Guild Wars 2

I’m honestly curious why most people chose to play a Ranger? Especially the folks who are complaining about how the shortbow changes have ruined all the fun of their class. Did you really level to 80 only using a shortbow and despising your pet, traps, and everything else the entire way? The only joy you got from the Ranger class was from auto-attacking with a shortbow?

I had no desire to play a Ranger until one of the last couple of BWEs when I decided to try the Ranger class, since I hadn’t played one up to that point. I had been set on playing a Warrior, but once I played Ranger for a while and experience the versatility the class had to offer, I was done with Warrior.

Thinking that it will be mainly a ranged class with a pet as a shield. I’m not complaining about the bows as I have been using both from the start. I still find the current playstyle fun, regardless of the patch. I’m ok with the fact that I may not deal the best dmg in a fight, even though at first this was what I thought the class was meant to do.

I wanted to pvp and don’t want to roll a press 1 2 button win thief or mesmer

I chose ranger because for me it was the only logical choice for my race (sylvari). You know... being the nature guy... from the nature people... and so on. Also, I liked the idea of having a profession using a bow (I’ve always had something for bows... *-*) to the same effect others use rifle/pistol.

I guess on the way to 80 I’ve tried pretty much most of what the ranger has to offer - signets, traps, nature spirits. The only thing I haven’t played was a pure beastmaster since my pet was quickly really kittening me off. It got a little better after switching to spiders, but the pets are still much to wonky to try to base a full build off of them.

TL;DR: I liked the flavor of the ranger, so kitten me, right?!

Yes I leveled to 80 using only a shortbow. All other weapons suck big time so it’s not like I had an alternative. And I tried them so don’t waste your time trying to convince me that some of them are actually worth something. About auto-attacking same answer, no real alternative since the shortbow skills are basically useless. So of course yes that inept nerf totally ruined my game, it took away the fun I was having with my ranger. All that time and gold invested in that character, it was for nothing.

I play a ranger for bow and pet.

Auto-attack, why is it beeing used so much with shortbow? Let’s look at the other skills and how/when I use them.

2. Poison Volley: I use it, mostly, as soon it’s off CD. When it’s off CD I go hug the mob, if possible, and shoot it to get most out of the skill.

3. Quick Shot: When I don’t have enough endurance to dodge I use QS.

4. Crippling shot: When i’m trying to escape I use Crippling shot on the mob/player that is chasing me. I also use this alot to start a fight, if I know it’s a fast-moving mob/player, mobs tend to run straight for you if you don’t.

5. Concussion Shot: I use this as an interrupt/stun. Which because of it’s positional requirement doesn’t get used that often.

So what are the rest of my skills?

6. Healing Spring: When my pet is low on health, when my team or players helping me are low on health and can use some healing, or when I am low on health.

7. Signet of the Hunt: I use this for it’s passive effect not active effect.

8. Signet of Stone: I use this mainly for it’s passive effect not active effect. But if I see my pet is in danger and might die then I use it for it’s active effect, that doesn’t happen often because I swap pets alot because I have 15 points in Beastmastery. And I also swap pets alot because of Zephyr’s Speed (Which has the same effect as QZ).

9. Quickening Zephyr: To increase DPS temporarily.

10. Rampage as One: I use this often in conjuction with QZ or Zephyr’s Speed (Pet Swap) to increase DPS. I also might use this as a running skill or for stability.

I don’t like trapping because of it’s requirement of other people having to trigger them, which is imho unreliable.

This thread wasn’t really meant to be a mechanics discussion. I was just curious as to why people were leveling up a Ranger, especially the people who profess to have a complete and utter hatred for everything about the class except for shortbow.

nldixon.8514:

This thread wasn’t really meant to be a mechanics discussion. I was just curious as to why people were leveling up a Ranger, especially the people who profess to have a complete and utter hatred for everything about the class except for shortbow.

I know it’s not a mechanics discussion. But i’d rather give a full explanation on my build and how I use it, then just saying why I “hate” the other weapons the ranger has to offer and/or why I “love” Shortbow.

Archery is one of my hobbies and I love my pets. Also I have been playing a Ranger in GW1 for 7 years, mostly with a Recurve Bow.

I think this person’s answer is relevant. They showed what traits they liked on the ranger which pushed them into using the ranger… Most of us liked some of the traits and paired it with the best weapon, the SB.

Because it was a blast to play in Beta and if they would have told us they were going to NERF AFTER beta I would have either a) not play the game or b) started with a thief because its WoW all over gain.

I wanted a break from Thief, and tried Necro. Got tired of pets not attacking and dying to easy, tried Ranger because I wanted a pet class. Should of did Ranger first. Despite the nerfs/bugs I’m having fun.

i like:

-evading
-pets
-nature
-agility

the nature theme has not been executed well in GW2 unfortunately (healing spring being maybe one cool ability), and the pets are a bit of a mess. yet i continue playing because the ranger is the best prof for my “needs”, hoping that ANet will one day fix the prof.

I play(ed) ranger because I also rolled a ranger in GW1, like to play archer/gunner type characters in other games, play a sniper in FPS. I also like the idea of “controlling” to characters in tandem.

Too bad most other classes outdo us at range and pet’s only work 50% of the time.
PvE is still fun outside of the dungeons though. The downside is that I’m a PvP player.

Ranger is always my first choice in almost every game with such a class. I love the bows, pets and “natural style”. With that said, I will still love my ranger in GW2, even if his skills and pets are just meh. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy with whatever unnecessary/unreasonable nerf they put on this profession.

Simply put, my love in the ranger profession and my despise on how it gets nerfed don’t really contradict.

I felt like ranger gave the most variety in options (weapons and builds) and came with a pet. Now that I know we are simply terrible at everything, I’m wishing I rolled a guardian.

I love pets first of all. Second I knew about a rangers versatility and play style. Their ability to be ranged and melee is great and are adaptable in so many situations

Leveling to 80 has been a blast, not because it is easy, but because of the build I can work with all the weapons and it’s skills and the strategie you can use. It’s a ton of fun. U can think tactically use traps, conditions, aoe, pet luring and tricks or go responsive and dps, evasions, blocks, control etc. I always went sword torch and longbow, and was constantly going in and out ranged to melee and back, jumping into fire combos, dodging around targets etc etc. a ton of strategies you can use

Recently I’ve been going dual sets, pure melee for most time, great sword and sword torch is just so much fun. In fact going melee gives me more survivability than trying to kite mobs. It has so much damage and aoe i clear out alot of targets before I am at risk. I also try going melee with champs and surprisingly works well. In my build my qz + greatsword has the approx same dps as warriors hundred blades. For harder bosses I go dual bow and keep my distance and kite.

From experience my builds and ranger skills and the fact that we are two targets have always kept me alive as the longest standing in the field whether it’s dungeons , champs or swarms. I don’t trait pets. I never needed to, they survive very well on their own and deal a lot of damage and are relatively fast. I swap them if they’re in danger and I don’t need to heal myself either.

Overall I’ve played other classes and so forth but ranger fits my style and is so versatile as I originally thought.

If you saw some of what I described there’s no way it’s not fun with ranger. Spice it up with tricks and skills whatever u feel like. Qz, protect me, entangle, etc and great weapon skills

Sb nerf has nothing on me xD since I don’t use it too much and I only use it if I need to keep distance and deliver steady damage so it’s not about dps at that point

Honestly I don’t think as rangers we should keep pew pewing only there’s a ton of other great and effective things you can do and emerge out stronger and better than u would be just auto attack on sb…

Because I like ranged classes and I didn’t think they were going to screw them up like they did in GW1… I hate being wrong.