Guild Wars 2

After playing a Guardian to 80, and a thief to 30 I decided I’d play a more ranged focused class. I’m at my mid 20s now but even looking at the list of utility skills waiting to be unlocked I don’t see any that make me think, “Oh man I can’t wait to have that!”

Is it just me?

i second that, all the utility skills are meh unless you spec a trait, Traps become nice with double radius and ground targeting, or Quickening Zephyr is almost worth using when you drop -20% survival skill recharge time.

Quickening Zephyr is almost worth using? It is extremely powerful, even with the long (default) cooldown!

That said, I also find the Utilities very underwhelming. Shouts are garbage, Signets are quite poor, Spirits are awful. Traps… well, I only like Flame Trap and find the others underwhelming. I personally think only the Survival skills are well-rounded, and even then they have their flaws (eg Lightning Reflexes not breaking movement-hindering conditions). They all feel very unfinished and untested, so hopefully will get some love once the major bugs are sorted out.

Do you mean the traps that look to be an after-thought when compared to thief traps?

Or our signets, which every other class has, only ours are the worst of the bunch (we get 10% increased movement when another class get 25%? Okay…).

Or our reliance on our buggy, squishy pets, which take up another category of skills?

Or the long cooldown, bland, survival skills?

The more I play other professions, the more it feels like Ranger as a profession was an afterthought to fill in a gap the developers had.

It’s sad really, because I’ve put a lot of time into my ranger since launch and I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much.

orci, have you used thief traps? For actual damage and inflicting conditions Circle AoE > Line AoE. Not to mention ranger traps all pulse for several seconds allowing more than one foe to be caught in them.

Overall I agree with the OP that Ranger utilities aren’t terribly flashy or awe inspiring but traps are some of our best skills.

100% agree with orci’s post (which reiterates MANY posts in the past few days).

I love my ranger to bits (been 80 for two weeks, 2*400 crafting, 100% explo), but I really feel like most of their traits & skills are very underwhelming.

Bring back the GW1 jack of all trades I know and love!

I have used the Thief traps, and they are more interesting. They add flavour to the profession. Ranger’s are just drop, make combo field. Except that the poison one (Viper’s Nest) doesn’t even make a combo field… The fact that they need to be specced in order to be viable at all (ground targetting) is even worse.

Quickening Zephyr is incredible. Other than that….hmm…….Yea, the utilities need some creative love.

Traps are great, but need to create more combo fields (I’m thinking dust trap [blind/smoke] or flash-bang trap [confusion/light]).

Signets are woefully underpowered compared to every other profession’s signets.

Shouts are lackluster afterthoughts (I never use them).

Spirits are squishy and aren’t worth the spot on a skill bar.

Survival skills are quite nice actually.

Seras.5702:

Spirits are squishy and aren’t worth the spot on a skill bar.

“How could I possibly have forgotten about Spirits in my previous post?”, I just asked myself…

That’s how boring and useless Spirits are at this specific moment, at least from my personal experience. So bad, I totally forgot they existed until you mentioned them. Yet another skill sets of ours that only gains some viability if traited (movement), and even then they die almost instantly and the passives they grants are lackluster.

I’ve tried many times to play Ranger with something other than a Survival or Trap build (for PvP and PvE respectively), but haven’t found signets/spirits/shouts to to be all that interesting or useful. be useful at all.

Im sorry for haters.
I agree ranger’s dont have OP WOWWWOWOWO! skills……….but
the combination of the “medium” skills + PET is something worth.
No other class can “THINK” of match a Ranger output/DPS damage.
Atm im with Berserker Exotic full Jewel/Set/Weapon and i do CRAZY dmg.
I see other 80’s classes using 10 skills on the mobs and lets say 50% life dmg.
I just attack with my pet while not even paying atention and i kill it faster than any class.
If i burst the “medium” utility skills i kill any Veteran in seconds.
This without saying u have a permanent and SWITCHBLE tank.
I tried ALL i could DO! The only BUILD that matches a FELINE against a Heavy Armor sPvP golem is Shortbow/Berseker stats.
So please, dont say ranger is weak or is “missing” something.

WE ARE THE GOLD CREAM OF THE PIE!

Peace

TIPS: Spirits make a HUGE difference in DUNGEONS.
ALL OF THEM!!!!

I have NOTHING to claim as a ranger. Actually, i dont like the Charr/Medium options i have, just the cultural T3, which is expensive. The rest is COOOL.

I honestly don’t have a problem with the utility skills I bring.

Muddy terrain is awesome even though it is currently not on my skill bar.

Protect me is just amazing.

I also really like the signet that removes all conditions when you activate it. It is very useful to me.

Oh, and the Marksmanship last Trait “Signets also affect you” seems silly, but i tested it and OMG. Its SUPER AWESOME!!!
Im main Ranger, lvl 80 full map, full exotic, going for The Dreamer, i have experienced some GOOD builds:

-30 / 30 / 5 / 0 / 5 – Best DPS/Berserker Set + Feline (you u will die a lot, ppl keep saying this to me. I answer: are u noob?)

Yes, i dont die a lot, i do dungeons, i do champions, i do WvWvW AND sPvP with this build.
TIP: Timing and posiotioning. Time your cooldowns, evades and burst. This is a 8 /80 build. Or u do great or u “noob”.

5 / 0 / 25 / 25 / 15 – Signet/Shout/Spirit Build – Use this if u want to support and NEVER get down. Dont read and think “this wont work”. Try the traits and skills. U can be surprised with the utility with some “medium text” traits and skills.

0 / 0 / 20 / 30 / 30 – Signet/Shout/Spirit Build – Very similar to the one above. But grants great DPS with it. Equip yourself with 2 Bear pets and let them do the dmg while u help your team with spirits, mob agroo, buffs and revives.

Those 3 build i listed above have at least 6 variations each. Just swap the skills and u get yourself a whole new character.

TIP: Changing skills in dungeons is GREAT and a MUST if u want to really make difference. In each dungeon run, even the easy ones. I tested those builds. The best result is not on the build, but how u use it. Creat strategies, be creative.

Ranger is the best class for me. I’ve tried some alt but cant get distanced from the Ranger, the difference in general “creativeness” is just too great.

Atm im Engineer, liking it and believeing is a very creative class as well. BUT, Ranger > All. And i can say this cause you u are here u are Ranger

Peace

Quickening Zephyr is overpowered (all quickness effects are.)

Signet of Stone and Signet of the Wild are good, but only if you use the Signet of the Beastmaster trait. (Why we need a trait for that at all is beyond me, especially a grandmaster trait. I think our signets should effect us as well as our pets by default.)

Sharpening Stone and the trap skills are decent if you use a condition damage build and traits that boost them.

Muddy Terrain, Lightning Reflexes and Protect Me are all useable but they don’t make any other classes jealous.

All 4 spirits are very weak.

The other 3 shouts are very weak.

The other 2 signets are very weak.

Overall we have enough decent options to fill our 3 utility slots in a variety of ways, but about half the skills could really use a tuning pass. Then again, I think that’s about the same situation everyone is in, right?

Seras.5702:

Quickening Zephyr is incredible. Other than that….hmm…….Yea, the utilities need some creative love.

Traps are great, but need to create more combo fields (I’m thinking dust trap [blind/smoke] or flash-bang trap [confusion/light]).

Signets are woefully underpowered compared to every other profession’s signets.

Shouts are lackluster afterthoughts (I never use them).

Spirits are squishy and aren’t worth the spot on a skill bar.

Survival skills are quite nice actually.

Man, if u really having this experience, u should change class. Its very clearly to me that u arent “getting the mojo” with Ranger.
Be strong is totally about finding your playstyle.

Peace

Stice.5204:

All 4 spirits are very weak.

The other 3 shouts are very weak.

The other 2 signets are very weak.

Couldnt disagree more.

Spirits: Can be used to lure away mobs(yeah they agroo), while giving DMG output to WHOLE team, and preventing them from “SUPER HIT” in dungeons or champions (protection one). I have use them with sucess in a lot of situations, u just need to be creative.

Shouts: Please, test them. (I think the “Search and Rescue” could use less CD) I cant make my build without “Sick EM”, it is just great. When i see other rangers saying “nah, it does nothing” i think “have their ever tested the difference”.

Signets: If u combine them with last Marksman Trait you can build a very tanky character. I always use them to RUN/JUMP.P.

I believe what is happening with the complaint about Ranger here is that some still didnt actually what the combination of the skills can do.

Yeah, we dont have any “jealous” skill. But we have a good combination of them.
I would say Ranger is a very creative class.
And that its a 8/80, or u OP, or su ck!

Peace

Spirits: Can be used to lure away mobs(yeah they agroo)

I know they aggro. that’s part of why they’re so weak. They seldom live long enough to make much difference. The only situations you’d use them is for group content, which tends to have a lot of adds and random AE flying around, and the fact that spirits have only a few thousand health turns into a huge liability.

Shouts: Please, test them.

Ok, I just did. Heart of the Mists, medium armor golem. Spider pet (a popular pet.) No traits invested in pet boosting.

Without Sic ’Em, the pet hits for about 780 to 860 per normal noncritical attack.

Sic ’Em boosts the damage of the normal attack to about 1080 to 1150.

So Sic ‘Em appears to be about a 30% damage boost for the pet. The wiki says about the same. With a 60 second cooldown and 15 second duration, the maximum uptime is 25%. If you use the shout on cooldown it’ll net you around a 7.5% increase in pet damage over time. Even if you invested heavily in pet-boosting traits, an extra 30% pet damage isn’t much of a burst skill (especially given the unreliability of pet attacks landing at all) and an extra 7.5% pet damage over time isn’t much of a return for 1 of your utility slots.

And you say you can’t make a build without it?

I stand by my assessment that Sic ’Em sucks.

ranger traits are amazing. we really dont need to discuss this.

pets do ridiculous damage and are very responsive currently. you can specialize in pet damage and be a happy camper. Sic ’em and Protect Me are great shouts, especially when traited.

traps are meh, but they can work very well. signets are decent, far cry from useless. and survivability skills are excellent.

this basically leaves us with two downsides: spirits are subpar, and some utility skills are a little boring. functionally, theyre not subpar, just bland. but that only goes for a few.

overall, i feel rangers would be in an amazing place if spirits got buffed.

Stice.5204:

I stand by my assessment that Sic ’Em sucks.

have you tried it with Quickening Zephyr and skirmishing traits that improve pet critical damage? when my jag jumps out of stealth with Sick em and QZ, he can maul someone’s face off.

i made a pet focuse ranger, the pets are pretty useful outside of doungeons. They have higher attack and defense than my character, but in dungeons they are useless. The only thing i use them for is the search and rescue. Beside that utility and the thorn wolf for pulling agro utilities for rangers sucks.

Pets are still useful in dungeons you just cannot use a melee pet. You have to use a ranged pet unless you want it to get squashed in 0.32 seconds.

nerva.7940:

Stice.5204:

I stand by my assessment that Sic ’Em sucks.

have you tried it with Quickening Zephyr and skirmishing traits that improve pet critical damage? when my jag jumps out of stealth with Sick em and QZ, he can maul someone’s face off.

I would argue that demonstrates how obscenely powerful Quickening Zephyr is, not Sick ’Em.

I also consider Sick ’Em, and all Shouts, highly underwhelming. Compare them with the Shouts used by other classes and you will see what I mean. Shouts should, at a minimum, boost the Pet AND the Ranger, at the same time. Sick ’Em only provides a minor boost to half the class, Protect Me provides a minor benefit to half the class but potentially cripples the other half… the others are not even worth mentioning.

Probably the biggest issue with Ranger utilities is that, if you max out a trait line and pick all the relevant traits, they become quite good (eg Signets), but are 100% useless the rest of the time. Ideally, they should be good normally and great when traited. Using Shouts as an example, Warrior Shouts start off really solid. With Traits, their cooldowns are reduced and they gain healing. Guardians, similarly, start with powerful shouts that gain reduced cooldowns and convert conditions to boons. We start with bad shouts and gain reduced cooldowns. The other two classes start with good utilities that get better; we have bad utilities that stay bad.