Guild Wars 2

Ok. I know rangers have tons of bugs, quirks, and things we have all wanted to see fixed sense launch, but I still don’t get what’s up with all the self hate on here. This is not about all the things that are wrong with ranger but what is good about it. The ranger is my first 80 and my first love. While waiting for fixes I’ve leveled a war to 80 and got 78% world completion, a thief and mes into the mid 60s and tons of minor charaters, but ranger is still my true love.

Yes there is tons that a ranger can’t do as well as class X, but with 30/0/5/5/30 a shortbow/ax/horn reef drake/devour and some signtes and soldier armor, it is the only class I have no fear of champs on. I can USUALLY solo them and if I can’t I leave. I have great fun in pve and dungeons. Penatrateing arrows and reef drake are great for upping the total damage and devourer ai is smart enough to use ranged attacks and back up.

I KNOW we need tons of fixes but when I read these fourms 90 is all self hate and makes me wonder why anyone would play a ranger. Well the short answer is bc its a game and its FUN. Please think about what CAN be done with your ranger and set up and try and spread joy and about the good parts while we try and fix the broken ones.

Our utilities are near useless/broken, our traits are messed up and ineffective, we have no group contribution, our damage is mediocre, our main class mechanic is unreliable and clunky. I’ve played ranger since launch and these are problems that haven’t been addressed in the many months this game has been out for. I feel guilty because if I bring my ranger to a group I know I’m letting them down even if I perform with my best build. That’s the problem I have anyway.

What build are you using?

Chopps.5047:

What build are you using?

I’ve geared and tried every major ranger build (PVE) BM, SB/LB Berserker, Trapper. Each one is far outdone by other classes.

The best dungeon/PvE build I know of is 20/20/0/0/30 (natural healing in BM and honed axes in skirmishing) with sword/warhorn and dual axes. I use troll unguent when alone and healig spring in a group with full berserker gear. Natural healing and signet of the wild keeps the cats alive in all but the worst situations (dungeon bosses being one). At the boss, switch to drakes for the blast finish aoe it procs on swap when inside a water field (healig spring) for nice group support.

Try that and get back to me, whisper me in game if you still need help. I have a full aet of gear and/or multiple token weapons from each dungeon and am playing 30+ FOTM and being successful on ranger, although in arah or fotm, I suggest using 20/5/15/0/30 to sacrifice a tiny bit of DPS for the 2 sec protection on dodge roll. Most of DPS comes from armor anyways so you end up losing the honed axes trait, which means shortbow is the way to go.

Let me know if you’ve tried that and how it’s gone for you. Remeber: Sprit of nature revives fallen allies (npcs on ascalonian fractal) and so does search and rescue. When traited for it, ranger is a healing machine. But that’s generally best for a support role, of which is, for the most part, not needed in PvE in general.

Awarw, i know there are problems and i agree with you about some of what you wrote, but not all. i know that alot of our utilities do NOT work as written. i would LOVE it if our spirts worked better and not killed by a stray hit with long cool downs, it would GREATLY increase our group support, bu tthey dont. its an example of what i mean about our problems that they have been “looking at sense launch”.

i do not know if you have looked into it or not but penatrateing arrows, the 20 point under power, is an amazeing god send. it alone can radicaly increase the total damge you are doing if you are fireing into a mass of bad guys, or move around to line up your shots. in pve this is nice when useing your pets or anouther player is surronded by bad guys. in events or dungons this is nice bc you can stay focused on your main target and all the little adds wont block your shots. ive even found it nice in pvp(wvw) bc no matter who gets between you and your target, the target is still going to get hurt.

the 30 in bm is also REALLY nice. you and your pet get an extra heal over time. one of the minor traits (forget whcih one but its only a 5 point) also gives you a heal over time, there is a signit that gives ANOUTHER heal over time, and troll urgent is awsome for you and your pet as no matter where the pet goes you can heal him. the 30 in bm also makes your pet much tougher AND boosts all the healing those hots are doing for you.

there is anouther minor trait (5 point) that allows you to dodge much more often (i think +50% endurnce recharge) and not getting hit as often gives those hots a chance to heal you.

and on top of all this, you can use the signial for stacking crit chance, and the sigil that heals on crit. all of this togeather and i can easly solo stuff i wouldnt even think of doing on anyone else.

i KNOW we have problems, but there is alot of good too. i just dont understand why people dont talk up our good points more.