Guild Wars 2

thrice.9184:

wintermute.4096:

Yes they are.

(they can not attack defenders on a keep wall, or just fly down to attackers if you are defending),

Its so stupid that they cant.

There Birds…….

You want realism? Then we should either severely reduce the damage birds can do, or severely increase the damage bears can do, because surely a bear’s swing is far more powerful than a bird’s pecking.

Idol, you should’ve posted that thread in the ranger forums. The odds of getting an official reply should be higher here.

Oldgrimm.8521:

i think it would be better if that trait goes to our pet on death, since our pet dies a lot

That is actually a pretty decent suggestion. At least then we will gain a little bit back from our pet dying.

Rangers aren’t ‘supposed’ to be ranged. You’re just slapping your own definition over the actual definition.

neverborne.4736:

• For PvE leveling rangers complaining that these changes won’t help you, that’s because the ranger is already very balanced for PvE, if not overpowered.

Oh god, my sides! Lord have mercy upon them! I cannot stop laughing!

Quarktastic.1027:

Agadar.4931:

Spider poison field literally lasts for only split second. It might as well not be a field at all.

But it applies nearly 30 seconds of poison when traited with malicious training.

It could apply an hour of poison and it’d be just as worthless.

Spider poison field literally lasts for only split second. It might as well not be a field at all.

Electro.4173:

How would a bunch of snakes create a poison field? Because thats what Viper’s Nest is, a bunch of snakes being released and attacking enemies.

Because this is a fantasy game?

oceansofmars.6894:

Just want to make sure you don’t miss Necromancers signet of the locust. Also needs a boost to 25% (currently at 10% like signet of the hunt)

This isn’t the necromancer forum. Shoo.

On my exotic-geared ranger, I poke at my enemies with slow-motion arrows which barely even scratch their armor – assuming they hit in the first place.

On my guardian, I literally keep entire WvW zergs alive.

It is no wonder I’ve abandoned my ranger and made my new guardian my main.

Arrows being absolute bollocks is the reason why I’ve abandoned bows completely and never looked back.

Xyvius.1679:

Loki.4871:

Xyvius.1679:

Not a huge fan of pets either.

So why are you playing the pet class?

In GW1, my main was a Ranger and I spent most of my time without the skill “Charm Animal” on my bar. Thus, I was just an archer without a pet. I don’t see how having the choice to lose the pet is such a big deal.

Because the ranger is the pet class.

For the love of all that is holy, stop whining about the pet. They’re the ranger class core mechanic and nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever make Anet remove them, nor should they.

Weaker, aye. But the difference in power between the two skills is just absurd. There are plenty of elite skills out there which are arguably weaker than some utility skills or even weapon skills.

Durzlla.6295:

Agadar.4931:

Kishandreth.2798:

Axe DPS is kinda weak, even with a straight power/precision build with the 10% crit.

Axe is by far my favorite pvp weapon. I love hitting thieves with it after bouncing it off someone else. Mesmsers with illusions/ phantasms/decoy spam + stealth, It completely ruins their day.

I never understand the obsession with torch off hand tho, I prefer axe/ axe, it wont do much against smart players (or so I’ve heard), but I’ve come across plenty of not so smart players.

Offhand axe is amazing against the many ranger, rifle warrior, and shortbow thief babbies who prior to fighting you did not even know that rangers could wield an axe in the off-hand.

Other than that it’s pretty lackluster, and I can definately understand why people prefer the warhorn or the torch over it.

It can reflect a thieves dagger storm and as such end up causing their elite to turn into a death sentence lol!

Ah… i remember when they’d reflect endlessly until someone ran out first… then the thief would implode eating his entire elite (amplified slightly each time the projectile was reflected) all at once, good times….good times…

Whirling Defense is essentially Dagger Storm’s kitten little brother. The difference in cooldown hardly justify the fact that Dagger Storm is ten times better.

1) It allows the caster to move while channeling;
2) It gives the caster stability
3) It lasts several seconds longer
4) It throws a chickenload of daggers which cripple and bleed
5) The daggers actually bounce when hitting a target, essentially making each dagger hit two targets

Absolutely absurd.

Speaking of video recording programs: what do you use, OP?

Kishandreth.2798:

Axe DPS is kinda weak, even with a straight power/precision build with the 10% crit.

Axe is by far my favorite pvp weapon. I love hitting thieves with it after bouncing it off someone else. Mesmsers with illusions/ phantasms/decoy spam + stealth, It completely ruins their day.

I never understand the obsession with torch off hand tho, I prefer axe/ axe, it wont do much against smart players (or so I’ve heard), but I’ve come across plenty of not so smart players.

Offhand axe is amazing against the many ranger, rifle warrior, and shortbow thief babbies who prior to fighting you did not even know that rangers could wield an axe in the off-hand.

Other than that it’s pretty lackluster, and I can definately understand why people prefer the warhorn or the torch over it.

It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

Whatever you do, drop Pain Inverter. We want to see ranger combat, not asura combat.

PearlGore.7419:

Agadar.4931:

PearlGore.7419:

How can you say Rangers are not meant to have stealth? We are a jack of all trades for one thing, for another we already have a few ways of gaining stealth via a pet and a trait. Although both of those are kind of crappy.

Jack of all trades? Every class is a jack of all trades. That’s the whole point behind not having the holy trinity.

The point of not having the holy trinity was to avoid looking for a tank or healer for hours upon hours.

Doubt it, because something like that can be avoided easily. For example, WoW for the longest time had only one tank class and one healer class, the warrior and the priest respectively. It look quite a while until paladins and druids became valid tanks and healers as well. I cannot recall ever running into trouble looking for tanks and healers since.

Point being that if 1/3 of your classes can tank, 1/3 of your classes can heal, and the other 1/3 of your classes can DPS, you won’t have to search for any specific role for long.

But we digress.

PearlGore.7419:

How can you say Rangers are not meant to have stealth? We are a jack of all trades for one thing, for another we already have a few ways of gaining stealth via a pet and a trait. Although both of those are kind of crappy.

Jack of all trades? Every class is a jack of all trades. That’s the whole point behind not having the holy trinity.

Aveneo.2068:

JonPeters.5630:

Agreed. Signet of the hunt needs to and will go to 25%.

JonPeters.5630:

FYI this is slated for the 14th of December.

Seems pretty clear to me (at least for this one)

How about you wait until/if said change is actually implemented before drawing premature conclusions?

We’ve had our share of empty promises before. You’d think you’d have learned from that.

Rangers aren’t a stealth class. That’s not our gimmick. Guardians have buffs coming out of every orifice. Thieves have invisibility. Mesmers have clones and phantasms.

Rangers should have roaming and evasion as their gimmicks. The tools are there: we have a few traits and abilities which improve our endurance gain, which give vigor boons, which give swiftness boons, protection on dodging, etcetera. We also have some quickness-related traits and one utility skill which gives quickness.

The problem is that the idea of a roamer/evader is there, but currently it’s poorly implemented. Most classes are almost as good (if arguably not better) at roaming and evading as rangers, whereas for example not a single class is even close to being as good at stealth as the thief is.

JonPeters.5630:

FYI this is slated for the 14th of December.

Posting here is truly appreciated and requires quite some courage considering the emotional state many rangers, including myself, are finding themselves in ever since the Lost Shores patch.

However, and I don’t mean to scare you away with this, but is it wise to make a promise like this after the aforementioned disaster of a patch? If another couple of your team gets the flue or if some big shot in your office tells you not to buff the signet, you’re looking at a world war two over here.

Anyway, I will say it again: posting here is truly appreciated. Even though the ranger class is still in a miserable state, seeing a big red post gives us hope for the future.

RyuDragnier.9476:

krojack.4920:

Excidium.6712:

What an immature thread.

The reason he was posting on the mesmer forums is likely because the phantasm issue is a lot more game breaking since it’s affecting every weapon combination and is a central class mechanic.

Ranger pets aren’t a central class mechanic?

Are they really necessary to kill anything?

Are phantasms really necessary to kill anything?

Personally, I have rerolled a guardian and have not regretted it since. Unlike a ranger, you can be anything you want. DPS, tank, you can even become a pseudo-dedicated healer if you want to! It’s absolutely amazing.

It’s just too bad that I’ve only just begun a guardian. When I bought the game I was initially torn between guardian and ranger, and much to my misfortune, a flip of the coin had decided for me to start out with ranger. Oh, ye cruel fate!

So, what about you? Any fellow guardian rerollers here? Or perhaps you have rerolled a thief or a warrior so that you can actually be decent at doing ranged damage? Let’s hear your stories!

Electro.4173:

Funny thing is that other professions feel the same way about Ranger.

There was a specific thread in the Elementalist forum complaining about how many developer posts there had been on the Ranger forum when they barely had any dev posts on that forum. And complaining about the fact that the Ranger trap cooldown bug was fixed immedietly when the Elementalist bugs introduced by the last patch (missing finishers and the like) were not even acknowledged at the time.

And while I don’t recall a seperate thread on the subject, I remember a few complaints on the Engineer forum about how Ranger had a lot of dev interaction in general while Engineer hadn’t had a dev reply in more than a month.

The grass is always greener in another forum :p

Engineers and elementalists have nothing to whine about. Engineers are fun as hell to play, and elementalists have at least one extremely viable build.

Also, their classes aren’t even close to being as crippled as rangers are. Not to mention the last time a dev did post on these forums, it was full of empty promises.

Mechrophilia.6987:

A non-refundable 36 gold to list a pear as a joke?

I think you’d be far more amused if you used the gold to hire another character to follow you around as your own personal bafoon for a day.

puts on foolscap

Buy orders don’t have a listing fee.

Spear is essentially our underwater greatsword, except for some reason it misses all the time.

Just reading ‘Ranger Spike Build’ make me chuckle.

But only for a moment. Then I sobbed quietly.

I’d argue that a ranger also has to put in twice as much effort to do something. Playing on my friend’s guardian for example, I oftentimes find myself lazely forgetting to even dodge or block attacks and still whack the absolute living chocolate milk out of people.

If this game has a hard mode, it’s called ‘rolling a ranger’.

Excidium.6712:

Makes me feel ok?

Rangers aren’t really supposed to be bunkers, unlike Guardians and Elementalists.

That was not how this game was advertised. No holy trinity and all that jack. And yet guardians, warriors, and guardians can make themselves incredibly tanky, and not only that, but guardians and elementalists can also make themselves pretty effective healers in a game which supposedly has no healers.

It’s frustrating. Just comparing rangers with elementalists, you see that they can outdamage us, outlive us, and outheal us. And don’t even make me start about guardians.

How does it make you feel that an elementalist/guardian bunker build is ten times as effective as a ranger bunker build?

I know how it makes me feel. It makes me feel sad.

garethh.3518:

Agadar.4931:

Are you sure we’re playing the same game? Because I don’t think we are.

If you play S/TPvP….
Yeah, then you don’t play pets well.
Its a tragedy, most rangers for some reason don’t… it could be partly why there is so much QQ around.

For birds, the raven F2, then swap for a second bird F2 can pull off 10~k spikes if you spec for it, every 16~ seconds to boot. That and they aoe swiftness and can hit moving targets so their dmg never really stops coming in.
Canines can kitten up an extremely good number of enemies if you know how to help set up their knockdowns, use their aoe fear/imob well and interrupt their stuff when you know it is wasted.
Spiders have ranged imobs and if you go for it, there is that trait for a cripple on spider F2, I’ve heard it is a 5s cripple on hit and spider F2s can have 3~ hits on them for a 15s cripple. Pretty powerful if you are into kiting, not many balls to the wall melee dps have answers to long duration movement impairment.

Oh trust me, I use my pets well. Well, when they actually listen to me when I give them orders or activate their abilities.

I find myself more often without than with my pet, considering he dies all the time.

I’ve learned to cope with it. Though I have started talking to myself every now and then.

garethh.3518:

Agadar.4931:

Pets are also a central class mechanic, and are currently much more broken than the phantasm issue.

Nope…
I have won so many fights just because of my canines.
If their AI was fixed they would be blatantly OP.
A reliable on command aoe fear and immobilize in addition to 2~k dmg 2s knockdown and consistent 800~ auto attacks… that would be ridiculous…

Birds are also really good.

Spiders are decent, felines are decent.

A fair number of pets are underpowered or buggy but that’s not really a major issue since there are still many working good pets.

Are you sure we’re playing the same game? Because I don’t think we are.

Excidium.6712:

What an immature thread.

The reason he was posting on the mesmer forums is likely because the phantasm issue is a lot more game breaking since it’s affecting every weapon combination and is a central class mechanic.

Pets are also a central class mechanic, and are currently much more broken than the phantasm issue.

Kain Francois.4328:

CalGarith.6517:

Agadar.4931:

You can also trait into having 2 seconds of quickness whenever you swap pets in combat. That would be every 20 seconds if I’m not mistaken.

When in combat i think its 60 seconds. Everything else is very right, if you have a ranger Reroll for your safety.

Oh come on, Rangers can’t be that bad, right? I only deal 300 average dmg each hit with the Engineer’s Pistol 1… Engineers are locked into 1 viable build (Grenades)

In that case, engineers have one more viable build than rangers have.

I really wish it wasn’t this bad. I really do. But when I can own face on my friend’s warrior and guardian while barely having played either class, while struggling with my ranger, on which I spend almost 300 hours on, it becomes atrociously obvious that rangers are a horrible class.

Ranger has lower DPS than tank builds of other classes.

Your role in a team is to be a burden. People will essentially be carrying you while you contribute barely anything to the team.

As for weapons, considering they all suck, just take one which seems fun. Greatsword, longbow, and axes never cease to bore me.

Spirits suck. As for the other utilities: our shouts suck as well, and the only somewhat decent signet we have is Signet of the Wild. Traps are decent when traited into them. Several of our survival utilities are average.

Beastmastery is worth investing in if you want to pretend that your pet can actually hit something, or for when you want to pretend you’re supporting your team with heals.

All pets die when sneezed upon. In WvW, your best bet are ranged pets as they die less often. For sPvP, dogs should do the trick.

Warhorn is the only viable swiftness we have. We have an elite with an atrocious cooldown and we can gain a few seconds of swiftness when swapping weapons if traited, but it requires you to be in combat.

The elite spirit is decent in certain specific situations. The AoE root is good for PvE kiting or against dumb PvPers. Rampage As One is our only source of stability, so it’s almost a must in PvP.

Runes depend entirely on your build. I use Dwayna because I like to pretend I make a good substitute for a support guardian (which I don’t.)

Rangers have one 4-second quickness on demand during which you cannot heal. You can also trait into having 2 seconds of quickness whenever you swap pets in combat. That would be every 20 seconds if I’m not mistaken.

Finally, if you want a DPS alt to warrior, this is not the class for you. Pick thief or hell, even a guardian.

Rangers? DPS?

There was once a time where we could DPS. That was beta.

We have replaced our role as a DPSer with that of cannon fodder.

AlexRD.7914:

5 points is almost mandatory
its a 10% damage increase for all times, and even works to kill downed players or revive faster.

I second this. I lost count of how many times I saved an entire group in a dungeon by quick-ressing a downed party member.

The quickness is also pretty amazing with the Greatsword. Against enemies with slow attacks, the auto-attack evade pretty much makes you invulnerable.

obstinate giraffe.9276:

Ranger is incredible in sPvP, I find. I run a survival/BM build (one that was actually posted up on these forums too) and it is perfect. I can hold points long enough for support with the amount of defence I have and I generally beat anyone 1v1 that I ever fight, from a glass cannon thief, to a tank of a guardian.

The problem with Ranger players is that they focus far too much on the bugs and negativity of the Ranger class, which is alright to a degree as it gets things done, but to go as far as to say Ranger is bad in PvP? No. If you think pets are ‘useless’, then you really haven’t been playing the class properly at all.

Oh look, it’s another one of those ‘I feel fine so my class is fine as well’ persons.

Protip: just because you think something is, does not make it so.

You’re completely reliant on two ‘immunities’ if you can call them that, both with atrocious cooldowns. If you’re ever caught without them you’re at a severe disadvantage.

I would not run it.

Taym.8326:

Edenwolf.6328:

What exactly does opening strikes do, I’ve always wondered.

5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seoncds, but its usually augmented further by the top tree condition duration and by anything else a ranger takes (usually 6-7 seconds). The pet also applies opening strikes at 15 marksman giving the ranger 10 stacks of vuln to give to an enemy at the start of a fight.

For five seconds.

The trait is still worthless. Even though most of our other traits are pretty lackluster as well, they still blow Markmanship out of the water.

DesertRose.2031:

Go to gw2guru and check the State of the Game video, Jonathan Sharp says the 12/14/2012 will bring a lot of balance updates. He also says it was a stupid move to have stated a date when the Ranger changes would be finished because shortly after a few programmer caught a flu which messed up their schedules.

Can’t find anything about that in the transcription.

And even if they couldn’t help it, then we could at the very least have gotten a message from John. Not even an apology, just a simple heads-up.

But he didn’t. He did not say a word.

Fixed as of the third of december update. Though there was a severe lack of feedback on this bug, I’m glad that the game developers fixed it. Thanks!

nldixon.8514:

Rannulf.9417:

So would zerker be better for greatsword/longbow ranger or should i run ac for the p/t/v? and what runes you guys think i should use on them?

Longbow and greatsword aren’t even close to the worst weapons in the game. Just remember that there aren’t really any bad Ranger weapons, just bad Ranger players.

I tend to go for survivability over damage. Surviving is one of the things Rangers do incredibly well, so (in my opinion) it’s better to play to your strengths.

I use power, vitality, toughness armor from AC with all Monk runes. I was thinking about switching it up to two Monk, two Dwayna, two Water, but I haven’t crunched the numbers yet to see if that’s even a good idea.

I personally use sword/dagger with fire/hydromancy and axe/warhorn with fire/energy. If were going to run with longbow and greatsword I would use fire on the longbow and either hydromancy or energy on the greatsword.

There aren’t any bad weapons?

Then you simply must tell me why I’ve literally never seen rangers use swords, daggers, or off-hand axes in-game besides myself.

RummyTheMad.7290:

Casey.9687:

Even with the reduced CD its not worth it….i’ve put 1,122 hours into my ranger and i know its pointless to run lightening reflexes and and signet of renewal for its stun break is a 60 second recharge its pointless to run signet of renewal and im not coming up with personal attacks to get my point across…..im just tired of this kid argueing with everyone….apparently you don’t read his posts….so shut the kitten up ya jackwagon

Well, at least you maintain a consistent quality in your posts.

I’ve read posts by most of the regulars in here, and you being tired of something doesn’t really justify being an kitten but to each his or her own…

If you have played that long on your ranger, then you would know that there are multiple ways to build your ranger. One of those ways involves using stun breakers, of which there are two. Your personal opinion simply isn’t fact, and beyond that you misstated your “facts.”

Anyway, keep on being he beacon of quality and insightfulness that you clearly are. I’m sure everyone is looking forward to your next post as much as I am.

Ironically, the quality and insightfulness of the other guy’s posts completely trump yours, which are filled with nothing but patronizing, passive-agressive nonsense.

Leuca.5732:

Agadar.4931:

Leuca.5732:

Durzlla.6295:

@Leuca “You don’t need a ranged weapon to kite HB warriors.”

Please sir and/or madam, how do you kite something with a Melee weapon? Because last I checked that’s just called running away…

Dodges, strafing, etc. Ever dodged into a warrior as he started HB instead of away? You end up behind him and free to attack. If you are avoiding his attacks while still performing your own, this can be considered kiting.

That is not kiting. Don’t redefine words at your own leisure.

Define kiting.

Google is your friend.

Leuca.5732:

Durzlla.6295:

@Leuca “You don’t need a ranged weapon to kite HB warriors.”

Please sir and/or madam, how do you kite something with a Melee weapon? Because last I checked that’s just called running away…

Dodges, strafing, etc. Ever dodged into a warrior as he started HB instead of away? You end up behind him and free to attack. If you are avoiding his attacks while still performing your own, this can be considered kiting.

That is not kiting. Don’t redefine words at your own leisure.