Guild Wars 2

Been playing a bit, got kinda bored with every class and reciently made a ranger wow they are a pretty fun class. I am not sure why a lot of peeps dislike em, the ranger imo is way more fun then any other class I have played. My main classes I play a lot were the necro and guard, compaired to the ranger those two classes are kinda blah. Anyhoo that’s my 2 cents :-),

People don’t dislike ranger because it isn’t fun. They dislike ranger because ranger is pigeonholed into very few viable builds for both pvp and pve in terms of endgame content. Of course a lowbie ranger is having a good time. You don’t notice the issues until you do some competitive pvp and your pet fails to cast the F2, misses targets, and you realize the ranger profession has almost no condition removal as a whole (almost entirely reliant on our pet being alive to cure conditions from ourselves).

In other words, open world pve is easy and fun with the ranger, endgame content can be frustrating if you don’t dedicate yourself to learning the ins and outs of the profession.

Early on a Rangers pet tanks for the Ranger. Later on Mob bypass your pet. Those Ranger who can not adapt to the change soon find themselves feeling underpowered or uselss. Those that can adapt and continue to uncover the mystery that is the ranger continue to have fun and are effective in PvX.

Rangers are extremely fun to play. I am not a PvP dedicated players so I cannot comment on that. Rangers have a blast in PvE but choke when fighting dungeon bosses because the pets ain’t versatile enough. That’s all. Some tweaks and we’re good to go.

Spirits are still crap in dungeons.

Rangers are indeed very fun, and my favorite class when doing open world. They

When stuff gets serious thou, in hard instanced content, my ranger is quickly shelved in favor of my guardian or mesmer. Even guildies ask me to switch.
Sure, ranger can be effective when played with skill, weapon swapping, buffing, deploying springs near teamates, positioning for piercing arrows…..but when i put the same effort in my guardian, i can not only be effective but CARRY the team on my shoulders.

First character created in GW2 was a ranger (I had 3 rangers in GW1, needless to say the class really suits me?), have created some other characters afterwards, but my main (Freya) holds 80% of my game time (if not more)..

Indoles.1467:

They dislike ranger because ranger is pigeonholed into very few viable builds for both pvp and pve in terms of endgame content.

Welcome to GW2, this is true for almost any class except thief and mesmer as far as I know.

Indoles.1467:

People don’t dislike ranger because it isn’t fun. They dislike ranger because ranger is pigeonholed into very few viable builds for both pvp and pve in terms of endgame content.

Yup. Now look at elementalist. Although you can pretty much swap to whatever weapon that fancies the moment, your build will likely be 20+ water, 20+ arcane and the rest doesn’t matter as much.

You’ll go to Warrior. While your trait specs can vary, the playstyle and effect does not. You can dip deep into arms, or pick up healing shouts or even get a more tankier build with defense and gear, but it all amounts to the same tactics, utilities and likely the same weapons for damage.

I’d like to say Mesmer builds are nice and varied for PvE, but likely no one cares if you’re a tanky phantasm build, a bursty shatter build or some blend of support in between. Likely you’re just a portal jokey and a dispenser of time warp.

With Ranger, I think a portion of the variety comes from the pets available. Beyond that, they do have some good weapon choices I’ve yet to fully explore. PvP is another story. I don’t think Ranger is in need of a lot when it comes to PvP except perhaps WvW zergs…but even then that is a really specific (if not abundant) combat situation.

I don’t have trouble with dungeons on a spec that relies on the pet to do much of the damage. But then I haven’t done high level fractals…or fractals at all with my Ranger yet.

It’s the high level fractals that are aggravating on the Ranger :-)

Particularly the bosses that cover the ground in random AOEs (collosus) and the darn beam at the end that targets your pet, making you swap, then targets it again in 5 seconds.

Sebrent.3625:

It’s the high level fractals that are aggravating on the Ranger :-)

Particularly the bosses that cover the ground in random AOEs (collosus) and the darn beam at the end that targets your pet, making you swap, then targets it again in 5 seconds.

That stupid Jade Maw and his pet bias needs to DIE!! At least put a 15s CD on how soon he can target ANY of the pets (not players) -_-’

Honestly, I’ve begun to question why our pet swap cooldown is increased when the pet is killed.

• If a warrior misses his attack with a burst skill, he does not consume his adrenaline.
• If my illusions are killed prematurely and/or my shatters miss, my Mesmer’s shatter/illusion skills don’t go on longer cooldowns.
• If a necromancer is forced out of death shroud because life force hit 0 instead of voluntarily leaving that form, the cooldown is not increased.

I think being forced away from using that one pet is bad enough. Not to mention there is now a window where if the other pet is killed your still without a pet … it’s just not a minute long.

Sebrent.3625:

Honestly, I’ve begun to question why our pet swap cooldown is increased when the pet is killed.

• If a warrior misses his attack with a burst skill, he does not consume his adrenaline.
• If my illusions are killed prematurely and/or my shatters miss, my Mesmer’s shatter/illusion skills don’t go on longer cooldowns.
• If a necromancer is forced out of death shroud because life force hit 0 instead of voluntarily leaving that form, the cooldown is not increased.

I think being forced away from using that one pet is bad enough. Not to mention there is now a window where if the other pet is killed your still without a pet … it’s just not a minute long.

Omg i agree… they should change it back, i understand when we could rez our pet A LOT faster than 60s if we stopped DPSing for a little bit to do so, but now we don’t -have- that option anymore. If they want to “punish” you for bad play (half the time in PvE it’s not bad play, at least for me, it’s gimmicky 1 shot mechanics my pet can’t dodge) then make it like 30s, but 60 is waaaaaaaay too long.

I really love playing the ranger too… mostly cuase the GS is my kind of playstyle.. but there is 3 things making me feel bad playing it when running with the guild in wvw..

1: the pet (bet you didnt see that coming eh?!) : it dies within seconds. So there the class specific ability and a good ammount of my damage is gone…

2: the lack of viable mass pvp melee builds.. you can go trapper and melee but thats about it, rest is jusr a waste imo..

3: lack of good utilities for mass pvp.. i know traps and muddy terrain are awesome but they are niether complex enough nor fun to use.. i only use them to get easy tags and some extra dps even if i run no condition gear..

I just want them to fix spirits and a better source of stability.. but thats just dreams..

For #1: we just have to wait.

For #2: have you looked at that tanky all-soldiers greatsword power ranger build I posted? I’ve have some great success with it in high level fractals (20s).

For #3: Traps, Pet bomb, muddy terrain, barrage, piercing arrows, bouncing axes, entangle, invulnerable melee monster ranger with stability. There are multiple ways to do it, you just need to find the one you like.

I do have to admit here (have already elsewhere) that random PuG zergs are where Ranger is the least fun in WvW; at least to me.

choigreywolf.7496:

Been playing a bit, got kinda bored with every class and reciently made a ranger wow they are a pretty fun class. I am not sure why a lot of peeps dislike em, the ranger imo is way more fun then any other class I have played. My main classes I play a lot were the necro and guard, compaired to the ranger those two classes are kinda blah. Anyhoo that’s my 2 cents :-),

step 1- get to 80.
step 2- gear up and play in all environments.
step 3- come back and tell us how much fun you are still having.

:)

choigreywolf, I agree. It is a fun class to play. It’s just plain fun.

I’m 80 with full sets of Soldier, Knight, Rabid, and Apothecary gear on my Ranger and I still find it quite fun.

Sebrent.3625:

For #1: we just have to wait.

For #2: have you looked at that tanky all-soldiers greatsword power ranger build I posted? I’ve have some great success with it in high level fractals (20s).

For #3: Traps, Pet bomb, muddy terrain, barrage, piercing arrows, bouncing axes, entangle, invulnerable melee monster ranger with stability. There are multiple ways to do it, you just need to find the one you like.

I do have to admit here (have already elsewhere) that random PuG zergs are where Ranger is the least fun in WvW; at least to me.

I have checked the power build yes.. But what I really dont like is that in order to get stability without swapping out entagle you need 30 points in the power tree where most of the traits are useless.. You pick up signet use affects you and the lower CD on signets.. But cant take the 10% damage when endurance is full since dodge is vital to stay alive..

But, that leaves you with a 72seconds cd (iirc) on the stability and thats about it..

Dont get me wrong it works.. BUT with that huge CD compared to uptime it really doesnt make you any usefull and mostly feels like a waste of points…

I think I explained myself badly.. I dont mean its terribad, but haveing a hard time finding “my” proffession in this game ive played all classes but the Necro and Engi.. And I think maybe its cause I dont like pets but only GS class with medium armor that is available is ranger so really want it to be “my” proffession..

You can make anything work.. but in the end it feels kinda bad when you know that when it works 100% for you it still can be better done by some other class.. I am an upfront meleer and no i dont pug, only run organized with my guild and go for greater numbers ..

Ranger is by far one of the most classes in GW2, but it needs some fixing for wvw mass fights since pets die to fast and spirits die even faster..
Giving a option to put away pet for a 10% damage boost would fix a huuuuge problem atleast for me..

ofc this is just my pov and anyone liking the gameplay of trapper or deep pet specc or even piercing arrows will not agreee.. But I know they are great, and that ranger is great for roaming with a pet build but if OP was to be after the same style i like then I am just pointing out what i thnk is wrong ..

I agree, ranger are fun indeed. My first impression of the class before game release was an auto sell for me, yet when I got into beta, the class itself felt dull and boring so I stopped playing it and opted for a warrior. Warrior on the other hand was fun as hell at the time, as game release came and burst got nerfed to the ground and so on it went to hell for the warrior I decided to roll a guardian. Guardian’s gameplay is…rather dull, Spvp wise I stand there absorb damage tele around killing everything and their mom. Even as a rather hybrid build the survivability is just stupid, the over all game play is simple and all in all just makes me feel like I can face roll spvp and tpvp.

From there I got into playing a thief as I always been a thief arch type lover. Same results, stupidly high damage, easy to escape any situation I get myself into and overall just felt too easy to play with being fragile as a piece of glass as my only concern, thus I decided to go for a ranger again.

My experience with the class are simple, it stands very well balanced, sure the pet’s AI could be less mmm…I don’t wanna say kitten so I will say, poor…let say it could be a tad bit smarter, but I bet the good people in Anet will improve that someday. Personally I done many builds for both spvp and wvw, I done some fractals and exp dungeons as ranger but I rather do em on my warrior anyways so yeah not getting into that. As for WvW I have a blast with my long bow + spirits build when I’m rolling with the zerg and an even higher amount of fun roaming with my wife “she also plays ranger” using my tanky conditional damage + survival skills build, easy to combine melee with sword and dagger and ranger with short bow.

My ranger is 80, got both ascended and exotic gear, no legendary weapons as I find em all dull and in all means a total waste of time for people like me who hate grinding for pointless goals. Not to mention that short bow couldn’t look gayer…

I find the pets system to be really, really nice, gives me a lot of tools to work with, the 60 secs penalty for death pet is ok imo. Is skip-able if you don’t let it die anyways and pets are far more useful than most classes mechanics even if we pay a hard price for them.

Durzlla.6295:

Sebrent.3625:

It’s the high level fractals that are aggravating on the Ranger :-)

Particularly the bosses that cover the ground in random AOEs (collosus) and the darn beam at the end that targets your pet, making you swap, then targets it again in 5 seconds.

That stupid Jade Maw and his pet bias needs to DIE!! At least put a 15s CD on how soon he can target ANY of the pets (not players) -_-’

Amen. Yesterday, it targeted my pet three times in a row, then me, then my pet again. Absurd, considering that it was dead after the first time. If nothing else, I’d like to see them finally fix it targeting dead pets. Pretty sure they’ve acknowledged that it’s an issue.

Thanks guys :-) I will see how I enjoy the ranger when I hit 80, it might take me about 2 to 4 weeks sadly. But ya I am only 25 right now, but enjoying the class

OMG the ranger is awsome! I hit 80 this last weekend I did all paths for the esy dungeons AC, HotW, CoE, and a couple CoF. Very smooth gameplay I never really had any trouble with any of the paths. Get this, I did all these in like lvl50 gear didn’t realize it till I went to upgrade a few peices from the runs. In HotWs one grp I ran with we were all rangers haha we just sat back and had our pets kill everything and the bosses too! It was really funny and enjoyable. Currently I am playing the usual beastmaster build signits for utilitiy. Also did a lil WvW had a blast hurting the other side and actually killin folks :-) the panther/wolf set up is nasty against folks that weren’t expecting to lose! Haha! I even got a couple death threats telling me I somehow cheated lol bad players playing thieves and eles that didn’t know how to play their toons . Lol anyhoo I am soo happy I made a ranger! I am having a blast!

Yup! Ranger is tons of fun in pve even in lvl80 areas. I’ve also had very few issues in dungeons or fractals although you do need to learn to control your pet otherwise your dps will suffer greatly.

I gotta admit however that I find that I get way more badges with my ranged warrior rather than with my ranger and I kinda like warrior riffle/longbow (single player/aoe) way better than the ranger longbow and main hand axe that constitute 2/3 of the ranger’s ranged weapons. I guess I kinda like playing the sniper and, dps wise, I cant do that with my ranger. Shortbow rocks though.

I dont do spvp so I dunno about that.

Recently my weapon combos are gs and sb. But been thinking aboutswitching to sword and offhand either dagger or axe. My guard has the gs and tired of looking at a gs lol, again my build is the basic tank bm all selfish p/t/v gear just got all the hotw gear for her and a couple loral accended trinkets.

So here is my story:

I quit GW2 ~3-4 Months ago because in PvE there is only grinding and in PvP my pet was useless.

I know tryed a few sPvP matches because I was bored and I wanted to give the ANet devs a second chance.

PvE is still boring as hell, but sPvP got quite fun with the ranger.
The pet has a decent AI now (althouh still room for improvements), the Damageoutput you can achieve is nice while still having very good defensive skills.

My Build is Sword/Axe + SB, Powerbased with pet focused utilities (QZ+Sick’Em)
I use jaguar and wolve.

When I started my matches yesterday I joined an empty server to get used to the game again.
First it was 1v1 against a Necro which I ripped apart (he was not that good anyways)
Soon it became 1V2 and later 1v3 (Thief, Ranger and said necro) and I still managed to beat them all because of my Pets.
While Sword, SB and lightning reflexes made me super evasive, my pet dealt huge amounts of damage and I only needed to finish them

So I had a lot of fun in sPvP and i’d love to see a reason to do dungeon runs again.
with the legendary being the only long time goal I dont see any reason to farm more dungeon tokens ^^
(and by long time goal I mean ~ 10 Months – I can propably play 1-2 hours a day MAXIMUM)

soon I will try some new pets to see if I can find some new ways to play my ranger.
For me tha ranger is the most versatile class → most fun.

I love having that micro with pets while being able to Kill at range and in melee. Regen Rangers have absolutely no learning curve coming from a difficult to master profession like the Engineer. Being able to practice for an hour and then dominate consecutively in Tournaments is pretty entertaining. It’s so simple to just lay back and relax while your pets do all my damage, all my CC’s and even take Conditions from me every 10 seconds.

I can’t speak for other Ranger builds, but Regen Ranger is such an easy way to sPvP. Just like the minion Necromancer once you learn how/when to use their Profession mechanic it’s pretty much cruise control from then on.