Guild Wars 2

Jazenn.7526:

Peter.9406:

Jazenn.7526:

Peter.9406:

Jazenn.7526:

Without wanting to write much, I will just say I think the ranger is fine. What some of you claim as broken, others find success with, so it’s hard to agree with you. It’s like:

“My pet sucks it never hits.”

Me thinking Huh? My pet hits just fine? There’s no way I took out that bunker guardian alone, I was specced into defense? I didn’t make those 2.5k hits?

I never said pets suck, my argument is coming from a PvE point of view where they have to AR and spirits who are lacking tremendously to the point of being unusable.

But I’m pretty sure those heavy PvP’ers would say that in sPvP against skilled players ranger pets are bad because they can easily be strafed to where they do no damage.

Wasn’t quoting you, just a popular argument.

Ok but that’s not the argument that’s being discussed here.

Yes, it does.

No, just read my post above this one.

Chopps.5047:

AjoraOaks.3659:

cipherus.7052:

I agree with Chopps here. I’ve been playing this class in my spare time since my Guardian has gotten dull, and I wanted to visit these forums for neat builds and tips but much to my dismay it’s only filled with constant whining and complaining.

It really just turns me off this class, despite the fact that I love my little ranger and his playstyle. I wish there was a separate subforum here for complaints and gripes about rangers.

I laughed when I read neat builds and tips… can continue blaming the people but I figure if the class didn’t have so many issues (especially with pets and then traits following that) you’d see less complaints about complaints and complaints about ranger. Considering how ranger is at the moment the reverse would work better, complaints being the main forum while they keep a lil sticky at top saying build ideas (sound familiar?).

I have many good builds, I just haven’t revealed them yet because the fact that no one uses ranger and no one believes in them works to the favor of my guild. But for the reason you stated I’ve been working to change that, although I’m not sure if that thread is a good place to go because there’s a lot of bad information in there. I will post a video in the near future explaining how to play this class.

In my opinion, the reason why people think it is broken is because it has one of the steepest learning curves in the game when it comes to dungeons or WvW. The reason is because ANET, rather than gimp pets by giving them AI (see necros), they give us the control. We are responsible for making the pet make good decisions. So now you have to control two characters.

Not only that, there’s differences like 30/30/10/0/0 not actually being, necessarily, the highest DPS build. This common glass cannon build (where pets die very, very easily) is a big reason why people have the misperception that pets are squishy.

I give the community another couple months to figure this out, particularly as people begin to level ranger after having mained something else.

Another thing that throws people off is the fact that if you use default keybindings, you’re going to have a bad day. More so than any other profession, using default keybindings will severely limit your potential as a ranger.

PS: As a teaser, I’ve had success with the following traitlines:

0/30/20/0/20

0/0/30/10/30

0/20/0/30/20

10/0/30/0/30

0/0/30/10/30

0/0/30/30/10

I’m sure I’m missing a few…I will elaborate on these later.

Yeah you’re just taking this thread to something completely different. Go read the OP and then reel yourself back in. I agree that people need to learn how to play the class and that there’s a steep learning curve, I know how to play the class and think I have a pretty good build that suites my play style.

What I’m arguing initially is that if you look at the other class forums you’ll see that there’s a general consensus on the ranger forums compared to the other classes that we need fixes. Now mind you that the same people that play that class play this class also so its not only because we are ranger players that don’t know how to play because they do fine on the other classes. Just by looking at the forums you can see that ranger does need work and that is a general consensus. And if you read through the thread I also list what I think needs to be fixed. So how about before you come in here, boasting and claiming to be the almighty who can teach everyone to be as magnificent as you, read the whole thread so you know what’s going on.

cipherus.7052:

I agree with Chopps here. I’ve been playing this class in my spare time since my Guardian has gotten dull, and I wanted to visit these forums for neat builds and tips but much to my dismay it’s only filled with constant whining and complaining.

It really just turns me off this class, despite the fact that I love my little ranger and his playstyle. I wish there was a separate subforum here for complaints and gripes about rangers.

Maybe it’s full complain and gripe because the class has some issues that need to be fixed, ever thought of that? I’m shocked how many people just think that all these people are wrong when even devs have made the same comments and mentioned that they are working on these problems, honestly learn to read the forums completely. I mean a lot of these threads I don’t agree with but if you read this whole thread and see what I believe needs to be fixed are pretty much needed.

Jazenn.7526:

Peter.9406:

Jazenn.7526:

Without wanting to write much, I will just say I think the ranger is fine. What some of you claim as broken, others find success with, so it’s hard to agree with you. It’s like:

“My pet sucks it never hits.”

Me thinking Huh? My pet hits just fine? There’s no way I took out that bunker guardian alone, I was specced into defense? I didn’t make those 2.5k hits?

I never said pets suck, my argument is coming from a PvE point of view where they have to AR and spirits who are lacking tremendously to the point of being unusable.

But I’m pretty sure those heavy PvP’ers would say that in sPvP against skilled players ranger pets are bad because they can easily be strafed to where they do no damage.

Wasn’t quoting you, just a popular argument.

Ok but that’s not the argument that’s being discussed here.

Chopps.5047:

Peter.9406:

Daemon.4295:

Same old story, expect the same old posts. People saying Rangers are fine and dandy as they still don’t understand that the real problems are all in PvP and not PvE, people saying they kill lots of other players in WvW (where you’re up against weaker players), people saying they rock in sPvP just to boast on the forums.

Lots of classes have issues, Rangers are the only class with broken core mechanics in PvP (damage from pets and projectiles not functioning as intended). The class doesn’t need minor tweaks, it needs urgent fixing. In PvE it needs minor tweaks like any other class (some non-sensical or useless traits, pets dying too easily in dungeons).

Completely agree, and I think the people who are trying to defend the class are actually hindering it’s ability to progress because ANet will see them and think that the class is doing alright.

You actually believe that? Bawhahaha. ANET doesn’t look to the general community for class balance in forums. They just don’t. Do you really think a dev will cruise the forum and say "oh that’s the 100th time they’ve mentioned “balance”, YOU GET A PATCH!"

What’s holding us back is you. All of you doubters and downers. My guild of hundreds of people has 5 rangers in it as mains. Why? Most people haven’t tried they just assume it sucks. In my opinion, YOU haven’t tried. How I wish I could face you guys on the battlefield.

You guys were probably in map chat the other day for the daily “WHAT’S A COMBO FIELD GUYS? HOW DO YOU EVADE GUYS?” Lol

Seriously if you can’t work with the sword or claim it roots, if you think pets are that bad, I mean, I just can’t take any of this seriously. How would you expect a dev to? Do you have any idea how hard a beastmaster traited pet hits with the right build? 5000 to 10,000 dmg depending on what you’re doing and what buffs you have. I can run as fast as 25% speed signet simply using GS “swoop” in dubs. I can use hornet sting into monarchs leap to travel many meters. I can grief people if i want. With the right build, I effective at either melee, ranged, or a hybrid. Why can’t you?

I have like 4 full sets of exotics and with traits roughly a dozen useful builds. I get bored of the same style so I switch and find myself effective in different ways with different builds. Why don’t you?

Wow you sure love to assume and not read the whole thread. First of all, I’ve played this game since the first beta and played GW1 as a ranger for 5 years. Also, I run with 30 in beast master and my pets rarely die and I use sword as my main weapon so I know very well how to use the class and know what I’m doing. Second, if you read through the forum you’ll notice JP comment on post saying, we also think this and agree so we will change it. Here’s the link in case you missed it https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-update/page/2#post515587
and also here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Pets-and-a-Lack-of-F2-Responsiveness/first
oh and also here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Any-News-on-the-Ranger-Pet-being-Fixed the last one JP actually ask people to post on the forum so they can better improve. So yeah I do think the devs actually read the forums and see how they can improve it. Third, people like you are hindering the class as you don’t want to realize that the ranger really does have broken mechanics that need to be fixed. You think that your thoughts shadow the many people who post problems on this thread. Honestly do you not want the ranger class to be improved?

Chopps.5047:

Daemon.4295:

Same old story, expect the same old posts. People saying Rangers are fine and dandy as they still don’t understand that the real problems are all in PvP and not PvE, people saying they kill lots of other players in WvW (where you’re up against weaker players), people saying they rock in sPvP just to boast on the forums.

Lots of classes have issues, Rangers are the only class with broken core mechanics in PvP (damage from pets and projectiles not functioning as intended). The class doesn’t need minor tweaks, it needs urgent fixing. In PvE it needs minor tweaks like any other class (some non-sensical or useless traits, pets dying too easily in dungeons).

Nah, I had about 30 kills, two keep captures, and 2 deaths tonight in dubs in about an hour of casual play (teaching a party of new rangers my tactics such as FLANK STEAK, which is a tactic that isn’t in the current meta…not what you think it is). I just think you’re mistaken. I really wish I could party up with you guys and show you how it’s done.

And by the way I’m not here to boast. I’m here to defend the class. People like you spread this incorrect nonsense about this class being somehow less than other classes in a battle and it’s just opinion based on anecdotal experience of a few disgruntled players.

For you guys, though, I’ve realized that you’ll never shut up. All you do is complain and bring up these tired old topics over and over again. No matter how many pain inveter videos you see, no matter how much math I show to prove equivalent DPS, no matter how much I try to explain that the players skill and keybindings tilt the battlefield, no matter how much I try to help, literally help, you learn to play this class…it’s almost as if you don’t actually want to improve and/or are using claims of “broken mechanics” as a substitute for personal responsibility.

Either way, there are bugs, but the problems are just simply not drastic enoigh to warrant the NOISE you give it. Your foolishness is why PUGs think rangers suck…even in dungeons! I struggle to PUG dungeons these days. People are like “oh…a ranger?” And it’s all because of you guys spreading lies.

For example, arah path four: you need roughly 3000 attack per person on simin, not “three warriors a guardian and mesmer only”. That kind of nonsense is bad for players like me and bad for the game in general. (I beat path 4 arah with engineer, guardian, elementalist, warrior, and myself).

Seriously, you guys make me sick and not want to ever use these forums. Like I know the names of the top three whiners and we’re all over your drivel. Just stop. LeAve.

Ok so I’m talking strictly from a PvE pov because that’s what I know best… First, in PvE rangers do lack damage when compared to warrior, theif, ele, and mes so people who do say that are completely correct, for you say otherwise is just wrong. However, I come to terms with this because rangers aren’t meant to do amazing damage but are more a jack of all trades. Second, I want you to go into higher level fractals where agony starts ticking hard and not be kitten that your pet can’t stay up for more than half the fight. That is more than half your damage gone no matter how you look at it and has enough warrant on its own to make all this noise. Third, I agree that bad rangers are giving us a bad name and we as a class are capable of doing any dungeon, with the exception of high level Fractals, without any problems I know how to use the ranger quite well.

What I’m arguing here is we have problems with our class that need fixing because it is hindering the class from being up to par with the others, and if you go to the other class forums you’ll notice that as a whole we are the most discontent with our class. Now if you think your thoughts have more weight than a whole community than you sir are quite arrogant. If you read the comments on this thread all we are discussing is changes that should be made on the ranger that will improve the class tremendously for everyone.

Now I want you to disprove to me that rangers are not horrible, pets do not need AR, and for those who arguing the PvP side that pets cannot be easily strafed. If you don’t want this class to be improved and would like to see these broken mechanics stay in the game then I suggest you stop posting and just leave the threads because you’re just hindering the class.

Jazenn.7526:

Without wanting to write much, I will just say I think the ranger is fine. What some of you claim as broken, others find success with, so it’s hard to agree with you. It’s like:

“My pet sucks it never hits.”

Me thinking Huh? My pet hits just fine? There’s no way I took out that bunker guardian alone, I was specced into defense? I didn’t make those 2.5k hits?

I never said pets suck, my argument is coming from a PvE point of view where they have to AR and spirits who are lacking tremendously to the point of being unusable.

But I’m pretty sure those heavy PvP’ers would say that in sPvP against skilled players ranger pets are bad because they can easily be strafed to where they do no damage.

Stoneslammer.3650:

Kaname.1925:

Peter.9406:

There’s either on of two problems here:
1. The ranger community has a whole doesn’t know how to play and complain too much.

It amazes me how much people, especially my fellow rangers, complain about our profession. I have had great success with my ranger. Last night I defeated Simin, High Priestess of Dwayna. That encounter has a very strict burn time. We did it no problem. Rangers damage is fine.

In spvp, we have the tools to do well. It comes down to figuring it out. I have done my fair share of spvp, and to great success.

Stop complaining about the profession, and try to understand it. You will do a lot better.

Are you saying you soloed the High priestess? When you say “WE” I am assuming you did not so I am not exactly sure what you are trying to say here.

My thoughts exactly.

Peter.9406:

I’ll answer your first question for you: F2 skills can’t be switched out. The other skills you see on your pet box are their default skills which they use on their own. Lets say you want a bear but don’t like the F2 on it, you would have to choose another F2 skill that suites your liking.

I meant to write, “… you would have to choose another BEAR with an F2 skill that suites your liking.” Sorry for that.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Peter.9406:

There’s either on of two problems here:
1. The ranger community has a whole doesn’t know how to play and complain too much.

2. ANet poorly designed this class since every other class seems to be content with how their class is running.

Well, if one class forum is filled to the brim with mostly complaints, while other class forums boast about how they own this and that, you can’t simply play the “L2P-card” – something is clearly broken with the class, and needs urgent attention – now.

The small babysteps Anet are taking every third month or so won’t cut it anymore. So far, since release, rangers haven’t really seen anything significant enough to be worth mentioning, with the exception of pet rez underwater, which wasn’t even asked for in the first place.

You may see stuff you would consider buffs in the patchnotes, but only if you read them as someone who have never ever really played this class to its full potential. Almost all of our so called buffs are crappy stuff we never asked for in the first place, OR, they are general buffs that apply to all classes.

In a duel earlier today vs a an ele in wvw, I noticed my pet land maybe one or two attacks in a fight that lasted for a good 3 minutes, maybe more.

Pets are our downfall, and they’re the reason we fall short in this game. Don’t get me wrong now, I started to play the ranger because of the pets, but seriously, they need major work, and we need it now, not in six months, not in another year and a half, but now.
Sure, pets can burst for decent to high damage, but for kittens sake – they need to land their hits. We have to dish out all our cc to get our pets to land at least one hit, and not even then we can be sure of getting a hit in.
It’s so simple to avoid pets it’s laughable. My least feared opponent in this game is another ranger, and that’s purely because of how incredibly easy it is to avoid the pets 90% of the time.

In spvp, playing as a ranger, you’ll 90% of the time be the target of choice from the other team. Now ask yourselves – why is that? Is it because all ppl playing rangers suck, or is it something with our class that makes us subpar compared to other classes, even if the player behind the class is of equal, or many times of higher, skill compared to others?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – to be a good ranger in pvp that can hold your ground vs other classes, you’ll need to be twice the player, especially compared to thieves.

*

In the ranger forums you’ll mostly see “qq-posts” yes, but there’s a reason for that. Go to the thieves forums, and you’ll of course see some “qq-posts” there as well, but just compare the two – they all seem to have a lot more fun in the thieves, mesmers and ele-forums, wouldn’t you agree?

I agree with you completely. We have a steeper learning curve and require much more skill to master than the other classes. But honestly, I don’t see how they can fix pet pathing to be able to keep track of a human player. To program it would be really hard and could easily cause a OP pet if done incorrectly. The fact is a human player is gonna be smarter than the AI most of the time, so to fix a problem like this can be really difficult. However, the other problems should have been fixed already since they shouldn’t present that much of a problem.

Vox Hollow.2736:

It’s not like we don’t have alts, OP :p

There’s alot of decent critiques for the class that examine it on it’s own merits and flaws, but that feedback is so muddled with this sort of lingering malcontent that’s more about dashed expectations. It’s hard to tell how many are dissatisfied with Ranger, and how many are just dissatisfied in general that they can’t find a class that represents an aesthetic or common mechanical theme they enjoy.

I don’t hear nearly as much griping in the Engi forum…but it’s not like people are raging that it doesn’t play enough like TF2 Engi. You know?

I don’t think it’s that hard to find those who dissatisfied with the class if you read into the threads.

Daemon.4295:

Peter.9406:

I don’t think you can really prioritize which problem is more of an issue compared to the other because it is all relative the player. For instance, I hardly ever do an sort of PvP so those problems don’t matter much to me and to the other players who PvE as much as I do. On the other hand, PvP players would see them as major issues while the PvE ones not so much. The only common issue I can see is probably utility skills that are just broken, e.g. spirits. So in any case those should take priority over anything according to your approach.

I absolutely think you can prioritize the problems, and here’s why. The broken mechanics in PvP actually affect the outcome of your battles, while the PvE issues at most affect the total time spend to complete a dungeon (marginally, and that’s if you’re a beastmaster that has to pull most of the weight in your group). I personally have never experienced any sort of flak from a dungeon party for being a ranger, and certainly have never seen a group wipe because of a dead pet.

People tend to complain about the issues they live the most of course, but each issue has a different level of gravity so let’s try to be objective. Yes, lack of agony resistance for pets is just silly and needs to be addressed, but I don’t think we can honestly say that the ranger is any worse off in PvE overall than other classes. In PvP, on the other hand, we’re rock bottom with major, game-breaking bugs.

I can see you your point, PvP should have a higher priority but regardless pet and Fractals needs to be fixed and is up there on the list. However, when it comes to choosing skills and making build I believe rangers are worse off in PvE.

Forzani.2584:

Peter.9406:

So I was bored since my computer is in the repair shop, again, and I was skimming through all the class forums and it seems that out all of them Ranger have the most threads about players complaining about their class. Sure there are 1 or 2 threads in each forum complaining about their class, but Rangers exceed that by having almost the entire front page of complaining threads.

There’s either on of two problems here:
1. The ranger community has a whole doesn’t know how to play and complain too much.

2. ANet poorly designed this class since every other class seems to be content with how their class is running.

Now what I think it is, a little bit of 1, mostly people complaining about pets being broken (except Fractals I agree they are broken there) and how they don’t compare to warriors or thieves in damage (no kitten Sherlock). However, I think it is more of 2 because there is a general consensus on this forum that isn’t seen on any other forum that the class needs some major work. Mind you that the same player population that is playing ranger could also be the same population playing the other professions as alts and there is no complaining there.

So I invite everyone who usually defends the class and argues that there is no problem at all L2P to browse through the other forums and see how a functioning class’ forum looks like, and then share your thoughts with me.

Note: I love playing this class, been playing it since BWE1 and I think I have a fairly good handle on it since I do tons of dungeons. However, I think it needs some minor tweaks that will improve the class tremendously that ANet seems scared to make.

Are you serious ? Everyone other class is content with what they have ? Either joking or trolling.

Yes I am serious. On a general consesus based off of the forums everyone is content with their class. Aside from necro, everyone seems happy go look for youselves. Of course there is a complaint thread here and there, that’s to be expected, but overall as a community they are content. It is much different then the ranger thread and if you can’t notice that then you need to brush off on your reading comprehension skills.

I’ll answer your first question for you: F2 skills can’t be switched out. The other skills you see on your pet box are their default skills which they use on their own. Lets say you want a bear but don’t like the F2 on it, you would have to choose another F2 skill that suites your liking.

Vinhoney.4517:

yeah, ranger too weak. needs like 2x pet damage increase or somethin’

I don’t think that’s the problem, they aren’t meant to be a damage heavy class.

deepwinter.9015:

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

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

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

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

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

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

DaisyRogers.6837:

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.

Very valid points. First, I’m not complaining about the pet mechanics or damage, aside from in Fractals, at all. I always run with at least 15 in BM because I understand that without BM and proper micromanaging you are not gonna function well. My argument was that no other class has more of their damage curtailed because of agony than rangers, Fractals being the only place where our dps drops because of pets without us having the ability to control it.

In regards to spirits, even when placed securely they have the chance of not affecting everyone in the group because of their aggro bubble. Also, with their inner cooldown and poor survival I don’t think any spirit aside from the elite is worth bringing. Honestly what is the point of having the spirits follow you, that’s just asking for them to get killed quicker. They need buff their survival tremendously so that the traits they made are actually usable and get rid off that inner cooldown timer or reduce it by a lot, at least in PvE so it doesn’t affect PvP like it did in beta. Idk why ANet doesn’t split the spirit skills PvE/PvP like they did in GW1 and some GW2 skills, with beta spirits as PvE and a buffed version of the current spirits as PvP.

Wrenn Haldane.3208:

I have played a lot of MMO’s, and my class of choice has always been the Ranger/Archer class. I have always enjoyed the challenge of being the proverbial “glass cannon”, dealing high damage and being cunning enough to survive.

With Guild Wars 2, I consider the Ranger to be three-faced.

In PvE, I am extremely happy with the Ranger. My pet acts as a tank for the most part, and I was easily able to get to level 80 faster than I was able to do so with any other class. I am not much for dungeons, so I really have not spent enough time there to formulate an educated opinion.

In PvE we do great because honestly PvE is not that hard in this game any class will do great. Go run some higher level dungeons, like Arah, CoF, HotW, and high level Fractals, and you’ll start seeing the problems. While other classes can easily come up with builds we are stuck using signets and traps with the occasional shout here and there. And not to mention in Fractals and higher dungeons our pets just get facerolled by bosses, more in Fractals in other dungeons a lot micromanaging is key, and obliterated by agony.

A lot of these changes would be awesome, but would cause the ranger to be so OP that it would shift balance. The only ones I agree with are:
— F2 abilities are very slow to cast, with very long recast times. As it is now, landing a Howl, or a Breath Weapon is near impossible for moving targets. They should be instant cast.
— Pets just are not smart. The Mesmers illusions are a lot smarter. If someone steatlhs on a Ranger pet, he stands there saying; “duh”, and will not react once they come out of stealth, but a Mesmer’s illusions will wait for the target to unstealth, and IMMEDIATELY go after them.

Way to complicated for ANet to implement now, it’s not gonna happen.

Dhunis.9072:

imho it’s same problem like with hunters in WOW. People are used to play faceroll classes then come to class which require longer learning and they give up after a while. You didn’t see many very good hunters in WOW, but when u met one you evaded him for the rest of the match.

Sure rangers here have some minor problems, but all other classes do.

Never played WoW so I can’t really understand your reference here. I don’t believe the class should be faceroll capable, and I understand the mechanics of the class really well. However, there are just too many parts of it broken to avoid. You are right that all classes have minor problems, but ranger have problems that are an integral role in the how you play. Like I said go to any other forum and you’ll notice how different it is compared to these forums, much less complaining about things. This is because their problems aren’t as critical as ours.

Daemon.4295:

capuchinseven.8395:

Daemon.4295:

capuchinseven.8395:

Daemon.4295:

Guys, aside from the silly lack of agony resistance in fractals, pets dying in dungeons is NOT THAT BIG A DEAL! If you’re having trouble micromanaging them with F1 and F3 just put them on defensive mode and use them for buffing, you’ll contribute to your group just fine. People continuously bringing this up detracts attention from the Ranger’s major issues, which are pets and arrows not connecting with their targets in PvP.

Personally I think both of those points are issues, one which will effect one type of person more than another depending on what they play more.

If you put your pet away though, you ARE bringing down your DPS, even if you’re not BM spec (which lets face it, is pointless using in high level fractals because your pet just isn’t used much).

Yes, but the difference is that while you can perfectly well do a dungeon with lower DPS (basically it’s more or less like taking a lvl 75 character into a 5 man dungeon instead of a lvl 80 character), you have serious problems facing other players in PvP. Statistically speaking, the final outcome of a dungeon run is not affected anywhere near as much as the final outcome of an sPvP match.

Yeah, for me PVP issues are more important but that doesn’t mean that I don’t understand issues for players that are more focused on PVE.

Of course, you’re right, but I think our PvE issues are pretty much on par with those experienced by other classes, while in PvP we definitely got the short end of the stick. I actually do far far more PvE than sPvP or WvW, I’d say in the past month I’ve spent well over 80% of my time in dungeons, fractals, and general PvE, if not 90%. PvE issues affect me more day to day, but I realize that the PvP problems are more urgent and should take priority in the devs’ backlog of necessary fixes.

I don’t know of any other class that experiences a 50% or more decrease in damage due to agony in fractals. I mean perhaps ele who run pets or necro who run MM, but they have the choice of switching those skills out so they can overcome it, we can’t.

I don’t think you can really prioritize which problem is more of an issue compared to the other because it is all relative the player. For instance, I hardly ever do an sort of PvP so those problems don’t matter much to me and to the other players who PvE as much as I do. On the other hand, PvP players would see them as major issues while the PvE ones not so much. The only common issue I can see is probably utility skills that are just broken, e.g. spirits. So in any case those should take priority over anything according to your approach.

Daemon.4295:

capuchinseven.8395:

Daemon.4295:

Guys, aside from the silly lack of agony resistance in fractals, pets dying in dungeons is NOT THAT BIG A DEAL! If you’re having trouble micromanaging them with F1 and F3 just put them on defensive mode and use them for buffing, you’ll contribute to your group just fine. People continuously bringing this up detracts attention from the Ranger’s major issues, which are pets and arrows not connecting with their targets in PvP.

Personally I think both of those points are issues, one which will effect one type of person more than another depending on what they play more.

If you put your pet away though, you ARE bringing down your DPS, even if you’re not BM spec (which lets face it, is pointless using in high level fractals because your pet just isn’t used much).

Yes, but the difference is that while you can perfectly well do a dungeon with lower DPS (basically it’s more or less like taking a lvl 75 character into a 5 man dungeon instead of a lvl 80 character), you have serious problems facing other players in PvP. Statistically speaking, the final outcome of a dungeon run is not affected anywhere near as much as the final outcome of an sPvP match.

This is true, however it is still an issue because the ranger shouldn’t be the dead weight in the team because ANet’s faulty design. And if you can’t contribute to a team, then a team won’t pick you up. So, in actuality this is more of a problem because this problem can be the deciding factor in if the team will pick you up or not which is the determinate if you can even enter the dungeon. You can still enter PvP with your problems and still get kills and cap points, so by your argument there is no difference.

They are both problems of importance that have to be addressed.

capuchinseven.8395:

If you put your pet away though, you ARE bringing down your DPS, even if you’re not BM spec (which lets face it, is pointless using in high level fractals because your pet just isn’t used much).

Yeah because they are dead due to agony, if they gave them AR then they would be used more

This “silly” lack of AR is causing us to lose half our damage and utilities, other dungeons aren’t a problem if you micromanage however in fractals that doesn’t work. I don’t PvP much but I don’t see how they can fix pets, you would just have to learn to snare your target so they can keep up. The arrows however can be a problem.

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.

Daemon.4295:

Same old story, expect the same old posts. People saying Rangers are fine and dandy as they still don’t understand that the real problems are all in PvP and not PvE, people saying they kill lots of other players in WvW (where you’re up against weaker players), people saying they rock in sPvP just to boast on the forums.

Lots of classes have issues, Rangers are the only class with broken core mechanics in PvP (damage from pets and projectiles not functioning as intended). The class doesn’t need minor tweaks, it needs urgent fixing. In PvE it needs minor tweaks like any other class (some non-sensical or useless traits, pets dying too easily in dungeons).

Completely agree, and I think the people who are trying to defend the class are actually hindering it’s ability to progress because ANet will see them and think that the class is doing alright.

So I was bored since my computer is in the repair shop, again, and I was skimming through all the class forums and it seems that out all of them Ranger have the most threads about players complaining about their class. Sure there are 1 or 2 threads in each forum complaining about their class, but Rangers exceed that by having almost the entire front page of complaining threads.

There’s either on of two problems here:
1. The ranger community has a whole doesn’t know how to play and complain too much.

2. ANet poorly designed this class since every other class seems to be content with how their class is running.

Now what I think it is, a little bit of 1, mostly people complaining about pets being broken (except Fractals I agree they are broken there) and how they don’t compare to warriors or thieves in damage (no kitten Sherlock). However, I think it is more of 2 because there is a general consensus on this forum that isn’t seen on any other forum that the class needs some major work. Mind you that the same player population that is playing ranger could also be the same population playing the other professions as alts and there is no complaining there.

So I invite everyone who usually defends the class and argues that there is no problem at all L2P to browse through the other forums and see how a functioning class’ forum looks like, and then share your thoughts with me.

Note: I love playing this class, been playing it since BWE1 and I think I have a fairly good handle on it since I do tons of dungeons. However, I think it needs some minor tweaks that will improve the class tremendously that ANet seems scared to make.

There are also people all over the forum who agree spirits are awful. But I’ll just agree with you to agree that we all disagree.

I agree our pets need to share our AR, ANet needs to work on this pronto.

MaRko.3165:

I was thinking about Pets and AoE and it dawned on me that the ‘2s protection on dodge roll’ was likely the game mechanic intended to protect our pets from this.

It might work if we actually got 2s instead of the seemingly 0.5s we get now.

I don’t think that was the purpose behind that trait, and it still isn’t enough to deal with high level agony. I’m not one to complain about the pet mechanic, however this just flawed and unreasonable.

Jazenn.7526:

Peter.9406:

Ranger is meant to be jack of all trades, master of none. However, in its current state most skills are just useless so we can’t use our “trades” so Ranger is not fulfilling its role. If we are meant to be jack of all trades we should be able to build more than two viable builds, signets and traps.

There are more builds than signets and traps. There are BM, Power/crit GC, axe power, condition damage, stun, spirits, etc. I have seen all used before, they are all viable.

Talking from a PvE perspective as I do A LOT of dungeons:
Ok first, I was commenting how many of our skills are not viable enough and you’re mentioning weapons, traits, and stats. Not my argument at all. When deciding what skills to take you’re basically stuck with either traps or signets (if you want to actually do smething in your team). Second, spirits are not a viable build at all. They don’t proc often enough and their survival is awful. You’re really not supporting your team much by taking them when you could bring something else that could contribute more.

Jazenn.7526:

Peter.9406:

wauwi.9162:

some pets are useless…they’re merely weaker copys of other one’s.

signets do have insane cooldowns…
a point too for you about the longbow, but keep in mind the range advantage.
i’d rather have slightly increased attackspeed for longbow’s skill #1.
spirits are ok.

besides that, it’s a really nice profession which keeps it’s promise: “jack-of-all-trades”

as much as i’d appreciate more variety in making a build, it would kinda miss the point of the profession, since the ranger is not intended to “specialize” in one particular thing.
oh well scrap that last sentence…

Shortbow and Longbow have the same range when untraited, but shortbow deals more damage I think they should at least be equal in damage.

Spirits are not ok at all.

We can be “jack-of-all-trades” and still be able to have viable skills, just because we can do everything doesn’t mean we deserve crappy skills.

I couldn’t disagree with OP more lol. I will admit spirits need buffs, but not overhaul. Just survivability buff or a proc buff (for frost and sun especially).

They also need to reduce the inner cooldown timer, and I consider changing so many things on a skill an overhaul.

What you’re asking cannot be done easily as they would have to rework the entire class from scratch as a lot of skills, attacks, and traits are pet based; this would be an entirely new class. Pets are an integral part of the Ranger and just like others have mentioned there are other bow classes out there and even another bow roaming class, Theif, if you don’t like having a pet.

Ahh ok thanks, so Rangers are pretty much screwed on high level fractals.

So I was wondering if pets share the same AR as their Ranger or how does it work?

Ranger is meant to be jack of all trades, master of none. However, in its current state most skills are just useless so we can’t use our “trades” so Ranger is not fulfilling its role. If we are meant to be jack of all trades we should be able to build more than two viable builds, signets and traps.

wauwi.9162:

some pets are useless…they’re merely weaker copys of other one’s.

signets do have insane cooldowns…
a point too for you about the longbow, but keep in mind the range advantage.
i’d rather have slightly increased attackspeed for longbow’s skill #1.
spirits are ok.

besides that, it’s a really nice profession which keeps it’s promise: “jack-of-all-trades”

as much as i’d appreciate more variety in making a build, it would kinda miss the point of the profession, since the ranger is not intended to “specialize” in one particular thing.
oh well scrap that last sentence…

Shortbow and Longbow have the same range when untraited, but shortbow deals more damage I think they should at least be equal in damage.

Spirits are not ok at all.

We can be “jack-of-all-trades” and still be able to have viable skills, just because we can do everything doesn’t mean we deserve crappy skills.

WE LACK BUILD DIVERSITY. Before people scream L2P and blah blah, I have been playing Ranger from BWE1 all the way till now and I think I’m pretty good at Ranger. However, I find myself having trouble picking skills to fit together that I can actively use.
Our spirits are broken and need a overhaul.
Our signets are “eh”, I think some of the cooldown timers need to be reduced.
Survival skills work great.
Traps are good where they stand.
Shouts have there purposes.

I think pets work fine if people properly use them and spec into them, I love my pets.
Longbow could use a little damage boost.
Every other weapon is perfect just how they are.

TL;DR: We lack build diversity; fix spirits, reduce signet cooldown, add some longbow damage.

Note: a bunch of little problems are making one big problem.

Chopps.5047:

G) has successfully run pure spirits and facerolled level 20 fractals
. Spirits do not suck, you just have to trait for it. Don’t tell me Nature Magic traits suck either because that’s a load of “kitten”. You can’t just trait marksmanship and skirmishing then try to run spirits (probably using them incorrectly) and then wonder why thy die. I have no sympathy for that. I have groups that love it when I bust out spirits because they know they get protection on hit thats on a short cooldown.

Spirits suck no matter how you trait it. You must be in some horrible groups if they believe getting 3 sec of protection at 50% (if traited) every 10 secs for one member of the group randomly is good. There’s no defense you can make for the ranger’s spirits.

What’s being done to make the more challenging dungeons and bosses more rewarding? As of now AC is better to complete because it is both easier and more rewarding than let’s say HotW and Arah.

You mentioned adding more build diversity in PvP, how about for PvE? Right now Warriors and Guardians seem to be the most popular classes in PvE (dungeons) because they can do damage with damage builds, or support, or do both; while other classes, like Rangers, are rarely being sought out for and even kicked because they have no real viable builds outside of traps which take too long to kill in dungeons and signets. Are you working on improving the weapons and skills that no one really use because of how ineffective they in each class and whats being done? For example the Ranger’s spirits which no one uses at all.

Ok so I am verry happy with my ranger character and I have lots of fun playing. However, I really wish spirits were fixed. We have four skills that I’m pretty sure no one uses which is pretty bad. These skills have a lot of potential and would add great build diversity to the class that is much needed. Please ANet fix this I’m pretty sure the rest of the ranger community is with me here.

Just as the title says, this trait is bugged and still doesn’t work with the fern hound f2 healing skill. The healing done by the skill remains the same with and without the trait equipped.
Is this happening to anyone else?

Thank you ANet for working on the ranger in the last couple of patches, but could you please work on spirits. PLEASE!!! I really want to use them but right now they are useless. If spirits were fixed I’d be the happiest GW2 gamer alive.

If PvP balancing issues are the problem, then just split them as PvE and PvP separate skills like you’ve done in GW1.

Has anyone else found them useful after the updates (aside from the elite one), or is this a general consensus?

nldixon.8514:

I don’t understand why people purposefully want to nerf themselves by not using a pet.

Second, pets are the Ranger class mechanic. It’s not like the game or any of the written material at any point leads you astray or suggests otherwise, so if you willfully chose the Ranger class knowing that you don’t like playing a pet class… I’m not really sure what say.

It’s like ordering a cheeseburger then complaining that you like everything except the cheese, but you definitely don’t want a hamburger. You want a cheeseburger.

THIS! Lol perfect analogy.

Quarktastic.1027:

Peter.9406:

First of all, Protect me gives you 6 sec of invulnerability and when specced has a 46 sec recharge. You don’t need a signet to save your pet all you need to do is switch your pet… And if they reduced the cooldown it would actually help your master bond build. So… Idk what you’re arguing here?

“Protect Me!” has two stipulations. One: your pet needs to be alive. Two: your pet needs to be within 600 range of you. In addition to this, using “Protect Me!” to absorb a big hit will likely down your pet, preventing you from getting the full 6 seconds of immunity. A traited Signet of Stone is vastly superior. Though, that doesn’t mean you can’t use both skills at the same time.

Signet of stone also has two stipulations to be effective. First, your pet has to be alive to use it untraited. Second, you have to be traited in Marksmanship to grandmaster in order for it to be used at its best. You are right for a big hit your pet will probably die, but have yet to encounter a situation like that. And with good pet control your pet will be in range. Protect me shines best when youre about to go down and you pop it up just long enough to heal, which if you’re using a healing skill other than healing spring it’ll heal your pet too keeping it alive. Aside from Kholer, no one has really killed my pet while using this. And this skill has saved me from Kholer multiple times if I happen to miss the dodge.

Malleus Maleficarum.2603:

i think you’re looking at signets all wrong

signet of stone’s recharge is fair for what it gives- 6 seconds of invulnerability for your pet. don’t just pop this every time you head into battle, use it when theyre about to die so you can get your heal off. I use it because i bring Master’s Bond for my pet, so it’s very important that my pets never get defeated. if you need it more than one every 120 seconds you’re doing something wrong haha.

Signet of the hunt- if you change it from a damage boost to a 3 second swiftness i will hunt you down and.. strongly disagree with you in a gentlemanly fashion. This IS on a short cooldown, but make sure you use it at the right time. the way I use it is as a great part to a spike build. Use a Jaguar, and his stealth grants 6 seconds of guaranteed crits. while in stealth hit the active SigHunt -> 50% extra damage on an already guaranteed critical hit. (then if you hilt bash with the greatsword before the 6 seconds is up, you get another 50% extra powerful critical hit. All the while he has Sick em(30% more damage out) and possibly sigWild for some extra damage)

Also, the throw trap range is already at 900. That’s a significant distance and is in no way a problem. i played a trap ranger from 5 to 80, and i play it in pvp too. try a spike trap to immobilize them so you can get away better/hit them with another trap/make them stay in that fire trap

First of all, Protect me gives you 6 sec of invulnerability and when specced has a 46 sec recharge. You don’t need a signet to save your pet all you need to do is switch your pet… And if they reduced the cooldown it would actually help your master bond build. So… Idk what you’re arguing here?

Second, if the signet of hunt signet would change your pet would actually do more damage because it could get more attacks out faster which equals more damage in the build you mentioned instead of just one heavy attack. Also, it would help out with others who dont use that spike, which by the way uses all of your slot skills for just one spike not worth it in my opinion since it’s only a single target spike. Unless its a drake which they can’t hit f2 most of the time.

Third, try using both longbow effectively with the damage/range constraints and throw in traps. It really doesn’t work well… Traps right now don’t synergize well with all the weapons and if it was just brought up to the range of muddy terrain, which isnt much to ask for, it would improve build effectiveness.

This is my ranger diagnosis from a PvE view only. Ok so after playing level 80 for a while and doing event farming, dungeons, and just general PvE I’ve come to notice the ranger isn’t that bad. We have our niche in a team which is controlling groups and being a bit of support for our team with healing spring, our pets f2 skills, warhorn, etc.

However, there are still problems that need to be fixed to make this class up to par with the rest.
First, aside from trap ranger we have to real viable build variety. In order to combat this some fixes need to made:
1. Spirits NEED to be fixed.
*They are to squishy and need either a health buff or armor buff so that they can be used in dungeons or other high level areas without dying.
*The inner cool down needs to be reduced a lot or just taken out.
*The active effect needs to have a greater radius so that it is actually useful.
If these changes make spirits as OP in PvP as they were in beta, then just split the skills as PvP and PvE and make the changes to the PvE version

2. Signets NEED to be fixed. The actives aren’t worth using because we lose the passive for 2 minutes straight!
*Signet of stone’s recharge needs to reduced so that activating is actually worth it.
* Signet of the hunt’s passive needs to be boosted to at least 20% movement speed so that it’s actually worth bringing. The active needs to change to something more useful than just more damage on one attack, how about grant swiftness to our pets for 3 seconds?
*Signet of the wild’s passive needs to heal a bit more, I mean idk much about this fix but it’ll be nice. The recharge needs to be reduced because 2 minutes is way to long for signet, perhaps 90 seconds?
Other than that slot skills are pretty good. Some people complain about the shouts, I however find them each useful for specific occasions.

Second, there are still bugged or real lackluster trait skills. These should have been the first fixes to the ranger class! You can find list of them on the forums already so I won’t go into them.

Third, fix the rooting problem on the sword.

Fourth, this one isn’t too bad but fixing it would definitely add variety to weapon choice. The longbow’s 1 skill can use some adjusting on the damage/distance ratios because sometimes keeping that distance for good damage can be difficult.

Fifth and final, the traps throwing range needs to be increased! Preferably to the same range as muddy terrain, because right now we are having to go in throw it and run back to avoid getting mobbed on and by the time we turn around we have lost our combo field.

Just those fixes will improve the ranger tremendously PvE wise and would please a lot of people I think. Pets aren’t too bad right now aside from sometime the f2 doesn’t activate when you press the button but that is small compared to everything else.

I tried it with the fern hound’s f2 and it doesnt boost the regens healing power like it should.