Guild Wars 2

Responding to some of the points that have been raised.

1) The game was released and the fact that there are tons of issues that the devs are dealing with is very understandable. My request is not that the dev team make these changes right now. It is simply to begin to unite the Ranger community on the issues that we are having with our class and to be able to rally as a whole to express these requests to the dev team.

2) The concern with the current pet system is that we MUST use it in order to be viable. There is no control over how much of our DPS our pets do AND there is no control over our pets tanking damage or simply being a supplement to our damage. What happens if a player decides that they do not want to rely on a pet anymore? For example, They simply want to be a ranged DPS without the worry of losing 20% of their damage output because an A.I. made a poor choice.

The issue comes that we a noticeable amount of our damage coming from a source that we have a limited amount of control over.

3) The reason that I am concerned about the weapon situation is because a player should feel like they can play with any weapon they choose without feeling like they are at a disadvantage in either PvE or PvP.

So, I was recently convinced to start playing GW2. Overall, I am very happy with the game. My question to the community is if anyone else has the feeling that Rangers are currently being put into a fairly defined path with no real way to venture out of it…

1) We must use our pets.
2) Pet’s always pull agro while running PvE.
3) Not all weapons are truly viable.
4) Some trait lines don’t make sense.
5) A general lack of creative control over how we use our basic talents/pets/skills.

Now, to elaborate…

A ranger’s DPS is highly dependent on keeping a pet alive, if a pet is not active our DPS takes a significant hit. There is no other class that takes as severe of a punishment for “losing” this basic skill. Why must so much of my DPS be dependent on a A.I. controlled ally (who is un-responsive to my desires much of the time)? Top that off with the auto-tanking desires of my pet and I can’t help be frustrated at times.

TL:DR; I would like to see the game offer flexibility on the “pet” option. If I choose not to use a pet, I shouldn’t have a severely kittened DPS output. If I don’t want my pet to “tank” a battle, I should be able to toggle it off.

In the same way, A ranger should have the option to focus more heavily on their pet. The beast-master trait line is a great start to this, however as it stands, pets have a “base standard” that is unaffected by our personal stats. I would like to be able to “donate” some of my own attributes to my pet if needed. If a could be best handled by the DOT of the cat’s, but they don’t have enough natural survivability for the fight, I should be able to donate some of my vitality or toughness to ensure that my cat’s DPS is never lost due to a death.

TL:DR; Rangers should be able to donate stats to their pets to ensure pet’s have a maximum up-time.

As it has been mentioned by many people, not all weapons are truly viable. At the moment from a pure numbers standpoint. Short-bow and Swords are the strongest choices. Using something else is simply kittening yourself in one way or another. Some weapons have a “place” (longbow/axe)… but simply do not compare to SB or S.

TL:DR; Rangers are unable to stray from the standard weapon-set without being kittened heavily.

Some trait lines do not make sense. The best example of this is having a large buffs for traps buried in the Skirmishing Line at the 30-point level. Traps do not benefit from Crit… either make traps/conditions able to crit at a reduced amount or move this buff to a more viable line.

TL:DR; Condition Rangers//Trap Rangers are kittened via trait lines.

Due to the lack of flexibility over control of pets and a limited weapon set, I feel like there is a limitation being placed on Rangers that lowers the amount of fun, creativity, and over-all enjoyability of the class. With a few minor tweaks, the ranger class could be drastically expanded and improved to better suit all of the wanna-be Robin Hoods like myself.

Thoughts?