Guild Wars 2

Are you talking about WvWvW or Structured PvP?

Because in World vs World vs World, your level and your gear does make a difference, even when you get upscaled.
In sPvP there’s no reason to feel weak as a Guardian, if you have a decent build and play properly.
It is true that Guardians tend to have lower health. In order to balance our healing and defensive ability, we are given very low base health. This isn’t really a problem, most of the time.
And the best ways to improve are: playing a lot, looking for ways to improve, understanding every profession and watching other people play.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

Shield to counter refuge. Why didn’t I think of that…

Really? I do that all the time. In fact, it’s the exact reason I use shield instead of focus. It could be considered situational if it weren’t for the fact that there are so many thieves. Situational has almost become “standard WvW rotation” at this point.

-Aedelas

Christos de Soufre.3802:

Shield to counter refuge. Why didn’t I think of that…

I’ve been trying out hammer because of your videos lately. Still not my favorite weapon in the world, but it is pretty lulzy to screw with large groups with all of that area denial.

It’s definitely a group versus group weapon. What you are doing is far better for 1vNs. The mace and shield combo is extremely anti-thief. I’ve screwed over so many thieves using refuge. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Also the mace protective strike is great. Use it when they stealth and it blocks their backstab and then smacks them back for 3-5K when it crits.

deepwinter.9015:

Just allow us to have dodge rolls interrupt the chain. That’s all I ask.

If we can’t move normally because we’re “stuck” to a target, fine. I get that. In fact, I like being stuck to my target. All I ask is that if other abilities can stop the chain, why can’t a dodge roll?

This.

To expand, a couple things… first, Hornet’s Sting is much more situational than dodge-rolling due to terrain restraints and the need to use its follow-up skill as a leap back in to combat. The Monarch’s Leap skill also has a relatively short window of effective use and there have been many times where I have tried to use Sting —> Warhorn #4 (birdswarm thing) --→ Monarch’s Leap , and been unable to do so because the timer on the #2 attack chain had expired. Tactically, you basically have to use Sting—>Leap almost back-to-back. Your other alternative is to use Hornet’s Sting and switch to a ranged weapon once the animation is complete. It is, in most ways, NOT a functional replacement to a dodge roll – the basic evasive maneuver of all classes where the only restriction is player endurance.

Serpent’s Strike is less problematic, but still feels unresponsive as a dodge/attack built in to one button. On my Thief main (D/D condition build), I can time my Leaping Death Blossoms and they feel almost immediately responsive when compared to SS. If we weren’t supposed to use dodge roll while using the sword’s #1 chain, they could have made 2 and 3 more responsive.

So, TLDR… Sword 2 and 3 are not replacements for the inability to dodge, they are different tactical maneuvers with different limitations and potential applications. And not being able to dodge within the main attack chain is bad, and aNet should feel bad that this is still the case so far into the game’s growth.

P.S. Save my pet names while you’re at it!

One thing ANET tried to do with GW2 is make a game where there was no single best build.

What you’re looking for is one set of traits you can swap gear for to go from defensive to offensive. That’s a great tactic for, say, Arah explorable path 4 where you need defense on giganticus lupicus but ~3100 attack on other bosses like Dwyana Priestess.

Here’s the reality of the wvw and pve situation though: it’s so cheap to retrait that there’s no reason not to. That’s one reason why Master Traitsman stands right at your entrance to wvw.

No matter what you do as ranger you’ll be swapping weapons and gear a lot when out of combat. I do. I consider that part of what makes me successful with ranger. So rather than find one build, you need to master the class and learn what it brings to different scenarios and then adjust accordingly.

Get more weapons and more armor and test more builds. If you can’t afford it, do it in spvp (I know it’s not exact translation but it is closer than most people try to claim).

And beyond that, play!

I don’t believe anyone defending Rangers ever said they didn’t have problems, They clearly do….Spirits for example are just frankly a broken mess that needs to be changed.

Some of the pets need a rework in my opinion to make them usable.

Rangers are probably the class that is most worst off in the game right now as well.

However with that said, The Ranger isn’t a horrible class, Nor is it unplayable in any regard.

You can absolutely wreck people 1v1 on a Ranger… You can sorta Zerg Surf with the class…..

Its no on the level that a lot of people are complaining about, Some people just cry constantly that their pet is always dying….My pet doesn’t always die, I can keep him alive fairly often….which makes me believe they’re not managing their pet very well.

Lets face it though, some people will have that trouble, and they honestly should of rolled a Thief or Warrior if they really wanted to use a Bow.

If you play a Ranger, you’re playing the Pet class of the game, you’re going to have to manage that class, If you want to use a Bow, you have 3 Classes to pick from, so decide if you want to deal with a Pet or not.

deepwinter.9015:

At the height of my rage against ArenaNet, I decided to roll a Guardian. Ended up really enjoying it.

Then I made a Rifle Warrior. Really enjoyed that, too! Got both the Warrior AND the Guardian in two full sets of exotics and run dungeons and WvW with them frequently.

What I found for myself, however, is how much I still enjoyed my Ranger. I still see flaws that need to be improved (dodge roll interrupting Sword 1 chain, please; Longbow, enough said) but I’m not as enamored by the other classes anymore. In fact on my Warrior I’m downed more often because I lack the means to escape – unlike my Ranger. On my Guardian I have more uptime but severely lack in crit chance – unlike my Ranger.

Its great to see how the other classes compare and ultimately I love my Ranger the most but still wish to see some improvements to the class…although, not as many as I once believed.

Rangers are great at doing a bit of everything pretty well, I agree they are a great class and fun to play. However, they are in need of crucial changes. I have played with many Warriors and Guardians, most of my guildies play those classes, and excel at what they are meant to do. If you go on both of those profession threads you won’t find many threads on the problems you mentioned because they are not that problematic. Go on the ranger forums and they’ll be countless thread on the problems because they affect game play critically based on a general consensus.

The only changes I think are in need are spirits, pets AR, and then some maybes like increase longbow damage, fix sword root, and lessen signet cooldowns. Honestly, with the exception of the sword root I think these changes can easily be made without affecting the games balance.

I love ranger and hate my thief. Now to be honest i suck big time on my thief. Everything comes down to two things invis backstab (back attack regardless of weopan) or sb aoe. I find something new about rangers almost everyweek. And the more i play my other char the more i realize how versatile rangers really are.

You can get away with using a hammer with JI over the third utility slot. I do it sometimes for kicks. I usually replace the GS with it.

And engineers don’t have a ‘real’ melee weapon, what’s your point?

Love this idea, great job Anet! Certain servers were abusing the rating system pretty hard.

JaredKincade.9761:

Its amazing to me that the biggest complainers of this move is SOR, when they are the ones exploiting the rating to jump straight into near 1st position without ever having to face a tier 1 server. Ah, well actually it doesn’t amaze me at all.

The SOR jump in rating is the reason they are reseting the points. They are out of whack and the system needs tuning, the result of SoR gaining so much rating in three weeks is evidence of this. BG earned its T1 spot after 8 weeks of hard hard week by week fighting to get to where we did. SoR now has the chance to do the same and earn their T1 spot instead of rocketing by pvdooring a dead server with a high rating.

BG did it, are you afraid to put in the work to earn it? You should be pleased, if you do get to Tier 1, it will be because you earned it, not because your killing siege raiser over and over and over again.

You were definitely spot on about this one brother. I’m really looking forward to practicing against new servers

Its amazing to me that the biggest complainers of this move is SOR, when they are the ones exploiting the rating to jump straight into near 1st position without ever having to face a tier 1 server. Ah, well actually it doesn’t amaze me at all.

The SOR jump in rating is the reason they are reseting the points. They are out of whack and the system needs tuning, the result of SoR gaining so much rating in three weeks is evidence of this. BG earned its T1 spot after 8 weeks of hard hard week by week fighting to get to where we did. SoR now has the chance to do the same and earn their T1 spot instead of rocketing by pvdooring a dead server with a high rating.

BG did it, are you afraid to put in the work to earn it? You should be pleased, if you do get to Tier 1, it will be because you earned it, not because your killing siege raiser over and over and over again.

I completely agree with the reset 100%. Now the servers that deserve to be in T1 will have to work back up to it. Here comes GW2: W3 Season II!

@diamond: I agree with you. However, using these tricks allows people to think that nothing is wrong with pet health, because look, there’s all these rangers that never have a problem with pet health. Moreover, it will increase the already bad image of rangers that the bots gave us.

So in the long run, using these unintended mechanics hurt us more than people realize.

I hope it is a UI bug! While I can see this fix being justified, having it ninja’d in there is really crazy to me. I currently rely very heavily on pet swap and their abilities.

If it is not a UI bug, like I said I can see the reasoning. We have two pet traits, one that reduces F2 cooldowns and the other reduces pet skill cooldowns by 10%. Those really have no use besides people who do not want to swap pets if using that BM trait that stacks upon kills.

HaO is our burst heal. If your defenses are fragile, HaO is the heal for you.

TU is our efficient heal. If you’re a bunker build, TU is the heal for you.

HS is our group heal. If you’re in a group (and your group knows to stay within the radius to get the regeneration boons and knows how to utilize the water combo field) HS is the heal for you.

Before I leave the forum I wanted to thank ANET for making the daily’s ranger friendly (underwater, combo fields, healer, gathering…all these things are just normal ranger play). I was having a lot of fun actually getting requests to play…with me! Normally people discriminate when finding parties and as someone who runs ranger as main, well, a lot of times I feel like the last kid picked in gym class.

Also, props to ANET for making dailies that actually teaches the population how to play. A lot of people were asking about combo fields in map chat (whoa…people didn’t know about them!?!) and who doesn’t need practice dodging? Bravo! And thank you for paying attention to the ranger. I know a lot of people here accuse you of forgetting but, as a player, I just think ranger is an interesting enough class that ANET has invested enough in such that it is impossible that you can forget.

Keep playing, rock on!

Chopps

Only a guardian can block attacks better with a candlestick than with a shield

Only a Guardian can set things on fire by hitting it with a lump of ice.

Only a Guardian is forced to set his enemies on fire.

Only a Guardian will stop in the middle of a battle to read a book.

Just playing devil’s advocate here. I’m guessing the rational behind the spirit weapon nerfs is that it brings them in line with every single other summon in the game. The most similar being mesmer phantasms. Essentially, spirit weapons were “free” effects that the opponent couldnt really counter. Shield shuts down all ranged opposition, hammer is constant interruption, bow is constant cleansing. Unlike the mesmer phantasm versions, like phantasmal warden, and phantasmal disenchanter, they could not be stopped from doing their jobs, and thus the nerf simply brought them in line. Though now… something about that insane cd probably has to be reduced. Maybe 40 seconds instead of 60 for most SW.

Edit: okay a ton of people are taking my argument the wrong way. I’m not comparing them to the phantasms, only the balance philosphy behind them. Phantasms, as stated by Anet are balanced around the fact that they are powerful, but have 2 chances to counter. Spirit weapons used to have no ways of countering the summon in itself, rendering them supurior to every single other summon in the game. What I’m trying to say is that this brings them in line, at the cost of uniqueness. I’m not arguing that it was called for, that it was neccessary, i think its totally out of the blue and not. But the logic behind the nerf exists and does make sense to a degree.

Taruvoyant.4318:

I’m praying it’s just a bug. It wouldn’t make sense. Your weapons don’t share cooldown times on swap, so pets shouldn’t either. There’s already a pet swap cooldown in place, just like the weapon cooldown swap.

Actually, it makes perfect sense.

Weapons don’t share cooldowns, but swapping weapons doesn’t instantly reset a cooldown on the weapon you swapped out. The cooldowns are kept in-tact even when swapped, so that you always have to wait the whole cooldown period before you can use the attack again, swap or no.

Lets use Barrage as an example. Lets say you use Barrage with Longbow, swap to Shortbow and attack for 10 seconds, then swap back to Longbow. Barrage still has around 20 seconds left on cooldown, you don’t get to use it right away again just because you swapped.

Pets now behave in the exact same way. Instead of swapping ignoring actual ability cooldown timers and just resetting them the second the swap occurs, the cooldowns are kept constant even in the background. If you use Terrifying Howl then swap your Wolf, wait 15 seconds, then swap back, instead of the normal 45 second cooldown being ignored and letting you use it again right away regardless of cooldown, you now have to wait another 30 seconds for the entire ability cooldown to occur.

I’m ok with this. Its “technically” a nerf in the way that its worse now than it was before, but it was something that should have never been like that in the first place. Pet swapping was never intended to get around cooldowns.

Welcome to squishy pets! Move along, stand over there next to Necros and Rangers.

deepwinter.9015:

Hello, Guardians, just wanted to welcome you folks aboard the same boat us Rangers and Necromancers enjoy!

I’m sure we’ll be seeing the Warrior’s and their banners joining us soon; so, in the meantime, have a drink on us (made from our very own tears) and be careful of my Spirits – one sneeze will kill them all.

Only one thing, dont let the necros take the drinks, i dont like to drink blood o.o

So I wanted to start a topic regarding strategy’s used against every class from a Ranger’s POV but at the same time I don’t want to limit strategy’s per build type. So everyone’s feedback regardless of build type is greatly appreciated. As some of you know I have been trying to find a build that suits my play style along with having the appropriate tools/utility setup to combat every class in a 1vs1 situation. As of right now the build linked in my signature is my most current build. I am pleased with my build as I only have trouble against bunker Guardian’s and some 2H hammer Warriors. If I have Signet of the Wild or Rampage as One up I don’t have as much of a problem against 2H hammer Warriors.

Here are my strategy’s against other classes:

Memsers - Keep your distance while flanking and keeping an eye on the real Memser all while unloading your Shortbow with piercing arrows which destroys clones while bringing down the Mesmer. Obviously watch for Confusion.
D/D S/D Thieves - Thieves can be tricky but knowing how each build and how they fight can help you out a lot. Backstab burst Thieves go down quick with Sword #1 and QZ. Pop Signet of Stone if your health is getting low during the Thieves initial burst. If hes not dead then use Entangle at the right time. I use it when he comes out of hide. Keep your distance and dodge roll and SB #3 during the fight.
P/D Thieves- I actualy have no trouble with P/D Thieves. With auto targeting turned on and my SB #3 or dodge roll on standby I either win or they run away with just using my Shortbow. If they switch to melee mode then see above strategy.
Elementalists - I tend to dodge on their initial lightning burst and use my Shortbow for the whole fight. Stay out of their AOE circles. I usually win or they runaway as long as my Signet of Stone isn’t on cooldown.
Necromancers - These guys are the easiest. Keep your distance with Shortbow. Use your cripple and daze skills whenever they are off cooldown and its an easy fight. Just keep your distance at all times.
Engineers - I have mixed feelings about Engineers as every fight is different. I haven’t run into very many ‘experienced’ Engineers to know of an exact strategy for them. But I will say to watch for bombs and mines. They tend to drop lots of little red circles. If they want you to chase them then think twice about following them. Pick them off with your Shortbow or Weapon Swap > QZ > Sword #1 > Signet of Stone > Sword #2 ONCE to evade back then switch to Shortbow and finish him. I have come across only one Engineer who was extremely hard to take down due to high toughness or high Vitality, not sure and it turned out to be a stale mate. His Zerg took me out while downed.
Rifle Warrior - Time your dodge rolls for Volley and Kill shot. The rest is cake. Use your Shortbow.
2H hammer Warrior - I have trouble with these guys. If they get the first hit in and I don’t have stability up…I’m usually toast. Any thoughts or ideas vs these guys?
Bunker Guardians Hammer or Staff - Not sure of a proper strategy for these guys except to stay far away and try to pick them off. Once they get close I’m toast. Need some strategy ideas.
Ranger - No strategy here cause I like to duel other Rangers.

If I missed a common class or class/combo let me know. I’m hoping to see other Ranger’s strategy’s and or a critique of my own. So if anyone wants to list there strategy’s from a Rangers POV that would be awesome. Thanks.

I played a Hunter in World of Warcraft, and while that class beats Guild Wars 2’s Ranger by miles, it was in my time never a ‘one shot monster’.

The class was just much better designed, that’s all.

Sadly beating thieves 1v1 doesn’t shut them up. They just blame it on something stupid and keep saying they same things to other rangers.

I use it to create distance, with sword dagger you can hornet sting then throw the cripple dagger. When it comes to evade frames I’d put sword/dagger just slightly lower than death blossom spaming thieves, hornet sting evades on the leap back, serpent strike evades the entire time, and stalker strike also evades the entire time. Combine this with 50% endurance regen (only 5 trait points!) we have alot of invuln.