile enough to throw it into almost any situation, knowing that you have the tools, build and skills to manage said situation.

For a long while, Engineer was the same, but now, with the addition of Scrapper, i feel like Engineer lost some of its flexibility as a price of gaining its specialization.

That being said, i DO miss having Empathic Bond in Wilderness Survival and Wilderness Knowledge in Nature Magic… that was great… and would be amazing in the current condi spam meta that is WvW (Shout heal with Trooper runes, Empathetic bond + Wilderness Knowledge + Evasive Purity… man that was great when coupled with Dire + Apothecary)

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

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Posted by: Krispera.5087

Krispera.5087

I mostly come back to Ranger, because it’s familiar and it has access to mostly everything, except boon removal and good aoes. Range ? Melee ? Tanking ? Condi ? Good condi clears ? Good stun breakers ? Mobility ? All yes.

Yes, pets need a complete rework. Nobody use Devourers, except Justine . I feel they are even worse when you don’t trait in Beastmastery. Completely unreliable, except Smokescale that can port to enemies.

I do have to say tho, like Prysin said, Ranger is easy. When I need something more engaging I go on my engi, mesmer or ele. As for now, I enjoy more engi.

(edited by Krispera.5087)

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Posted by: Justine.6351

Justine.6351

I mostly come back to Ranger, because it’s familiar and it has access to mostly everything, except boon removal and good aoes. Range ? Melee ? Tanking ? Condi ? Good condi clears ? Good stun breakers ? Mobility ? All yes.

Yes, pets need a complete rework. Nobody use Devourers, except Justine . I feel they are even worse when you don’t trait in Beastmastery. Completely unreliable, except Smokescale that can port to enemies.

I do have to say tho, like Prysin said, Ranger is easy. When I need something more engaging I go on my engi, mesmer or ele. As for now, I enjoy more engi.

I stopped seriously using devourers a few months after HoT because wolf is mandatory and smokescale/staff is mandatory.
I stopped playing druid after January’s nerf to sharpened edges. I tried a power boon build but it was so incredibly boring and ineffective I just said eff it and went glass hammer in condi meta. Druid is naked currently and only used to craft foods.

Death of a build.

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Posted by: Ralkuth.1456

Ralkuth.1456

I just said eff it and went glass hammer in condi meta.

People running full glass already have a few screws loose, but you might just have removed all the screws when you go yolo glass Hammer Rev.

The crits are hilarious though.

5 useless class titles
Carrying enemy team since 2012
“Multiclass implies you can actually play the class” – a certain royalty

(edited by Ralkuth.1456)