Guild Wars 2

Out of sheer depression, I went over to Guildhead and made a few “If Rangers Worked” builds. I made a pet build that would be a lot of fun, if my pet could move and attack (and preferably not die quickly in an AoE) at the same time.

I also made a Spirit build, if Spirits weren’t even squishier than pets and had something better than a proc rate in a short radius.

Sad face. ArenaNet, please help!

@andybmcc That’s pretty much the issue I’m having, but that seems like another bug. On all other professions, I can use the 2 ability immediately on a down without delay.

I wish I could use a Sword in anything but solo PvE (i.e. for the lulz). That root bug on the 1 ability has cost me too many times in sPvP, WvW and especially Dungeons – even when its not set to auto-attack.

If ArenaNet can fix that and the pet move/attack issues I’ll gladly take whatever nerf/glitch/bug they give to the Shortbow. I’ll even ignore the lackluster Spirits for the time being!

Unfortunately, no. At this point I’ve given up hope. Just looking at the first tier of traits for other professions and I become depressed. The heavy reliance on a broken pet mechanic is a poor decision. Mesmers alone can make a potent build full of synergy with just the first two tiers of traits – we can barely make a viable one with all three.

From Opening Strike to pets being unable to attack and move at the same time to Spirits being lackluster, the Ranger class shows a lot of hope but leaves much to be desired.

Consider this: Mesmers can do better ranged damage with a greatsword.

/trollface

Yo dawg…

… kitten she beat me to it.

Nope. The 1 ability is very situational for me. If there isn’t a target I can down with the 1 ability so I can Rally quickly, I won’t waste time smashing it.

Seras.5702:

I think people forget about how much damage the pet does. If you don’t want a pet, roll a warrior. It’s the core mechanic of a Ranger.

Oh yeah! Pets are great for damage dealing!

…Except when the pet has to stop moving to attack a moving target. Or when they refuse to attack that object you’re shooting/beating on. Or when they delay their F2 ability because the game has their other attacks queued up in the background.

But if the target is standing perfectly still, and they decide its a good day to attack it, and when their other abilities aren’t in line waiting to bust a move, then yeah! Pets are great for damage dealing!

@Druzlla, as opposed to what? The Longbow’s abilities?

1 and 2 to damage
3 to apply increased damage condition
4 for control and
5 for AoE Damage?

Seems even more straightforward and easy to grasp to me.

That’s exactly my point. You can claim you’ve seen these things, but don’t state that the opposite of what you claim is “just a rumor” when others have documented and tested for it. Unless you can provide proof to the contrary, it cannot stack up to what others have posted videos, screenshots and data about.

Also, that last paragraph was a run-on sentence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-on_sentence

The greatsword’s damage was nerfed in the last week of the last beta. The sword’s 1 attack roots players, even when auto-attack is turned off, making it difficult (read: frustrating) to use in dungeons or PvP where dependable mobility is required. The axe is considered the last hope for melee rangers, and even that’s not an ideal weapon of choice. It has no evasion abilities and, as mentioned above, requires the ranger to be point-blank to get the most out of its 2 ability.

As also mentioned before by Strongfort, the Longbow was an incredible weapon – in the beta. It was sequentially tweaked to be the low-impact, negatable weapon it is today. The Ranger’s Longbow, in addition to the Shortbow, are outclassed by other professions’ abilities using the same weapons. The largest issue is the flanking mechanic on the Ranger’s Shortbow 1 ability, Crossfire. Not only was its speed reduced significantly, but to apply its bleeds requires flanking the target – which is not always possible, especially in WvW.

To answer this thread’s question: No.

If anything – between the bugs, the glitches and the quality of life – the Ranger class is the more difficult profession to find ways to get it to work!

Its like a lemon of a car that you love and want to work, but it just keeps finding more ways to make you curse the Six Gods, the Pale Tree, the Eternal Alchemy, the Great Spirits or that other charr that looked at you funny.

(I threw a little RP in there for fun.)

Durzlla.6295:

Once again this rumor is wrong, it’s not per person, from what i’ve seen there’s not even a cool down…

PS: I haven’t said this yet, this may be a bug… but the trait Natural Healing (BM 30 pt) heals your spirits passively as well as your pet, same goes with Signet of the Wild (doesn’t show up as them being affected by sig though) so i’m assuming these are bugs, but just throwing them out there for you guys…

For someone claiming these things are rumors, you sure do put a lot of ifs, maybes and “from what I’ve seen” in your statements. Do you have concrete data to back your claims that there is 1) no internal cooldown, 2) the buff affects everyone nearby and 3) that any sort of healing (trait, sigil or otherwise) affects these Spirits?

Or is it just “from what [you’ve] seen”? Hrmmm?

Consider this a challenge to Guild Wars 2 Ranger Mythbusters everywhere.

Seras.5702:

@Durzlla: the spirits are nothing like Shaman totems (my WoW main). Shaman could drop them anytime, anywhere, even call em back for a bit of mana regen. We have a long CD. Also, totems gave passive buffs to everyone in your party, not a 10% chance to proc maybe. And the range of totems was much larger. So…low CD/cost, reliable buffs, decent range, mobility (w/ TR). Oh yea…and they didn’t get one shotted by aoe.

This is true, because they’re immune to AoE. Would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Of course, it’d just be nice to have a reliable buff from these ethereal companions. The chance on hit for one ally within a short range, stacked with an internal 3 second cooldown, is intolerable!

Deleven.7508:

“Or perhaps the 6 second delay on the F2 command before its used”

the way the F2 ability works is that it throws the active command into the skill chain. it would be nice if they would change it so the active skill took priority and canceled the chain, but you can get around it by using your F2 skill immediately after swapping pets

also, pressing it twice will sometimes cancel the spell, try not to mash

Yeah, that’s really annoying. Though none of the boons are life or death, it makes it hard to time, such as adding a Might or Fury boon to Rampage As One. The Fern Hound’s regen would also be nice to have activate sooner rather than later, though this is debatable whether its is “life or death.”

By “not working/not going off” I mean to state that the ability is not activating and going on a cooldown. Even if the target has stability, wouldn’t it still fire and trigger a cooldown?

I would also like to point out that I’ve mashed the key like crazy and have tried it while targeting an opponent, targeting various opponents and not targeting at all. The ability will not fire.

Since the last update, I’ve noticed my #2 Downed ability isn’t firing off to hinder my impending doom. I’ve mashed that key in sPvP, WvW and PvE scenarios and it isn’t activating.

Is this just me or another bug?

FOTM implies that the majority of the profession is good and that everyone is racing to make one. That is not the case for Rangers now with the long list of bugs and crippling mechanics.

As much fun as sword+anything is, the auto-attack rooting bug alone is enough to deter from FOTM status.

How many more posts do we need to make before ArenaNet fixes these and many other issues?

Durzlla.6295:

That video reminds me of what i do in WvW with my ranger… you know what… i think i’m going to go play WvW tonight with my friends and slaughter them all like animals…

Key phrase here being “with his friends,” because his pet certainly won’t be killing anyone that takes so much as a step in any direction.

I’m furious about why ArenaNet felt they had to nerf the Ranger’s DPS because “their pet makes up for part of it” when the pet itself can’t attack AND move at the same time!

Yup. That video got me wanting to roll a Warrior. Superior ranged abilities AND, clearly, able to wade into a sea of red nameplates and SURVIVE LIKE A BOSS!

Thank you for posting that video. I’m going to be over here in a corner weeping and coming to terms with the idea of rolling my second character up to 80. What a waste of a month on my Ranger!

neverborne.4736:

I hoped ranged pets would be the answer for my pets exploding all over the place in PvP. My problem is the projectile speed is so insanely slow that if the target is not completely immobile, they automatically dodge it. If you’ve ever PvP’ed you know how rarely someone stands completely still… our pets need serious love. So do our weapons. So do our spirits. So do our trait lines. Oh, did I mention opening strike is still broken?

By ranged pets you mean the 900 feet ones that still want to run into melee to attack?

I thought this would help, too, but instead was disappointed. Again. The F2 response time, like all pets, was atrocious.

I want to see a response, too, but I feel that anything short of fixing the class itself isn’t going to satisfy me now.

When I started this game, I was on the fence between Ranger or Thief.

The Ranger had some of the coolest animations (namely the Sword) and appeared to have the superior ranged abilities, so I went with a Ranger. Then I discovered all of the pet issues and other bugs.

I should’ve gone Thief.

“There are so many fun builds that can be made in each tree; so many different ways to play the profession. In one run, you can be a support class, the next you can be the ranged class, and the next you can be in the melee.”

That’s what my friends told me before I came to Guild Wars 2. What they failed to mention was this:

“But that’s only true for every profession except Rangers.”

There are so many fun Ranger builds that COULD work, but basic, inherent problems exist that deter any Ranger from actually making these builds. I would love to play a support-role Spirit build. I think the concept is brilliant and fun! However, with the weak spirits and the shotty internal-cooldown mechanic, this build will never be viable – unless ArenaNet gets their act together and fix this!

Or pets being unable to attack various items in the game and, instead, glitch and remain standing? Or perhaps the 6 second delay on the F2 command before its used – but only after smashing said F2 command like a rabid woodpecker shouting “WORK kitten YOU!” at your computer screen?

Yeah, priorities are a bit whacked.

Wulfrim.4793:

Please keep any negativity and unhelpful replies out of this topic. Thanks!

Coming from the #1 Troll on these forums, this is priceless.

Actually, he’s not kidding. Don’t play this class right now. You’ll regret it.

The longbow in WvW is a bad stand-up comedy act.

“What’s got a range of 1500 feet when traited, shoots slower than your grandma and feels like a wet noodle when it hits you? The longbow.”

Wulfrim.4793:

Have you tried reading any other classes’ forums? Every single person (including mesmers, warriors and guardians) think their class is the most underpowered terrible damage dealer in the game. You just need to get out of the EQ mentality. There is no DPS, there is no tank, there is no healer. There are classes. Each class is capable of doing everything, but not one particular thing. Ranger is fine. The SB debuff could have been unintentional and the Dev team is currently looking into it, as they have stated. Before complaining I recommend reading other posts.

I thought this, too. In fact I came here with the hope that this was true. Its not. The Ranger is the most horribly broken class in this game – from their pets not able to attack and move at the same time to their rooting chain of their sword to their underwhelming ranged capability. Warriors and thieves are able to out damage a ranger at range and destroy them in melee.

With such reliance on their damage coming from their buggy and lightweight pets, the Ranger is the worst profession in the game. Take your mesmer whining elsewhere.

Katz.5143:

What is the one viable build?

It involved using a shortbow, but don’t worry about that anymore. The shortbow got broke this patch. There are no more viable specs for rangers. GG roll warrior.

I want the past three weeks of my life back. This class is broken with no fix in sight. It reminds me of another company’s game which I left to come here coughbiowarecough

I noticed this right away and thought it was just me. It was my guardian friend’s mentioning that he thought I was shooting slower that made me wonder if it was broken.

Being only level 67, I still feel like I’ve wasted the past month with this profession. The ranger is broken six ways till Sunday. I came to this game because people were praising how “balanced” it was. Just kidding?

Cool build, except that pets are broken. What good is a pet’s damage in PvP if your target doesn’t stand still? Remember, right now, pets can’t attack and move at the same time. They also have severe pathing issues.

This build would be fun to try when ArenaNet fixes this pet issue.

I’ve been really underwhelmed by the Ranger profession in this game. Alur, you summed up my frustrations and then some. Thank you for posting this.

Having years of experience as an MMO player, including “hunter-type” classes like the Ranger, I felt I came into this game with a good grasp on this archetype. At the time of this post, I’m level 62 – plucking along, taking my time to 80. But during that time, I’ve become more and more upset by the nuances of this profession.

First, pets. The pet AI is horrible. Pathing, cast times, cast responsiveness, and most importantly: they die easily! From what I understand, the Ranger’s damage was nerfed from the beta because ArenaNet felt that a large portion of that damage should be coming from the pet. However, in most situations I can’t afford to send my pet into the fray. AoEs rip apart pets and they can’t be called back fast enough. The cast times on every F2 ability is short ranged and miss most of the party/opponents. Lastly, having my pet run ahead of me when I stop to harvest a node, only to pull aggro has been the most frustrating thing while leveling.

Second, spirits. When I read about a spirit build, I was ecstatic! Because this game was suppose to destroy the Holy Trinity of tank/healer/DPS roles, the idea of a support based “ranged DPS” got me excited! The idea of standing on a wall or at the back of an army with my spirits buffing the mesmers, elementalist, other rangers and ranged DPS was titillating! Running a dungeon and buffing my party members was also a really exciting concept. Come to find out, the spirits were nerfed to hell and can barely survive a wicked glance much less a few ticks of an AoE attack. The range on their buffs also was horribly dismal, benefiting only those standing directly near them.

Lastly, the bows themselves. I read it elsewhere on these forums that the Ranger is the 4th best ranged class in the game. There are also only four professions who can spec as a ranged class in this game. The damage on the longbow at maximum range is horrible and slow. The damage of the shortbow is more favorable but its positional requirements and its unfocused abilities (am I direct damage or am I condition based?) are mind-boggling. The fact that one of the abilities, when fired, gives your pet a chance to apply three consecutive Bleeds is confusing (again, back to the pet thing).

With all the rare dyes , map exploration and time I’ve put into my Ranger, I’m reluctant to let it go – doubly so since I’m so close to hitting 80 for the first time. The Ranger could be a fun class, but these issues really put a damper on things. I hope we can hear about ArenaNet’s thoughts on the profession and where they plan to go with it in the near future.

I heard a lot about using thrown traps in WvW, so I was excited to be able to try this out when I had enough talent points for it.

I was quickly underwhelmed by the distance I could throw the traps. When going up against a fortress, I attempted to throw my traps up on the walls. I had to be danger close in order to throw them, unlike the other AoE caster classes. In addition, when attempting to defend, my traps couldn’t reach down to the bottom of most walls!

I was hoping for an interesting, viable spec for Rangers, but instead found another pointless build. With so many things broken about the Ranger class, I’m quickly becoming upset that I rolled one as my first character.

Gear for magic find.

Problem?

I managed to tag along with PiNK’s group a few times last night in one of the borderlands. Great fun!

I was also introduced to The Pain Train last night, too, in the Eternal Battlegrounds. Great leader, easy to spot. Large norn guys dressed in pink tend to stand out.

Much love from all of us in Dramatically Effective RP.

My shark’s name is “Vegetarian” (I’m a sylvari).

I’m going to resist poking fun at a certain username above me, especially since said user is admitting to having issues with their opponent dodging arrows. Perhaps a certain dwarf can beat your score?

@Rizzy, I’m still a new player to GW2, but I have a long history with MMOs. I did some serious WvW last night using a Longbow/Shortbow build. My opinion is that on the ground the shortbow was amazing, especially with Quickening Zephyr. When it came time to run and hide in a tower, however, the longbow’s range and AoE was absolutely devastating – especially with the 5% extra range and damage talent!

Back on the ground, opening with a longbow is great but a ranger with my build and weapon choices goes down easily under pressure. In one scenario, I managed to solo kill a thief but could not manage the mesmer that soon followed him.

I’ve seen early beta footage of Spirit builds, and it seemed like a very fun spec to play. I wanted to try this in dungeons and WvW with guildies, but then learned about said nerf.

My conflict is your implying that sylvari have somehow absorbed the identities and personalities of the dead upon which The Pale Tree was planted – that they’re plant-copies of the humans buried there.

A similar issue has come up before concerning the appearance of the sylvari. Why did The Pale Tree make them look more human? Some have suggested she absorbed the decaying nutrients from the mass grave upon which she was planted. By doing so, she also “programed,” as you put it, certain personalities into the sylvari based upon the dead that were buried there. While I don’t know why the sylvari appear human (other than the “that’s what the artist wanted” argument), I protest against the idea that fertilizer can invoke its deceased identity and personality upon the plant-life that it nourished.

What we know about The Dream and the dreaming sylvari are these:
- The experiences that other sylvari have are added to the pool of knowledge in The Dream
- The Pale Tree assures her sylvari have a basic understanding (reading, writing, tenants of the tablet, survival skills, a name and knowledge that she loves them)
- Each sylvari draws a portion of The Dream

The latter has been described as “that of a bowl filling with water – each developing sylvari only takes a small, random measure of the information and memories.” This “water” is the collected experiences older sylvari have. If one sylvari tastes what roasted moa is like, a developing sylvari might also gain knowledge of what it tastes like without ever eating it.

Note that these “past experiences” are focused on sylvari experiences. While in the opening cinematic we see battles, remember that The Pale Tree is old (she can be seen in Guild Wars 1 in-game as a small tree) and has seen many things in the past 250 years. Images of war does not mean knowledge or memories absorbed from graves.

@escherbach, You make good points, but I’d recommend revising your view on the “android” bit. Your assumption that the dream sylvari have are memories would be grossly inaccurate, considering the options a sylvari is given during character creation and the opening cutscene. They are not visions of the past but visions of the future. The Crescent Moon Shield, the Green Knight and the White Stag are all dreams a sylvari can have that are events that take place after they awake. I don’t believe you understand The Dream the way it has been presented through various sources.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dream_of_Dreams
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dream_and_Nightmare

A roleplay “purist,” as you put it, operates within a standard of rules and guidelines set forth by the author. Often purist prefer this in order to avoid conflict from information that comes up later. This doesn’t mean that a purist doesn’t think philosophically, such as about a sylvari’s gender, but it does mean they prefer to avoid making grand assumptions that may prove false later on.

What traits do you use, OctapusX?

Sylvari come from a very particular pod. “A golden pod.” They’re not a trail mix of plant life. They’re grown by The Pale Tree specifically. They have very specific dreams and awaken knowing their own names. I wouldn’t read too much into the artistic choices a player is given as evidence to their biology.

@TheKow, you need to use a bit more punctuation, like commas. Your posts are a bit hard to read.

@Illushia, if you haven’t already, check out the Wiki articles about Sylvari (provided by ArenaNet at the very top of this page). If you have already, and you feel you’ve scoured the Internet but haven’t found your answers, consider this: How do real plants function?

ArenaNet has demonstrated they’ve done a fantastic job at providing a lot of details for this unique race in fantasy RPG. If there are details we’re still unsure of, I’m sure more will come. In the meantime, consider the basic functions of a plant and a human and how they’d compare.

We know that sylvari can’t photosynthesize and they can’t respire through their skin. They need to eat and breath as a human would, as stated by ArenaNet though various sources. They wear breathing masks during underwater combat, too. With this in mind, consider carnivorous plant-life – like the famous Venus Flytraps – and how they digest food. And though we don’t have an Earth-based example of plants that breath, I’m sure there’s a concept that seems plausible (such as the Inquest example that TheKow gave above).

As far as the “beating heart” goes, we know that sylvari have sap for blood. Sap does not need to be “pumped” to flow, which fits with ArenaNet’s statement that sylvari have no pulse. There might be a “heart-like organ” inside a sylvari, but it would not function as a human heart would.

I hope this helps a little. Keep asking questions!

My sylvari ranger wears normal clothing that covers her body. In complete darkness, her entire head glows, but nothing else. Its very amusing!

That depends on if a dish made of charr is considered the lion’s share.

Now here’s a thought:

With Sylvari being botanical sentinents, capable of using weapons and tools and hunt food, how does that mess up the foodchain, Mr. Norn?

Have fun with that mind-screw.

You can view it in 3D at Guildhead.com.

http://www.guildhead.com/item/29847/warden-shortbow#model-viewer