Guild Wars 2

As the topic title implies.
I play as a Ranger in every game that offers this class and is the only character I play because of dexterity issues, but, almost every time I turn around this class is continually hit with the nerf bat. Ranger(absolutely horrid in WvW, PvE and only mediocre in sPvP) is the #1 worst class to play next to the Warrior(at least this class is only lacking in WvW and sPvP).
Why does ANET, and it appears most of the community hate the Ranger so much?

Ranger is not lacking in sPvP. I found it interesting in the SotG last night though that Jonathan doesn’t seem to want to consider adding a toggle for pet control for Rangers of higher skill level. Jonathan: We get that you don’t want to raise the floor of the class for people of lesser skill. That isn’t the point. Let them play the Ranger as it is and give those of us with skill that want more out of the class a toggle so that we have total control of our pets. That would be great. Thanks.

sPvP is the only place that the ranger is not lacking in. And that is the problem. They keep only balancing the class around sPvP. Around a point control gametype. A gametype that does not translate at all to either WvW or PvE.

As to why the community hates it? Because we bring less to the table than any other class. Because in order to be useful we need to be much better as players. And players would rather take other classes over us as they are more likely to have less trouble with them.

ive noticed a trend , If its rangers or eles ect. Older people/people with motor skill issues,handicakitten ues. tend to have bigger problems with the classes then most especially because they have to use them in a manner that they can be competent with. This problem is brought to the foreground even more so when a class is already buggy/deficient in some way.

Especially in guild wars2 , where standing in one place and pressing one button isnt a viable option (unless your a thief 2,2,2,2,2)

I think adding a AI toggle for the pets is an amazing idea so less skilled players can use the auto mode while the veteran players have an option to fine tune their pets actions to create greater synergy between ranger and pet.

But after hearing this last SotG its blatantly clear that they only care about Spvp thinking its going to rake in all kinds of money from Esports.

hyjaxxx.1584:

But after hearing this last SotG its blatantly clear that they only care about Spvp thinking its going to rake in all kinds of money from Esports.

That is because this was the sPvP SotG, hyjaxxx, and there is no PvE/WvW SotG.

Why do we need love from Anet when we have Chopps?

SynfulChaot.3169:

hyjaxxx.1584:

But after hearing this last SotG its blatantly clear that they only care about Spvp thinking its going to rake in all kinds of money from Esports.

That is because this was the sPvP SotG, hyjaxxx, and there is no PvE/WvW SotG.

Fair enough point, but the toggle is a great idea that one of the pros brought up that Jonathan just seemed to brush aside. Here is my issue with the logic behind what Jonathan was saying: He said they didn’t want to “…raise the floor of the class too much” by adding full pet control. I get that. Totally valid point. My issue is that they still stand by wanting the pet to be a necessity. For good players that can multi-task, the pet becomes a burden while still being such a big part of the damage that the Ranger does. The trade off doesn’t seem fair. Give us one or the other please. Let us either have a toggle to have full control of our pets or give us the ability to go without a pet and a damage boost without it. Telling us we HAVE to have pets all the time and yet we CAN’T get full control of our pets is more than a little frustrating.

As for things I liked in the stream: Streamlining longbow is awesome. Loved the idea. Just my two cents. Hope it made sense.

Im Mudbone.1437:

As the topic title implies.
I play as a Ranger in every game that offers this class and is the only character I play because of dexterity issues, but, almost every time I turn around this class is continually hit with the nerf bat.

This is the the issue right there.

The ranger in GW2 is NOT the Hunter in WoW.

It is not a slow play in the back class. Even for a toon that is “physically” in the back.

It is a super-fast reaction constantly on your toes changing up weapons, pets, position, utilities and skills class.

This is a James Brown class: hardest working class in the MMO, fall down in a seizure at the end. Papa needs a brand new bag, or papa’s ain’t getting much done.

Some think that’s thief, but thief might as well be AFK compared to how a well played ranger needs to be done.

For the ‘Hefner’ sit in your robe and grin while the win drapes itself on you class… you probably want something else. I’m going to guess a dual pistol elixir engineer – because that’s how mine plays out. But I’m not sure.

Its perfectly fair to expect a class that can be played by people with physical impairments. But don’t assume it is the pet class just because it is the pet class in another MMO.

If you have mobility impairment issues, consider engineer because they really can stand in one spot and fire away and still do pretty well. That play style is not found on ranger class with much success.

Iason Evan.3806:

SynfulChaot.3169:

That is because this was the sPvP SotG, hyjaxxx, and there is no PvE/WvW SotG.

Fair enough point, but the toggle is a great idea that one of the pros brought up that Jonathan just seemed to brush aside. Here is my issue with the logic behind what Jonathan was saying: He said they didn’t want to “…raise the floor of the class too much” by adding full pet control. I get that. Totally valid point. My issue is that they still stand by wanting the pet to be a necessity. For good players that can multi-task, the pet becomes a burden while still being such a big part of the damage that the Ranger does. The trade off doesn’t seem fair. Give us one or the other please. Let us either have a toggle to have full control of our pets or give us the ability to go without a pet and a damage boost without it. Telling us we HAVE to have pets all the time and yet we CAN’T get full control of our pets is more than a little frustrating.

As for things I liked in the stream: Streamlining longbow is awesome. Loved the idea. Just my two cents. Hope it made sense.

Yeah. The direction they’re still taking pets in is worrying. I don’t mind having it be the core class mechanic, but no other class is as directly hobbled by an openly broken class mechanic that seems to have no fix.

As for the longbow? I think all rangers are looking forward to a longbow that is worth taking for a reason other than ’it’s the only 1200 range weapon’. Because that reason is hard to swallow.

rangers using banners/conjurs does more damage than with our weapons(there is videos proving this lol)

GiggleFairy.3807:

rangers using banners/conjurs does more damage than with our weapons(there is videos proving this lol)

I’ve seen said videos. It’s just wrong. And I’ve a feeling that it will get ‘fixed’ by banners paying attention to ranger class damage scaling rather than letting us rangers do more damage.

Kichwas.7152:

Im Mudbone.1437:

As the topic title implies.
I play as a Ranger in every game that offers this class and is the only character I play because of dexterity issues, but, almost every time I turn around this class is continually hit with the nerf bat.

This is the the issue right there.

The ranger in GW2 is NOT the Hunter in WoW.

It is not a slow play in the back class. Even for a toon that is “physically” in the back.

It is a super-fast reaction constantly on your toes changing up weapons, pets, position, utilities and skills class.

This is a James Brown class: hardest working class in the MMO, fall down in a seizure at the end. Papa needs a brand new bag, or papa’s ain’t getting much done.

Some think that’s thief, but thief might as well be AFK compared to how a well played ranger needs to be done.

For the ‘Hefner’ sit in your robe and grin while the win drapes itself on you class… you probably want something else. I’m going to guess a dual pistol elixir engineer – because that’s how mine plays out. But I’m not sure.

Its perfectly fair to expect a class that can be played by people with physical impairments. But don’t assume it is the pet class just because it is the pet class in another MMO.

If you have mobility impairment issues, consider engineer because they really can stand in one spot and fire away and still do pretty well. That play style is not found on ranger class with much success.

WoW’s Hunter actually has way more options and can be played to a level far above what is given to GW2’s ranger. I find it hillarious that you would use the Hunter as comparison to say the the Ranger is harder to master when in fact, the former has 10 times more control/micro-management over their pet while at the same time having 4-5 times the number of skill buttons.

If they’d give the Ranger as much complexity as Wow’s Hunter has, I wouldn’t be playing an Engineer while my ranger sits on the sideline.

I find it strange that while the playerbase is screaming for other pet micromanagement options, the devs seem to think giving us more control makes the profession too hard to play.
Firstly I think it’s harder to play a pet class with a dead pet (or a pet that just has to sit by the sideline because otherwise it’ll die…) because we have little options other than slotting utility skills to keep the pet alive. Also I don’t think anyone specifically requested more options, we just want better options for micromanagement.
Secondly I think a lot of actually want a higher skill ceiling. Short Bow wasn’t exactly state of the art gameplay. It was mindlessly spamming skill 1, just like the Longbow. Only using skill 2-5 as the situation arises.

Then again; the comment on how adding more pet management options raises the skill floor too much for new players; in PvE* when I was leveling my first toon (a Ranger) I hardly ever had to even send my pet in to attack. I started attacking and that’s it. Mob dies a few seconds later. On max level I can even go afk and let the pet attack any mob that tries to kill me. As long as it’s just 1 at a time the pet will manage keeping me alive without any micromanagement at all.

So why be afraid to raise the skill floor above rock bottom?

*I think Anet really needs to remember this is where new players start out. Instead of keeping their tunnel vision of sPvP becoming too hard for new players. It’s not like every build is viable in sPvP; there’s a very structured Metagame, and most deviations from that fail hard. That’s not a friendly environment for new players no matter how you look at it.

There already exists a class for new players, THE WARRIOR .

Don’t forget Thief as well; any “noob” can play it.

Also

The reason Ranger isn’t loved by Arena net in my oppinion; Ranger class addition to the class list was made of out of Frustration and Disgust.

Well ever since Day 1 and t’il this day, we all been feeling them and treated by them.

We all have reasons to feel no love by Arena net

At the end, any chance of Hope becomes taunts.

Pretty much it

Anet loves all of their patrons, come on now. Ranger is quirky but it works. It would be nice to see the community come together and brainstorm instead of writing threads like this. I don’t know if you heard but DnT’s record was broken on Lupicus (post feedback nerf) at just 41 seconds. Yes, I know, no rangers were used but the point is that DnT never saw or used this mesmer build before. I’m sure they’ll be working all day today to crack that nut. It’s relevant because a week ago everyone would have said DnT knows the most about PvE team comps. But they don’t! The point is there’s always more to learn and we should be lifting ourselves up and taking that journey. Don’t write off the profession or assume it’s dead. Instead, how can we do it better?

Do as I did, quit this game and go on to another one. Stop bashing your head against the “please ANet do something” door. Sure I peek in on the patches and forms once every 2 months just to see IF anything has been done. Nothing yet. I’ve been waiting since mid Nov. 2012. Guess it’s high time to finally give up on that as well.

krojack.4920:

Do as I did, quit this game and go on to another one. Stop bashing your head against the “please ANet do something” door. Sure I peek in on the patches and forms once every 2 months just to see IF anything has been done. Nothing yet. I’ve been waiting since mid Nov. 2012. Guess it’s high time to finally give up on that as well.

Based on this post, I will not miss you at all.

To everyone else, I ask you to have more patience. The class will improve and will get better. We just need to wait a while longer for them to fix it. And with how many broken mechanics we have, I can understand why it’s taking them so long.

As I see it, the class was designed around GW1 combat sensibilities. Those do not translate well into GW2. So we are bad by design. They just need to figure out how to fix their mistake. And I, and some of the rest of you I think, will wait as long as it takes them. My ranger will always remain my main. Always.

SynfulChaot.3169:

GiggleFairy.3807:

rangers using banners/conjurs does more damage than with our weapons(there is videos proving this lol)

I’ve seen said videos. It’s just wrong. And I’ve a feeling that it will get ‘fixed’ by banners paying attention to ranger class damage scaling rather than letting us rangers do more damage.

I think this is why they’re having such problems balancing rangers in this game. Anet is looking at the pet and saying, “Extra DPS! Ranger weapon DPS needs to be nerfed to compensate!” Banners and conjures, not being ranger weapons, aren’t nerfed, and so rangers end up doing more damage (i.e. same as other professions) when using those weapons.

After thinking about it some, I think that’s a fundamentally flawed approach to balance which directly leads to the problems we’re seeing when you try to scale pet damage (i.e. put points into BM), and when you try to scale weapon damage (points into power, criticals, etc).

The right approach is to first ask yourself: What does the pet cost the ranger relative to other professions? Well, they take up the F1-F4 skills, they take up one trait line as well as many miscellaneous traits, and they take up several utility skills.

That’s where the ranger should be paying for the pet. The pet just needs to be balanced to be roughly as useful as other professions’ F1-F4 skills plus a trait line plus several utility skills. Things like ranger signet actives only affecting the pet (unless you take a GM trait) are where you want to make the ranger pay for the pet. Not weapon DPS. Replace half of the DPS pets with “utility” pets who act like AD&D familiars – they just follow you around not attacking. Their F1 an F3 get replaced by additional utility skills you can invoke at will just like F2. Kinda like how engineer works.