Guild Wars 2

This post has been made 100x already in many different forms (including by myself). Nobody is focusing on the balance of the class anymore as ArenaNet has already identified this as something that needs fixing – the issue remains the misleading information and the lack of actual response/change.

JonPeters.5630:

Hi Anders, I’m totally not here so skip this post and read on…

We made the improvements we had time to test. There are still more ranger improvements but when our time is limited we have to focus on things we know we can fix. Signets and shouts are still on the docket, and I suspect some of each of these will get some love in the next time around. As you can see a lot changed in this build for every profession and we have to test these changes as well.

I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements. If we could fix everything at one time we would, but the reality is there are a limited # of hours to make changes.

I see a lot of talk about ranger weapons, but I don’t think that is the real problem. I think sword and longbow are both good weapons, which is why the changes take longer. The problems are deeper, in pets ability to hit moving targets, trait lines with not enough viable choices and skills that are often too specialized to really compliment the weapon builds. These aren’t things we can change overnight. The change to Greatsword block was in fact a very difficult change, but we made it because we knew it was the right thing to do.

There are >500 skills in this game, 480 traits, and 2 designers working on this. Even then often we are bottle necked by other issues. I’m not going to say we are not working on these things, nor can I say there are things we could have changed but just ran out of time on, but this was a patch that contained ranger improvements and it will not be the last one that does so. Maybe you want more than honesty but that is what I currently have to offer.

Jon

Just very dissapointing Jon as we (Rangers) were entirely skipped over last patch and told very exciting changes were coming, where you even gave a heirarchy of those changes to come, but addressed them in a different manner. I understand a game is difficult to program, balance, etc, but when your customer’s are told one thing and an entirely different thing happens all the way up until the point of where the content is just released without comment/fore warning and/or anticipation from the dev’s that this may not be what you were painting to us initially – we have to question it and this is why you see numerous posts of dissatisfaction.

Honestly, take the time you need to fix things – it’s the misleading that irritates people.

nldixon.8514:

lagrangeify.5641:

Oh…..dear.

I’ve only just started my ranger. Guess I should have rolled an engineer after all.

Despite all the bellyaching, Ranger is still a pretty good profession. It’s excellent for PvE and with the right builds can be effective in dungeons, W3, and sPvP.

It’s just that we were promised something that wasn’t delivered. Just a little disappointing. Most people are just angry right now.

Agreed – still very viable class, but I was hoping some of those unviable specs would be there (e.g. the class just feels very struck down to only 2-3 ways of playing it).

“One problem with rangers is the lack of build diversity created by a number of sub par utility skills. Many signets, a shout or two, and spirits are all a bit lackluster. That is the first place to expect improvements. Second is trying to improve the feel/ pacing on some weapons.”

Lost faith today.

“Ranger

•Improved the effect chance on ranger spirits to 35% base and 50% when traited.
•Beastmastery minor traits now use the correct icon.
•Splinter Shot: This skill’s damage is increased by 150%, and its bleeding duration is increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
•Counterattack: The blocking portion of this skill can now be used while moving. Ranged attacks will not trigger the second half of the skill.
•Protecting Screech: This skill now states the correct duration of 4 seconds.
•Call of the Wild: The Wilderness Survival trait Off-Hand Training now applies to this skill.
•Throw Torch: The speed of the projectile has been increased.
•Maul: This skill’s damage has been increased by 40%.
•Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.
•Whirling Defense: This skill was updated so that it interacts better with combo fields.
•Splinter Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
•Coral Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
•Feeding Frenzy: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
•Mercy Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher."

nldixon.8514:

Patch notes are here. The specific Ranger changes are listed below.

Ranger

• Improved the effect chance on ranger spirits to 35% base and 50% when traited.
• Beastmastery minor traits now use the correct icon.
• Splinter Shot: This skill’s damage is increased by 150%, and its bleeding duration is increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Counterattack: The blocking portion of this skill can now be used while moving. Ranged attacks will not trigger the second half of the skill.
• Protecting Screech: This skill now states the correct duration of 4 seconds.
• Call of the Wild: The Wilderness Survival trait Off-Hand Training now applies to this skill.
• Throw Torch: The speed of the projectile has been increased.
• Maul: This skill’s damage has been increased by 40%.
• Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.
• Whirling Defense: This skill was updated so that it interacts better with combo fields.
• Splinter Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
• Coral Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Feeding Frenzy: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Mercy Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Wow. Just wow. Did not address any real issues with the class. /fail.

Nowhere close to 50%, sorry.

saVdoom.2067:

docMed.7692:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-update

Was being sarcastic..

Just thought you should be brought up to speed.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-update

ski.4927:

It has been said time and time again, the biggest reason you see people hating on Rangers is because the way our abilities currently work, the best we can hope for in WvWvW is to work 3 times as hard as other classes to get the same results. That’s as good as it gets for us.

Our signets are mostly pretty bad.
Our shouts are mostly pretty bad.
Our spirits are terrible.
Our pets, which are half of our damage apparently, are buggy, slow to respond, and cannot attack on the run.
Our bow shots have trouble hitting our target, and are weak when they do.

It is not terrible, and it can/should/will be fixed. However, right now it is quite difficult. I find success, but it takes a lot of work.

1/2 our damage? Which pets are you running and where can I get them?

saVdoom.2067:

You can guess from this topic here, where people discuss those people’s classes/professions:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/GW2League-now-with-sPvP-Rankings-Need-Info

That’s really all i wanted to say regarding ranger class in competitive game. Broken and useless. I switched to mesmer/thief myself a while ago for tournaments, and soon will get to play an engineer too.

Nice balancing right here Anet. Thanks..

You’re right – there isn’t an entirely separate post regarding a major update coming for the Ranger next patch. Clearly Anet has declared the game 100% balanced. Let’s riot.

Jeheil.2516:

In one on one’s, barring a substantially skilled Ranger versus an average anything we dont fare well. We dont have that super burst damage that can know you down to 30% of health in a roll of the face. So unless you are trap spec’d you will be closed down and killed.

In two v two’s however we can make a very potent class if partnered with a melee oriented class. We can survive long enough to put enough constant damage up that you can turn it into a 2v1

I agree with most of what you said short of the above quote – a substantially skilled player (no matter what profession) will always trump an average player. There’s also a ton of ways to mitigate damage as a ranger (see bear/wolf combo w/ protect me) that literally adds a good 7-8k HP + fear that allows you to survive glass cannons and also be one yourself. Not to mention bear + util = ez condi removal.

Luckily she will always be here for you, free to play whenever you’d like. Someone once told me in a harmonic manner, “You don’t know what you got… til it’s gooooooonnnnneeeeeee!”

Samfisher.7942:

You can snipe if people aren’t moving at all. They cannot get away from zergs, or thieves. Or many other classes. They do ok but below average damage. Most of their weapons are bad, the traits are messed up, but hey they’re useful in outdoor PvE. Also useless in dungeons. Pets die when mobs sneeze at them. Pets die running into random AoE in WvW. Pets can’t attack moving targets. Their F2 skills have an agonisingly long cast time and almost never hits. Rangers have no burst which is the end all and be all of PvP, we don’t have a proper bunker spec. We don’t have a glass cannon spec that is worth it cos you’ll be left with 15k HP and die in 2-5 hits from random people (that’s an instant KO for a backstab or Kill Shot crit). Spirits are useless, signets need to be traited 30 points in to be useful. Arrows are easy to dodge, obstruced, invulnerable or miss. We were stealth nerfed to fix an animation bug that not a single person has seen before.

BUT! Apparently we will be fixed in the Nov 15th patch. I’m running a very specialised build with some Vit/Toughness gear and have about 18.8k HP unbuffed so it’s still ok. I enjoy playing the Ranger still, but we don’t do anything well enough that other classes don’t do better.

You should take this with a grain of salt – it is not as bad as this user implies. Yes, fixes need to be made and apparently will be made on the 15th, but they are still quite viable (it’s only our auto attack that gets annoyingly obstructed – barrage, rapid fire, our knockback, etc, are all very easy to land).

1. condi + power is pretty good (especially since you can’t apply condi in all situations). Precision is ok for the bleed trait off crit, but it’s a very small chance off each crit and the bleed itself is quite weak that is applied. You can also go power + prec. For the condi combo, I’d recommend shortbow + axe/torch and for the power I would recommend longbow + axe/warhorn.

2. Depending on your build, power/condi/toughness are great for dungeons – precision is great too – Vitality and healing are rather useless.

3. I’m at work, so putting out a build right now is tough. Not sure on Moment of Clairty, I had the same question and never tested it out!

4. Yes, for about 90% of the encounters, plus your bear will aoe condi removal, so if you see allies in trouble, you can also help them with condi removal.

5. I wouldn’t worry about boosting them (least not until Anet releases the “soon” Ranger Buff patch). However, in PvE I run double bears to get the most out of their tankyness.

6. Spirits completely suck at the moment short of the elite utility spirit. He can actually be pretty decent, but I still run with entangle as it can be nice when you have to kite/kill a ton of mobs.

7. Right now there are a lot of variations based on what you want to do. I always put at least 5 into beast mastery for every build as switching pets is something every build will do and 2 seconds of quickness is awesome. From there I play condi, so I will usually put 25-30 into tough/condi and the rest into part of skirmishing (good traits) and power.

I’ve never had this happen – rangers are actually quite good in pve if you run double bear.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We’ll be touching most of the classes, if not all.

Capricorn is more geared for pub fun, and it’s not in our tournament rotation for a reason.

When que’ing solo/testing builds/etc – I often find myself searching for servers that are just beginning their map rotation after this one as this map is frankly quite unenjoyable due to the underwater combat, point control location, cannon, etc. I appreciate the creativity behind this map, but if any changes are to come I would at least recommend that a portion of the 8v8 servers do not include this map in their rotation. I enjoy the other maps (even with the imbalance of 8v8) and am disheartened every time I have to zone back to heart and find a server not on this map.

If you’re going to post duplicates – just have 1 link to your other post, no reason to have 2 separate conversations.

This tower was easy, took me only 3-4 tries to get it – just practice on some other jumping puzzles and watch a vid if you’re struggling.

Forzani.2584:

I know it is hard to quantify, but how close is a manafactured 80 to a leveled 80 …75% ..50%?

ArenaNet mods said a max level geared out character should easily be able to solo 4 lvl 1’s bumped to lvl 80, which I definitely agree with.

Thieves aren’t too bad to deal with – whether they are condi or power builds. I run a shortbow + axe/torch condi build and when out of combat swap to my horn just for swiftness while travelling. To take thieves down though, you need some type of aoe to keep dealing damage whenever they refuge, use invis, etc. Your torch helps you out here as using #5 over a refuge and spamming split blades it is quite amazing. Plus you need to run with a bear (condi removal bear) and wolf. The bear is great to start the fight with, as noted above the theif will typically try to burst you down asap, which you can use your bear + protect me to easily absorb damage and burst out your own. Then typically you can swap (5 pts at least in BM), gain quickness, and aoe fear the theif out when he uses his first stealth. Switch to shortbow, pew pew, then near end of fear stun (you’ll be behind), keep pew pewing, start kiting with shortbow, rinse/repeat. I typically run with protect me/condi pet removal/quick zeph – but if you’re having a ton of trouble, you can switch quick zeph out for spike trap. Hope those tips help and good luck.

My friend and I would be down to run. I’ll be on later tonight at the times you indicated. We can run any position (we both play about 5-6 different profs/specs), use skype, etc.

Add me and I’ll see you in game.

I like your additional suggestions

Often I come across a 15, sometimes even 25, page thread that is marked to indicate a dev. has responded. I simply want a quick and easy method to jump to the post the dev. has made (since I can’t see the name of the dev. and go to the list of his/her posts).

I’m sure others have come across this and would appreciate the same – otherwise educate me please if I am missing an easy way to find an unidentified dev’s post in a thread.

Thanks!

Lol that would be pretty awesome if I worked for Anet.

deepwinter.9015:

docMed.7692:

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty – you are running a sword/dagger build (basically worst/most broken weapon pair for the profession). No wonder you think the class isn’t viable. As my original post indicates, explore all builds before you come to a decision.

So, what you’re saying is…

…only one to maybe two builds are viable?

…that the Ranger sword is broken?

…that condition build is better than a burst build?

…that there is only one way to play the Ranger to make it work, therefore the whole profession works?

You just nullified any reputation you had and your original post.

I broke it down to power/condi/bunker, which are the only “distinct” ways to play. There are numerous variations amongst all of those styles to facilitate a build towards. Bunker is definitely the weakest when it comes to absorbing raw damage and/or keeping opponents actually off the point. But the Ranger bunkering at back point is great because they can easily kill opponents (less neutral time) and also support other nodes/solo svan/chieftan, etc. as necessary.

You sure threw a lot of words in my mouth. I would love to see anywhere I make the statements you listed.

nerva.7940:

with that, you lose all credibility. the little you had. sword/dagger gives you 3 low CD on-demand evades, effectively rendering you invulnerable for 3-4 seconds. along with signets, it is essential for anything resembling a bunker build.

so you wanna get into the nitty-gritty, but you bring no valid arguments to the “discussion”.>.< ive been playing the prof since BWE1, btw. i know the prof is viable in a few roles. what im saying is that other profs do it way better.

lol – I’ve been playing Ranger since BWE1, and definitely know the profession as well.

Regarding the sword – I’ve acknowledged (again third time in this thread now) there are bug/fixes that need to be implemented. This sword is definitely in this category. If you read up, you’ll also see I listed the weapons I believe are useful/viable for pvp as they currently stand. Sword isn’t necessary for a bunker, but I do agree guardians do it better when it comes down to simply absorbing damage (although rangers, in bunker build, can get from point to point faster and kill opponents quicker -and thus re-bunker quicker, especially with the retal nerf for guards).

I would love to hear some news about pending fixes/updates

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty – you are running a sword/dagger build (basically worst/most broken weapon pair for the profession). No wonder you think the class isn’t viable. As my original post indicates, explore all builds before you come to a decision.

nerva.7940:

but thats really not the point here. you can say “to each their own” in all aspects of PVE, but people play pvp to bring something to the table. to contribute. people generally dont like dragging their teams down.

I don’t think your understanding – I’m saying I disagree with you, find this class viable, and run it with my highly competitive tpvp teams all the time. So again, we can keep going in circles, or not – I chose not to.

nerva.7940:

docMed.7692:

Well the BM trees are useless mainly due to the targetting problems pet have, etc.

In pvp I utilize axe/war horn/torch/shortbow and ocassionally long bow.

GS/sword/longbow could definitely use some work – from a raw damage perspective, these are behind, but you’re not counting in the utility and evasion these weapons also apply as well, whch is vastly superior.

i am counting that. i play a sword/dagger evasion tank in pvp. while it may be enough for survivability, rangers simply lack utility and damage. compared to what mesmers, thieves, warriors and guardians bring to the table, the ranger’s contribution is simply laughable.

To each their own then – just have to agree to disagree.

Sdric.8526:

In order to see if a profession is in a good spot in a PvP based game you have to compare classes.
There is no other way.

I am really starting to doubt you actually read my post.

Well the BM trees are useless mainly due to the targetting problems pet have, etc.

In pvp I utilize axe/war horn/torch/shortbow and ocassionally long bow.

GS/sword/longbow could definitely use some work – from a raw damage perspective, these are behind, but you’re not counting in the utility and evasion these weapons also apply as well, whch is vastly superior.

nerva.7940:

i dont think the OP has played the prof long enough to understand its flaws >.< ive got over 150 hours logged just on the ranger (mostly s/tpvp), and it is by far the most underpowered prof in the game.

If you read through you’d see I mentioned 350 hours + played on here. Not to mention I run this profession (amongst others) with high level tpvp teams and it does very well.

Sdric.8526:

docMed.7692:

CRrabbit.1284:

You are wrong.
It’s true that there are a few ppl QQing about ranger being underpower (as all other classes).
However, most ppl get angry becoz Anet didn’t tell the truth and then give irresponsible explanation for just trying to play the typical american game —- COVER IT UP.

You know, believe it or not, I am actually trying to foster a real conversation and encourage player development here. “You are wrong” doesn’t really help explain anything.

But instead of discussing you tell ignore everything that is said but tell us to “go away”.
Sorry, but this topic is a joke.
You say you want a discussion but don’t accept people who agree with you.

You’re stating “Yey, rangers are great – it’s all up to the players”.
I respond “No, they’re not. Even if you change your gear during a dungeon and adept to your enemies maths proves you’re weaker than somebody who doesn’t have to chance his gear at all.”

If you don’t want this tread to be a complete joke learn to accept other players opinions and respond to the “message of their message” instead of attacking the player.

Your post was 90% about warrior vs ranger – lol. Again, not going to sit here and argue this. I also missed the part where I said “Rangers are great” – This will be the second time in this thread alone I’ve noted that I acknowledge the issues (bugs) and that I’d like them fixed. Would help if you read everything first before responding.

Regarding the PvE side – this is such a moot point. Every profession is 100% viable in PvE (see my previous post).

deepwinter.9015:

I play a Ranger, and I play it exceptionally well. I’ve used many builds and weapons in my career. I’ve sPvP’d, WvW’d and dungeoned many times.

And I agree with Sdric: the numbers are not in our favor.

Its not a “l2p” issue, its a coding issue. You can kick against the pricks all you like, but the profession needs the attention of the developers, ASAP. Nice speech, but you missed the mark.

Takatsu said it well – it isn’t about raw #’s between the professions. They all play differently, and consequently have very different strong suits.

Just to give an example; Yes, bull’s charge >> shield smash >> weapon swap >> pop frenzy >> into hundred blades, is going to do a ton of damage – but they (the warrior) also have to hope their opponent doesn’t have a stun break up and also hope their opponent will remain locked while hundred blades casts in a non-moveable position. On the contrary, a Ranger can deal steady damage while evading, line of sighting, etc.

This game isn’t designed for all professions to simply line up in front of each other and say “First one to unload and kill the other, GO!”. I think you’re failing to grasp the combat system and how it is applied in spvp/wvw. Sure, I can agree in pve having higher numbers is probably a better thing, but nonetheless, you could nerf every profession 15% in damage across the board and they would still destroy PvE (e.g. PvE is easy/balanced and a moot point).

Sdric.8526:

I got 3 complete exotics sets for my Ranger.
I swap between those 3 several times on each map.
So I do with my trait-line-skills and weapons.

In the end my Warrior can do everything my Ranger can, but better.
(Dual Sword, Toughness/healing Power/Condition Damage and Healing shouts)

Having 750 condition damage my Swordthrow (4) deals 5,840-bleeding damage (900 range)- with FGJ and Signet even 6,8k!
That’s 22,29 Shortbow auto attacks for my Ranger with 1150 condition damage.
I got more armor than my Ranger.
I got higher damage (Rifle > Shortbow) with 400 less points in condition damage.
Meanwhile I buff my mates on a much lower cooldown than a Ranger-horn has.
I remove conditions from my group and myself.
And I heal everybody for 2k /Shout.

The current state of the Ranger is not problematic because people don’t know how to play him.
Rangers are problematic because their numbers are just insanely bad.

-Heal scaling

-Spirit life

-Condition weapon base damage AND scaling

-Longbow
— flight time
—Range penalty
—Attackspeed

Shortbow
-QZ bug
-recent attackspeed nerf

Sword
-Unresponsive to dodges
-Long activation time on 2

Greatsword
-Just plain bad damage compared to Warriors
-Condition and physical damage mix on a character who has to use his runes to make up for his armor

Last but not least:
A pet which dies instantly within WvW or exp.mode dungeon AoEs.
Which can’t even hit a running enemy.

I could continue this list much further.
But everything has been said a hundred times before and tbh. I’m getting sick of writing in this forum since the Devs don’t even care enough to respond.
“We know the Ranger-class is broken. We’re working on a fix.” is all I’m hoping for.*
Hell, I should be leveling my Thief this very second.

---

To sum this up:
Regardless how good you play your Ranger.
Even if you constantly swap gear/masteries within a single dungeon and adept to each type of enemy you face:
The pure numbers on the whole Ranger class are broken.
On top of 2 traitlines which are completely unusable due to bugs.

Your motivational speech is no help.
———————————————————————————————————————————
Even lance Armstrong on doping can’t win a bicyle race on a Puky-bike.
———————————————————————————————————————————

If you don’t want to play a ranger, don’t – go away. Your anti-motiviational speech is no help.

I’m not going to sit here and argue profession vs profession (although there are numerous holes in your argument & I find killing warriors quite easy with my build).

Sdric.8526:

Exaggerated Statement?
Please scroll up and enter the bug forum.
Check the nature and beast-traitline sections.

You’re missing the entire point of this post. I’ve acknowledged multiple times, not only in this post, the existing bugs and have implored requests for their subsequent fix.

racta.4250:

Statements like “pet dies instantly” and “2 traitlines unusable” are no help.

In fact, they probably hurt the cause. New rangers will come to these forums, read your negativity and spread these exaggerated statements as gospel without any first hand experience.

I think the OP is correct. Rangers should look to increasing their skill at the game before giving up from 3rd party information.

Agreed, whole purpose of this post is to encourage growth and development amongst players.

CRrabbit.1284:

You are wrong.
It’s true that there are a few ppl QQing about ranger being underpower (as all other classes).
However, most ppl get angry becoz Anet didn’t tell the truth and then give irresponsible explanation for just trying to play the typical american game —- COVER IT UP.

You know, believe it or not, I am actually trying to foster a real conversation and encourage player development here. “You are wrong” doesn’t really help explain anything.

As the title implies, I’d like you to examine yourself through this thread and think about your own play styles and general knowledge you have of GW2 professions. Perhaps the issues with this profession (the Ranger) are in part due to the issues at hand and in part due to your own skill/knowledge. Don’t get me wrong and hear me out before you rage that I dare question your skill – there are problems (bugs) that nearly cripple certain aspects of the profession and need to be / will be fixed. Nonetheless, the Ranger is still a more than viable profession in wvw, pve, and pvp (e.g. all aspects of GW2) and users (players) need to be more aware of their potentially debilitating faults before placing 100% blame on the profession.

Please note; every profession thread has a QQ about their profession sucking – you are not unique Rangers. In order to combat this, I present my general pointers of how to approach this profession, and GW2 in general.

1 – Understand your profession AND OTHERS.

This profession, just like all the others, requires an individual to understand the workings of not only the Ranger, but other profesions you encounter. If you know the timings and cooldowns of professions you come across, it becomes increasingly easier to dominate individuals (and sometimes groups) as a Ranger. GW2 has a high learning curve – roll a few alts, work on understanding other professions, and you will find that your ability to take on other professions may be more limited by your knowledge of the game as opposed to the profession itself.

Personally (350+ hours on the Ranger alone), I spent much of my time pve’ing and wvw’ing on my Ranger. Recently, I’ve spent about 3 weeks straight learning all professions inside and out in spvp. I have learned so much from this process (and still have much more to learn). In particular, I can now easily recognize when someone is que’ing up a heal, or getting ready to MOA me, or throw down their AOE, etc., which now allows me to interrupt/react accordingly. This game takes practice, patience, and understanding in order to utilize the visual ques presented. This is not like other games where you see a cast bar and a spell name underneath it – you need to recognize the visual ques and once you are acustomed this approach the game becomes dramatically easier.

2 – Try out every build!

Regarding the roles of the Ranger, you can effectively play a power or condi or bunker build. I recommend trying these builds out and basing your findings on tournament based 5v5 pvp (avoid conclusions based on zerg-style 8v8). You will find that based on the 3 specs I listed above, a Ranger can roam and point defend extremely well. No, I’m not going to hand hold you and put out 3 specs for you to review/nit pick – however, I will recommend that you use appropriate runes/sigils/amulets for your spec and focus on only 3-4 treelines at most per spec. Much of them can also be tweaked in various directions depending on your play style.

Don’t get caught up in the general masses opinions that certain builds suck or this build is the most OP. Try them yourself and make those determinations on your own. Who knows, you might have a way of playing this “terrible build” that ends up being really good for all the various situations that can arise.

3 – Practice and discuss with your friends!

This is a community based game. Sharing knowledge and strategies is the only way to improve! Ask your friend what he does in x-y-z situation. Get pointers on builds. Go into a spvp zone and 1v1 duel to truly “test your skills”. Visit other sites besides the GW2 forums (no offense moderators!). Firmly understand what each skill does (you may notice that simply reading the traits/skills text does not give you a real idea of what the skill does – you typically need to test them out and may be surprised at the results!).

To sum this up: Take the time to learn all you can about every profession and you will find your play and opinions of professions will increase and/or drastically change.

Thanks for reading this,
doc

“I put down a spirit” – well having any spirit in your utility bar is one flaw. They unfortunately are terrible at the moment.

Nonetheless, try out SB + axe/torch condi build. It’s quite fun, switch weapons a lot, and use all your skills (especially in wvw/spvp).

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

docMed.7692:

Namu.5712:

doesn’t matter if you use a range pet or not… they are a non factor in pvp.

Pets are utterly crap in pvp.

A mobile player wont get hit by a ranged pet, just like they wont get hit by range projectiles from say a long bow.

Did you forget that the player controlled pet attack takes like several seconds of wind up? Or how bout the fact that your pet can be downed extremely fast.

As long as the player keep moving your pet isn’t going to touch them. Sorry.

Quite the contrary – pets are extremely useful in pvp, I recommend trying out a couple wolves or a spider and utilizing their abilities accordingly (e.g. fears/snares).

Yea, they have good stuff when they work, except the spiders stun is a root, the wolves dont fear when u tell them too most of the time, and almost every pet dies in a few random aoes. No pets are not useful atm since they cant do damage to moving targets.

I have never said the pets are perfect and in fact have stressed the need for improvements. But good management can rememdy most of the snare/leap/ability use woes.

Sdric.8526:

docMed.7692:

Quite the contrary – pets are extremely useful in pvp, I recommend trying out a couple wolves or a spider and utilizing their abilities accordingly (e.g. fears/snares).

Because decent players tend to be easily hit by skills with big animations and 2 seconds of standing-still casting-time.

Greetings from the sarcasm front.

I land fears all the time against comprable players in tpvp – Just as the rest of your skills, you have to know when to use them and when not to.

“PvP pets suddenly are left in the dust because they cannot compete”

PvP pets in fact assit you greatly in spvp – they are rather useless in wvw though unless you are fighting in a small scale situation.

Grundar.2894:

Let me save you some grief in the long run…

Dump the ranger idea, if you like it for the pet they are dead 80 percent of the time you are in combat in pvp, in pve to level up they are decent, still buggy as hell to use tho.. if you want to play the class purely for the ranged gameplay, your better off to start a warrior, buy a rifle from the trading post at level 2, you will enjoy their ranged gameplay far more then you would a Ranger at least in it’s current state. Don’t listen to those few posts that state the Ranger is great still… read the post a few threads down regarding the SB not being 40ms nerf… and you will see how the Ranger community truely feels about the class and how much the devs at ANet seem to care about fixing us.

Even in 8v8 where there can be huge amounts of aoe going on, I find it quite easy to keep my pet alive.

You’re always going to find more people griping here than people praising the game, as those will typically be in the game enjoying (rather than here complaining).

Your rotation is quite flawed Durzlla. There is much more to the ranger.

The wolf has to be top of the list – Aoe fear & a leap. Black Widow is ok, and drakehound is decent too, but since it’s skill is targetable it’s not as effective vrs mesmers/thieves.

Edit – good list though nonetheless, and birds in general need a health buff before I could see them useful in spvp unfortunately (unless you spec for pets to get health back from crits).

Namu.5712:

doesn’t matter if you use a range pet or not… they are a non factor in pvp.

Pets are utterly crap in pvp.

A mobile player wont get hit by a ranged pet, just like they wont get hit by range projectiles from say a long bow.

Did you forget that the player controlled pet attack takes like several seconds of wind up? Or how bout the fact that your pet can be downed extremely fast.

As long as the player keep moving your pet isn’t going to touch them. Sorry.

Quite the contrary – pets are extremely useful in pvp, I recommend trying out a couple wolves or a spider and utilizing their abilities accordingly (e.g. fears/snares).

Pratelic.6185:

Awesome, Thanks alot docMed.

No problem at all.

You definitely should be swapping. Not to mention 5 points into any spec is barely anything to justify spending all your time in that attunement. Ele’s in general have to swap at least 2-3 stances in any rotation and staff ele’s utilize all 4.

edit to add a bit more – in general, your main damage attunements are fire/air, water for healing, and earth for survivability/crowd control.