Guild Wars 2

Im in mostly zerk gear with a few PTV pieces. got the rapier skin and a few other pieces lately and realized my hp dipped to around 16k, I used to be at 19-20. What are most people running around at?

sorry just read all this lol. Im not inexperienced, just inexperienced with Ranger. I have an 80 Guard Mes Range Thief and Ele. Ranger is the only one ive never really tried… to do anything with. going to try spirits, thanks

I know theres a couple of topics out there like this but im just really confused. I dont know which way to go with ranger. I want to use sword/x and anything else. Im currently build with berserker armor and cavalier trinkets. id prefer not to go condition yet, need to get 2nd sets of armor for a few toons. Ive never tried Spirits, id like too, but I cant even find a spirit build people are using on the boards. any help is appreciated.

I want this armor so bad and I simply dont have the gold/gems for it. how long will it be available?

For the record, I am all for nerfs. I didnt mind the thief nerfs, because we are still a great class. However, the WAY we were nerfed has simply removed weapon sets from us all together

Lyonell.1753:

Azure.8670:

If anyone here plays guilty gears, Warriors are the Sol Badguy of GW2 now.

anyway, Warriors have gotten better and better every patch, but other classes have gotten nerfed hard. Rangers and Guardians have no reason to complain, they are also on the side of smiles. Mesmers are becoming COMPLETELY worthless in both WVW and PVP. I see this Daec fellow (Sorry forgot your entire name) bashing thieves and such and saying we/they need to learn how to play. Let me explain something to you.

Thief class has been nerfed extremely bad. We have exactly two ways to play. Dagger/Pistol with constant stealth and back stabs, or sword/dagger with evades and much less damage. Warriors regen so much now that we cant use our pistol or shortbow against you, its literally a waste of time if we go the sword/dagger build. So now we go back to dagger/pistol which is effective against most every class, but now we all have to run it and a lot of us dont want too. Stealth isnt as amazing as you think it is. We get maybe 3 seconds of stealth unless we use shadow refuge, and using a Dagger/Pistol build we have low hp and low armor. Using Shadow Refuge we’re trapped for about 3 seconds in a circle and we almost always get hit, and a lot of the times die in their and you dont even know it. Any Hammer or Stunlock warrior with patience can completely own us. How do we beat a warrior? With sword/pistol and constant blinds. Thats our real way out, but it sucks against almost every other class so walking around with it is a kitten . You can say whatever you want it doesnt really matter because you seem to know better than everyone else, but before coming at thieves go play one vs a decent warrior now and see how horrible it is. Better yet, pick up Mesmer and fight a warrior. Its a good laugh

You REALLY need to L2P… you sound like you got too used to Back stabbing your way to the top…

Thiefs got nerfed constantly cause they were unstoppable killing machines, none of their weapons compared to d/d and short bow for mobility. In fact nothing in the game compared to that kitten. Oh well Pistol whip did for a while but it got quickly nerfed, in case you weren’t around when that happened, thiefs could shadow step behind you/ quicken > spam pistol whip and stack like 4 into the same animation then stomp you before you could even press a key. That was Op. Then came the back stabs for 17+k that was op. Mesmers being technically immortal and destroying every class via confusion + other conditions was op.

Warriors are both hard and simple all at once, we don’t have any advanced tricks, this is the very reason why playing a warrior is so hard, even landing a shield bash is a feat of might. Sure warriors can hit hard, sure we can sustain decently but is nothing any other class can’t do. Rangers long bow got buff along their pets now they are fun as hell to play and fight against, necros became abominations and every other class was somewhere around these levels so the only thing preventing you from winning fights is yourself.

So L2P before you force Anet into kitten nerfing mode to please the bad players who want to pvp only when a face roll class is available.

ive been playing since launch, and no. just no. Pistol whip did need that nerf, but we’ve lost pistol whip and dancing dagger. our 3 and 4 on weapon sets are completely worthless. and as for our mobility, what the truck are you talking about? Eles have always had more mobility than Thieves until, well, now. Btw the Ranger longbow buff isnt a buff at all it absolutely sucks. It doesnt fit what the longbow does at all so I have no idea what youre talking about. Further, Ive never liked d/d and used p/d and s/anything. Almost nothing is viable now besides d/p.

im trying your tough shatter build… im in desperate need of mesmer skill. Im horrible apparently, I dont know…

ive had this very same problem for about three months, almost walked away from both and picked up ranger. Honestly im leaning towards my thief because mesmer nerfs make me sad and apparently I suck with them in WVW and PVP

If anyone here plays guilty gears, Warriors are the Sol Badguy of GW2 now.

anyway, Warriors have gotten better and better every patch, but other classes have gotten nerfed hard. Rangers and Guardians have no reason to complain, they are also on the side of smiles. Mesmers are becoming COMPLETELY worthless in both WVW and PVP. I see this Daec fellow (Sorry forgot your entire name) bashing thieves and such and saying we/they need to learn how to play. Let me explain something to you.

Thief class has been nerfed extremely bad. We have exactly two ways to play. Dagger/Pistol with constant stealth and back stabs, or sword/dagger with evades and much less damage. Warriors regen so much now that we cant use our pistol or shortbow against you, its literally a waste of time if we go the sword/dagger build. So now we go back to dagger/pistol which is effective against most every class, but now we all have to run it and a lot of us dont want too. Stealth isnt as amazing as you think it is. We get maybe 3 seconds of stealth unless we use shadow refuge, and using a Dagger/Pistol build we have low hp and low armor. Using Shadow Refuge we’re trapped for about 3 seconds in a circle and we almost always get hit, and a lot of the times die in their and you dont even know it. Any Hammer or Stunlock warrior with patience can completely own us. How do we beat a warrior? With sword/pistol and constant blinds. Thats our real way out, but it sucks against almost every other class so walking around with it is a kitten . You can say whatever you want it doesnt really matter because you seem to know better than everyone else, but before coming at thieves go play one vs a decent warrior now and see how horrible it is. Better yet, pick up Mesmer and fight a warrior. Its a good laugh

trooper.2650:

Well, thank you guys for the kind words

I have two 80s which unluckly happen to be a mesmer and a guardian instead of a warrior. That could have helped me to know the class better and not ask silly questions.
So, sorry if I did not know that a war can do that amount of damage with a rifle. If only I knew it yes, you can be sure I would have rolled out of the way.

Anyway, I apologise once again for wasting your time with noob questions

/tr

I did not, at all, intend to be a kitten. im sorry and apologize

You know, ive been trying really hard not to complain because I keep taking a month off and coming back, but this last time ive come back….

I just cant stand my mesmer. I do WvW more than PVP because I havent been playing enough to keep up with all the new builds, but I plan too. However, my mesmer has felt worthless lately. Ive never been best with my mes, but I was always decent and lately I feel like im at a disadvantage. My Thief Ranger and Ele all get the job done way better. Mesmer is my fav class to play but it makes me sad I cant compete. Mesmer is def better than I think it is, but I feel like Shatters dont scare people anymore and anyone can out condition me. I fought a burst ele last night over and over and just was just able to own me no matter what I did and it really had me thinking. Warriors are giving me a huge problem now too. Ugh I dunno sorry for complaining didnt mean too

Pyroatheist.9031:

If they 1shot you with 8,149 damage, I’d like to know how you lowered the minimum health on the mesmer by about 6 thousand.

this, and then I have a question as well. When he dropped to one knee and prayed to his god to shoot you, did you simply not see him or think that it wouldnt hurt you

im def going to give your build a shot, thanks a lot

both WVW and PVP. PVP wasnt as bad as WVW

Its really just the healing getting to me. I used to SB warriors down and finish them off however was best, but the SB nerfs made it suck. Plus with 2/30/20 im hitting for 900-1.5k, and they are regenning a little less than that. By the time one stun is off of me they are back are full health smh

I use all different builds, I always switch it around. I tried this famous 0/20/30/20/ lately and im not doing enough damage to kill a warrior, they regen it right back. I was doing fine with daggers going 10/30/30… well for the most part, but i prefer sword over dagger in main hand. The Warrior that gave me the high level beat down use axe/mace Hammer. I could do NOTHING against this guy oddly. I broke out my mesmer and almost downed him twice but he came back with a vengeance. I dont know, im def doing something wrong but with S/D I feel so weak not using 10/30/30, but I feel stealth isnt optimal for a Sword build

so ive always liked sword and dagger but I seem to just suck with it. I took on a warrior yesterday and i simply could not do enough damage to kill him. im mostly zerker with PTV gear also. Got a nice whoopin by the same guy 4 times. Between my Mes and Thief I simply cannot kill Warriors anymore

If only we could form like ultron…

I completely agree with you. There arent enough engineer type head pieces. Id like more goggles or helms with a lil light on it or something

I still think 10/30/30 works best for SD but I guess its just me

my thief used to run full coe with exotic helm and looked like scorpion. Hes been in full arah with CM shoulders and no helm since about jan. I think its time to change my look as well

use s/d with a sb. with s/d use 5 and auto attack everything. at level 40 I was fighting level 50 mobs and at 65 went to frostgorge and killed all the animals to 74, then made my way south to cursed shore. blind and sword are your friends

Actually, four other thieves and I went p/p and just abused 3 and wiped out an unbelievable amount of people. It was kittened how fast we dropped everyone. Im talking about 5 on 15 action it was amazing. I do think P/P sucks but that night… we were (lower tier) gods.

I have to say I switch between Thief and Mesmer as my main nonstop. I dont know which I want to get Bolt for. I made a Sylvari Engi because I dont like Sylvari and I thought I wouldnt like the Engi, but lord was I wrong. This really might become my main

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

If you claim you don’t want it nerfed, don’t be passive aggressive and propose any nerfs.
Cause if that gets nerfed, it’s only fair that sharper images got nerfed with it >.<

How am i? Not once have i said they SHOULD be nerfed. The fact of the matter is they WILL be nerfed when enough people complain about ti, that is how Anet works – what ever build/class has the most “nerf this class/build” threads and posts you can bet they will nerf it.

Personally i see no problem with them having that sort of build, they havent really been strong before so it is nice to see them with a bit of threat about them. Even if as you say some builds of other classes can do it better.

Sharper Images will likely be soon on the chopping block, once all of our good traits are destroyed they will work on our minor traits. Me saying HOW they could be nerfed does NOT mean how i WANT them (which i dont!) to be nerfed.

people have been crying for a nerf to shatter mesmers and backstab thieves since release, nothing has changed there. In fact, everything with Mesmer has been weakened except shatter builds

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

In a condi heavy meta, who is going to whine about warriors when so many classes do condis better?

Very high toughness? A full ZERKER PU mesmer with protection has about the same effective armor as this warrior. The only thing that might have merit is that he has about 1k/second health regen (IFF he doesn’t burst). It seems ridiculous until you realize that necro scepter auto attack would still wreck him while being able to send his conditions back at him. Actually, any consistent condi+poison spam would get to him. Also, he specced really heavy to get that tanky. He deserves it.

Standard Runes of Meladru/Food make his burst bleeds last 1 second. So basically his burst does 900 bleed dmg. Then we got warriors doing 22k eviscerates in wvw. Auto attack bleeds will last 5 seconds. Burn won’t do anything. His CC will be 1 second immobilizes and a .75 second stun… Don’t even need condition cleanses or stun breaks against this guy. Or just send the bleeds back to him with generosity and trickery.

If you claim you don’t want it nerfed, don’t be passive aggressive and propose any nerfs.
Cause if that gets nerfed, it’s only fair that sharper images got nerfed with it >.<

I agree with all of the above. Im just as guilty, in the fact that I run high damage high risk high reward builds. I dont usually carry condition removal unless im using my mantra build, which im still working on. However it is really important, and im unsure which rune set to go with myself. I usually dont fear conditions as a mesmer since we get hit little and try to kill quick, but sadly ive come to realize the truth that Engineers can destroy me. We dont even need to bring up Necros because they are basically 100% condition and we all know how they operate, but engineers and now condition warriors are a serious threat. The Warrior in this video is a good player but hes not even using conditions to its maximum effect. He went extremely tanky, but if he had an offhand sword he could have really ruined some of these people in half the time. Im not saying you NEED condition removal, but if youre coming to the boards and hearing a couple of the same suggestions its probably with good reason mr Ashe. Again, im in the same exact boat as you, im still unsure what runes to use

Theres really no point to this post other than to tell the boards how much I love this class. Compared to Mesmer, Ele, Ranger, Guard and Thief…. this feels like a completely different game when I play as my Engi. I feel powerful, mobile, able to defend… im not stuck in a particular style like my Mes and Guard are. I.. I love you Engi <3

I dont see this getting nerfed anytime soon. Theres little reason for it tbh, power/precis builds have been dominant for a long time. Not only that, Engineers have been built to do the same thing for awhile now and no one has mentioned a nerf. If you havent come across a good condi Engi then I really want to know what servers youve been in WVW with

This made me change my mesmer build. Im dropping my ruby orbs for some kind of condition removal or Shatter builds will simply become worthless

locoman.1974:

I find your lack of fat male norn disturbing..

I dont understand how this much amazingness is allowed to exist. I feel like… you blew up the ocean

just reading this made me think; I cant remember the last time I saw a Guardian using a mace

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Azure.8670:

The Staff with the Guardian is like the auto beat down weapon. You hit 5 targets in a huge area at once, can hit through walls and the damage is extremely decent. You can kite using one hand and take down a mob while reading something on google. I do it often. To be fair, I think Guardian is lazy/fun mode by design. When i play my mesmer and engi I dodge roll and use every skill… Guard, sword/focus and Staff or GS/staff and just mow the lawn

To be fair I feel the same way about mesmer. Constant clone spam and hide, use decoy when they find you. While Guardian is much more involved if you actually want to get a kill.

I understand what youre saying but with my mesmer when I take damage I feel it. I actually have to run around and dodge, while my guardian eats chips. I run Zerker on both, though I do need to get back up sets for both of them

The Staff with the Guardian is like the auto beat down weapon. You hit 5 targets in a huge area at once, can hit through walls and the damage is extremely decent. You can kite using one hand and take down a mob while reading something on google. I do it often. To be fair, I think Guardian is lazy/fun mode by design. When i play my mesmer and engi I dodge roll and use every skill… Guard, sword/focus and Staff or GS/staff and just mow the lawn

forget mainhand pistol we dont need that (althought it would be nice) give us another Melee weapon PLEASE. And/or Shield. I can live without the Shield but it would be nice to have it since no LA class uses one. Back to melee, we desperately need another melee weapon. Preferably axe but mace can work too

seriously I turned off auto attack and I havent had a single problem

Forzani.2584:

Miyu.8137:

Bunker/regen ranger build is one of the best or even the best which ranger has. While being able to outheal lot of incoming dmg, you still keep the power thanks to your pet and 30BM. I don’t want to decrease the level of your skill, the vid is truly great and you showing the knowledge of the class and its skills, you mastered this build no doubts about that. However it’s one of the easiest ranger builds to play, would you agree with me?

I generaly don’t like bunker builds, I think they are kind of out of hands, on all classes. On the other side power builds are in the backgrounds of bunker/condition builds (unless you have unlimited posibilities to hide and vanish from fight anytime you want when your hp is dangerously down, then here it’s working), specially by rangers.

Full power (berserker) build requires much better timing and precize skill usage. One mistake and you can be down in a sec. Would love to see a vid of someone who mastered such build.

Going out into WvW without armor would be challenging also. Yes, zerker requires better timing and skill. Think about it though. If the average person was given a choice between doing a ton of damage and blowing things up…or, being hard to kill yet taking forevever to kill someone. What do you think they would choose ? I would bet strongly people would prefer to do damage.

If that is true, why don’t more Rangers go zerker ? …because they aren’t rewarded for it enough. You make yourself that soft you had better be superman when dealing damage. You aren’t. So people have evolved towards bunker..BM…regen type builds. Not because they want to, but because they had to.

They dont have too at all. Zerker Ranger works just fine with shortbow s/d. However when you have the evasive ability a Ranger has, mixed with natural high hp and the ability to regen, you become an agile tank. This is not something every class can do, but Rangers can.

Lol my tier 3 is my main set… im thinking of going air. I can always buy scholar again in the future. Air or Ruby orbs not sure now

I feel like im the only person using them. I run a Mantra build but sometimes go shatter, and im thinknig I might benefit from something other than Scholar Runes. I hate to get rid of these things from how much money I spent, I thought about making a seperate set of armor but my armor is tier 3 human. ugh. So im assuming Air is the way to go ( wvw, some pve)

Celebratty.1632:

We’re a class in a movement-dependent game that relies on dodging that has no movement.
Spirits don’t move unless traited, pets don’t dodge and ‘return to me’ is bloody AWFUL because they’ll just stop in front of you and you actually have to stop dpsing to run backwards to get them farther away. Pets can’t even dodge, and one of our highest DPS weapons literally makes it impossible to dodge or move while attacking.
The fact that we can still do well is just a testament of how strong rangers could be if properly designed.

I agree with what hes saying except for the sword part. I would MUCH prefer the sword to work how other weapons do, but it has a powerful homing auto attack and 2 evades. combined with an offhand dagger thats even more. also has a leap finisher in it. It does work how its supposed to, its just annoying. As for the pet part though I completely agree

Editing this to speak on pets for a second: There are people out there that are great with pets and focus on them, its awesome. With that said, I simply dont see it that way. The main talk around the boards is that half of a rangers DPS is from our pet but dont look at it that way or else itll drive you crazy. Think of your pet as a bonus, as a damage ticker the ability to have a seperate utility (prot, regen, whatever). Pets are annoying for the most part when it comes to WVW and such, but there are people who use them to great effect, I am not one of them. I have had my lynx win a fight for me that I should have lost many times, so they arent worthless. Theyre great, but if I had one complaint pet management would be it. They are powerful, just annoying

Sir, allow me to speak with you please.

First, play as every class. I got this game at launch, ive taken 3-1 month breaks, and I always come back like its a fresh game (which it is actually). I still havent rolled Warrior or Necro, and my engi is lvl 10, but the rest I have at 80 so I can speak with some experience.

if youre looking to go into every dungeon and destroy monsters and grab booty (gold and loot you perv) warrior is the best way to go. GS is built to just own things. With that out of the way, Ranger is my 2nd favorite class, possibly 1st because I constantly rotate my top 3. Here is what makes the Ranger great… open world PVE is an absolute breeze as a Ranger. I walked the world with Shortbow Longbow and murdered my way to lvl 80. After that, in dungeons, you can go anyway you want. Depending on your team you can go for range or melee. Rangers at range are safe because our healing for ourselves and/or party is amazing, plus our damage is constant but not burst. (burst damage is overrated for PVE, but thats conversation for another day). Moving away from that, all of our weapons are viable. Axe is probably our weakest weapon, which is funny because its actually my favorite weapon but I havent used it lately. GS is a beast. Its auto attack isnt that strong, but its 2 attack is powerful and we have a leap finisher, a great block and a stun. its great for PVE and amazing for WVW/PVP. Sword is one of the best weapons in the game. its extremely difficult to use, but it plays well with any off hand weapon you choose as long as your build coincides with it, as well as playstyle. Traps suck for PVE but theyre great for PVP/WVW. Our conditions arent powerful, but theyre constant and with our high mobility, range, good hp pool, hp regen, we can outlast almost any class.

I could keep going but I why bother. Point being, the Ranger is actually an experts class and is treated as the noob class because we have “Range and pets!!!”. Dont look at it this way. Think of it more like Drizzt Do’Urdem (you probably have no idea who that is). Think of Rangers as agile warriors that are built to survive, and have many means to do that by.

interesting interesting take all of this in. Sticking with my build so far. Im going to do more PVP and less WvW because my server is getting owned so badly I cant find a 1v1 or 1v2, its all 1v10+

Defektive.7283:

IDK why I keep coming up in these conversations.

Because youre worth talking about. Take it personally and enjoy it

I actually love the scepter and think its way better than people realize.

Whats with warriors being obsessed with Burst damage? Thats why there are so many bad ones in pvp/wvw. Thief s/d doesnt have anywhere near the burst damage d/d has but s/d owns people. Ive played along side some good hammer/mace and hammer/? warriors before and became a believer. I usually play Thief Mes or Ranger and ill say that Warriors these days are a lot more trouble than they used to be. I actually used to run past them and not bother, but I dunno they def arent bad at all. Not too long ago Rangers were considered the worst class and everyone laughed at them…

Toeofdoom.6152:

I run a very similar build in pve/wvw (30/10/0/30/0, GS, Sword/focus) and really like it – MoP/restoration + blink stick around but otherwise everything’s flexible. It would be nice if restorative mantras had a graphical effect as I suspect a few of my teammates don’t understand why I start chasing them at low health.

In sPvP it felt a bit slow paced – much harder to get a mantra charged if you’re forced onto a point, it really thrives when you have tonnes of space. I’ll have to try again with mantra toughness, in other areas it’s no use anyway because I just avoid getting hit when recharging.

skcamow is right about 30 inspiration opening up a lot of support though being phantasm focused I don’t go for the shatter traits – just glamours/focus reflects/mantra heals for the most part.

One final thing – I checked it some time ago now, recharging MoP does more single target DPS than greatsword auto at max range. Really helps with effective damage as you can time it around dodges/blocks/invuln while healing at the same time.

Thanks for replying! I havent tried PvP because im not GREAT with my mesmer yet, but i can def hold my own since I started using this build. If I were in PVP id probably use this same exact build except without the Berserker ammy and I would use scepter pistol/GS tbh.

MOP hits hard; I hit for 1800-3500 per pain, 3 charges. Its my auto thief killer, 1 or 2 auto attacks and a pain drops them pretty easy. I forever have problem with Engineers no matter what class I use, but I seem to be doing well with them on my mes. I dont use Mantra Toughess but I would for PVP. In WvW I drop people fast and im usually running at maximum distance from them until I decide to engage with a Mantra Daze, Mantra Pain and a BF or auto attack and follow their inevitable dodge and use the next Pain, than Daze since Daze has a 4s cooldown. Works well. My third skill has been decoy lately, but I switch it to blink on and off. Scholar Runes are also helping a lot too since im usually at full health entering and by the end of fights. Im going to focus on perfecting this, as this is probably the build im going to stick with for a long time

Actually I just tried this in pvp for fun real quick and did well, but I didnt like scepter pistol. Scepter/Sword worked wonders. I may even drop GS for staff but im not sure. should be fun

Guardians are so good thakittens the only class Forum where people dont complain about nerfs and weaknesses. seriously, check the other boards. Mesmers, Thieves, Rangers, Necros, Eles (recently though I dont know why tbh) Engis (which I think are OP but thats another story) all complain and cry. I dont even use my Guardian because I feel like hes just… great lol. I stick with Mesmer Thief and Ranger, but I think Guardian is hands down the best overall class

Laiboch.4380:

The best thing Anet could really do with Spirit ranger is remove the spirit. I do not mean the ability, but the actual little tree spirit that is summoned. Instead make It like an Attunement. Lets Say the ranger takes the 10 point trait to improve spirits. Instead of having to summon a little tree every 60 seconds that lasts 60 seconds… The ranger Channels the force of said spirit through themselves. Making them kind of a banner so to speak. So should a ranger take Frost and Earth spirits the ranger and everyone with in range would receive the benefit of the Ranger’s attunements. They could still use the active ability on the same 30 second timer, but would no longer have a herd of little tree’s following them everywhere they go. Its all about synergy. Bringing something to groups and the ability to play with the same effectiveness as other classes with out having more conditions placed on them for equal performance.

Rangers have a lot of checks in place limiting what they can and cannot do. In all honesty more than most other classes. They have a check in place on damage having to micro manage their pet to keep it alive to keep their damage on par with other classes that simply do not have to worry about those things. Unlike Warrior Banners Ranger spirits can be killed. Why? Why is the Ranger the poster child for 2 steps forward 3 steps back? They cannot trait into their elite skills.

I am not saying rangers cannot be effective as a class. There are several people that have proven that, but what I am saying is that it takes way way more work to be almost as effective as other classes that do not have to invest nearly the resources into being effective.
Anet should also give Rangers the option of being a pet or non pet class. It would be incredibly simple. Simply make pets a 10 point trait in the BM line. Problem solved. Not everyone wants to micro manage a pet. So a player who wants and plays with a pet would get the benefits of having said pet, and a player who does not want the pet would get the benefit of being a “Lone Wolf” receiving a damage increase to bring them on par with the Damage they are supposed to have with the pet. With how much the pet misses a simple 15% damage buff would probably be more than sufficient.

Of all the classes the Ranger seems to be the most pigeon holed class.With its role being defined for the player rather than being defined by the players. The point behind having skill points and skill tree’s is to allow the player to create their own niche. Their own play style. Anet seems to release classes with out the intent of letting players create their own builds, but sill having the illusion of that freedom. One has only to look at the current meta to see that in action.

I agree with you 100% on the spirit part, but not on the pets. I actually used to say the SAME EXACT thing you just said about pet but ive changed my mind over the months. A Ranger without the Pet system is just a thief without the stealth and half the damage. The Pet what keeps people moving. Honestly, the Ranger has improved leaps and bounds since release. At launch people didnt bother with anything other than sb/lb, now I see Rangers (myself included) take down guardians with a greatsword. Our pets are a great bonus. They are annoying to micro manage, but if you dont want that than play another class. <—- I HATE saying that, but in this instance its true.

I made a Sylvari Engi. I actually dislike Sylvari, but I have 3 humans, 2 norns, and I want 1 of each of the other races. Soooo I decided to make a Sylvari with a mohawk because I was messing around with armor pieces and such and realized sylvari in some SE armor and abyss dye will look like a complete evil kitten…. holding a flamethrower

I actually originally had deceptive illusion, but I feel it cripples me more than helps me as I usually lose a phantasm over it. Again, that may be more of a my play style flaw than an actual game flaw if that makes any sense. (it does, im just not wording it correctly). Yes it is great for removing conditions, I have very little fear of them using this build. Im trying to work the Daze mantra into this, though im not sure how it will work out. Thanks for the input and describing this to anyone trying to read it lol. I look forward to your future review!