Guild Wars 2

First off, I appreciate all of the lovely things that Anet is adding into the game. I think its great, and a hell of an improvement compared to mass expansion mode in gw1.

I also understand that Rangers are still very much viable, and still a fun class to play. I’ve been a Ranger in GW for 8+ years. My Ranger is my Commander. Through both games Ranger has been my main. I made it a point to get 100% map completion, full gear, and the best of anything I could as a Ranger because it’s the class I loved most from gw1. And then I played other classes and realized why people kick Rangers from dungeon groups, clown them in wvw, and most of the time outright refuse to run higher end Fractals with a Ranger in the party.

There are some great ways to play a Ranger, but there is nothing that a Ranger can roll through 100% of the game that is anywhere remotely close to being as desired as any other class. Patch after patch, fix after fix, nerf after nerf…things have improved and things have worsened. And unless something is done to fix the Ranger…more and more players are going to be discouraged. Not everyone has more than 1 lvl 80. And those whose main is a Ranger…getting dropped from groups, getting rolled in 1v1’s, and being a downright outcast of a class…it’s depressing. And I highly doubt that 100% of them are motivated to reroll to something more desired by the public.

I’ve clutched many guild groups dungeons, I’ve trapped many points in pvp for holds, and I’ve rolled through borderlands with heavenly arrows raining from my bow. But I was surrounded by good people confident in my abilities. But seeing the way Rangers are treated in every aspect of the game by the general public is sad.

It’s been ten months. Close to a year. The point where Colin is talking about all of the wonderful things to come, yet no word on fixing the 1/6th of the professions that no one really ever asks for in a group much less has confidence in unless they know said ranger & are confident in them.

Like I said, Rangers are great in the right hands. Rangers are great when the people you’re playing with know you and know that you as a Ranger can hold your own. Rangers are my favorite class. And it sucks to know that every other class is better at anything and everything a Ranger can do.

Instead of hyping up the incoming content, why not un-eff one of Guild Wars most beloved professions? If it wasn’t for my 7 years in gw1 having a blast doing anything and everything as a Ranger I wouldn’t have even bought this game. But until something changes…I’d rather roll any/everything else. At least I know I’m safe in a pick up group.

/$0.02

I’m in the same situation as you, by the looks of it.
Ranger main, only lvl 80, 100% world completion and commander tag with no desire to reroll (which I did, got a mesmer up to lvl 55 before I got bored out of my mind.)
As it stands now I log in once a day to charge myself a quartz crystal… And that’s it. I don’t even bother with the daily archievements anymore because I don’t like archievement hunting and already have all the laurels I need.

So I’m taking a break this summer holiday. It couldn’t have come at a better time and I’m really enjoying myself with other activities than gaming. But the desire to again play a role I enjoy so much in this game remains.

Who knows? Maybe they’ll mess up a future balance patch (again) and make Rangers amazingly overpowered for a month or two.

Who am I kidding? If anything I expect more nerfs only due to my current lack of faith in the team responsible for releasing the balance updates.

I just can’t get my head around the lack of well executed balance updates in games like this. Even the sPvP’ers made a wishlist on which balance was #1…

Ranger for life here but ANET doesn’t want us to play rangers.

JorneMormel.9850:

Ranger main, only lvl 80, 100% world completion and commander tag with no desire to reroll (which I did, got a mesmer up to lvl 55 before I got bored out of my mind.)

…

My point exactly. However I have a full account of mostly 80s except a couple classes I want to learn better later on. I’m giving myself something to look forward to learning later I guess. Ranger was my main. And then I played Guardian. And Necro. And Mesmer (it was only fun once I geared up at 80 albeit). And Warrior. And Engy. And Ele. Ranger seemed like such a waste of time suddenly compared to the capabilities of other classes. But the fact remains, players that main Rangers, and realize that they aren’t up to par compared to every other class in the game….DON’T want to reroll & restart. I’m willing to bet a lot of those players simply quit playing gw2. Not everyone plays for 4+ hours a day. Some just pop in and out I’m sure. I have guildies that play every day and only have 1 or maybe 2 lvl 80’s. But I can promise that if their primary toon was a Ranger they’d have another lvl 80 that was something else, and they’d prefer to play the non-Ranger.

It’s a class that’s honestly…as a self proclaimed Guild Wars lifelong Ranger….a class that isn’t worth investing in at the moment. Every other class, does everything better. And that’s a fact.

The only area we aren’t ASKED for in groups is PvE, especially now that the 23k maul hit build has been discovered (that thing is EVERYWHERRE in WvW). In sPvP rangers are still asked for because their extremely powerful point defense and roamers.

And our issues ARE NOT because of traits and utilities aren’t working, we aren’t that great in PvE because we don’t benefit as much from a lot of stats as profs do, our pet dies due to things we can’t do anything about, butchering damage and utility.

These new traits and utilities could actually IMPROVE ranger by giving us more tools, like better support options, more condi cleanse (c’mon Antidote Signet!) so we aren’t “forced” into using 30 points in WS.

The ranger isn’t in a bad place, we just aren’t at the top, and the vast majority are stupid enough to believe that if it isn’t the “best” then it’s the “worst”.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly is wrong with rangers that need fixing? Because I can think of a lot more things that need nerfs than buffs, unless that’s what you meant.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Just out of curiosity, what exactly is wrong with rangers that need fixing? Because I can think of a lot more things that need nerfs than buffs, unless that’s what you meant.

Rangers have a lot of issues with their prof mechanic SOMETHING needs to change, they’re the only prof who can drop off due to not scaling well (pet gets 0 benefit from stats), ther DPS can be killed pretty kittening easily in PvE and WvW, and if you kitten up you get kittenED by that stupid 60s pet swap CD, if that was say 30 if your pet died, or kitten even 40, it’d be a lot more forgiving to make an error. Necros don’t get totally boned for using DS improperly (it certainly will hurt them, but not as majority as rangers)

Adding more skills does help the Ranger, as it adds more pieces to the puzzle, allowing you to have more answers to problems you are facing with your build. I don’t think adding more means ArenaNet are neglecting the current problems. They are simply just giving us more options. Adding new skills might even help highlight the current problems..

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Just out of curiosity, what exactly is wrong with rangers that need fixing? Because I can think of a lot more things that need nerfs than buffs, unless that’s what you meant.

Mostly pets and spirits dying too fast and the lack of useful group support, for PvE and WvW group. Ranger is plenty strong in PvP.

New skills means hope for a game-changer => Some new combo that effects the class on an order of magnitude level, adding a new playstyle, or filling a niche that was previously under utilized.

Fixing existing mechanics will mostly be in terms of tweaking numbers. It’ll be the same game, different numbers, which isn’t actually “fun” except on the spreadsheets.

Tukmolytes.3467:

Ranger for life here but ANET doesn’t want us to play rangers.

Very True and Tragic

This really makes me want to ask my Guild (my Gw1 guild) … what they’d think of me playing mostly Ranger in WvW with them even though they tend to run 30-man parties usually and my incredibly low-vitality Guardian with like 1000+ healing & even more boonstacking is always better there? (or a PowBlood nec /w wells build I’m still in the middle of gearing for roaming-spiking). If I can find an innocent way to bring it up, I think I will … even though I feel like they just roll their eyes at how much time I’ve spent on that Ranger alt lately. (and even killed a few of them in WvW b/c we were on opposing servers )