Guild Wars 2

One by one I’ve been going through the GW2 professions. I have yet to find something I really like.

Guardian: Too support-oriented.
Necromancer: Didn’t like the direction most utility skills went in (pets and ground-targeted abilities)
Elementalist: Didn’t like the constant element swapping
Mesmer: kinda kills me to say this but .. I didn’t like how they looked. Fancy-pants armor and masks .. I severely disliked it.
Engineer: Wayy too much clutter, kits are a mess.

That’s it so far. So I’ve come to consider the ranger class. I’d previously disregarded it as I’m not a huge fan of pets (dislike micromanaging a pet, making sure it’s healed, plus I don’t like using something to tank for me while I kill from afar.. I’d rather kite or be in it’s face).

But I see that the ranger has a nice combination of ranged and melee skills. Could a ranger be played mostly in melee style? Still able to swap to a ranged weapon when needed, but mostly up close? I tried Guardian because it was an off-shoot of the traditional warrior class.. could ranger be the same way?

I know the front page of every profession page is flooded with “This profession sucks, all others are great”, so I’m sure I’m going to get some disgruntled people in here saying “Don’t play this profession”, but I’m just looking for some constructive information. I don’t care so much about how the profession performs in terms of damage output compared to others, more how the playstyle feels.

1) Are rangers severely dependent on micromanaging their pet?
2) Are the pets a pain in thekitten to manage? (Preventing them from getting killed all the time?)
3) Is a ranger viable in close-ranged situations?

Thanks,
-whatever my name is here

It sounds to me like you didn’t play the other professions enough. First impressions are nice, but they aren’t worth that much when determining how a profession plays at max level. You can’t predict what you are going to dislike, unless you try it first. And it’s very hard to get a feel for a profession if you only test the weapon skills. I suggest you make a build for each profession in sPvP and then play are few matches until they feel comfortable to play. Or you can play each profession you think you could like, to at least level 15 in PvE. -If you haven’t already done this. After that you should have a good insight on how each profession can play. When testing professions in betas, I mixed these two things up a bit. Some professions I played until level 12-15, others I just tested in sPvP. But it’s also important to remember that you have five character slots, so you shouldn’t feel like you only have to play one profession. You only need to be level 2 to play sPvP and Worlds PvP after all.

1. It depends on what you mean by micromanaging. I often tell my pet to attack, and use the pet skill of curse, but I very rarely need to do anything ells then that. Sometimes I do use my heal skill to only heal my pet, even though I could just let the pet die, and then switch it out. But I prefer to have my primary pet out as long as possible. When playing dungeons I also call the pet back (with F3), whenever I see a boss do a damaging AoE attack, and then send it back to attack again. That’s all the micromanaging I do.

2. They are a bit at first, but after I put 5 trait points in Beastmastery I could feel that my pet would survive a little longer (a good example of why you need to play to around level 15 in PvE). I have 20 points in Beastmastery now, so my pet only dies when it gets ganged by a lot of mobs, when a boss hits it too hard, or when I forget to heal it. But I guess it depends on how much you want to deal with the pet. You could just leave it to attack on its own, and only use pet switching when the pets die. It’s up to you.

3. I think it is, but ranged combat is generally just easier in this game. I use a greatsword for traveling mostly (with Swoop), and for the interrupt and block skills. My primary damage comes from my longbow. I do sometimes use the greatsword as a primary when playing PvE, though, as it’s just a really fun weapon.

Ill make this short. I am in the same boat and played well into all classes except elem/necro.

You can’t do that right now. Its going to fail. Why? All classes are “broken” in some way shape or form and right now for the most part all they are doing is fixing bugs or nerfing. Which makes it more frustrating because buffs and class balancing are needed too. From what im seeing most classes are pigeon holed into 1-2 cookie cutter builds and you are forced to settle. Any class you play is going to have their “huge issues”.

Me for example… I’m shelving my 80 ranger until either longbow or beastmaster become actually viable. Right now LB is underwhelming and boring vs sb.

Also 80 content is garbage.

I wouldn’t say we are severely dependant on pets but they are certainly a nice addition in most situations. If you need a meat shield or the random buffs / debuffs / crowd control they provide.

Personally I don’t find pets to be a pain to manage, thus far I’m level 32 and have solo’d the better part of it. I can’t comment on dungeon content yet though…I plan to stay out of them until my pet can figure out how to stand next to me rather then moving ahead 20 feet and pulling mobs.

I chose a ranger for the bow abilities, I really don’t melee that much but I’m sure they are viable in close range if you trait and gear for it accordingly.

overall, I’m having fun with the ranger. but it may not be your cup of tea.

Try one out!

I’ve played engineer and mesmer to 20, the others to around 15. I’ve also done a bit of sPvP with them. I just really want to find a profession I can enjoy so I can play with my friends. It does sound like there’s more emphasis on pets than I’d like. Also took a look at the trait tree, seems like you really can’t get around the fact that it’s a pet class. Kinda what I expected.

aPutridCorpse.8792:

Personally I don’t find pets to be a pain to manage, thus far I’m level 32 and have solo’d the better part of it. I can’t comment on dungeon content yet though…I plan to stay out of them until my pet can figure out how to stand next to me rather then moving ahead 20 feet and pulling mobs.

Stow the pet when you are moving around in dungeons. Then spawn it back again when attacking. I have played in four different dungeons so far (both story and explosion mode) and I have only experienced one time where my pet accidentally agroed a group of mobs. But we killed them pretty quickly so it wasn’t really a problem at all. So I don’t think your pet should hold you back from playing dungeons.

Mongo.2490:

I’ve played engineer and mesmer to 20, the others to around 15. I’ve also done a bit of sPvP with them. I just really want to find a profession I can enjoy so I can play with my friends. It does sound like there’s more emphasis on pets than I’d like. Also took a look at the trait tree, seems like you really can’t get around the fact that it’s a pet class. Kinda what I expected.

That’s good. I get it though, I’m a bit of a perfectionist too. Yes, the Ranger is a pet class, as a large part of our damage comes from the pet. But it’s important to remember that you don’t have to look after the pet, unless you choose to. If you don’t like the pet, and don’t want to trait into Beastmastery, you can just leave the pet alone. The only thing you need to do is keep one pet alive because, as mentioned, a large pert of your damage relies on your pet. So if you don’t like the pet, then pet switching is the only micromanaging you need to do.

Yes you can play as melee, but you are losing a huge portion of damage and utility if you don’t use your pet. Why not make a warrior? They are made for melee, don’t have a pet, and they can do good ranged damage when necessary.

robot.9134:

Ill make this short. I am in the same boat and played well into all classes except elem/necro.

You can’t do that right now. Its going to fail. Why? All classes are “broken” in some way shape or form and right now for the most part all they are doing is fixing bugs or nerfing. Which makes it more frustrating because buffs and class balancing are needed too. From what im seeing most classes are pigeon holed into 1-2 cookie cutter builds and you are forced to settle. Any class you play is going to have their “huge issues”.

Me for example… I’m shelving my 80 ranger until either longbow or beastmaster become actually viable. Right now LB is underwhelming and boring vs sb.

Also 80 content is garbage.

Sounds to me like you just don’t like the game, which makes me wonder why you’re playing. There are more than 1-2 builds in the professions and you aren’t forced to do anything or go into a specific build, why don’t you try experimenting different ones.

To the OP, so far I’ve been sort of going melee with my ranger and switching to ranged for tougher fights or when I’m struggling. Also a mesmer will/can look like any other light armor profession…..it depends on what gear you equip.

If you want to be able to do big melee damage without having to micromanage a pet, why aren’t you playing a Warrior?

Mongo.2490:

I’ve played engineer and mesmer to 20, the others to around 15. I’ve also done a bit of sPvP with them. I just really want to find a profession I can enjoy so I can play with my friends. It does sound like there’s more emphasis on pets than I’d like. Also took a look at the trait tree, seems like you really can’t get around the fact that it’s a pet class. Kinda what I expected.

If I were you, I’d sPvP with all of the classes for a couple hours (at least) so you can get an idea of what the classes will play like in PvE as you advance to 80.

Dark Revan.7634:

robot.9134:

Ill make this short. I am in the same boat and played well into all classes except elem/necro.

You can’t do that right now. Its going to fail. Why? All classes are “broken” in some way shape or form and right now for the most part all they are doing is fixing bugs or nerfing. Which makes it more frustrating because buffs and class balancing are needed too. From what im seeing most classes are pigeon holed into 1-2 cookie cutter builds and you are forced to settle. Any class you play is going to have their “huge issues”.

Me for example… I’m shelving my 80 ranger until either longbow or beastmaster become actually viable. Right now LB is underwhelming and boring vs sb.

Also 80 content is garbage.

Sounds to me like you just don’t like the game, which makes me wonder why you’re playing. There are more than 1-2 builds in the professions and you aren’t forced to do anything or go into a specific build, why don’t you try experimenting different ones.

To the OP, so far I’ve been sort of going melee with my ranger and switching to ranged for tougher fights or when I’m struggling. Also a mesmer will/can look like any other light armor profession…..it depends on what gear you equip.

Im not happy with the game in the state it is in. Thats completely different.

Obviously you can any spec how you like but that is why cookie cutter is so hated. People are going to choose the most effective build(s). The different builds aren’t close enough.

It was a big red flag to me when the devs shotgun’d the LB nerf and didnt even take the time to test and see that the DPS was lower than SB after…. It has taken players testing it. THAT is annoying. Is it our job to make this game better? The nerf was quick…lets see how long it takes to buff the LB again…or even worse nerf SB.

robot.9134:

It was a big red flag to me when the devs shotgun’d the LB nerf and didnt even take the time to test and see that the DPS was lower than SB after…. It has taken players testing it. THAT is annoying. Is it our job to make this game better? The nerf was quick…lets see how long it takes to buff the LB again…or even worse nerf SB.

It’s sad but I have to agree with you on that one, so disappointed they nerfed LB and I really hope they won’t nerf the SB….that would be death imo

What was the nerf done to LB?

LB is just fine, ive seen some amazing LB rangers tearing it up with healing spring. also, pets are in a very good shape.

the only thing kinda subpar are the spirits, but even they arent so bad.

1) Are rangers severely dependent on micromanaging their pet?
No they are not severely dependent on it. You can set your pet to aggresive in PvE and that’s it. In WvW you will have to keep it with you a little more because they die to AoE and in PvP you’ll want to manage them a bit (they are a good chunk of your DPS).

The pet is a part of the class though! Not something to be ignored or underutilized.

2) Are the pets a pain in thekitten to manage? (Preventing them from getting killed all the time?)
In WvW yes, in PvE not at all and in PvP it is certainly managable.

3) Is a ranger viable in close-ranged situations?
Yes! There are some pretty cool melee builds for the ranger. Sword / warhorn, axe / torch is cool, greatsword has a nice build aswell. The current ‘meta’ is really focussed on shortbow / traps because the build is very versatile and easier to play though.

If you do try ranger, I would advice to play at least till leve 40. Before that point your traits and utilities don’t really sync up all that well. Past 40 you’ll have some experience and you can see the dept this class offers a lot better. I guess this is true for every class though.

In my opinion the most boring class in the game. In PvE do not need any body movements, because pet tanks. In pvp immediately felt drawdown of damage compared to other classes. Immediately confused very low figure of damage. There is absolutely no freedom of traits choice. Class pet mechanic forces to give it all possible attention. All mandatory traits are those that improve your pet. Because YOU are a pet of your pet. This is the class style. That’s why ranger itself have lowest(!) damage of all.
To be honest, i played a lot by all classes, and ranger is only with which i more want to go vine forum than play game. It creates a sense of the most unfinished class in all game. But some people are even happy with it. So, you should really try. That’s not too long

MeGaZlo.9516:

In my opinion the most boring class in the game. In PvE do not need any body movements, because pet tanks. In pvp immediately felt drawdown of damage compared to other classes. Immediately confused very low figure of damage. There is absolutely no freedom of traits choice. Class pet mechanic forces to give it all possible attention. All mandatory traits are those that improve your pet. Because YOU are a pet of your pet. This is the class style. That’s why ranger itself have lowest(!) damage of all.
To be honest, i played a lot by all classes, and ranger is only with which i more want to go vine forum than play game. It creates a sense of the most unfinished class in all game. But some people are even happy with it. So, you should really try. That’s not too long

No offense, but this is one of the more laughable posts I have seen thus far on the ranger forums.
I main the ranger, and have about 300 hours played on it. I can tell you right away, that the ranger definitely does not have the lowest damage of all classes, not even close.
You probably just used the wrong skills/armor/weapons, but don’t say stuff that is so far from the truth.
I personally use short-bow/longbow, have full exotic berserker’s gear. Glass-cannon build, but thanks to the pet it’s quite easy to stay alive.
As for having to control the pet, there is not much to it really. All I ever do is swap my pet every 20 seconds for quickness (trait) and use the f2 skill. The fact that you have 2 pets makes it less nessecary to keep your single pet alive at all times.
So no, the pets are not a pain to control, it’s easy.
As for rangers at short range, i always use a short-bow. In pvp with my build and a shortbow, i can down a player using QZ(quickening zephyr) in literally less than 4 seconds (low damage?, yea not.).
I have tried the greatsword, but find the damage laughable. The sword is alright, but the auto-attacks bind you in place which is quite annoying, so I never use that.
So as far as melee weapons on a ranger go, I would not recommend them, but it is up to you ofcourse.
Hope that informed you a bit!

Recently i made the switch from warrior to ranger. I originally hated this class. But after playing a ton of dungeons on warrior i have seen the power the ranger has. I am wayyyyyyyyyyy more survivable on my ranger then i will ever be on warrior. Traps are a godsend for survivability. Huge amounts of endurance regen. Not to mention the pets ability to draw aggro off of me every once i n a while to give me some breathing room.

My warrior is ok at what he can do. He can take a decent beating when i have no endurance but if a mob stays on me I am going to be downed even in a non glass canon spec. My ranger can stay alive like a champ and can keep others alive almost as well. I see a lot of people saying play warrior over ranger but I think they are just 100 blades envious or something. Imo warriors have nothing on this class. Definitely my new main.

I do not want to argue, but what class does less damage than a ranger without a pet?

The whole idea of the ranger is that ur pet is part of ur damage.

Yep. That’s true. But this is weakness of class too. There are situations when pet can not attack or die too quickly. And… well… it’s just boring to see such low numbers of damage. For me, at least. Roughly ranger makes at least 20% percent less damage than any other class.

I’m more sad about absence of options. No customization. No matter whether you like it or not, you must to invest much of attention to pet. Each class has own mechanic, but no one so depend on it as a ranger. You will not say that the necromancer is “death shroud class”, because he have such mechanic, right? He may not use it at all. As well as a thief can not to use steal, warrior can not to use adrenaline etc. But the ranger can’t manage without his pet and moste of his traits oriented only on pet. Ranger itself does not get better with level. Only his pet. Do you feel what i mean? )

@MeGaZlo.9516: Ranger gets a lot better as you level. The traitlines really gain dept as you unlock more of them and the synergy is just as high as other classes. Saying a ranger does not get stronger is just plain wrong. How the hell am I going to kill a level 20 monster if I have not gained strength since level 1? If you mean stronger in relation to mobs (i.e. it becomes easier to kill stuff as you level up) we are on par with other classes that I have played.

Rangers are no more tied to their pets than Mesmers are to their illusions, or Elementalists are to their attunements. Saying all of a ranger’s traits revolve around the pet is laughable, and simply isn’t true.

MeGaZlo.9516:

Yep. That’s true. But this is weakness of class too. There are situations when pet can not attack or die too quickly. And… well… it’s just boring to see such low numbers of damage. For me, at least. Roughly ranger makes at least 20% percent less damage than any other class.

you just dont know how to use the pet. pets are borderline OP.

@Ebs you understand TOO literally.
@Anarri Mesmer illusions spawns right near target and no matter if it will die. Elementalists attunement will nowhere disappear from elementalist and attunements do not need to catch up targets to hit. So u don’t need to choose traits like 30% crit damage, run speed, heal from damage, might to them etc. But this is necessarily fo ranger. Oh.. yes.. i just don’t know how to use three pet buttons….

I’m new play a lvl 32 ranger, here are my experiences so far.

1. no your not dependent on your pet but they are great to have and add some great additions to helping you in the means of dps, buffs, tank, or aoe’s depending on the pet.

What I did straight away was get all the pets that I thought would be most beneficial. So I traveled around from one zone to another to tame those pets. This is great for finding those pets you want and the Guild wars wiki will give you extra info on their exact location and the their stats.

this map will show you where the pets are! http://www.guildhead.com/map#z:5;c:-1.142578125,9.7119140625

2. with ranger its not just about you or just your pet, its about both of you. Balancing your dps with your pet will help your overall survivability. Kiting isn’t always going to work as you move slower going backwards and you’ll usually run into another mob if you aren’t careful. Longbow has a nice knockback to help with this and your dmg is great from a further distance. Shortbow is greater for kiting cause its quick and you have an ability to jump back away from your target.

3. Choose your pet wisely. You don’t have to micromanage but the type of pet is very situational. IE… tank > bear/carrion or dps>feline. No the bear has high vitality and the carrion has high toughness so choose what works best for you in that respect.

4. Traits help both you and your pet so try some things till you find what works best for your playstyle.

I started with nature magic and marksman but found my pet died easily and my dps wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be. I quickly learned that balancing your power and precision at about a 2:1 ratio makes for some sickly dps. then with beastmaster skills it allows your pet to stay alive much longer making less for you to worry about. The great thing about this setup is you can sit there afk and something might attack you and your pet will just kill it. Many times I don’t even have to do anything and just let my pet kill my target. Its nice when your not fully paying attention to the game. Now add in your dps and your pets and your talking quick kills.
this is my aim right now for traits. Firstly I went for the beastmaster skills because the added stats for your pet with masters bond is amazing. Its like your pet is leveling everytime you kill something. Then work on skirmishing because your pet will be critting alot and later those crits will heal your pet when you get carnivorous appetite.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MVom0Vc0ohGmoohngo0Ga0fzk0M

5. ok sorry for the long topic there on pets. So your other concern was melee. Greatsword is great and fun and I haven’t had any problems with it or with sword/warhorn/torch. I usually swap to warhorn for the buff and birds then quickly back to torch for a little range and aoe. Your dmg is pretty awesome with traps as well. I can stow my pet, drop three traps in a second and then a bonfire from the torch and not even swing my sword once and target is dead! 1h sword is nice cause your leaping and evading and circling your target add this with the simple ability everyone has to double tap to evade and you have some nice evasion skills to work with. If you like to melee try it and when it gets hairy swap to your bow and kite! The most you have to worry about with your pet is healing and using the one skill they have but alot of the time you don’t even need to bother, just let them run in a start hackin and slashing away while you do your thing.

Just remember, you can melee well but your not a tank, you wear leather… but add in your pet and you’re looking at one awesome time.

Another note, longbow is good for big mobs. not much else in my opinion. Shortbow and sword/torch combos are great for pve/pvp.

Please give it a try. up to level 15 it was a little tricky cause I was new to the class and almost dropped it but man once you get the hang of it you’re in for a hellava ride.

Going to keep it short. I recommend not making a ranger right now as they are lackluster and boring. While all classes have issues, rangers are at a fundamental lvl. You cant press a situation, you more or less react to it. Unless you have a mouth-breather running away from you, or a nub not paying attention and letting you pound them from the side or rear the DPS is crap. Its alot of setup with QZ which is gimmicky as hell.

Play a Thief or something – that’s the direction I went since they borked rangers and I’m enjoying the change. Currently rangers are lackluster and just boring IMO. and I love the ranger class, and my ranger in general. Its sad really. I wish they were more fun to play and viable in general.

rangers may be seen as boring by you, but balance-wise, theyre in a very good shape. ive crushed many opponents that werent “mouthbreathers”.

Rangers are not completely dependent on pets. However you can fully slot your traits to boost your pet for one of the best ranger builds ever. My Mountain Lion run faster than me, hits harder and crit more often than me, and survives longer than me.
Basically beast masters are their pets pet.
I really don’t mind playing like that especially in sPVP as people focus on ranger and ignore the pet critting them for 3k. With Sick Em’ and Rampage As One in full swing one of my highest pet crits was around 5.6k in sPvP

Let me start off by saying the Ranger is my absolute favorite profession in this game.

Pets are not hard to micromanage, in fact they’re pretty self-sufficient (some even self-heal). They have 2-3 useful skills that they use independent of your control + 1 great skill that is player controlled.

You can still use bows even at melee range. But if you mean with swords, yes, they’re quite a bit of fun. With a pet sharing the damage burden, you’re not as squishy as you’d think for a med armor wearer. Also, Ranger melee incorporates a lot of evades, so you shouldn’t be getting hit much.

Having said that…

When you try each profession out, in addition to whatever you did, take them into the Heart of the Mists (pvp staging area). it automatically scales you to 80 and unlocks all of your skills. There, you can get a better idea of what each class will ultimately bring to the table. I hated Engineer when I 1st rolled one, but I brought her to the HotM & realized there’s a lot of potential once it’s unlocked.

Play warrior. Simple, straight forward, nothing to think about other than mashing your opponents heads in. Only thing you got to worry about is an adrenaline bar.

Sounds perfect for you who don’t like the Engineer kits mess…
Personally I love the Engineer just because it’s that technical to play.

Sorry if this is like bringing up an old thread but I think I want to offer my two cents xD

First of all, browsing through this thread, kinda irks me because people are sharing opinions and experiences yet everyone makes it sound like its fact. People have different experiences, styles, and preferences, not pointing any figures but we should all try not to sound like what we say is law and fact.

Now I can offer my own opinion and experience which by no means is what everyone experiences. I am a lvl 80 ranger and had a lot of fun and easy time throughout the game. And I will echo that I don’t think we are totally dependent and focused on our pet. My set up is so that I don’t really trait my pet though I would like to try to do so soon and see how it works. My pet for the most part is just a distraction for my enemies. All I have to do is keep it alive and that is simple to do just by pet swapping just before it dies and healing up both you and your pet when you need it. It usually alternates, heal up both u and ur pet and then while it is in cd, you pet swap so it doesn’t die on you and has really quick cd before u can swap again.

In terms of weapons I go melee really often almost primarily in pvE when I know I can handle them. I’d only stay long range with champions unless they’re too close for comfort. I love melee bc its fun and i like movement. Most of the time I consider this fooling around haha. I clear out mobs extremely fast just fighting like a warrior, sword/torch, tons of AoE with my torch skills, and dropping a trap or two right around me. The sword itself has a lot of AoE and a swarm of mobs can be cleared really quickly. And most of the damage comes from myself not my pet. When things get serious I will think carefully and usually set traps, longbow putting as much damage and luring them to me before going all melee and AoE and condition and then leap out when things get serious to withdraw to long range. In dungeons I also survive the longest in any party not because of the pet though that helps to distract but because it decide to take it seriously and stay at range with longbow and steadily dig away at an opponents life, without being hit myself.

For me rangers are a very versatile class where you can go in melee or long range. And pets really help as well. I think you and your pet are just synergistic, one can do without another like sometimes i just do nothing and watch my pet take on three or four mobs at a time and still come out alive… But together you make a good team!

However I do agree that rangers do have low straight forward dps comparatively and have been killed by ppl in wvw or pvp extremely fast and even pve noticing how fast a mobs life drops. But it isn’t that big of a difference if you do it right. If I have to summarize, I would say rangers do slow and steady damage and finish of enemies over time. Hence In dungeons you truly shine and many parties actually look for rangers from personal experience. Not only does the pet provide a shield but rangers survive super long EVEN if your pets die off.

All that said I will be trying a trap, pet based build later on we’ll see how that is ^^

1) Are rangers severely dependent on micromanaging their pet?
Absolutely not. Pets have improved vastly since the game came out and when you’re just trucking around the world, exploring and doing hearts/DEs the pet will pretty much handle its business alone, I find I mostly just use them for their F2 ability.

In dangerous areas or dungeons they do require a bit of management—but this is really as simple as hitting F3 to put your pet into “passive” mode, where he won’t attack anything. Just remember to put him back on offense when you start fighting!

2) Are the pets a pain in the kitten to manage? (Preventing them from getting killed all the time?)
Sometimes, it depends on the pet. Bears and Pigs can usually take damage from most enemies that aren’t elites or anything, and Spiders and Devourers have ranged attacks and evasive abilities, so they will usually survive hits pretty well. Other pets, like Birds or Cats are a bit more vulnerable to damage, but even these can be kept up fairly easily with just a bit of attention—remember all of your self-heals also heal your pet and your signets can give them things like health regeneration and improved defense—even invincibility!

3) Is a ranger viable in close-ranged situations?
Hell yes they are, I’m a level 74 ranger and will always go for melee whenever possible. The main limitation is that the ranger only has two main hand melee weapons, the greatsword and the sword—but both of these are extremely useful in combat.

The one handed sword gets a lot of guff for being a “self-rooter”, which it is in a way. The second attack in the sword’s auto-attack chain is a kick and you are locked into the animation for about a second when you do it, but it isn’t quite as kittenome rangers make it out to be. It should also be noted that the sword is also very very “sticky” because the third attack in the chain is a leap to your target, so while you do give up some of your rolling ability to the kicking animation, you will almost always be hitting the target even if they try to run. The sword also has two evasion abilities, the hornet’s sting leap back and the serpet’s strike roll. The roll can be hard to land but the main purpose is that when you’re in the rolling animation you’re evading all attacks, so you’ve basically got a third dodge there. The leap back is a great way to get out of an AoE, fall back for a quick heal, or put some distance between you and your target to switch to a bow. If you leap back and then hit the skill again you’ll leap forward, this leap works well with traps, since you can drop a fire trap or a frost trap and leap back, then forward to gain a fire or frost aura.

The greatsword is your other main melee options and my personal favorite. The auto attack chain’s third skill grants you evasion the whole time the animation is playing, so basically you’re invincible 1/3 of the time you’re auto attacking with a greatsword. Taking this skill off auto attack can lead to good things if you can time your attacks to occur any time your target is trying to hit you. The leap on the greatsword is one of the best leaps in the game, with a huge range—you’ll see lots of rangers saying they use it just to travel because its so far, great for closing in on other rangers using their silly longbow on you. The bleed attack is alright, remember to be behind the target when you use it. The block is another way to mitigate damage, its knockdown is nothing great, but blocking it is worth it and you can cancel the block to throw the sword and snare your target. Finally the pommel bash is a very underrated skill. Not only can it interrupt or even stun a target (if you hit them from behind), but the range is actually further out than you might think, since you will leap forward about five feet to smack them with the hilt, I use it in PvP to catch runners all the time.

tl;dr version:
1- no
2- if you’re really worried about it just roll with a bear (but even with squishier pets it isn’t a real pain)
3- yes, I think rangers are some of the strongest melee combatants in the game, just behind thieves and warriors.

Hope this helps! I look forward to your ranging adventures!