Guild Wars 2

I know this topic has been here hundreds of times, but I really don’t understand what’s wrong with the Ranger. I am having a blast playing with my Norn Ranger. Using the longbow with sword/warhorn, I shoot and slash my way through multiple dredge, bandits etc. at the time, occasionally with a veteran equall to my level. Mostly the fights never take longer then a minute with a victory for me and with very little health loss.

Yes, I know, the class is not perfect. The pet’s AI is stupid (I wpuld say basic) as hell and I wished I could control them more apart from charging and retreating. I think the Ranger is by far the easiest class to play PvE with as you can use your pet to suck up all the damage. I am sometimes still astonished by the amount of damage my bear can take until it “finally” retreats. I also wished the Ranger had some more, I don’t know, “Ranginess”. Where is herbalism or something else? That is what makes a ranger a ranger. Being able to use different kinds of arrows would be awesome (but I think pretty OP too).

My brother who played an Asuran Ranger as his first character is now also a Ranger hater. He says: “Rangers cannot do a thing right, you always have to go to the extremes like a bunker build signet master or a beserker’s glass cannon to be able to contribute something to a Zerg in WvW. And even then Rangers do not excel in what they specialise in as their pets have to do damage too.” I totally disagree and I think with the experiences I’ve had so far the Ranger is one of the most versatile classes in GW2. I would like to hear earnest opinions about your views about the Ranger.

I see a lot of complaining on the forums, yet I see plenty of Rangers roaming Tyria tearing up the NPC’s and other players in WvW. If there is so much wrong about the Ranger, why do people still play them? The Ranger is propably not the best class in GW2 (I agree with people on that) I have a lvl 80 Guardian too, but I had way more difficulty fighting npc’s with my Guardian than with my Ranger I play now.

I’ve tries to look up the “leaked” balance patch notes, but how much will this patch do to the Ranger? Is it a positive patch or a “nerf” patch “yet again”?

Thanks!

Sypher.5203:

I know this topic has been here hundreds of times, but I really don’t understand what’s wrong with the Ranger. I am having a blast playing with my Norn Ranger. Using the longbow with sword/warhorn, I shoot and slash my way through multiple dredge, bandits etc. at the time, occasionally with a veteran equall to my level. Mostly the fights never take longer then a minute with a victory for me and with very little health loss.

Yes, I know, the class is not perfect. The pet’s AI is stupid (I wpuld say basic) as hell and I wished I could control them more apart from charging and retreating. I think the Ranger is by far the easiest class to play PvE with as you can use your pet to suck up all the damage. I am sometimes still astonished by the amount of damage my bear can take until it “finally” retreats. I also wished the Ranger had some more, I don’t know, “Ranginess”. Where is herbalism or something else? That is what makes a ranger a ranger. Being able to use different kinds of arrows would be awesome (but I think pretty OP too).

My brother who played an Asuran Ranger as his first character is now also a Ranger hater. He says: “Rangers cannot do a thing right, you always have to go to the extremes like a bunker build signet master or a beserker’s glass cannon to be able to contribute something to a Zerg in WvW. And even then Rangers do not excel in what they specialise in as their pets have to do damage too.” I totally disagree and I think with the experiences I’ve had so far the Ranger is one of the most versatile classes in GW2. I would like to hear earnest opinions about your views about the Ranger.

I see a lot of complaining on the forums, yet I see plenty of Rangers roaming Tyria tearing up the NPC’s and other players in WvW. If there is so much wrong about the Ranger, why do people still play them? The Ranger is propably not the best class in GW2 (I agree with people on that) I have a lvl 80 Guardian too, but I had way more difficulty fighting npc’s with my Guardian than with my Ranger I play now.

I’ve tries to look up the “leaked” balance patch notes, but how much will this patch do to the Ranger? Is it a positive patch or a “nerf” patch “yet again”?

Thanks!

I use my ranger often in WvW and in PVE (not dungeons thou that is where my warrior comes in since he is better equipped for my dungeon play style). My ranger is not weak nor did I have to go to extremes for him to be useful. I see often on these forms about the ease of thieves killing rangers, but I have yet to see that happen yet with 600hrs of playing my ranger. My ranger is even pretty good at SPvP compared to my warrior. The only thing I dislike about my ranger is the general lack of condition removal. I would like to see more then 1 signet that is able to remove conditions.

Until they do something about pets standing in AoEs until dead, its essentially IMPOSSIBLE to have a patch Rangers will be happy with. Anything positive just looks like a cheap bandage while you have that gapping mortal wound in the gut of the class.

At this point I think its just mule-headed pride that they won’t even consider the tested, proven WoW solution of AI-stupid pets/NPCs having some degree of automatic mitigation against AoEs.

One of the biggest problems is our pets and their susceptibility to death. No other class in the game can have their entire class mechanic, and 20-40% of their damage output, disabled for a full minute.

Well, for me it’s more about the players who still play rangers atm.
Because, it seems, all the people who like to optimize builds and do their best switched to war\guard\mes long time ago. And now like 95% of rangers are those horrible bearbow rangers, who are next to useless in a dungeon.
I keep hearing about useful rangers, with swords and buffs and stuff like that. But in reality all I see in dungeon pugs is same old longbow+bear in tanky gear spamming #1 in far end of the room.

Longbow + sword/warhorn is a very satisfying weapon set up. Maybe not enough have tried it :p

Nike.2631:

Until they do something about pets standing in AoEs until dead, its essentially IMPOSSIBLE to have a patch Rangers will be happy with. Anything positive just looks like a cheap bandage while you have that gapping mortal wound in the gut of the class.

At this point I think its just mule-headed pride that they won’t even consider the tested, proven WoW solution of AI-stupid pets/NPCs having some degree of automatic mitigation against AoEs.

Dude why are you leaving your pet in the AOE? You must be smart about it and control your pet rather then expect AI to do everything for you. Use your commands to push and pull your pet to the enemy rather than just letting him attack on his own. Be skillful with your pet rather then be an unskilled ranger.

@Nike I agree, I always have to look out if my pet gets into a AoE so I can press F3 on the right time. But it’s a real pain in the a** when I and my pet are seperated. I cannot always watch my pet when I duel with a veteran.

@Isslair & Kilger Luckily I am not one of those 95% then. I use my longbow to unleash barrage and my rapid shot (sometimes using the point blank shot to interreupt a skill) and then I switch to my sword/warhorn using Zephyr’s Quickness, Call of the Wild and the Eagle thingy (don’t know the name sorry) to unleash some dps. The only downside of the sword is the semi-root of the auto attack, but that’s just some getting used too.

Dude, I don’t leave it in AoE, but its as unresponsive as a pig (sometimes literally ).

And funny thing – most of the time I need to micromanage the porcine wonder that’s also the exact moment I need to be taking personal action to avoid annihilation.

If it were as easy as you claim, there wouldn’t be 1.3 bajillion threads saying, “ANet, what is wrong with your brains?” on the topic of pet vulnerability and bad AI in a world of dodge-or-die everything.

Nike.2631:

Dude, I don’t leave it in AoE, but its as unresponsive as a pig (sometimes literally ).

And funny thing – most of the time I need to micromanage the porcine wonder that’s also the exact moment I need to be taking personal action to avoid annihilation.

If it were as easy as you claim, there wouldn’t be 1.3 bajillion threads saying, “ANet, what is wrong with your brains?” on the topic of pet vulnerability and bad AI in a world of dodge-or-die everything.

I have yet to have a problem controlling my pet. Mind you I have a mouse that allows me direct control over my pet while I am multitasking. In all the bad AI forums that I have read they are not talking about the AI rather the animations of pets and all animals in GW2 for that matter. AI is different from animations, but people are having a hard time figuring that out. My pets are never unresponsive unless they are in the middle of an animation but in that regards there is many aspects of the game that if your in the middle of an animation you become unresponsive. Such as a guardian using #3 on the sword can not even dodge or move while in animation. All animals share that same characteristic (including enemy ones). It was a design choice that Anet has shown for the last year that they will never change for performance reasons and other reasons.

I am level 58 right now with my ranger. For the people who want to know, this is the build I am working to. What do you guys think?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNBjYDbkoKyuySxi1SAsesXf/1FwZcIjuCoeyKuiK-jgyAYLBZaEERAmKAk8EETfKrF3ioxqXw0lER1ejioVDA-e

Suddenflame.2601:

Dude why are you leaving your pet in the AOE? You must be smart about it and control your pet rather then expect AI to do everything for you. Use your commands to push and pull your pet to the enemy rather than just letting him attack on his own. Be skillful with your pet rather then be an unskilled ranger.

sometimes it is impossible to avoid aoe… like in pve mega events (ex. teq, temples, other dragons…) or wvw zergs. You as a player can dodge the aoe. even if you put your pet on passive following you around they still die because they can’t dodge those hits. So dont say “you must be smart about it”.

onto topic, yes rangers get a lot of hate. I still love my ranger though. I do get rude comments many times about my class, and being judge just because I play this class. but I don’t care. >.>’

It’s not hate, it’s disappointment. At least for the Ranger players. The hate is mostly from very high strung (commonly read as ‘elitist’) group organizers who have been trained by the behavior of the game itself to expect sub-par contribution from Rangers in any situation other than sPvP.

Well ya I agree about the elitists. For example, on reddit.com/r/guildwars2 there’s a thread on the fastest professions and ranger was barely brought up. Ranger is never ever taken seriously. I mean, Brazil recently wrote that in theory ranger would make their speed runs faster but at the end of the day “it’s too hard to play and no one has a geared ranger they enjoy playing”. @ _ @ some “pros” they are

You can even see it on this forum. Plenty of people will post to threads that are negative or solicit complaints. Much fewer posts for people posting on build or other constructive things.

I agree about the pet mechanic problem, but we’ve had enough posts about them. I miss the posts about builds, gameplay and tactics.

Bredin.5368:

You can even see it on this forum. Plenty of people will post to threads that are negative or solicit complaints. Much fewer posts for people posting on build or other constructive things.

I agree about the pet mechanic problem, but we’ve had enough posts about them. I miss the posts about builds, gameplay and tactics.

Well the main problem with the posting is that the game has been stagnant since April. By that I mean that nothing has really changed for rangers functionality wise. The things that have are immediately addressed, and so the only thing left to post about seems to be ranger vs new content.

13 days away from a potential creativity/constructive thread abundance. Potential, not guaranteed.

Since you asked, us Engineers stole your herbalism.

Don’t ask why we got magic potions.

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

Depends on where you are talking about. Objectively good in PvP and roaming WvW, yes, but I’d only call rangers ‘barely and grudgingly acceptable’ in late-game PvE and zerg WvW.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

Uh, if we’re only evaluating the top 1% of the players of a class… I’m thinking the top 1% of necro, thief, warrior, or guard will outperform/eat that 1% of Rangers alive in most play modes. The top 1 percentile arch-masters of the more clearly integrated builds those classes have to offer are scary, scary people.

Nike.2631:

It’s not hate, it’s disappointment. At least for the Ranger players. The hate is mostly from very high strung (commonly read as ‘elitist’) group organizers who have been trained by the behavior of the game itself to expect sub-par contribution from Rangers in any situation other than sPvP.

To be fair, it’s not the game’s fault that people can be jerks. The game doesn’t inherently cater to jerks, but jerks will be jerks regardless. The game doesn’t tell us that Rangers must slow down progress-that’s the common jerk, elitist reaction, which is often uninformed and based on youtube “metas” rather than true intelligence (plus not all groups must play to finish things ASAP.)

If anything, we should be disappointed at that small pocket of the community who wouldn’t have a Ranger on their groups (don’t feel badly, though-good riddance) rather than the Ranger Profession itself.

I myself am not disappointed except I know it CAN and should be improved for PvE. Many encounters don’t take the Ranger’s pet into consideration, which is a shame-it’s not prepared to deal with heavy burst damage that it won’t (of course) dodge. I also wish there were more options for group support, though the ones we already have are indeed nice-enough to not make Rangers “essential”, but at least feel welcome in groups, rather than ignorantly ostracized.

(Necromancers are often frowned upon too on PvE, and it’s equally stupid.)

(It is also worth to be noted that not all people who play “efficiently” are jerks, however common such social illness is in those circles.)

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

But isn’t it wrong to do this? “Ranger! must be a bad player!” I don’t think the behavior is justified, especially because most people don’t necessarily play Rangers, and there are bound to be more “bad players” playing the more popular Professions going by sheer percentage numbers. Granted, a Warrior would be a more forgiving Profession to not play as skillfully, but I generally don’t assume “great player!” when I see a Guardian/Mesmer/Warrior on a group-everybody has a chance to prove themselves, as well they should have that opportunity.

Play the ranger out of pve, learn and play other clases, you will realize everything by yourself

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

One of the dumbest comments I’ve seen. Why would Ranger players be worse than those that play any other class, on average? Most play multiple classes anyway. Bad players are bad, good players are good, irrespective of class.

DaveG.4253:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

One of the dumbest comments I’ve seen. Why would Ranger players be worse than those that play any other class, on average? Most play multiple classes anyway. Bad players are bad, good players are good, irrespective of class.

Certain classes/themes/play-styles attract certain mindsets of players.

Population and quality is not spread equally among the classes. You can even find divides across specs inside the same class.

This has been true in like, every single class based game going back to the tabletop.

1. ranger’s longbow, rapid fire takes too long to deal the full damage and is easily dodge/out of range at max range.
2. Pet AI is crap. Dies too easily and bad pathing, delay of skills(F2).
3. Sword 1 is kitten with that self immobilize problem.
4. Survivorbility is actually crap compared to other classes unless your running some healing build. But this might just be my own opinion.

Overthrust.2659:

Play the ranger out of pve, learn and play other clases, you will realize everything by yourself

Chopps.5047:

Ranger is never ever taken seriously. I mean, Brazil recently wrote that in theory ranger would make their speed runs faster but at the end of the day “it’s too hard to play and no one has a geared ranger they enjoy playing”. @ _ @ some “pros” they are

Ranger DO are useful in DGs when specced/played properly.

Which leads to issue n°1 with rangers – as Guang said too:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

Ranger players.

I swear, across 12 months i’ve encountered maybe twice a not – bearbow ranger “Ima ranger pet tanks i snipe from the outer space with longbow!”. Simply, most players are attached too much to an archetype of ranger which on Gw2 simply doesn’t work.
Not flaming a entire profession subforum, but most rangers i’ve met had that mindset (plus the “i play how i want” when you point them to a better build).

When instead you come across a Zerker Sword + Jaguar, Spotter+Frost Spirit Ranger, you’ll notice that he’s actually useful. But, as Brazil itself said – issue n°2: pacing of weapons and QoL of their skills are way off.
Aka: Sword auto is a major pita to use, most players can’t get them to play it thus drop the ranger’s most powerful set.

Finally: DPS relies too much on pet. Simple as it is. I see the thing “It’s Ranger it’s their main mechanic so it has to be important” but losing half or more of your dmg due to the crappiest AI i’ve ever seen just makes Rangers unwanted. You can’t setup pet standard reactions (FFXII Gambit, anyone?), they have no protection from random aoe, and you can’t make them dodge – and we all know that gw2 survivability in DGs is all down to that.

So, either massively improve pet management and survivability, at least for pve, or shift the balance of DPS source between pet and ranger. Or whatever.

Pets:
They simply do not work properly in this game. They have stupid AI and are built around damage soaking, in a game where damage avoidance is paramount. Their utility is also very limited

Weapons:
The bows simply lack utility and do not have that much damage output.
The 1-hand sword deals good damage, but has a very awkward autoattack.
The greatsword also has awkward animations and deals low damage.
The axe is basically only good against exactly 2 enemies.

Traits are all over the place

VIVorcha.7853:

Since you asked, us Engineers stole your herbalism.

Don’t ask why we got magic potions.

Psst… it’s booze.

Players tend to ‘hate’ rangers because there are A LOT bad rangers. People going with glass cannon builds in WvW, die from a thief in seconds and cry on forum. Or going with Longbow in dungeons with bad traits.

I would say that ranger requires some skill and thinking to be played well.

For example in one hand you have those who believe that they can’t do anything solo in wvw, and on the other hand you have rangers roaming solo, charging in 5 man groups, getting a kill and run away with all the weapon utillity.

It is how dungeons and WvW works . It is not about damage mitigation but damage avoidance and pets simply do not have a way to fully avoid being hit . Even if you are not losing your pet in dungeons, if it is moving back and forth when you micro manage it it is not doing damage and even if it is doing damage , most of it is single target .

Long bow does a good amount of damage. With rapid shot im hitting well over 2.4k dps sustained. I actually prefer sword but I’m finding it too good not to use, since i dont have to worry about cc and the need to heal interrupting my damage output.

DaveG.4253:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

One of the dumbest comments I’ve seen. Why would Ranger players be worse than those that play any other class, on average? Most play multiple classes anyway. Bad players are bad, good players are good, irrespective of class.

Guanglai is correct. Ranger has very few viable builds. If you build wrong you stand zero chance. Other professions are more forgiving. This makes most rangers just awful in practice.

Chopps.5047:

DaveG.4253:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rangers themselves are good, objectively speaking. It’s just that 99% of rangers are garbage and do literally everything wrong, so no one wants to take their chances with them.

One of the dumbest comments I’ve seen. Why would Ranger players be worse than those that play any other class, on average? Most play multiple classes anyway. Bad players are bad, good players are good, irrespective of class.

Guanglai is correct. Ranger has very few viable builds. If you build wrong you stand zero chance. Other professions are more forgiving. This makes most rangers just awful in practice.

Sorry can’t agree. Or let me clarify – I agree with what you say about Rangers and builds. It does take a bit of work to make a decent one, even before you factor in peoples individual skill (or lack of it). For sure a bad player, playing what is generally perceived as a somewhat lacklustre class, without thought, will surely be a liability. Fair enough, you at least make an argument in support of your view.

But a blanket statement that Rangers are actually good but 99% of us (obviously not Guanglai himself) are garbage is just stunningly arrogant. Think about it.. for some reason 99 out of 100 people who are attracted to this class (but not other classes apparently) are just too stupid to think about their builds? Really?

If other professions are more forgiving of less than perfection, then that probably says more about class design than the player.

Guang may have exaggerated, but he has a point, and AndrewSX said it: Most ranger are bad because of their “I pewpew; pet tanks” mindset. That lazy style may get them through Overworld PvE, but it will not prepare them for dungeons. Yes pets are underachieving in dungeons, but if these Bearbow Rangers aren’t going to adapt, then they shouldn’t whine when they are kicked from groups.

lmaogg.7325:

1. ranger’s longbow, rapid fire takes too long to deal the full damage and is easily dodge/out of range at max range.
2. Pet AI is crap. Dies too easily and bad pathing, delay of skills(F2).
3. Sword 1 is kitten with that self immobilize problem.
4. Survivorbility is actually crap compared to other classes unless your running some healing build. But this might just be my own opinion.

and

Hellmood.2097:

Pets:
They simply do not work properly in this game. They have stupid AI and are built around damage soaking, in a game where damage avoidance is paramount. Their utility is also very limited

Weapons:
The bows simply lack utility and do not have that much damage output.
The 1-hand sword deals good damage, but has a very awkward autoattack.
The greatsword also has awkward animations and deals low damage.
The axe is basically only good against exactly 2 enemies.

Traits are all over the place

1. Actually, I find the longbow rapid fire excellent, especially for tracking targets into stealth. Longbow utility is fantastic, with knockback, stealth and two attacks that can hit stealthed players. I agree the SB lacks utility.
2. Agree 100%!
3. Sword 1 is fantastic in WvW—allows you to stick on an enemy and burn them down. Just don’t spam Sword 1 and time your dodges
4. You can have extraordinary survivability with 0 healing, if you build high toughness and build for evasion.

Sarision.6347:

Guang may have exaggerated, but he has a point, and AndrewSX said it: Most ranger are bad because of their “I pewpew; pet tanks” mindset. That lazy style may get them through Overworld PvE, but it will not prepare them for dungeons. Yes pets are underachieving in dungeons, but if these Bearbow Rangers aren’t going to adapt, then they shouldn’t whine when they are kicked from groups.

I actually think 99% is a generous number. I’ve run with way more than 100 pug rangers and:

1) I’ve never seen a single one use sword.
2) ONE used a greatsword but he had a bear pet.
3) ONE used Spotter but he was at LB range.
4) A few use drakes and canines but I never see felines or moas.
5) ONE used Frost Spirit but only after I told him to swap Sun Spirit for it.

Which means I can literally say I’ve never seen a ranger with a proper spec, and I’m being lenient insofar as the only thing I’m looking for is:

1) Sword or greatsword.
2) Feline or moa pet.
3) Spotter and Frost Spirit.

That’s like if you’d been playing this game for over a year and you never once saw a single axe or GS warrior using banners and Empower Allies. You’d think warriors were crap too.

I love my ranger. I love the idea of the ranger class. But ranger is frustrating.

Don’t get me wrong, farming Orr Temples with my Ranger is a blast. Doing easy stuff with my ranger is a blast. But trying to do dungeon runs or more difficult content is frustrating. My DPS just pales in comparison to every other class I play, and it’s not like I have a ton of survivability to make up for it. The profession is just weak across the board.

But the worst part if no one wants rangers in their party for anything. It’s a shame and unfortunately isn’t going to change until we can contribute competitive DPS.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I actually think 99% is a generous number. I’ve run with way more than 100 pug rangers and:

1) I’ve never seen a single one use sword.
2) ONE used a greatsword but he had a bear pet.
3) ONE used Spotter but he was at LB range.
4) A few use drakes and canines but I never see felines or moas.
5) ONE used Frost Spirit but only after I told him to swap Sun Spirit for it.

Which means I can literally say I’ve never seen a ranger with a proper spec, and I’m being lenient insofar as the only thing I’m looking for is:

1) Sword or greatsword.
2) Feline or moa pet.
3) Spotter and Frost Spirit.

That’s like if you’d been playing this game for over a year and you never once saw a single axe or GS warrior using banners and Empower Allies. You’d think warriors were crap too.

Kinda interesting that your experience is so very different to mine, don’t know what server you play on or what content you are doing, but grouping with over a hundred players who are all clueless sounds like one hell of a losing streak. Me, I mostly WvW (actually exclusively these days) & what I see is a bit different. For instance swords & great swords are not at all unusual, alongside bows. Felines, dogs, drakes, wolves, spiders probably outnumber bears. Moas I don’t see so much despite the heals/buffs, they can bring. Maybe people reckon they don’t bring enough to make the difference & for larger group fights I’d have to agree. No pet is a whole lot of use against a zerg. Spirits almost never used, for similar reasons, though I have seen a few. Spotter, though I couldn’t honestly say it’s commonplace isn’t that unusual either. You also see plenty of roamers, bunker/regen builds, condi/trap builds, glass builds are generally frowned upon.

I would grant that the much disliked (so it seems) bear/bow Ranger does exist, in large numbers too, but virtually all? No way. Maybe dungeons are a bit different, possibly more frequented by the more casual/inexperienced player just after some nice loot? (you mentioned 100+ “pugs”. in other games I’ve played thats always been çonsidered asking for failure). I’m only guessing, I have no real idea abt GW2 dungeons as I don’t do them.

My point is, in the area of the game I spend the most time, I do see plenty of people trying to make something of this class, there are good Rangers out there. Maybe not the majority, but we are not 99% garbage. Whether the class itself is any good is another thing, and probably what we should be discussing.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

That’s like if you’d been playing this game for over a year and you never once saw a single axe or GS warrior using banners and Empower Allies. You’d think warriors were crap too.

I’ve played since launch and I have every class at 80 and frequently run dungeons on my guardian, elementalist, ranger and warrior. I can tell you now, sword ranger is one of the worst experiences GW2 has to offer. The control issues that weapon has are simply not worth the DPS. Sword main hand is awful. I can do the same DPS or better on a warrior without any of the frustration of the sword auto attack. Warrior great sword hits big numbers and it has a build in evade which also repositions you and has you play the angle game against a wall for maximum DPS (rangers play the dodge cycle game to be aware of when they can and can’t dodge and the attack cancel game to brute force the game to let them dodge). Frost spirit is useful because it provides a unique buff but when you consider that it’s another thing you need to micro (proper positioning so it doesn’t get killed but still close enough that you get the benefit and if the boss does a target all allies attack you can kiss it goodbye) compared to the drop when necessary nature of banners (which also have blast finishers and active skills people occasionally use) the spirit skills just feel bad. I can half agree with Spotter simply because Empower Allies was nerfed (it’s no longer 10 points – it’s still flat out always useful, precision often won’t help as much as power, especially in a pug) but Spotter still has issues in that it forces you to choose between a signet build and piercing arrows. If you don’t care about your bow’s ability to hit more than one target at a time or you don’t run signets then it’s fine, but spotter is in a somewhat dense area when it comes to build defining traits. Warrior axe, greatsword and banner builds play very well. The weapon skills were well designed and work fantastically in PvE. They are responsive to control and have few issues specific to their design which creates constant frustration in dungeons. They have a low skill cap to play well at a basic level and they have added complexity to push their performance to higher levels (look at any of Wethospu’s videos where he solos a lot of content with a greatsword). The greatsword, axe and banners are all designed far better than the ranger’s main hand sword and spirits. Players don’t run sword rangers with spirits not because they are bad players but because those mechanics are poorly designed for PvE.

All of that is after you’ve accepted what is probably the worst designed class mechanic in the game. Pet issues in dungeons aren’t as bad as they were 12 months ago (they aren’t a lot better either) and rangers have been trained by the game to accept dead pets, DPS loss from standby pets or to bring ranged pets. When you play any other class, you don’t have the frustration of micro managing your class mechanic so that it will be alive five seconds from now, you don’t have the frustration of knowing that a good chunk of fights it’s simply going to die unless you make drastic compromises and even then it’s not always possible (unless you choose minion build). A lot of times it will even make content harder. When boss mobs use AoEs that target all allies and punish players which are near others by hitting them with both AoEs, pets add an additional AoE for the pet. Not only will the pet not dodge the AoE, if the ranger fails to dodge (admittedly they are playing imperfectly) they are hit by both their own AoE and their pet’s (assuming they are in the same spot at the same time) which essentially doubles the price of failure that rangers pay.

A lot of ranger issues in PvE come down to class design, not player skill.

If you can’t handle spirit placement and clicking traits/skills that aren’t healshout or Hundred Blades, that is my definition of a bad player.

Hence, most rangers are bad.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

If you can’t handle spirit placement and clicking traits/skills that aren’t healshout or Hundred Blades, that is my definition of a bad player.

Hence, most rangers are bad.

Oh you think Rangers are bad, you haven’t seen most of the parties I’ve been in for dungeons. Numerous warriors who can’t DPS worth crap or buff the party, Guardians who go full DPS and never use their F abilities nor know how to dodge, etc. I’ve seen far worse from the ‘l33t’ classes than I have from other Rangers, and I haven’t seen a bow/bear Ranger in over 5 months now in dungeons. What makes those warriors and guardians worse than any other class I’ve seen is that they are so shocked when the ‘easymode’ moves that worked in general PvE won’t work for dungeons. Face it, it’s just based on a ton of factors that randomize the process, and just because you’ve seen only those doesn’t make it that true. Most Rangers I see in dungeons don’t even touch the LB or bears.

Bredin.5368:

1. Actually, I find the longbow rapid fire excellent, especially for tracking targets into stealth. Longbow utility is fantastic, with knockback, stealth and two attacks that can hit stealthed players. I agree the SB lacks utility.
2. Agree 100%!
3. Sword 1 is fantastic in WvW—allows you to stick on an enemy and burn them down. Just don’t spam Sword 1 and time your dodges
4. You can have extraordinary survivability with 0 healing, if you build high toughness and build for evasion.

I agree with the stealth tracking, but from what i experience, the bad thing bout LB is long range shot forces us to dps at max range, but rapid fire is better at mid distance/chasing. And good players will normally dodge rapid fire which really kills the overall damage output, not to mention smart ones even use reflections which force us to cancel rapid fire.
Sword is good on picking on target im aware, but i dont like to limit myself to just that particular viable setup for classes. Overall ranger seriously need some love, but none so far.. can only pray anet finally stop trolling rangers and giving us redundant buffs/random nerfs.

Ok there are a lot of opinions in this thread but I am going to give you the facts in a concise form.

Weapons:

1) Ranger LB does too little or inconsistent damage at range. Most people believe it should have a good burst ability.

2) Ranger Sword 1 has a Leap ability on the Auto Attack chain that is not interruptable by any other abilities. This leads to the weapon seeming clunky unless you are toggling off autoattack which lowers your DPS. People believe that the built in evades in Sword are not fluid because of this. Plus if you drop target you can go flying all kinds of places.

3) Shortbow – Range too short, bleed on crossfire is positional and short.

Skills/Traits

1) Unlike any other class to access the actives of our signet we have to trait for it. Not just trait for it, it’s a Grandmaster Trait in a a tree with 3 Darn good Master traits.

2) The Crit Tree line is completely and Totally garbage. Besides the 10% damage while flanking and 20% CD to SB and LB. The other abilities are too pet centric, which is a problem for later.

3) Pets are our class mechanic, it should be incorporated into our class. However, it feels like the pet is shoved down your throat when looking at the skill trees. Too many pet abilities, not enough abilities based on the player.

4) The Pet focused tree is utter garbage. Sorry, this is an opinion but I think it’s a common one.

Pets

1) Most of the pets stop to Autoattack. This is infuriating because in PvP or WvW all someone has to do to eliminate up to 30% of your damage and also make your class ability (F2) completely worthless is move around., which they already will be doing.

2) F2 Abilities are clunky. The pet should stop whatever it’s doing and do the F2 ability, period. No other class has to wait for their F2 ability to respond to them. It takes the immersion out of the class and reminds you your pet is worthless AI.

3) Pets don’t make an effort to avoid AoE, they cannot dodge, and often get 1-2 shot in large boss encounters. This completely gimps the ranger as we are balanced around our pet.

4) Activated abilities from pets (F2) do not prioritize the Ranger, and their range is exceptionally short (600). If I am attacking at max range LB, I should still be able to benefit from my class mechanic.

There are a lot of good aspects about ranger, but there are also a lot of things that NEED to be addressed. Not just damage numbers, but things that completely destroy the class due to bad mechanics. That said, I love my Ranger, and I play him almost exclusively. It’s not a terrible class, it just needs improvement.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

If you can’t handle spirit placement and clicking traits/skills that aren’t healshout or Hundred Blades, that is my definition of a bad player.

Hence, most rangers are bad.

Oh you think Rangers are bad, you haven’t seen most of the parties I’ve been in for dungeons. Numerous warriors who can’t DPS worth crap or buff the party, Guardians who go full DPS and never use their F abilities nor know how to dodge, etc. I’ve seen far worse from the ‘l33t’ classes than I have from other Rangers, and I haven’t seen a bow/bear Ranger in over 5 months now in dungeons. What makes those warriors and guardians worse than any other class I’ve seen is that they are so shocked when the ‘easymode’ moves that worked in general PvE won’t work for dungeons. Face it, it’s just based on a ton of factors that randomize the process, and just because you’ve seen only those doesn’t make it that true. Most Rangers I see in dungeons don’t even touch the LB or bears.

Please tell me where you find your parties. I have seen bad players for all classes but the ranger crowd is objectively the worst.

I just did a COF2 run today (jumped into a group that was failing on the defend Magg portion) and there was one bearbow ranger who was basically being useless so I asked him to switch to DPS. He basically went “huh I am ranger i spam cripple not dps” and when I told him to just use GS or sword he told me it was impossible. And maintained that it was impossible even after I switched to my ranger and basically soloed all the assassins while he watched from the back.

The reality is that most players take the easy route and with no way to measure one’s contribution, paired with the “I play how I want” mentality, makes at times dungeon runs undoable or extremely painful.
The ranger class is good enough to do the PvE content currently in game, it may suck for some of the content, but in the end it’s a burden on the player to perform adequately, not just the class.

I play ranger, thief, warrior, mesmer, in dungeons, building up an engineer because it’s a load of fun and it can be very effective. From my experience (and I date my MMO experience back to 1999) ranger is not top of the line, but it’s a good class to have along. Of course the difference between a ranger that stacks 25 mights on his pet at the start of a fight charging in with s/w and a shortbow ranger with a bear pet is quite large, as it should be, pretty much like a GS only warrior that misses half of the times with 100b and an a/m + gs warrior that does a proper rotation.

I’m not one to tell people how they have to play, but after I give them a bit of time to figure out things, if stuff doesn’t die, I say my thanks and take my leave. I can fail for a dozen minutes, because in a way, having a less than stellar group can be fun as well, but not wiping for more than half an hour without even the hint of progress in understanding what’s going on.

In short: I like playing ranger, if I’m given a fair chance, people are usually happy to have me around, I bring nice stuff, such as my frost spirit, my healing spring to help melee people with health and conditions, my good dps and a couple good buffs as well. When required I can have stability for an eternity and a half.
It’s not a perfect class, but as soon as pets will take 90% reduced damage from AE attacks (it’ll happen sooner or later, even Blizzard had to suck it up), it’ll be almost there.

Oh, while I just dabble in the non PvE content, bunker rangers seem good at sPvP/WvW.

I’ve created a ranger just to gear and build it properly and go make pugs jaws drop.

Sucks i’m not finished with it yet, and i’m still bad at sword.

To add to guanglai’s comments, every time I see a ranger in a dungeon PUG I politely ask if they’re running spotter and vigorous spirits and a spirit. Few know what spotter is and even fewer know that only one instance of spotter counts in the group. Almost all rangers I see in dungeons use longbow, while it has it’s uses in dungeon, really shouldn’t be a primary weapon by any means. I love using 3 spirits in the underwater fractal. They really make a HUGE difference there.

Does any other ranger do this? Doubtful. Rangers are so down on themselves seem unable to look at the builds that do work. They’re always forcing things. They’re forcing the wrong pets and the wrong weapon for the situation too often. Then, when they try sword and die, they blame it on the sword instead of learning how to play with it.

Like I’ve always said: on paper ranger is easy to play. At first glance it’s easy. But it has all these quirks that add up to make it the hardest profession to play well.

If you’re a new player roll a guardian or warrior. The skill floor is much lower. To me, warrior is a LCD type profession.

You have no clue why people think Rangers are bad? Have you never played any other class besides the Ranger?

-Dps absolutely sucks compared to other classes.
-Pet AI sucks and pets get in the way more often than they are helpful.
-Anet made the longbow suck majorly, and now I get kicked from parties every time I use it.
-You only have a few viable builds. The rest are broken.

Before you post a comment about how I have never played a Ranger or I need to learn how to play, let me say this. I’ve played a Ranger since the beginning of Guild Wars 1. I learned the mechanics then, and it was pretty decent. Then I came to Guild Wars 2 and created a Ranger. I played it to level 80 and I still play it today, but only in PvP, because Anet utterly roflstomped the class into the ground for PvE. Trust me, I know how to build classes, and I saw a broken, completely destroyed class when I tried to do well with it like I did in GW1.