Guild Wars 2

Overall, I think our utilities are ok. Shouts seems a bit of an after thought. Spirits are squishy, short-ranged, and proc. I’d rather a flat buff. Signets are ok, but do pale in comparison to those of guardian and warrior.

I love the ideas! Less “snare” type hunter traps, more “animal/nature” type traps. Some of them really increase the overall utility of a profession that is a little lacking in that area anyway.

I want one of the big Tuna for underwater pet. They make my shark look tiny.
And I want to charm an Ettin….they’re like big dumb animals right?

I keep a few pets in reach depending the situation:

Crimson Moa’s F2 Fury w/ Shotbow+QZ. Sick dmg.
Murrelow for solo tanking. Just a shame it’s so ugly.
Fern Wolf for group regen is nice.
Pigs…still trying to get the timing down for their F2. It’s generally a big heal item so, if used right, can be a huge boon both solo & for allies. And it’s walking bacon.

Short bow’s 1 skill is actually great because it forces you to position yourself correctly to continue stacking bleeding. Longbow could use some love. But both are position dependent, forcing rangers to move while attacking for maximum damage. I think it’s cuz as ranged attacks we don’t have to stay on top of our target like we would if we had a sword equipped.

Personally, I use the Jungle Stalker a lot and its F2 ability takes multiple mashes to trigger it. My Crimson Moa is generally responsive when pressing F2, but the animation takes forever to actually cast.

as a Sylvari Ranger i find most of the skills lackluster. Seed isn’t nearly as good as Ranger’s Healing Spring. Mostly, i went Sylvari for the non-elite root. Thinking I should have gone human though instead for more support.

I love sword/torch when solo. Ring of fire (skill 5) then leap out & back in (skill 2) is a nice combo, especially when fighting groups.
The horn in nice too though of course.

2 biggest issues for me ( and they’ve both been said) are the lack of response when using the F2 skill and constantly pulling out “Juvenile” pets instead of the personalized and witty named one I had 15 mins ago. The idea of the Ranger, as opposed to the Necro, is that it’s a nature lover and forms bonds with animals. Tough to form a bond with my faithful hound when he constantly becomes just another juvenile pup. And the pet skills are the defining characteristic to Rangers…they’ve gotta work properly.