Guild Wars 2

Rangers in general term are people who wander in nature to do a specific job, generally to protect certain place or to hunt certain species. Archetype of ranger in modern fantastikittenerature is Aragorn from LOTR, who wanders alone in the wilderness and hunts/protects specific locations. Ithilien Rangers are a great example for archer archetype rangers.

Beastmaster on the other hand is someone that tames/communicates and takes advantage of beasts. In the old days there were kennel-masters who were responsible from the war dogs.

I can argue about these words-archetypes-origins all day. But it would be in vain. This is a game. This game has developers. So they can make rangers as mesmers, and mesmers as warriors and none of us can say a fuggin thing.

Rangers should be able to do well without pets. In this game they are totally chained to their pets, which is no more clever than a wet rock. And I do not understand why all this fuss? Give the bloody option for a petless ranger (make it balanced) and if someone wants a bloody pet, she can choose it. If someone dislikes having a pet, well ta-daaa, she can not choose it. In my opinion more options are needed for this game, both for f skills and utility skills.

The lack of diversity is really boring. You have limited options, and some skills are “mandatory” for some professions. You can simply not run without them. Condi is really boring, boon share is abusive, and mobility for some professions are insane. I think there should be some changes but my advice would be to bring back glamour mesmer, give base rangers some kind of unblockable arrows, tune down condi and damage of some professions while adjusting the tankiness. And for the love of god, bring more frequent bug fixes and patches.

Spear
Greataxe
One-handed Hammer
Pistol
Dire Maul
Pole Weapons…

Among all these options, dagger is the least proper one. Although it is idiotic for this game’s meta to prevent warriors from using “all melee and ranged weapons” (non-magic), it is the style. But come on, there are better options.

I would suggest using longbow/ancient seeds build with good timing. That really hurts them.

Better version would be trapper/condi ranger, which again bugs them like hell.

Your mobility is better, so you can kite them. Otherwise it is like what stickerhappy said, duel with them. Whenever I have a problem with some profession/build, I duel until I understand the mechanics (or I play with that same build).

If you are not happy, “you shouldnt”. Thats it. To all whiners, if you are not happy with the current spvp, do not play it. Only then Anet would be forced to improve it.

Original intention of this topic was way different I guess, and it turned into a guild/server fight or something else.

Ranger, master of ranged combat, expert marksman, sucks. Why? First of all it is designed for solo play. Second, in many games ranged combat frustrates and attracts hatred from other players when they die (snipers, archers etc.).

And in this game medium armor professions feel better for roaming. They are my favourite (or were before HoT) but they are not as zergy as others. And especially after HoT projectile hate spam, rangers/druids are having a hard time in wvw. Still in my opinion we are very useful, sniping staff ele’s/necro’s from range, pressuring other players, bugging frontliners and so on. I am playing on a medium/low tier wvw server and with all this ranger hate/projectile hate/anet malfunction, I still cannot quit playing the profession.

If you hate rangers/druids, do not play. If you love it, play. If your commander does not like you, roam or play as an add-on to the zerg. I say “meh”. A good commander would always find a use for every profession.

Keep on shooting brothers.
May your arrow always find your target.

Pistol pistol build was my favourite fun build to play before richochet nerf. Now it is total crap if your opponent has more than a miniscule brain. I still hope for the return of richochet though.

I do not care about necros and their situation ( I dislike playing the profession) but in my opinion, with all these boon spam in the game, necro corrupt boon should be reverted back to its original and buffed. It should corrupt every boon on the player with a proper CD, and casting time. That would shift the balance and negate this horrible boon spam.

With the HoT changes thief is now neither the master of stealth, nor the mobility. Other professions can access to stealth in better ways, they have great mobility (thief still has the advantage), they have too many blocks/invuls/passives and they have bloody piles of reveal.

Acrobatics/shadow arts traitlines should be reworked in my opinion. Thief does not need an unblockable utility like warriors but it needs a better way to deal with all these blocks and stuff. Sword needs to be buffed slightly. Boonsteal needs a buff too, there are millions of boons in the game and most of them are buggers.

In my opinion thief also needs an f3 button with either stealth or blink to live up its own name.

And I really want my pistol bounce back. I miss P/P thief

Then you love it and no matter what ( for some time you will leave your toon to rot. But again it will re-connect with you instantly) you can not quit playing a thief. It is like a disease or something

Play power thief. Do not listen others. see it yourself. YOu either love the profession (apart from periods of anger) or hate it completely. There is no middle in my opinion

Well pet buffing is buffing your pet for your taste, not for your pet to be stronger but useful Otherwise you are right. But I do not have that much hope for these changes. They are slow.

What kind of a thief is this? Why is he not hitting you? Why unnecessary disengages? Dude if any of the thieves I have seen were there, you would have been resurrected as a bamboo stick.

Nice! Wisps idea is perfect. Love it. Moving EB to BM is not something debatable but common sense (pet buffing = BM in my opinon so you are right). I think trait lines should be adjusted especially in the case of Ranger. There are some misplaced traits.

And for the one millionth time, pet mechanic and stats needs a rework.

Ranger is suffering at the moment. It is not only condi problem. You either go full glass cannon (but no lb. people fart reflects nowadays) or full bunker, begging your pet to do the damage (I really HATE the pet mechanic in this game). Anything you can do in between would result negative vs an experienced player.

Easy option for dps = Rework a signet, give ranger 6 seconds of unblockable attack chance (like signet of might from warrior)

Easy option for bunkers = add a condi cleanse option

Easy option for everybody = adjust the pickle-ish pet mechanics and stats (tie them to ranger stats to be fair)

These might work. Might not work. I seem to care less and less, so my opinions are not praiseworthy.

Yep OP, you are right. For too long rangers were unwanted in many areas. And we tried too hard to prove ourselves for commanders, pvp teams etc. Even if we played perfect for one week, our one tiny mistake counted as = oh ranger again…

Healing reduction was ok. WHaO was ok. But CA was already a stupid idea, and nerfing it was way more idiotic than anything they did for rangers. Now again rangers are “meh”. We are not useless, but we are “meh”. All professions can do everything slightly better (without sacrificing many things).

But in the latest patch notes I have seen the part where they talked about “changing the nature of the elite spec.” so I still have some hope about Druids/rangers, if they do not wait for another 3 months.

Wut? Dude…Seriously? DH virtues are one of the best f skills in the game (in my opinion). They do not need any more buffing. They are way too good, only balanced because of the low health pool of DH.

That trait thingy needs to be adjusted though. I did not check it myself but if it is the situation, they should fix it.

Before hot there was at least scepter fresh air ele that needed immense amount of reflex and a setting without lag. But it was cool. Now ele’s only have a pickle. Single, dried, ugly, smelly pickle.

Rangers damage sucks. Pet mechanic sucks. Druid spec (now) started to suck. Several weapon skills suck. Several utility skills suck.

And here we still play the kitten class because we love it. It is like a bad addiction.

Even with the bounce axe is bad. But I gave up on the idea of a rework.

I think there should be some changes made with the entire profession.

1- Remove heartseeker from dagger 2
2-No stealth + traps cheese
3- Add an f3 button for stealth (as it is the bloody trademark of the profession) with an adjusted amount of duration/cd.
4-Remove too much invis stacking from mesmer. Thief should be the best one in stealth-ing.
5- Adjust the other utilities and damages accordingly, no power or condi creep.

Ta daaaa. No more problem. Now apply this kind of attitude to every other profession.

Oh woe! Once a skillful profession, dear thief. How the mighty have fallen. This is the epitome of the saying; “There is no honor among thieves”

But it seems bothersome. It can be countered if you are ready for it, but still I think this thing should not exist. Nice videos

You can try equipping your LB with fire sigil, using two lb, and quick draw. With some pets, you can dish out a tolerable damage. But other professions will always be better than you in the terms of range aoe dmg (with some exceptions)

You can also try fire + blight sigils in wvw.

In my opinion, in WvW, DH cannot counter an experienced DD. No matter what you do,mobility is a huge issue in this game. And a good DD would disengage-engage to burn the cd’s of DH.

But the problem about my statement is the fact that I am assuming a skill level for the thief/DD. Below a certain experience, I think DH can really hurt DD well.

Best thing they can do is remove the traps from the game, remove the elite skills from the game. think proper elite specs, rework old skills and bring it back. But as this is a far fetched dream, only thing they can do is nerf/buff play.

DH is not a good elite. I play it, i love it but it is not as effective as others. Blocks can be penetrated, conditions can be reapplied. Due to its low hp, guardian is already a shaky choice for hardcore games. DH is just a shaky choice with a bow and some burst damage from traps (which can be easily avoided).

Piercing light nerf was ok in my opinion. This game needs less CC’s, less aoe’s, and less power creep. And they are trying to focus on base guardian traits and skills. That is nice. They should do it for every profession. But with these survivability nerfs, they should either give speed bonus, or properly adjust traits so that shout’s can be used well.

No profession should be forced to play 1-2 builds to be effective.

I think he is right. DH is my favourite class but it is easy to counter. In my opinion it is really weak, compared to my chrono, druid or daredevil. But maybe I am better at those professisons.

Which ranger, what build, where, and against which build?

Try pew pew. Apply more if needed.

I do not care if it is working or not. Your efforts that were put in this are praise-worthy. Thank you friend.

If a guy has the right intelligence and reflexes to rally from a guard while fighting you, I think he deserves to do so. It is not wise to dumb down the game that much. It is already going down the drain. So, in my personal opinion, some tricks should remain at least.

More important question is; can mesmers please create clones without targeting someone first?

I want my glamour mesmer back. The good old trait with fields applying confusion would be a really beautiful change for the wvw melee trains.

Most of the time pets become a burden in crowded combats (wvw). Also their AI is garbage. Really bad. I mean I do not want to compare it to WoW or anything, but even Icewind Dale II has better summon mechanics than ranger pets.

You cannot go petless, and you cannot ignore them either. I can suggest you three things;

1- Roll another archer-ish profession. Not the same thing I know. But Dragonhunter and warrior are both fine archers. Their range is shorter but they have skills to compensate their lack of range.

2- Ignore your pet. But that would be harder to play and you would gain nothing. Except peace of mind, and serenity.

3- Use your pet like a utility skill. Keep it in guard mode, and use their skills accordingly. For example Fern Hound would be another regen skill, bear would be condi cleanse, smokescale would be a smoke field only.

That is right, but this game has no difference between greatbow, warbow, and longbow (naturally, nobody would bother about those). Still it is quite refreshing to see people liking bows, and talking about them

I do not want a longbow with a shortbow skin. For a person who used recurved, long and compoun(hated this one later on) bows, I know the exact proportions and the feeling. Weapons in this game is not designed well enough for a character (at least mine) to seem realistic. They are either too long (like ancient chinese foot-bows) or too edgy to be useful. Only some recurved designs feel ok for me. There is not a single classic longbow in the game that I can say " yes, this is a longbow". At least I have not seen one. But maybe it is my own taste. I dislike most of the swords either

ps: It seems I am like a grumpy old man.

It needs bug fix certainly.

I have no desire to fight either, and thanks for your kind answer. I have already checked the longbows in the game but there are so few that I can like. I like realistic ones, so special effects do waste on me. And beautiful ones have a size issue in my opinion. Best and most frequently used ones for me are softwood, hardwood skins. Gallant seemed perfect but seems a little big-ish.

I really think gw1 bow skins should be included in gw2. Some of them are beautiful. And a little more care on skins would be wonderful. Sorry for my outburst, I have been looking for new bow skins and could not find any. So when I saw the old skin database from gw1, that post happened

Generally 15 k is the minimum safest if your reactions are fast (at least it is for me). But I have seen impossible pull offs with 12-13 k hp. But again there are certain variables that you cannot foresee; might stacking, sigils, a different utility skill etc

serj.8214:

alain.1659:

Racial skills should be available for revenants.

Revs cant chage some of utilities so thats why racial skill arent viable for them.

I know, and this should change in my opinion. At least for racial skills. That would be interesting at least.

Revenant is the single profession that can do amazing things, but cannot do simple ones.

Really? There were all these beautiful longbows and we are stuck with these crappy skins nowadays? Really devs?

ps: REALLY?

Longbow, marksmanship and wilderness survival. Those three are core things for my ranger. I cannot, and will not and would and could not without them

I had that issue two days ago but I thought I imagined it. I will try today and send a report if there is a problem like that.

That actually depends on the server you are playing. If your server has many opponent thieves, you might want to adjust your hp according to their maximum one second burst damage. Same goes with other one shot professions. If your reaction time is slower, your hp should go higher. After a percentage you are forced to find a new build that you can play. Sadly you are the only one that can answer that question op.

Racial skills should be available for revenants.

Major problem is pets. Before any other thing, devs must fix the bloody pets. Or give an alternate option.

Signets would also be cool. But pets.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I can make a ranger work in a zerg but it isn’t optimal.

This. This was my point. With all the effort I put into ranger, and be a “good” ranger, I can be a great insert a meta class here. This is wrong. This needs a fix.

Tifa.6473:

anduriell.6280:

Tifa.6473:

alain.1659:

Tifa.6473:

Osu.6307:

Anyone who mains ranger in wvw and considers themselves “good” at zerging, should try playing a real wvw class (GREN) and see what they have been missing. If you are good on a ranger, you’ll probably be great on an ele or necro.

I’m guessing you play warrior or guardian. Spam 111111. Alot of skill needed lol.

But as a ranger player this guy is right. I have switched to ele after ranger/druid became something dislikeable. And now there are zergs and comms inviting me to their guilds, havocs offering to hang together. My life became so much easier. Now I will try a revenant and see if it becomes better.

You shouldn’t have to change your class that you love to play for a pug commander. The only reason why you would run g,r,e or n is if your in a gvg group. It sounds like you need to change to a better server where the pug commaders let you run whatever class you want. It’s only guild group commanders that ask you to run certain classes. Rangers also give shared precision so bonus.

You did not read what he said, Alain is not talking only about commanders but the general public acceptance. That happens in any single group composition. So he did what he was forced to do, not because the people but Anet.

When Anet gets their facts right and make the ranger\druid to be useful that fkitten won’t happen again.

A healer druid that can’t heal, A pet master that can’t keep the pet alive, an archer that can’t snipe. Pick your choice. Also you should try playing exclusively with ranger in wvw for a month so you’d get some acknowledgement of what fellow players are saying here

I agree that rangers should be useful again. If you read my previous post you would see that I want rangers to be useful again like they were back in 2012 to 2013 before they got nerfed heavily. The point I was trying to make is he stopped playing his class to make a pug commander not a guild commander happy and others with the same mentality. Changing class to an ele which is sad and I truely feel sorry for this player. I support rangers 100% and play a ranger as my prefered medium class in wvw on blackgate. I play the game for fun not to please others.

No no no. I never gave up playing ranger because of other peoples wishes. It was my own frustriation and dissappointment in this games idea of “ranger”. My first point in insanity was gifted me through our lovely pet system. Second was the useless utilities and badly designed weapons . Third was our so called specilization; “Druid” ( although the idea to make elite professions when you are unable to complete your core ones is far from smart). And my final straw was the insane amount of reflection in this game.

So you see, it is not because of other players. I still play ranger in pve. And when Anet decides to fix the problems (yeah yeah there are several in other professions too, but ranger is our discussion) I will give it a shot again. But it does not worth my effort. I can do “everything” better and smoother in other professions.

If you want single target dmg, and can handle the color pink for hours and hours, letting your clones do the job and you getting the glory, and the horrenous sound effects, go mesmer.

If you want the best aoe dmg (also fair mid range single target), like to be seen as doing too much but actually doing not much than any other, and if you can handle dying much, go ele.

May your server will never meet with good enemy thiefs then.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

alain.1659:

Not every profession is made for every game mode. There lies the problem. They cannot be valid and balanced in all game modes.

Yes they can and they had the means to do it since launch, they were able to separate class balance based upon game mode, they chose not to and one of the most prominent reasons was they thought it would be to hard for the player’s to understand.

No they can’t. The end. You are talking about a game company which could not and cannot fix the core bugs in the game for more than two years. Same company that needs to fix its kitten patch at least four times. I do not think that same company can balance the professions in all game modes, hence, “they cannot”.

Try 12.5 k+ hp. Nowadays (in my server) thieves’ single second burst is 11.9 k (dunno how) so I tend to go with more than 12.5 k hp everytime. I would advise something between 14-16 but that is a personal choice.