Guild Wars 2

i’m coming from warcraft, i love playing the paladin and the hunter class.

on that note, this is the closest to hunter (obviously), i was wanting to know the pro/con of this class. I’m leaning heavy to this class though as my primary focus on this game.

Pros:

-High damage for PvE (good in dungeons, open world raiding)
-Really easy to do world completion, open world soloing with
-Good Duelist & roamer
-Weapons on the class are mostly in a good spot for PvP

Cons:

-The weakest class in large group fights (WvW battles) of over 10+ people
Wvw guilds who like large scale fighting will not want you to play Ranger.

You’re basically Legolas without the knives.

Or a machine gunner.

Or a walking cannon…actually, being a walking artillery gun, crew and all, is the best comparison.

Pet mechanism not working and they dont want to fix it.
Low mobility, worst class for wvw roaming
Low dmg
High risk low reward
Low survivibility
Must fully trait on a weapon to make it works
Everybody laughing on you

1500 range with longbow if traited! (Thats realy funny)

Pick the guardian if you dont want to be a 2nd class cityzen

McWolfy.5924:

Pet mechanism not working and they dont want to fix it.
Low mobility, worst class for wvw roaming
Low dmg
High risk low reward
Low survivibility
Must fully trait on a weapon to make it works
Everybody laughing on you

1500 range with longbow if traited! (Thats realy funny)

Pick the guardian if you dont want to be a 2nd class cityzen

What reality to you stem from?

Max range is 1500 untraited and 1900 traited.
With the exception of 5v1 (ranger vs 5), you will go down slower then any guard, unless you run bearbow. Medium mobility, can easily achieve equal mobility to warrior, not hard to get perma swiftness and 3x leap in one build while still doing damage.
Ranger DPS is among the highest in PvE atm, and it is easily among the top, if not the top, single target DPS profession, we got horrible AoE/Cleave though.

Ranger is however weak against burst builds as our healing favors sustained fights rather then hit and run.
Large trait investment in any build. It is hard to make good hybrids.
Require knowing how, when and what to dodge, you cannot facetank forever.

I think the real cool thing about the ranger is that every single weapon they have are viable and have cool animations. It’s disheartening that most rangers I run into nowadays don’t seem to know that the long bow is not their only weapon set.

Also, if you like to 1v1, rangers are in a really good place right now, especially the condition builds.

Whawhewho? 1900 range? Am i missed something?
3 leaps? If you use a gs/s+x build what is not good. And you need to use the trick.
Mobility of a warrior? Hehe. No way

On paper it’s 1500. It flies further as every projectile based weapon, but idk if it goes to 1900.
Rangers mobility is ok. Listing it as con is imho misunderstanding, unless you compare everything to thief/warrior.

The ranger is probably the best class in PvE. But it’s also one of the worst in PvP and WvW. If you’re a good player, you can shine. But know the deck is stacked against you.

Ranger is also the most solo friendly because you bring your own party. But other players will hate your pet if you don’t control it correctly.

Lastly, ranger is the best survivalist in the game. The class has the best healing. If you use the right combination of pets, traits, runes, sigils, and abilities, nothing besides instant death from falling should kill you.

The trade off to this is your damage will be less than spectacular. Okay, okay. Outside of beastmastery, your damage will be pathetic. The pet’s will be okay, but nothing to write home about. So no big numbers for bragging.

But you will be the last man standing in a party should it wipe.

Over and over again, me and my pet survive encounters we shouldn’t, get the entire party their achievements, and then rez everyone else.

Be ready for everyone to tell you rangers suck. Repeatedly. And you keep nodding your head and saying we do. We need more buffs. A lot more.

We’re the weakest class . . . and let them keep saying it.

The Ranger is an All-Rounder class that is decent at everything.

Pros:

Long Ranged.
Very mobile.
Decent survivability
Can build viably in many ways ( condi / burst … )
Strong CC with pets

Cons:

Weak in groups
Mediocre Support ( Spirits )
Don’t go Longbow Bear

The Ranger’s damage is decent, but relies on their pets to outdamage their foes.

eg) Ranger Greatsword Auto does 500
Guardian GS auto does 700
Most ( ranger ) pets do >500

If your pet is alive, you will outdamage your foe. if you pet is dead, you will be disadvantaged.

My 2cents.

veneration.2165:

i’m coming from warcraft, i love playing the paladin and the hunter class.

on that note, this is the closest to hunter (obviously), i was wanting to know the pro/con of this class. I’m leaning heavy to this class though as my primary focus on this game.

If you like playing Paladin, try Warrior with a Longbow. Warriors are like Brusiers ( in LoL if you get the term ) ; they have strong armour/vitality and strong damage too.

McWolfy has literally never played a ranger in his life, OP, ignore what he’s writing.

WoW some misinformation in there.
­@ McWolfy : Its 1200 untraited, and 1500 traited
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Long_Range_Shot

@Ardenwolfe : You are way too much liberal with the term ’’best’’ here. Ya its a good PvE profession, certainly not the best (Ele is). Its good at surviability, but certainly not the best. Its good at healing, but certainly not the best. I agree with most of what you wrote, but ’’best’’ was use way too much.

Pros :
- Damage wise in PvE it used to be bad (7th), but not its better with the september buff. Now I think that Ranger are 4th. Still most speed run group don’t bring them since they do about a bit more personal dmg than Warrior, but Warrior buff the party almost twice as much. So warrior do better offensive buff and Ele/Thief still do more dmg than ranger. But outside of record run, they do really good.
- sPvP : They have a couple of really good build. From condi semi-bunker to Power ranger they can do wonder in most game. They can be a really danger.
- WvW : Similar to spvp, they are decent in roaming.

Cons :
- The are limited in the number of really good build for dungeon, and the sword can be hard to master. You are stuck in a animation that can kill you since you can’t dodge like normal at certain moment. Pet can also be a pain to control in dungeon, especially those where you use stealth to skip stuff. Pet can ruin strategy if you don’t control them.
- sPvP : If they do well in normal game, against good player they are too much unilateral. You are strong, but have clear weakness that good player will use against you and you can’t do much about it. In higher level of spvp, ranger can have a hard time.
- WvW : If they can be decent in roaming, they are very limited in zerg fight. Most of organized group in WvW don’t bring ranger as Heavy are better in the melee train and thief are better as gank.

Overall, if they used to be a really bad profession, they are not in the middle. They are really good for most ppl, but are not really part of the best profession that organized guild bring.

Thaddeus.4891:

@Ardenwolfe : You are way too much liberal with the term ’’best’’ here. Ya its a good PvE profession, certainly not the best (Ele is). Its good at surviability, but certainly not the best. Its good at healing, but certainly not the best. I agree with most of what you wrote, but ’’best’’ was use way too much.

I must disagree. The pet alone increases your survivability if you can get it to grab NPC attention. If they’re beating up the pet, they aren’t beating on you. And you get that advantage from the start. Since an elementalist tends to be squishy, much squishier than say a bear or devourer, I must again disagree. Especially since I’ve been rezzing elementalists first since they tend to die the fastest.

And when I say rez, I mean with a Spirit of Nature. Instant rez from a downed state.

As far as ranger healing not being the best . . . well . . . there’s troll unguent, healing spring, and nature’s shout. Which, in any combination, guarantees continuous regeneration. Add the Spirit elite if you want a little more healing in a pinch. Now, if you stack healing, especially if you go beast . . . with certain runes and sigils that adds even more splash healing. . . .

And then certain pets also give healing and regeneration like the jellyfish and plant wolf. And there’s that spirit pet that also gives healing. The carrion devourer has a self-regeneration underwater.

Compassion training gives you (indirectly with a trait) increased regeneration. Gives your pet increased healing and regeneration. And of course, Natural Regeneration stacks with everything I’ve mentioned so far.

And if things go wrong, you can spec to gain an instant healing spring, your pet rushes over to bring you back from the brink, or, if you’re smart, you’ve use Spirit of Nature, just before you went down . . . and you’re back alive with more than half your health again.

I haven’t even mentioned Oakheart Salve or Rejuvenation.

So . . . which class does all this and better?

Problem #1: The class mechanic is quite poor because the pet doesn’t work in larger engagements (large meaning 5+) or if there’s a sup arrow cart raining down on you.

Problem #2: Almost all group utility the class provides is on the pet. So this ties in to problem #1 plus there are other issues due to poor pet AI and balance.

Problem #3: The class is strong as single target condi bunker playstyle, single target melee, and long range burst. Now while these are all great, most organized teams don’t have a use for these so you don’t see many Rangers in PvP, GvG, or guild WvW.

Problem #4: Mobility is difficult to explain. It’s not awful. But it’s certainly not at Warrior, Thief, or Ele levels. The problem with this is the role the Ranger needs to fill competes directly with these classes and these classes provide more damage/utility/survivability. Especially when you try and build around damage/utility/survivability. You’ll find you sacrifice more of the other categories than most classes need to sacrifice making the Ranger far more specialized and less attractive to groups.

Good thing #1: The class is very straight forward and easy to pick up for new players. The pet mechanic allows you to play either melee or ranged very easily. This is also a bad thing as you never learn to play melee or ranged ‘well’.

Good thing #2: Damage is competetive with other top tier classes in dungeons. While you’ll want to use Sword or Greatsword, there’s no excuse for a group to drop a Ranger. Especially since the utility the class provides is rather unique. Now getting a group to accept a second Ranger could be difficult.

Good thing #3: If you enjoy unorganized PvP/WvW you’ll probably have a blast. The class does very well following a zerg or playing in adhoc havoc groups. PvP is similar with unranked queue or just finding a quick pick-up group.

So that’s my opinion. Now that you have a thread where no 2 posts agree with one-another, I wish you the best of luck. At the very least you should give the class a shot in PvP at 20 (I think this is when it unlocks now?). It has a lot of quirks you’ll need to figure out on your own (the pet, the 1 handed sword, just what ranger mobility is like in reality) that no forum poster is going to agree on.

Atherakhia.4086:

Problem #1: The class mechanic is quite poor because the pet doesn’t work in larger engagements (large meaning 5+) or if there’s a sup arrow cart raining down on you.

Problem #2: Almost all group utility the class provides is on the pet. So this ties in to problem #1 plus there are other issues due to poor pet AI and balance.

Problem #3: The class is strong as single target condi bunker playstyle, single target melee, and long range burst. Now while these are all great, most organized teams don’t have a use for these so you don’t see many Rangers in PvP, GvG, or guild WvW.

Problem #4: Mobility is difficult to explain. It’s not awful. But it’s certainly not at Warrior, Thief, or Ele levels. The problem with this is the role the Ranger needs to fill competes directly with these classes and these classes provide more damage/utility/survivability. Especially when you try and build around damage/utility/survivability. You’ll find you sacrifice more of the other categories than most classes need to sacrifice making the Ranger far more specialized and less attractive to groups.

Good thing #1: The class is very straight forward and easy to pick up for new players. The pet mechanic allows you to play either melee or ranged very easily. This is also a bad thing as you never learn to play melee or ranged ‘well’.

Good thing #2: Damage is competetive with other top tier classes in dungeons. While you’ll want to use Sword or Greatsword, there’s no excuse for a group to drop a Ranger. Especially since the utility the class provides is rather unique. Now getting a group to accept a second Ranger could be difficult.

Good thing #3: If you enjoy unorganized PvP/WvW you’ll probably have a blast. The class does very well following a zerg or playing in adhoc havoc groups. PvP is similar with unranked queue or just finding a quick pick-up group.

So that’s my opinion. Now that you have a thread where no 2 posts agree with one-another, I wish you the best of luck. At the very least you should give the class a shot in PvP at 20 (I think this is when it unlocks now?). It has a lot of quirks you’ll need to figure out on your own (the pet, the 1 handed sword, just what ranger mobility is like in reality) that no forum poster is going to agree on.

The only way a ele is faster than a ranger is if they drop fgs, even then it would be close. Once that is on cooldown a ranger is going to be faster.

and for those saying ranger is no good in a zerg, what you really mean is rangers aren’t as good in a front line position in the zerg. There are builds that would let you survive but they aren’t nearly as effective as warrior or guardian.

Since the longbow buff ranger has a roll as a sniper. Pick out the back line ele’s, necro’s and the enemy commander and take them out. A smart, well played ranger can be devastating to the enemy zerg.

Ranger is faster, sure. But few classes are actually capable of catching an Ele.

And I hope I didn’t give the impression Ranger is bad in zergs. The pet is, but any class with a 1 button (and the Ranger has a 2 button!) are fine. It’s organized WvW (GvGs and guild groups) where the class suffers.

And by suffers a case could be made that the class isn’t necessarily bad (it is imo…) but rather the niche it fills isn’t wanted/needed.

McWolfy.5924:

Whawhewho? 1900 range? Am i missed something?
3 leaps? If you use a gs/s+x build what is not good. And you need to use the trick.
Mobility of a warrior? Hehe. No way

wait what, u say that gs , sword /x is bad?

they r awesome if played correctly, u dont need to have an axe or bows..

Pros:
-Has spot in PvE meta
-Has spot in tPvP
-Huge PvE burst damage
-#4 best dps
-Awesome class for dueling
-Awesome WvW roaming class

Cons:
-Not good stackable class (PvE mostly)
-Heavy reliability on cd’s for dueling
-Requires very good positioning in PvP
-Player needs some time to learn how to play with sword (PvE)

McWolfy.5924:

Pet mechanism not working and they dont want to fix it.
Low mobility, worst class for wvw roaming
Low dmg
High risk low reward
Low survivibility
Must fully trait on a weapon to make it works
Everybody laughing on you

1500 range with longbow if traited! (Thats realy funny)

Pick the guardian if you dont want to be a 2nd class cityzen

L2p dear Bearbow

The biggest con:
- You’ll never feel as a hunter.

Ranger is not an Archer. Not for PvP, not for PvE, only viable option for competitive Longbow is WvW.

Biggest pro:
You can be effective at everything you do. You can build a specific PvE way, that boosts your party damage by 14% in unique way (so Might / Fury stacking scales with that buff) and has very potential Tunnel Peak damage.
Biggest con:
You won’t be even close to “good” if you don’t follow those build orientations, or at least their core basis. You won’t even be half viable to other classes.

For PvP – Power is a no-no. But we have plenty of Condi based builds that are more than fine. Immortal Condi Regen, Support Spirit, Heavy Condi bomber…

So ye…
… The pro is that you can do amazingly well, given the time to learn the class.
… The con is that you’ll utterly suck and everyone will hate you (including us) if you stick to the BearBow category.

funny how ppl still hate on ranger even tho they have about 10% more dps then warriors
they bring 2 unique buffs that boost the dps of the party really good it seems alot of people like to write about stuff they have no clue about

Pros:
Trivializes most pve content, does great in higher end content
Good sniper in wvw and excellent for collecting tears. You may feel the most like an archer in these parts.
Can annoy people greatly as a roamer

Cons:
Not the best in zerg content
People hate you for stupid reasons and accuse you of knocking stuff back even if you don’t have a bow equipped
Sword is weird

In its current state, if you have any such an inclination towards the class, I definitely recommend rolling one because the ranger has much to offer and playing it well is extremely rewarding. Just don’t camp bearbow all day.

asator.9302:

funny how ppl still hate on ranger even tho they have about 10% more dps then warriors
they bring 2 unique buffs that boost the dps of the party really good it seems alot of people like to write about stuff they have no clue about

Ranger only outdps warrior assuming speedrun setting where everyone has 25 might, but in any other situation where the might isn’t capped a warrior will outdps a ranger.

Pro:
Pet

Con:
Pet

add to the list of
pros :
continuous rotations of Mobility CC’s while dealing one or two hard CC’s wolfs > lb KB/hilt bash , off-hand axe , spiders , Devours , snow wolfs , drake hound (great at crowd control)
can do pretty much anything when traited
Pets are a boon (may prove very useful if used correctly)
25% more evades consitantly thanks to skills and easy access to vigour.
AoE vigour Natures renewal (everyone forgets about this 6.1/4secs running 6,0,2,6,0) very good support while keep a great amount of damage and it also tanks the pet up.
has a lot of hybrid weapons making for great flexability.
selection of pets can support any build you make , even brown bear has a place (not with a LB though)

Cons:
Pets can be a bane ( forgetting where the pet is will hurt your damage output a lot its noticeable) ,
pathing can screw you up (better know when to swap pets rather than when its about to die)
Some weapons are stuck to a stat e.g LB , GS , Off-axe (mainly power support, not good for full condis maybe hybrids)
Chill can be very annoying to pets (if you don’t have signet of renewal) slows them down , reducing hits , reducing damage.
some pets have longer cooldowns (especialy those with crowd control skills)

Pros: it’s fun, it’s mobile, and there’s a lot of things to build around (range, melee, pet, power, condis, regen, evade…).

Cons: if you actually build in any other way than The Meta™, you’ll be called a bearbow, kicked out of party, and MetaRangers will make threads to laugh at you on these forums.

the quality of a ranger is heavily dependent on the skill of the player. very easy to learn the basic play, much harder to learn the advance play and be good at it.
for solo play the pet works great if you are attentive. for group play you really got to keep your pet in line. its ability to pull aggro can get stuff out of position quick. but they can add buffs to your team and help with stacking condis. honestly to be good at the class you do need a fair amount of awareness.
in pvp your pet is a pain for everybody else. especially if you choose the right ones for your play style and really keep them on task with what they are intended for. even a “dead” pet can rez you in down state. you can even still use their special ability while in DS. good ole wolfie has saved me a few times scaring everyone off.

@OP
just make a character of every class, use the gates to get to the mists so you can experience what the lvl 80 version will be like. on the right side of the mists map there are monster npcs to fight, class npc at the north, and golems all over the map. honestly its the best way to get a feel for the classes and game imo.

for pve or pvp? in pve anything is fine. in pvp, the ranger has probably the highest skill cap in the game. ie. other profs require less effort for more efficacy. you will get facerolled by a lot of profs, but if u like the ranger a lot he can be competitive. you’ll just have to work a lot harder.

oneply.9586:

the quality of a ranger is heavily dependent on the skill of the player.

way, way more than other profs. this is discouraging to a lot of players, so as long as he knows.

Everything works in pve, but if you group you will have to prove yourself a bit, rangers have a bad rap for not being team players.

In pvp/wvw its got the disadvantage of having a big bullseye if you run around with a bow out, since a lot of new people play ranger and assumed easy kill. But with enough skill you can kill anything, it will take a while learning the game to get there however. If you go without a bow it is probably the most annoying class to fight against with all the evades we have.

Lifestealer.4910:

asator.9302:

funny how ppl still hate on ranger even tho they have about 10% more dps then warriors
they bring 2 unique buffs that boost the dps of the party really good it seems alot of people like to write about stuff they have no clue about

Ranger only outdps warrior assuming speedrun setting where everyone has 25 might, but in any other situation where the might isn’t capped a warrior will outdps a ranger.

Meta situations speaking: A warrior is not needed for it’s dps in the group. He’s needed for banners. Ranger is needed for both buffs and dps. Ranger burst in the first 6-10 seconds of the fight is probably the biggest burst in game now, and that without going off-meta build to boost personal dps.

Warriors are just more desirable in pugs because
1: They can be decent stackable class
2: A nub warrior can be decent/great. A nub ranger will be waste of spot.

cafard.8953:

Cons: if you actually build in any other way than The Meta™, you’ll be called a bearbow, kicked out of party, and MetaRangers will make threads to laugh at you on these forums.

How’s that a con? How is that a ranger issue only? Wouldn’t you kick a warrior if he refused to take any banner? Wouldn’t you kick an ele camping water? Wouldn’t you kick a thief that does not know how to use blast stealth?

If you refuse to contribute to the party, you will get the boot. Why should other people carry you when you refuse to play at max potential?

@Lifestealer.4910 if ur talking about speedrunning then us hould always have 25 migth lol no point in saying if u wouldn’’t have migth coz u should always have them

Dragonfeu.4356:

If you like playing Paladin, try Warrior with a Longbow. Warriors are like Brusiers ( in LoL if you get the term ) ; they have strong armour/vitality and strong damage too.

Don’t let the warrior see that comment it seems to me that they are convinced that if they are not proven to be the at least the 2nd best damage in the game then their profession is garbage.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

cafard.8953:

Cons: if you actually build in any other way than The Meta™, you’ll be called a bearbow, kicked out of party, and MetaRangers will make threads to laugh at you on these forums.

How’s that a con? How is that a ranger issue only? Wouldn’t you kick a warrior if he refused to take any banner? Wouldn’t you kick an ele camping water? Wouldn’t you kick a thief that does not know how to use blast stealth?

If you refuse to contribute to the party, you will get the boot. Why should other people carry you when you refuse to play at max potential?

In the very average circles i PvE in, i’ve never seen anyone kicked for class/build apart from Rangers. Your mileage may vary, but it’s a pretty class-exclusive issue from where i stand. As for the toxic elitist community, is any other class forum so bent on looking down on its own?

My take at it, for what it’s worth:

Pros:
*Among the strongest in open world PvE
*good defensive support if you build for it, which is helps for defense/escort events
*ok offensive support if you build for it
*Good single-target damage, whether you choose to use direct damage or condition damage
*Has some easy to pick up sPvP builds
*Decent survivability by default (PvE), good self-heals
*Great at long range
*Strong in downed mode
*It’s fun

Mixed pro/con:
*ok access to melee options, but one of the two makes your character throw itself off cliffs if you’re not careful
*Pet controls take long time to learn (can be positive though, gives PvE learning longevity)

Cons:
*Very little group support by default, you have to build (i.e. make sacrifices) for it
*Weak (maybe weakest, though not dramatically so) in WvW and sPvP
*Poor area effect options
*Can’t chain hard CC
*Hard to maintain constant soft CCs

Adrian Guardian.9480:

*Weak (maybe weakest, though not dramatically so) in WvW and sPvP

Can’t comment for sPvP, but in regards to WvW, there’s two very distinct sides: for roaming, it’s a great class. For front-line zerging now, it’s one of the worst.

cafard.8953:

In the very average circles i PvE in, i’ve never seen anyone kicked for class/build apart from Rangers. Your mileage may vary, but it’s a pretty class-exclusive issue from where i stand. As for the toxic elitist community, is any other class forum so bent on looking down on its own?

That’s because pugs are stupid sometimes, they heard thing but don’t really know, they just heard rumors or read something in the forum. Ranger back before september had really bad DPS and were view inferior. Still, a good ranger could be better than the average pugs, that didn’t stop pugs to kick them simply because Ranger had a bad reputation. Now that ranger is way better than it used to, the bad reputation will still take time to get ride of.

And to be fair, a lot of LFG post said no Engineer, Ranger or Necro. Engineer and Ranger are out of the bad zone, but Necro are still in it.

Pro’s:
-Above average single target DPS
-Easy to learn
-Commands an assortment of pets

Con’s:
-Worse AoE damage
-Below average mobility
-Difficult to manage pets
-Below average set of utility skills
-Below average condition removal
-Below average group support
-Suffers from negative opinions from community

Fluffball.8307:

McWolfy has literally never played a ranger in his life, OP, ignore what he’s writing.

This, also Ranger is great in pvp. The problem with Ranger in pvp is that people tend to play power ranger due to the insane damage of the longbow but in reality ranger is better in long sustained fights using conditions and being a hybrid. Condi/hybrid Ranger have been, and always will be, a hard fight for any class

Another advantage to using warrior is that a LOT of people arent informed about them and just roll warrior/guardian all day. Many, maaany people think Warrior is the highest dps class for pve/wvw/pvp and you will absolutely stomp them

cafard.8953:

Adrian Guardian.9480:

*Weak (maybe weakest, though not dramatically so) in WvW and sPvP

Can’t comment for sPvP, but in regards to WvW, there’s two very distinct sides: for roaming, it’s a great class. For front-line zerging now, it’s one of the worst.

also, they are a good spvp class as long as the player understands that power ranger doesnt help the team win. condi or spirit rangers are strong in the team game.

I’m gonna leave the pro’s for now and tell you some the con’s:
The ranger for some reason over the past 250 years came to the conclusion that having the pet always bound to you would be a great idea.

Having mained this class since the first game, it really is a punch to the stomach having to drag this braindead AI around while watching other new ranger learn that they can survive perfectly well by pewpew-ing behind a bear. The class mechanic breeds noobs.

Not saying the pet is completely useless. A good maintained pet can be the difference between downing a player and getting downed. However, as a mechanic, I don’t ever see the pet getting the fixes it needs. And a redesign of the class mechanic is unfortunately out of the question.

The class would have been better of without it, and the players learning it would have been better off without it. Most of the niches this class had from the first game are long gone.

As in all MMOs the answer to the cry “OMG the class is underpowered” is to play the class better/properly. Whereas the answer to “OMG the class is OP” is and always will be….Nerf it!

My attitude has always been, over many, many years, if you enjoy the class then play it. If you don’t then choose another.

Pros:

• Hard to use.
• Since it is very hard to use, its strongest builds are extremely strong.
• Community thinks ranger is weak so will run to you, like deer running to hunter.

Cons:

• Class severely punishes new players.
• Large Anti-Ranger, communist negativity (see LB knockback threads)
• Pets move a tad to slow, so require more attention than we would like to give them.

Pro:
-awesome single target damage
-one of if not the longest ranges in game(longbow)
-decent build variety (depending on what you do)
-very much a kin to hunters from WoW (i too played both pally and hunter in my WoW days, if you like hunters you’ll prolly like rangers just as much)

Con:
-some what kittened pet AI (better then it used to be)
-pet dies instantly in most AoE
-often seen as “no skill press 2 easy win gg” class

only just started my ranger though im sure there is more =D

Pros:
-easiest class to play
-great for beginners because it bypasses a lot of the more challenges requirements of combat in the game
-best choice for solo play
-best ranged class
-great mobility
-pets can carry you and are fun to have around

Cons:
-while easy, you can develop bad habits that will make other classes seem more difficult
-pets could use more management abilities to keep them out of trouble
-currently, the worst profession for any kind of team play (necro is a close second but doesn’t actively hurt teams like rangers can), so don’t expect to be welcome in groups
-Point Blank Shot makes it a troll profession whether it wants to be or not

DaShi.1368:

Pros:
-easiest class to play
-currently, the worst profession for any kind of team play (necro is a close second but doesn’t actively hurt teams like rangers can), so don’t expect to be welcome in groupst.

I’m gonna assume, since you’re bringing the necro up as a close competitor to being worst, you’re talking mainly about PvE. Wether you do or not, PvE content is still a part of “any kind team play”.

If the ranger is hurting the team, it’s because of a bad player, not because the class doesn’t have anything to offer. There is a difference, and you clearly not knowing the benefits of having a ranger in your team makes you one of them.

Btw, this video was made for people like you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_7WWLiGZQc&index=7&list=PLz0JN2v3KJMnowFZa4x5ViaTabVtzNQ8M

You may also notice the necro didn’t even make an apperance in the series. So there you go. As far as PvE content go, rangers are a great addition for casual dungeons runs, etc. By casual I mean everything that isn’t meant to be a speedrun record (and even then, rangers have still been used to set records).

Edit: And no, being able to bypass challenges in the game by standing behind a bear is NOT a pro. It’s a con, and the main reason the game is crowded with bearbows.

The biggest con is that we have pro/con threads. The Ranger has to be the class with the most misinformed players, and if you want facts, look no further than the ‘bearbow’ stereotype.

Also, 25% movement speed isn’t mobility. GS IMO is a subpar weapon, so the only mobility we have is sword. I hesitate to call that mobility as I have never seen anyone actually doing the trick, as it requires two precise about faces (or macros). Run any other weapon and your mobility is lightning reflexes…which isn’t meant for mobility.

But honestly, it saddens me a bit to see the beginner stereotype attached to Rangers. Maybe for PvE…but really, is it possible to be bad at PvE? Go to WvW, and you become the target, 100% of the time. Even if you are 1v1, have fun stalemating shatter mesmers or slip up once and get facerolled by a hambow. That’s the Ranger.

Gotejjeken.1267:

The biggest con is that we have pro/con threads. The Ranger has to be the class with the most misinformed players, and if you want facts, look no further than the ‘bearbow’ stereotype.

Also, 25% movement speed isn’t mobility. GS IMO is a subpar weapon, so the only mobility we have is sword. I hesitate to call that mobility as I have never seen anyone actually doing the trick, as it requires two precise about faces (or macros). Run any other weapon and your mobility is lightning reflexes…which isn’t meant for mobility.

But honestly, it saddens me a bit to see the beginner stereotype attached to Rangers. Maybe for PvE…but really, is it possible to be bad at PvE? Go to WvW, and you become the target, 100% of the time. Even if you are 1v1, have fun stalemating shatter mesmers or slip up once and get facerolled by a hambow. That’s the Ranger.

how is it complicated?

u tap that face thing button to turn around, sword 2, then turn ur camera, for again sword 2?

on mesmer its face , staff 2, face

r u srs

Wyrden.4713:

Gotejjeken.1267:

The biggest con is that we have pro/con threads. The Ranger has to be the class with the most misinformed players, and if you want facts, look no further than the ‘bearbow’ stereotype.

Also, 25% movement speed isn’t mobility. GS IMO is a subpar weapon, so the only mobility we have is sword. I hesitate to call that mobility as I have never seen anyone actually doing the trick, as it requires two precise about faces (or macros). Run any other weapon and your mobility is lightning reflexes…which isn’t meant for mobility.

But honestly, it saddens me a bit to see the beginner stereotype attached to Rangers. Maybe for PvE…but really, is it possible to be bad at PvE? Go to WvW, and you become the target, 100% of the time. Even if you are 1v1, have fun stalemating shatter mesmers or slip up once and get facerolled by a hambow. That’s the Ranger.

how is it complicated?

u tap that face thing button to turn around, sword 2, then turn ur camera, for again sword 2?

on mesmer its face , staff 2, face

r u srs

Whoops, you just lunged right back at your target because you didn’t mash ESC to detarget. Better luck next time…

It’s more complicated than almost all other mobility skills in the game. My point being, Ranger isn’t a beginner class. It’s sadly built to look like one, but to really play one with any effectiveness you have to watch more than most.