Guild Wars 2

Stoneslammer.3650:

DaisyRogers.6837:

Peter.9406:

DaisyRogers.6837:

Great, the other classes are easier to pick up and play. Ranger’s have a deceptively high skill cap in the sense that you need to pay attention to two healthbars, something that most of complaining population refuses to do.

The only complaints I really view as valid are spirits going pop way to quickly (few counters), and pets being broken in fractals and Jade Maw (no counters).

Every other complaint on this forum I have found a counter too. Which means yes its a l2p issue. Its just that most vocal rangers have refused to l2p and demand the class gets dumbed down to pew pewing arrows.

I agree, however there are some major issues that aren’t L2P issue like pets in fractals and spirits. The pet fractals issue is affecting our dungeon experience and is an unfair disadvantage. Spirits are horrible no matter how you play them you are better off bringing something else than those skills that barely do any support. I agree that rangers have a steep learning curve, but there are just too many essential parts that are broken and can’t be overcome by L2P.

And I don’t think the other classes are happier because they are easier to pick up, because classes like mesmer and ele still have a learning curve to work effectively. They are just working as intended with minimal bugs and problems.

I should re-clarify. Other classes are more straightforward to pick up, they do what you expect them to do. Even Ele and Mesmer are straightforward and doesn’t take long to get it rolling. Rangers cannot until you learn to work with the pet.

You will never see the damage numbers unless you work with the pet; CC with freeze, entangle, cripple whatever to get your pet in range (since fix pets hit pretty reliably once they are in range). You can also kite in a way to force your opponent into the pet. Melee makes it overly simple to max out your damage.

and when you fail to utilize the controls we have for our pet (what seperates us from MM) yes I expect your dps to suffer.

And yes, as I mentioned and you more or less repeated, I agree, we are broken in fractals, and most of our spirits are underwhelming (except stone and Elite) and insanely squishy when we fail to place them in an overly protective place.

The problem with what your saying is that for some reason you seem to thinks pets are working like they should be. They are not. I almost exclusively play WvW because that is what i enjoy but I can probably count on the fingers of one hand where my pet was a deciding factor in a 1v1 fight. I have said this in another thread but when was the last time you heard or read in chat a warning to “watch out you have a Rangers pet on you”? Or “hurry up and focus that pet down”? Really most dont even pay attention to a rangers pet myself included. When i fight a ranger 1v1 I dont even worry about their pet at all.

I dont really do dungeons but PvE in general i consider the ranger class AWESOME. I typically have no problem whatsoever fighting 4 lvl 80 mobs at the same time. it is WvW where we have problems and i would assume SPvP but i cant say for sure as I rarely go there after getting repeatedly killed by thieves with next to no effort at all.

couple of days old I know, but meh I was on duty all weekend.

This actually works to your advantage as ranger. I kind of enjoy the fact that our damage numbers come out as a stream versus splashes. People panic at the sight at mesmers and thieves. They are on their toes around these classes, and they get focused down. Awesome. They are feared.

We on the other hand have two smaller numbers popping up on the enemies screen, deceptive, it doesn’t feel as much because the chunks are smaller, but they damage is coming at a comparable rate (none burst rate). If they ignore the pet, all the better, less micro managing for me.

I also get a kick out of opponents who charge in on my roaming kitten looking for a “free” kill. It doesn’t take them long to figure out the battle is not going as they planned at all. It also helps that there are many terri-bad rangers out their that help reinforce this stereotype of the ranger.

GS is better at roaming then zerg. It has amazing closing and escape utility. I have axe/horn paired with it.

If you have GS, I suggest tanky BM. You will tank hits like none other and your pet will still dish tremendous damage (roaming, your pet is typically and foolishly ignored).

The best part about fighting in melee, is your opponent will hold still for your pet. Rangers IMO shine far more in melee than at range.

Peter.9406:

DaisyRogers.6837:

Great, the other classes are easier to pick up and play. Ranger’s have a deceptively high skill cap in the sense that you need to pay attention to two healthbars, something that most of complaining population refuses to do.

The only complaints I really view as valid are spirits going pop way to quickly (few counters), and pets being broken in fractals and Jade Maw (no counters).

Every other complaint on this forum I have found a counter too. Which means yes its a l2p issue. Its just that most vocal rangers have refused to l2p and demand the class gets dumbed down to pew pewing arrows.

I agree, however there are some major issues that aren’t L2P issue like pets in fractals and spirits. The pet fractals issue is affecting our dungeon experience and is an unfair disadvantage. Spirits are horrible no matter how you play them you are better off bringing something else than those skills that barely do any support. I agree that rangers have a steep learning curve, but there are just too many essential parts that are broken and can’t be overcome by L2P.

And I don’t think the other classes are happier because they are easier to pick up, because classes like mesmer and ele still have a learning curve to work effectively. They are just working as intended with minimal bugs and problems.

I should re-clarify. Other classes are more straightforward to pick up, they do what you expect them to do. Even Ele and Mesmer are straightforward and doesn’t take long to get it rolling. Rangers cannot until you learn to work with the pet.

You will never see the damage numbers unless you work with the pet; CC with freeze, entangle, cripple whatever to get your pet in range (since fix pets hit pretty reliably once they are in range). You can also kite in a way to force your opponent into the pet. Melee makes it overly simple to max out your damage.

and when you fail to utilize the controls we have for our pet (what seperates us from MM) yes I expect your dps to suffer.

And yes, as I mentioned and you more or less repeated, I agree, we are broken in fractals, and most of our spirits are underwhelming (except stone and Elite) and insanely squishy when we fail to place them in an overly protective place.

Great, the other classes are easier to pick up and play. Ranger’s have a deceptively high skill cap in the sense that you need to pay attention to two healthbars, something that most of complaining population refuses to do.

The only complaints I really view as valid are spirits going pop way to quickly (few counters), and pets being broken in fractals and Jade Maw (no counters).

Every other complaint on this forum I have found a counter too. Which means yes its a l2p issue. Its just that most vocal rangers have refused to l2p and demand the class gets dumbed down to pew pewing arrows.

SlimGenre.6417:

Nerf All The Things!!!

Front page of every forum on every topic on this site is riddled with “nerf this” and “nerf that” threads… last time I checked, if someone can do something to you, that means you can do it back to them… Every time you complain about what someone on the opposing server is doing to you, someone on your server is doing it to your enemy. Sounds fair to me.

I’m starting a movement… it’s called the “Stop The Nerf” Movement

ranger thread is devoid of nerf cries… just saying.

neverborne.4736:

Bob.8456:

DaisyRogers.6837:

neverborne.4736:

Simplest fix in the world which Anet refuses to implement: 50% to 75% AOE damage reducti. Pets should have to be targeted by players or bosses to get killed.

there is a trait that on dodge roll your pet gains protection. If you have a solid pet this protection will allow your pet to tank whatever AoE is thrown at it and survive to swap. I’ve done multiple dundgeons now and the dodge roll will allow the pet to survive spikes, particulalry if you have a solid pet like a wolf drake bear or pig.

The only times I have lost pets are when I wasn’t paying attention to the TELL TALE signs that the boss was about to spike. This is the fault of the ranger, not the pet. The ranger class in THIS game is designed around fighting with two characters at once.

Pets are extremely sturdy when built right and cared for. I’ve had my wolves tank champs without ever having to swap. I’ve solo’ed [group] events that groups won’t even take on because of insane damage. Pets are great when you use them properly. I’ve solo’ed one of the lovers keeping it busy while my party took care of the other.

If you like cats, great. Send them in for burst and pull them back, in and out, in and out. Its like a thief trying to duke it out with the boss… it ain’t going to end well. If thieves can’t pull it off, don’t expect your pets too either. Especially if you take said glass pet.

The more and more I play ranger and adapt my play, the more I see pet survivability as a user issue. GW2 has given us the tools to make it work (fractals excluded here, Arena needs to fix this). Use them.

Thank you. If you are not mastering your class mechanic in this game, you are not a good player of that class. The Ranger in GW2 is a beastmaster. Period. You are playing for two, and so anyone who is neglecting their pets should leave the class. If pet’s aren’t your style, then maybe the Ranger isn’t for you…because it’s kind of their class mechanic and therefore an essential part of their fundamentals. The Warrior got several of the old GW1 Ranger skills in his skill set, and all classes can hit from range so take your pick. If you aren’t making heavy use of your F1-F4 skills throughout a fight then you aren’t doing a kitten thing right as a Ranger. If I lose a pet, I made a mistake. Period.

Whatever the Ranger is lacking, a pet can usually cover. Stop thinking of your pets as additional spammable DPS and take a look at the utility they can provide. If you haven’t realized yet that you need to trait so as to benefit your pet as well as your own kitten then you will be handed that kitten over and over again.

I’m sorry sir but I’m guessing you’re a PVE ranger, high fiving your leet self for your mastery of the pet. Anyone who traits heavily into pets or thinks that F1-F4 skills will save them in WvW or fractals (primary end game of GW2) is a joke and a liability to their team.

Fractals, again if you read my quote which started the chain, I said fractals are an issue do to, yes in this instance, a broken pet mechanic. Pets have been given agony resistance value, it just hasn’t been filled in yet. Probably testing to get it right. Yes its broken, no one was arguing fractals.

WvW, I’ve had no issues with pets what so ever with roaming or even zerging. Pets actually can cause great havoc because most people are too busy paying attention to where the red circles are on the ground to notice a pet smacking an ally in the face.

Tips for zerging with active pets, fight from the outside edges of your zerg whenever possible. Less red circles for your pets to charge through. Use guard to stealth your pet through whatever AoE it does have to run through. Once its on the other side, enjoy watching your pet run from target to target for the most part ignored by everyone but the poor sap its snacking on.

Zenith.7301:

Don’t be dumb. A thief can melee 24/7 just fine, don’t pretend he has to go in and out like the cat should. Ditto with my mesmer and ele.

What kind of stupidity is this.

No, your pet will not survive against the Ascalonian generall or warriors or ele in lv20+ fractal even with protection. Nor will it survive the Lupicus pull or CoE aoe spikes.

It’s kinda adorable that you think wasting a dodge roll to give pet prot is fine because you somehow sit at range with your little bow not needing the dodges, but some rangers actually choose melee and have to conserve their dodges for when THEY need it.

fun you say that. I am always in melee with my ranger. It actually makes it much easier for myself. Anytime i have to dodge my pet dodges too. And again, if you look at the trait line, Anet gives rangers a generous boost to endurance regen in same trait line without having to choose the trait. The trait line is designed purposefully with this in mind. Allowing ranger to be more flexible with how often you use dodge rolls.

I’ve never had a problem with not having a dodge roll ready.

neverborne.4736:

Simplest fix in the world which Anet refuses to implement: 50% to 75% AOE damage reducti. Pets should have to be targeted by players or bosses to get killed.

there is a trait that on dodge roll your pet gains protection. If you have a solid pet this protection will allow your pet to tank whatever AoE is thrown at it and survive to swap. I’ve done multiple dundgeons now and the dodge roll will allow the pet to survive spikes, particulalry if you have a solid pet like a wolf drake bear or pig.

The only times I have lost pets are when I wasn’t paying attention to the TELL TALE signs that the boss was about to spike. This is the fault of the ranger, not the pet. The ranger class in THIS game is designed around fighting with two characters at once.

Pets are extremely sturdy when built right and cared for. I’ve had my wolves tank champs without ever having to swap. I’ve solo’ed [group] events that groups won’t even take on because of insane damage. Pets are great when you use them properly. I’ve solo’ed one of the lovers keeping it busy while my party took care of the other.

If you like cats, great. Send them in for burst and pull them back, in and out, in and out. Its like a thief trying to duke it out with the boss… it ain’t going to end well. If thieves can’t pull it off, don’t expect your pets too either. Especially if you take said glass pet.

The more and more I play ranger and adapt my play, the more I see pet survivability as a user issue. GW2 has given us the tools to make it work (fractals excluded here, Arena needs to fix this). Use them.

Ursan.7846:

^ You forget the resurrection spirit, THE most useful spirit IMO.

The hp increase is nice, but I really wish you could place your spirits a lot more precisely….That will go a LONG way in helping spirit survival.

I figured it was a given just how epic that spirit was lol. And that one can chew on AoE for a time.

I will state straight off, yes spirits are quite weak yes. but useless not completely.

In all honesty, in their current state with internal cooldowns hps and the like there is no point to invest any traits into them. 30% proc chance is quite easy to pull off consistently with the rate of attack on almost all rangers skills.

HP, again boost is laughable. Making spirits able to follow the ranger… absurb, that is just asking for them to be AoE nuked.

But as I said, useless no. The stone spirit in particular I have gotten into the habit of always having on me. 30% damage mitigation 30% uptime for all party members zerg members is awesome and can really turn the tide in battle.

The key is to take a step back, place safely (range on buffs is epic) and then move back up so that any AoE targetting you won’t nuke the spirit to boot. I usually always have it in my utilities.

Now other spirits, sun spirit kind of meh, the extra condition damage is pretty awesome, you can keep burn up 100% uptime, negated though in effectiveness if you have a party member who stacks burns effectively.

Frost spirit, kind of nice for extra damage, but unpredictable, I would personally rather have it grant might stacks instead.

Storm spirit, garbage, you have to bring it into AoE range to get any good effect out of it.

My final analysis. Many of the passive buffs are sweet to for the party or raid group you are fighting with. Actives, pure garbage and limited in effectiveness. Survivability, garbage, unless you are really aware of where you are placing it.

Biggest fix would be to grant it an automatic damage reduction to itself. Usefulness and flexibility of spirits would increase 10 fold if it had automatic reduction.

neverborne.4736:

AOE damage mitigation is the common sense approach. My pet shouldn’t explode automatically in WvW. Somebody should have to target it and spend a couple seconds at least to take it down. As it is, nobody needs to actively work to kill a pet because they die to AOE EVERY time.

Funny thing is if you work towards flanking from the sides, your pet will go to town on people because they are so busy watching out for red circles they fail to notice the wolves, birds, whatever running amidst their ranks. Once the pet is on the other side they are scot free to do as they please.

And even when players see the pet they are much more interested in lobbing AoEs across no mans land than to deal with some pet that won’t even net them a bag. Add in guard to stealth it into position, all sorts of fun can be had. I rarely ever have both my BM wolves downed at any given time.

If you charge it down the center, no kitten its going to die. That’s how Lee lost Gettysburg. start thinking like a ranger, not like a warrior.

jkctmc.8754:

Ultravalefor.5038:

jkctmc.8754:

I just dueled another Ranger five times, him using Drake, me my Wolf/Panther, and the Drakes never hit me once.

Still a worthless pet in WvW against a player who doesn’t stand there to take a hit.

Why don’t more Rangers use Guard? Is it because it doesn’t state on the tooltip “Stealths your pet for 10 seconds.” ? It does SO much to help alleviate the problem of pets always missing the target and the cooldown is 24 seconds, I think. Short.
It’s one of the best abilities around for 1v1s, especially if you’re beastmaster spec.

Tell your friend to make his drake invisible before he tries to burst you with it, see if those duel results change. I haven’t tried the new drake, probably won’t (have moved on from this broken mess), but if it’s as strong as people are reporting, how much stronger would it be undetected until it’s too late?

side note.. who else is seriously disappointed in anet for guardian changes? I don’t play that class, but we asked for them to make spirits like spirit weapons, not spirit weapons like spirits. some dev has got the biggest trollface right now

It won’t change anything. One trap, and the pet can not catch me to even have a chance to hit me.

why you always pair with CC and force your opponent to move towards your pet (obviously easiest with melee).

The 15 pts into survival protection on dodge roll is pretty significant especially paired with a BM roll.

I have found when I am good at timing these the pet will survive the AOE spike for swap. Typically by time next AOE spike comes the swap is again on cooldown. Again, this is the dodge trait, (the closest we currently have to pet dodge) when paired with BM.

probably a different story for none BM pets, which are by in large trash in everything, dungeon and enviroment alike.

WvWvW I travel with GS and axe/horn. 0/0/30/10/30 like you. axe can be a little lack luster in 1v1 but most of my damage comes from pets anyways. The horn 4 though hits like a truck and I like to drop that when people start to flee. Takes them down every time.

Good survivability and flexibility in roaming to hit people who don’t want to fight upclose or attempt to book it.

I carry a LB in my pack to swap with GS when I wind up in the zerg.

Ranger can toss a bunch of buffs. Currently run a semi spirit build. 0/0/30/10/30. GS axe/horn. Rangers can toss all sorts of buffs. Even picked up runes of Altruism to further compliment my heal/tank/support build. Stone Spirit is epic as it shares protection every 10 seconds. The key with Spirits is you need to place them properly to get the most out of them. Their passive buffs have an insane range and if you stick them in a corner they will buff allies and stay clear of AoE. Nature spirit is equally epic for healing and rallying parties. Search and Rescue to bring back dead players caught in no man’s land.

Rangers bring a butt load of utility if you build for it, same as any class. Yes, our utility comes differently and can be a pain sometimes when we place things wrong, but the utility is still there. (hint, never take walking spirits trait, you are only asking for your spirits to get caught in AoE)

Substance E.4852:

Vecuu.2018:

I just thought I’d way in as a player with a Ranger main and a (non-traditional) Thief that I usually take to WvW.

Any player can beat any player on any given Sunday. Things happen.

The largest strength of the Thief class is their ability to pick their fights:

“See that guy? I think I’ll kill him. Oh wait, he hurts and is super beefy! Pull out!”

Thieves disengage so easily. It’s what they do. If a fight doesn’t go their way, they leave. And do you know what they do then? They come back and try again while your stunbreakers and elites are on cooldown, and then you die.

This, this sooo very much.

I’m so tired of seeing people talk about how they kill thieves left and right when any thief that isn’t stroking out will disengage with stealth, heal and then destroy you while all your skills are on cool down or just simply run away. No good thief will stand and fight to the last health point when they can so easily avoid death.

why I count thief victories as forcing them to flee. I’ve only had one come back who wasn’t bringing along a full party of back up.

Not blaming them, it is their mechanic after all. But I’ll take holding the battle field at the end of the day as victory any day over a class who rarely has to stick it out to the last hp.

achensherd.2735:

Also, I totally agree about the melee flow/animations. Who knew giving a Ranger a sword can turn him/her into Yoda? :P

I love my 10ft Norn yoda. So fricken awesome swooping and leaping from victim to victim.

I love my Ranger because I love the flow and animations of is melee specs. Funny part is this wasn’t what I was originally expecting from my ranger. I like most thought ranger equals bows and pew pew. Ranger has the most fun melee spec in the game (IMO).

I also love the BM line and how traiting into it truly turns the ranger into the great dynamic duo He is meant to be. I’ve gotten away with the most absurd things in PvE completing [Group] and World events alike solo. There is no other class I would rather roam and explore with then ranger.

I also get great satisfaction out of doing said epic events and insanely overscaled up events, when all the “survival bunker” classes wind up dead in the opening seconds of an encounter (looking at many dead guardians, warriors, thieves, and D/D eles). I then continue to solo said events, and rez the unfortunate survivors who were chewed up in the AoE.

Rhaps.8540:

DancinPuppeh.8421:

Thieves aren’t all that. A “Good” thief will be a problem yes. But most thieves chose it because they think it’s OP and they want the easy way out. And those kind of players usually have no idea what their doing and you can take them out almost instantly and stun lock them with pets.

Professions don’t have as much effect as much as people think… The biggest factor is the skill. A good Ranger against a good thief has a perfectly good chance of winning. Personally I’m not a good Ranger but I’ve seen some good Rangers taking out many thieves 1v1

This is the truth of the matter. There a tons or terrible Thief players out there that are attracted by all the talk of how OP the class is. Fact is Thief may be OP in the hands of a decent player but most people can’t get that level of performance out of them. In fact the ratio of good to bad thief players is so scewed that I actively persue them in WvW due to them being an easy kill for the most part.

truth be told there are also a great number of terri-bad rangers as well boosting the confidence of above mentioned thief and many other professions for that matter. I find these the most entertaining to hunt down because they are by in large free kills, and make me feel all that much better about myself as a ranger.

thieves are pretty fun to hunt (or more or less bait I suppose since they always get opening strike). They seem stunned when they blow their burst chain to find me still sitting pretty at half health. many can’t even find the escape buttons they are famous for because they are so shocked at witnessing a solid ranger (probably terri-bad thieves I will admit).

Any time I force a thief to flee I count as a victory in my book, I’ve got better things to do than try and find their cowardly scrawny kitten

I admit I am purely WvWvW for PvP perspective, mixed gear works with my build better than anything I could pull off in mists.

I would suggest for any ranger build to get 15 pts into BM. A) more stats on pet means hardier pet and easier life. at 15 pts you get your swaps CD shorted to 15s and I forget what the reduced downed pet swap penalty is (rarely happens now). Huge boost ease of life though for ranger. 5 pts also give you quickness on pet swap which is God Mode for 2s, great if you have a more offensive build in mind.

30 pts in and your pet will have a self regen keeping it going longer. Stack it with regen from signet of wild, and regen from healing spring. It takes an army of mobs to out DPS all the green numbers ticking.

PvE never second guess using a heal for your pet if you are waiting for a swap CD, troll unguent and healing spring have lingering effects so your ranger still benefits from side healing after. recall it and tank a bit for your pet if you still need time (put your body in front of pet.

PvP you need your heal for yourself. Most players will foolishly ignore the pet though so it isn’t much to worry about. About half health if you are still waiting on swap recall it so that it has enough to clear the AoE no man’s land in 1 piece.

15 in survival will also give you protection for you and pet on dodge roll. 5 into survival is buffed endurance regen for dodge rolling. 10 into nature magic is vigor on heal. Each pulse you receive in the healing spring counts counts and stacks the vigor. You can permanently keep protection up for 15 seconds while healing spring is going.

30 into survival is reduced damage for you or your pet at 25% health. You’ll want a larger hit pool to benefit more (bears wear this one best with their insane vitality). Really great for stretching out your pet a bit for swap. Saved my bacon more occassions than I can count.

also what may help is remapping your f1-4 to be easier to reach. I moved them down to zxcv and moved my utilities to f1-3. I use my commands way more often than I use utilities and the change has streamlined my play tremendously as a ranger for twitch control of the pet. also great if you ever try elementalist.

must be a server thing. Because when I roam I mostly run into other rangers, a butt ton of thiefs, some guardians, or a warrior or two.

Zerg, yeah Ele is all over the zerg scene but roaming, nope haven’t really seen many Eles.

As far as killing, fix your build to counter it harder or pick other targets to attack that your build is more suited for.

There is no one build that can kill everything without itself getting killed by something else.

Zsymon.8457:

Actually, the reason rangers are able to take on so many and so strong enemies at low
levels, is because of how Troll Unguent scales. At level 5 you have like 600hp, and it will
heal 900 hp over 10 seconds, while other professions only heal like 250 at that level.

Troll Unguent stays overpowered for quite a while, healing much more than your
maximum health pool per use. But at higher levels the disadvantage disappears and
you notice how weak the profession really is without the overpowered low level
healing.

The problem is just damage, all the weapons do an incredibly low amount of damage,
and the only weapon, shortbow, with damage somewhat comparable to other classes,
only hits a single target and has totally lackluster abilities other than the autoattack. I
am including the pet damage when I say how low damage the ranger does by the way.
The pet does damage to a single target, and even against stationary targets it just does
not perform, and your weapon damage combined with pet damage is just too low.

Longbow and greatsword, weapons designed for power, are so weak that you just don’t
do enough damage at higher levels. At lower levels you can use the shortbow, but then
later on even the shortbow will not do enough damage, and has no decent abilities.

The problem with shortbow is that its abilities suck, the problem with all other weapons
is that their damage, even combined with high damage pets, is far, far, far too low. A
ranger just can’t bring anything valuable to a group, and doesn’t do enough damage
to serve as gold grinder, it takes too long to kill even single enemies.

By the time you whittled a single monster down to half hp with your bows, the warrior
next to you has destroyed a group of ten monsters without having to kite or heal.

It’s just too cool to have controllable pets though.

yeah, single target is sort of lacking, that’s why I pull 5 something mobs at a time and melt them all together. Speeds up the process tremendously. Can the bows do this, no not really. but sword, GS, axe, off hand axe, and torch certainly can. Don’t forget the awesomeness of traps.

Malin.2490:

I never experienced that brick wall when it came to lvl 80 in Orr, quite possibly because of my switch to close combat tactics. The thing is, if I jump in and attack, throws down a frost trap and then starts cutting loose with sword or greatsword, then the undead doesn’t chase me. Thus my pet will hit, and hit hard.

The thing that amazed me once I switched tactic in there was how survivable the ranger is in a close fight. I generally am the last survivor in my group. However, if you want to hang back and rely on your bow there… yes, there will be trouble.

So I would say that instead of the ranger turning useless at 80, our viable tactics gets cut down a lot. Which is sad.

I agree completely. Rangers make extremely hardy combatants, and you can focus purely into tanking if you go BM and still keep your DPS fairly decent. lay down some CC and your pet will go to town on whatever unfortunate sap is unlucky enough to get caught in it. I am really impressed with the melee skills available for ranger. Only time I carry bow now is if I feel like zerging.

As Malin mentioned I am typically last man standing for whatever party I’m in outlasting warriors and guardians alike. Typically why I opt to play medic since I can rez and still keep DPS pressure up through the pets.

If you pack wolves, they bring their own CC

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, always pack a bow in your pack for the few times you run into events where melee won’t cut it.

I would stick with flame trap, nothing beats it for melting mobs, particularly if you are regularly combining it with leap and whirl finishes. Fighting melee in PvE also forces mobs to stay in your traps.

sticking in melee range I would suggest a bit of toughness mixed into the lot.

If you truly want to play with a condi or condi/power hybrid might I suggest sword/torch sword/axe instead of GS. You’ll be able to lay constant fire fields to get more bang out of condi damage. Otherwise condi gets wasted (flame trap still awesome though for quickly dispatching masses). sword just doesn’t do it alone.

I am attempting something similar, what are your thoughts of torch offhand with its phantasm applying confusion and retaliation?

Run dungeons and end games all the time. Pet systems are bugged, but I am convinced that part of it too is the player mentality is broken and refuses to adapt and overcome.

again, not saying pets are perfect yet and there are instances where pets are borked liked Jade Maw and high end agony fractals… but by and large most of the other complaints I have heard can be fixed with the tools the ranger has been given.

its good where its at and gets the job done.

Combining it with signet of the wild and regen from our various sources and it becomes stupid awesome to just omnom damage and kitten to victory.

I’ve been able to get spirits to work perfectly… without traiting… just need to place them properly.

I love my Stone and Sun Spirit.

As above have mentioned the spirits are extremely squishy and go sploot with ease. Being as such in there current state, the one trait you should never take is Spirits following you, you are asking them to be demolished by AoE which naturally will target you. You just placed your utility in the kill zone. good job.

the key with Spirits is placement, place them before rushing in or sending your pet in. And more importantly, move away from them, so that when you are targeted they don’t get caught in the hell storm. The range on the passive buffs is huge and covers most areas you will fight in.

I rarely ever lose spirits that I took the time to set behind lines, and I recieve the full benefits. You don’t even have to trait spirits to get the full effect, the 20% activation will go off in no time during the Cool Down between procs.

They take smart playing to use, I have greatly enjoyed my spirits, and I know there are others out there who do as well.

3s damage reduction every 10s makes a huge difference the longer battles drag out. with dodge rolling I can keep protection up 7+s every 10s. Once I drop Healing Spring, 100% uptime. Pair that with my regen, I am an insanely tough cookie to eat.

Taruvoyant.4318:

I completely agree, and it’s horribly annoying!! I have no control over where my pet goes and what it aggros. Its idiotic pathing aggros everything in sight, pops traps, and causes me to take damage that I’ve otherwise already avoided. At times it makes me nerd-rage.

Why not just make the pet aggro-less like in every other game? Simple solution.

I would laugh if they made the pets agrro-less… all the QQ rage from short bow rangers no longer able to get their flanking bonus bleeds. All the Glass Cannon Bow Rangers going sploot because the kitten pets they are always complaining about are no longer taking the beating for them… oh I can taste the tears already… yum yum yum yum

I kind of want to see some agony mitigation on pets for fractals. Rangers truly are gimped with pets for high end fractals. Only time I will say it.

Manekk.6981:

I’m not into fractals high enough for agony but I’ve been running with a devourer, constant recalling to position and petswap makes them stay up most of the time but even as tanky as they are they occasionally get oneshot and there’s nothing you can do about it, I’ve not had any BM points though I reckon with a BM spec a devourer will stay up almost 100% atleast before agony wich I don’t really know how much it hurts.

I’m not high yet in fractals but reading the wiki, if you get high enough agony on you… ouch. Insane DPS that the pet currently can’t mitigate or wipe off outside of swap.

Hoping this is something they address in the january update.

Because I have come to enjoy controlling two characters, myself and my pet. That and Tanking like nobodies business with my Tank BM support build of LoLs. Its fun to play all the hated builds of Ranger and excel at it, go BM spirit build away!!!!

Recent “go me” event. Took out an [group] event champion and all 22 members of its zerg army solo. And my pets never died. Eat it winers.

So doing more dungeon runs and I swapped out the bond for mighty swap since you will rarely ever be able to keep a pet out long enough to stack up and cash in.

When I go to swap I noticed that my pet never recieved the stacks of might it should have. I click on the pet right after swap and only boon on it is signet of the wild and quickness.

I tried both in and out of combat and same thing, no might stacks. Anybody have any insight on this? Am I doing it wrong? Am I reading it wrong?

Batlav.6318:

DaisyRogers no im not doing it wrong i also soloed a lot of champs mainly in lower lvl zones and some in mid-hight lvl zones with dual bear but some champs are weaker or the champ does not use special abilities so it’s normal

i do use heal for me and my pet but if i waste the heal for the pet which will die few seconds later will leave me vulnerable and i can do much more alive in dungeon or pvp than my pet

Than I guess all I can say is that our experiences are vastly different from how we approach the instances. I’ve been doing perfectly fine with my pets.

I look forward to the continued work of the devs as they smartify pets, I will only become that much more godly.

I’ve got more than enough knock Downs and stuns from my GS and two wolves.

urdriel.8496:

DaisyRogers.6837:

Batlav.6318:

sry but i want to use pets that i like not one specific pet that can live 10s longer because of ranged attack in dungeon for eg.
melee pets do not attack from behind which leads to beign one shoted by frontal cone attacks
even bears should attack from behind which will make the target to turn its back to us
Pets do not have aoe dmg reduction which is another problem

Yes they are not useless but they are not good enough either
And pls tell me how a little bird got 2k vit but a big cat got only 1.3 ?
Cats might be the best dps but beign 1-2 shoted reduces the dps to zero
Pets are good as long as the player do not go into dungeon, group event to fight champion or to PvP unless it is 1v1

I take wolves into dungeons all the time, I’ve soloed group events since lvl 15, and have soloed all but 2 champs without losing pets also since lvl 15… you are doing it wrong.

No, in pve pets are nice, in WvWvW or sPvP need fixes, all other classes can hit you with 100% of his dps in each attack but you only hit with 60-70% because your pet must move all time to be able to hit and is too kiteable.

I’ve solved it by fighting melee, pets much more reliable then.

Besides my comment was aimed at the post saying pets were useless against champs, in dungeons, and group events. I solo all but dungeons and even there my pets do fairly well when I am on my game.

yup, terrestrial pets have default juvenile names because I got tired of naming over and over and over.

Aquatic I am set though since all I use are jellies.

Eventually this too will be fixed, but I am not to antsy for this one, I’d rather devs focus on bigger fish.

Its my go to for zerg fighting because of the insane range. Otherwise axe horn GS for PvE, dungeons etc.

Atlas.4509:

Thanks for the tips, I have been working on leveling my ranger and am loving Beast Master. With the 15 sec pet swap I have been able to solo a couple of champs with ease.

I have mainly been using the cats but I will have to give the wolf another try. Using the Moa in WvW sounds pretty sweet too.

I will clarify on the damage numbers specified. It comes from a combo chain I developed playing a BM. Works best in PvE but equally effective in PvP

BM bond on kills should be maximized.

weapon sets sword/horn and GS. Swap to sword/horn activate rampage as one. active horn #4 and wail away with sword combo chain (stacks might), by the time the birds are finished your pet will have 25 stacks of might, swap to GS use Sick’em. GS #5 (next attack does aditional 50% extra damage). I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing my wolves attack chains and knowing when the big hitting auto attacks are coming. This combo is much more effective with a jag or raven drake etc where you control the big hit with f2.

I haven’t tried since the buff to sick’em. I’ve been running a spirit support build as of late.

My post christmas wish list,

give spirits permanent protection/damage mitigation.
Give spirit actives something, anything to make them more spectacular, or at least lower the CDs on the actives so they can be used more often within a given spawn.

More pets… I like options, we have lots of options, but I want even more.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Solid Gold.9310:

Pet micro-managing, no thanks.

That and purposely gimping the ranger to give a design flaw a few more seconds of survivability which will gimp you even further more when up against someone who can exploit the design flaws of the pet.

You may think your tricks are the cutting edge but they really aren’t. Micro managing your pet is one thing, purposely gimping yourself so your pet can perform marginally better is another.

gimping? right… and as far as a few more seconds survivability, I haven’t lost both pets (ranger boned) in a single bout in last month and a half, it isn’t a few seconds survivability, it is survivability. People are complaining about ranger effectiveness, the rangers effectiveness IS tied to the pet.

My apologies for sharing some tactics I’ve picked up that maximize my effectiveness as a ranger. The funny thing is, the trait trees that I mentioned, you don’t even have to pick up traits, they are automatic from the tree itself. You aren’t losing anything from going into the tree. Wilderness survival IS one of those god mode utility trees, and BM itself also supports a more offensive ranger with quickness on pet swap and faster pet swaps.

I’ve watched my wolves hit for 6k (not raven, not jaguar, the wolf), if you want to let the dps potential die, then fine by me. continue sending your pets on suicide runs. I’ll continue watching your complaints flood the forums, heck maybe I will even come to enjoy drinking your salty tears.

/end rage rant

Really nice write up, I may be giving my wolves a break next dungeon I run.

So, in light of all the complaints concerning pets, I figured I would share the tricks and tactics I have garnished from playing a BM ranger.

0/0/30/10/30 take my build for what its worth. yes I know it means my pet is hardier already, but the tactics still do not change. Most of the issues I see running around the world is that rangers are not using the controls and traits they’ve been given to work WITH their pets.

Things I’ve garnished on my journey to 80.
The more you pay attention to pet the better and more fun it gets.

Tricks I’ve gained:

1) Oh no pet is attacking head on when it doesn’t hold agg, call it back, flank enemy, send it back in, now its no longer in the cone of bam, simple right?

2) Oh no pet is getting eaten by AoE. There is a nifty trait 15 into Wilderness Survival, protection on dodge roll, this is meant more for your pet, it will take reduced damage from said AoE use dodge rolls for both you and pet, you are already getting stamina (whatever the bloody stat is called) faster from trait line, and you can also trait for vigor on heals (healing spring ftw).
-recalling can work, but most AoEs have insanely short cast times and the pet will not make it out. Easier still is to swap pets if you are clear of the AoE, wow now it missed completely, nice if you are unable to dodge at the time.

3) Pet dying all the time, 15 second swaps from 15 BM is more than enough to swap the pet often to not get taken out

4) pet dying all the time, Use heals for both you and the pet, use it when EITHER of you are getting low. The nice thing about ranger is that enemies have to split their focus, they can only attack one at a time. I have rarely been caught with my pants down because I used a heal for my pet. (Healing spring is quite nice because of lingering effects)

5) pet getting smacked by retaliation or confusion, call it back, once effects are clear, send it back in, again simple.

6) too annoying to manage your pets, keys to far to bother constantly pressing? I’ve actually rebound all my keys, my utilities are now f1-3 elite R and heal E and my pet controls are zxc. I can control my pets on the dime and the controls are quite responsive (barring the f2), utilities are all minute or more cooldowns so they get used much less making them more efficiant up at f1-3.

7) For love’s sake stop complaining about the intelligence of the pets AI. By in large the pets intelligence is controlled by the rangers intelligence. If the pet is dying all the time then it is because the ranger is letting it. The pet is not a fire and forget weapon, as a ranger you are controlling two characters. its no different then listening to a chump GC complaining constantly they need rezzes because they were too stupid to get out of the way.

8) pack the pets you need. I primarily run wolves because they are good, solid all rounders. there are instances when ranged pets are more beneficial like world bosses, melee chewing dungeon bosses platform instances where pet literally can’t get in melee range. Zerg fighting WvW, passive Moas for the win (zerg is more about survival and helping your zerg outlast the enemy zerg, swap to buff utilities, its not like you are going to do much damage anyways, still get rewarded kills for your tiny bow pricks).

clarifications: I will admit i have no experience with higher end fractals, small guild hard to get people to take you when they are 50 lvls higher than you are in fractals. Don’t know how agony works, I just know pets get chewed there based on forums. Anyone have any advice for that? (I am fairly certain though devs are working on fixing this).

Any other tips that pro pet rangers have for maximizing the survivability/usefulness of pets feel free to offer. I will add them in and cite you as sources

Batlav.6318:

sry but i want to use pets that i like not one specific pet that can live 10s longer because of ranged attack in dungeon for eg.
melee pets do not attack from behind which leads to beign one shoted by frontal cone attacks
even bears should attack from behind which will make the target to turn its back to us
Pets do not have aoe dmg reduction which is another problem

Yes they are not useless but they are not good enough either
And pls tell me how a little bird got 2k vit but a big cat got only 1.3 ?
Cats might be the best dps but beign 1-2 shoted reduces the dps to zero
Pets are good as long as the player do not go into dungeon, group event to fight champion or to PvP unless it is 1v1

I take wolves into dungeons all the time, I’ve soloed group events since lvl 15, and have soloed all but 2 champs without losing pets also since lvl 15… you are doing it wrong.

0/0/30/10/30 take my build for what its worth.

Things I’ve garnished on my journey to 80.

The more you pay attention to pet the better.

Tricks I’ve gained:

1) Oh no pet is attacking head on when it doesn’t hold agg, call it back, flank enemy, send it back in, simple.
2) Oh no pet is getting eaten by AoE. There is a nifty trait 15 into Wilderness Survival, protection on dodge roll, this is meant more for your pet, it will take reduced damage from said AoE use dodge rolls for both you and pet, you are already getting stamina (whatever the bloody stat is called) faster, and you can also trait for vigor on heals (healing spring ftw)
3) Pet dying all the time, 15 second swaps from 15 BM is more than enough to swap the pet often to not get taken out
4) pet dying all the time, Use heals for both you and the pet, use it when EITHER of you are getting low. The nice thing about ranger is that enemies have to split their focus, they can only attack one at a time. I have rarely been caught with my pants down because I used a heal for my pet. (Healing spring is quite nice because of lingering effects)
5) too annoying to manage your pets, keys to far to bother constantly pressing? I’ve actually rebound all my keys, my utilities are now f1-3 elite r and my pet controls are zxcv. I can control my pets on the dime and the controls are quite responsive (barring the f2), utilities are all minute or more cooldowns so they get used much less making them more efficiant up at f1-3

If you enjoy kiting I suggest the SB as it gives perks when you flank an enemy.

As far as blasting… ranger is not it, it is geared more for sustained damage. You will not see huge numbers as those huge numbers are split in half between the ranger and the pet. Together you do as much damage as other classes.

If you run with one, pay attention to your pet, most of the haters here also hate the pet. If you don’t want a pet class, please skip over ranger and play thief or warrior. They’ll give you the numbers you are looking for from range without the pet.

If you want tanky nothing gets better than 0/0/30/10/30.

Here is my build: (copy paste link)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARTjEVd1lVKWg2Bi2DNZpz/egea1eXhRVwqJ;TABA1ymEMJZS1kiJqbM3Iuxej7G5NrNGbc24tB

If you want to go for more of a roamer build then you can swap out spirits for RaO, Sick’em and whatever else you want.

Spirits provide group utility, and are excellent in any sort of party, even untraited.

Keys to remember is your pet will be doing primary damage, your primary duty is to stretch the battle, keep yourself alive through dodging and healing, and keep your pets alive through healing and swapping.

Asthenea.1546:

Can you level a beast master build?

played one since lvl 11 onward. I’ve soloed all but two champs in a sweet bunker support build. (funny thing is one time I had a guardian warrior and thief all join me, by 50% boss health I was last standing due to fast mob timers; proceded to tank the champ and all the mobs and finished the fight, laughed so hard that I outlasted the supposed elite 3 survivor classes)

yes, BM builds are gods to level and if you learn to manage your pet and swap timely, and use your heals for not just you but your pet also, you can take on anything.

Oh, I also solo group events often too since many of the zones are now scarcely populated with everyone chilling in the end game zones. Very handy.