Guild Wars 2

They’re easy to play in easy situations lol but if you have to go solo a swarm or event, or find your place in a dungeon, trying to stay alive and effective in PvP/WvW, i dont think its any easier than any other class… really gotta be on your feet and use the right stuff at the right time, i.e. evasions, traps/condition, heals/pet swapping, pet skills, switching between melee / off hand skills and long range, there’s a lot in our arsenal that you need to make use of to stay alive in tough spots i believe. Perhaps I’m just seeking challenges all the time and don’t hesitate to go take on a huge swarm or solo a dungeon boss while everyone else was downed and still respawning xD

Right now I’m running pure melee for fun and have been able to successfully solo swarm events including some in Orr, and its just MAD FUN. I run with greatsword and sword/torch and it’s an amazing complement to each other, crazy AoE and dps. like one big storm of havoc, and lots of mobility, swooping, evading, and two longer range throws and aoe combos like fire aura. In terms of skills I have, usually I run with Signet of Wild, Signet of Renewal to make sure I survive those tougher swarms and throw in something that works for the situation, i believe we all just switch skills for necessary situations. a good trap like spike for cripple effects, or chill, if i’m dealing with a lot of swarms, but lightning reflexes or zephyr if there are fewer numbers but like something stronger. Entangle for those swarms, but hounds of balthazar if I need more damage to be dealt, rampage if i’m against things with knock down and other effects. Vets are quite fast to take down with ranger melee actually.

My build is right now 25, 25, 5, 15, 0 something like that with full berserker gear and weapons that are power/precision/crit. Yeah I was building a dps power but also survivability build rather than doing anything for my pet. However, this way my pet actually doesn’t die often because I am right along side it doing tons of damage and clearing out mobs faster before they actually threaten us. I just pet swap when they’re in trouble or if i also need healing just pop the heal as one.

What I’ve found from experience is that you need vit rather than toughness though toughness traits have great skills. But just for the vit… Comparing pets, for example, i’ve seen that a toughness pet would die faster than a vit bear, however, my wolf, which has powerful attack, actually is durable bc it kills things off relatively fast. I’ve seen it tank like six mobs at once before and with little bit of healing came out unscathed. Comparatively, from experience and when talking amongst friends, players who has lots of toughness but no vit also dies fast around me in pve events while you can remain as last one standing.

Somehow, going melee with ranger actually helped me survive longer than with a long range set up from experience. So my personal opinion is if you are going melee or going to take lots of damage, up your vit, but meanwhile, boosting your power and precision to make sure you don’t have to stand off for so long. I usually stay long range if i need a long stand off. like bows for champs/dungeons.

:P That’s just how I’m playing right now and it’s mighty fun, so mobile and so much dps, it appears almost as if you clear mobs as fast as a warrior or another class built for dps. and we know how much super fast dps they have…

MeGaZlo.9516:

Paaah. Don’t listen to them. Ranger really REALLY boring. After playing ranger all classes seem varied and fun to me. Even necromancer delights. Ranger has no tacticity as described above. In PvE you just stand behind the mob and drills him with one ability, while your pet tanks. If there are a lot of mobs and pet is not a tank – you throw a trap on the ground and continue to drill em.
Ranger is like a class for those who like… eeem…. “standard” styles of play. Like in WoW or smth. There’s even about not using dodge. Either there is no sense or regret 10% damage. Exactly this, I believe, is meant as pve ease – stand and use “1” when pet tanks. If u like it – this class for you.

Oh, and i should mention that the rangers can not be complete support class and has abyss of useless skills.

WOW. lol total hater xD and definitely someone who doesn’t use a ranger well. If that’s all you’re doing then something’s wrong with your build and gear…. Take it to Orr and see if you can still do that… every class gets screwed in there. If that’s still all you need to do then experiment with different builds and weapon sets once again as I’ve said before. Be effective but you can have some fun still. I’m pure melee right now. so much havoc and fun XD. If you go more tactical thats a lot of fun too. But the idea that you just stand there and do nothing … will get you killed.

I feel irked reading this thread with the strong hatred towards pets lol poor pets <3 Don’t play rangers if you don’t want pets. simple as that. Sure pets have some issues, I stow my pet when I’m trying to avoid combat and stealth my way around, pets are clunky, slow sometimes, stupid but it DOES help no matter what. When you’re using it to the fullest, the both of you are so synergistic. It’s not hard to manage a pet and also you can pick smarter pets, I’ve heard good things about devourers knowing when to use skills and evade and stuff. It is ranged. My wolves are great, they time their knock downs to use on mobs that are trying to use a skill to interrupt. They’re also super durable and have tanked like six mobs on it at once. With barely any healing. It’s freaking awesome. Love it. I swap pets when they may die so its only several seconds of cool down before i can swap again. I heal when I need healing as well only. It’s not hard to manage pets. My wolves also deal alot of damage and lately I’ve been running around with two melee weapon sets and having a blast because of all the DPS, and AoE that I myself can do, + the damage my pet does. Plus having traits that allows me to survive well… It’s like this big storm and your pet is synergistic to it fighting together. Why not have another thing to take some damage, use skills and deal damage as well? What’s the big deal and what’s there to lose? You still do your own thing. It’s only when you need to avoid combat or facing a particularly tougher one hit kill boss that you need to micro manage your pet and whatnot.

It also doesn’t make sense for us to demand buffs to the ranger because you don’t want a pet. the pet is part of the class. It’s what you signed up for when you chose the class. Be another class if you don’t want pets, simple as that. Warriors are a lot of melee fun, etc etc. Our skills are versatile but not especially powerful or great compared to other classes that are specialized.

Just use the pet, or use a different class. The pet doesn’t break our game and certainly it’s not like it’s no help

Amen to miracle’s reply! I am not interested in grinding, getting better gear/crafting once I have all the stats i want and magic find gear and tier 3 look that i want. After that, (of course that still is a lot of work), what to do? I have chilled and explored my way up to 80 and crave things like beautiful scenery, feeling free, interacting with people, helping npcs and players alike and loving the world around me. What I mean is soul in the game, the ongoing journey, adventure, exhiliration, fun. My goals do not revolve around real serious game goals but i seek the living out the game part, which to me is what mmorpg should feel like. So at the moment i am a little bored, but i can’t wait for updates, like new maps because there are tons of teasers, like locked gates and walls, invisible walls, npcs with teaser responses… and of course more elder dragons. So I hope it’s soon that we can explore and get more. Things are getting repetitive. Still, the players you can interact with can still be a lot of fun ^^

Helping players and role playing sound more like something that would bring more life to my experience, so I’ll be doing that. Question for RP, is it only in specific servers? or do people do it in every server but I just dont know about it. Maybe I should be checking out certain parts of these forums? Does anyone have any more ideas and creative things we could do if we are not farming, gear/gold stocking, pvping, in general, gaming seriously?

Same thing for armor, they use different names. Not sure of the reasoning behind it, but perhaps they didn’t want them the same name though… That’s something for ANet to explain haha

I think some or a lot of 80s have started to get bored once we have acquired all the exotics we need, finished all the avail maps and so forth. I’m personally hoping for new maps to open up soon, especially as there are teasers already (shut gates, big walls, and NPCs giving teaser replies etc) also the fact that there are more elder dragons, i.e. Jormag, Kralkatorrik and on wards, so I’d assume there is a lot more coming in the future. Can’t wait.

Personally, I have been working to complete my serious set of exotic gear and then need to work on magic find gear and save up for tier 3. huge undertaking that requires a lot of resources but other than that, I’m also at a lost of what to do. I often don’t feel like re-running dungeons, I don’t particularly want any dungeon gear, nor am i interested much in crafting stuff. I’m also kind of just like exploring so making a new character for me is quite tedious, even though I get to work with new classes/races etc.

So other than the actual in game goals:

An idea that came out from another thread on this forum from another member was to go out and help new players. If you like helping people, start offering to answer questions, help people through maps and difficult bosses/events, dungeons, giving tips etc. I think that is very rewarding rather than the serious in game stuff. For guilds, that would be an effective recruiting strategy as well.

From that note, of course WvW and PvP. Experiment with different builds and also organize teams and strategy for WvW.

On another note, I’m thinking of transferring servers to see what other player communities are like – if there is a difference at all.

I’m really interested in getting to networking type activities in game once I have everything I need.

Great idea ^ I was thinking of doing the same. I’m also the type that kind of relaxes and enjoys the game, I chilled my way to 80 I swear XD Mostly i was wandering around exploring, enjoying the scenery, distracted by events and hearts and other things whenever I come across one. but one thing that helped me get to 80 was the fact that I loved helping people. Whether it’s those NPCs, where I go and talk to everyone and go out of my way to do their events or requests or helping other players with their stories, events, and so on. I just love chatting and helping people out! I just wish there’s more chatty people hahaha. some good friends I met in dungeons as well. but others came from random meetings in cities and fooling around. Another good place are people who are trying to complete maps, whatever map it may be, you can always find others at skill points, poi, vistas, trying to find their way into tricky places. But yes I see that more than often, serious players tend to keep more to themselves, there’s always a spectrum, so its up to those who have not many goals and nothing to do anymore to encourage more of this kind of culture. I agree that it feels like there is a lack, so it just comes down to how many people we have who will encourage this culture. Starts with us

Is the walking/running/dodge escape issue a bug? I like this skill and try to incorporate it alot. However, sometimes it does misfire and doesn’t do anything apparently. In dungeons when it does trap a boss/mob they seem to do so much damage it kills the roots real quick O.O Is this true? Is the speed at which someone in PvP or WvW clears them because they destroyed the roots quick? I’d love this skill if it was guaranteed effectiveness

I just made a pure sword/torch greatsword melee ranger right now and am having terrific fun clearing out tough mobs/swarms in PvE and traveling with it, jumping around xD

I go back to bows when it’s a champ or bosses in dungeons. You’ll find your play style by experimenting and trying new things. Rangers seem to have a lot of versatility and you end up realizing you can do so much.

For DPS i hear people say shortbow because of its rapid rate of fire and similar amount of damage but longbow isn’t weak. I go with longbow for serious situations, because I want to keep as far away as possible, with the skills it has, while focusing on positioning and tactics, steadily putting damage in rather than rush things for dps.

Just to echo, as for keeping pets alive, even without working on beast mastery myself, all I have to do is switch in my second pet just before the first died, then alternate with a heal which by that time I myself should need it as well in tricky situations, then alternate back to a pet swap. Most of the time it keeps my pet alive. If the enemy is tough enough, I send it in to draw aggro and then bring it back out by switching to passive mode or swap suddenly so they lose track of their target. :P I love the tricks you can do with a pet

Darn rabman that looks amazing. Looks like heavy armor rather than medium XDD

Yes this is the way they made it, rather than a bug. However, I do believe they should change it to save… it just doesn’t make sense lol

yeah i echo what everyone is saying! I love ranger, when i thought that I’ve developed the build and skillset that i feel fits me the most, today I try something new, different weapon combinations and all of a sudden i was like wow, this is super fun and effective. It’s a very versatile class and you can literally find strategies with almost anything in your arsenal. Rather than just pressing buttons, ranger is a thinking class, you plan out carefully and you react carefully as well as to what you need depending on situation. It’s a very strategic, tactful, effective class. Today I solo’d swarms of mobs in Orr during an event, and only other player who was there for the beginning was a warrior who died many times, where as i was long range luring in picking some off before rushing in with two melee weapon sets and creating a big storm of AoE around me and cleared them out quite fast. It’s so much fun! You can do so much and try so many different things. If you’re only using a longbow i suggest you go in melee because it’s super fun. With dodging, evasion, bleeds and lots of skills that keeps you super active and mobile. Next I’m going to try to head into pvp with traps/pet builds something like that and try something different. I believe ranger is one of the most versatile, one that can survive the longest, and one of the most interesting classes. You don’t need your flashy moves and those skills that SEEM so powerful or useful, the skills rangers can have are quite effective if used correctly. The more i use this class, the more i realize there’s a lot more to learn about how to play this well.

I’m not really on a pet build at all, since im all dps and survivability, i mainly have my pets to keep me alive by delivering the extra dps i need and being distractions when necessary, and as long as i keep them alive, i can AoE, tank and even let myself be downed (usually when i end up having to solo an event where there are massive swarms) and rally immediately since im always close to finishing more difficult things off.

So for my pets I run with two wolves, lots of damage, they also survive surprisingly really long actually, almost though not quite as well as bears in my experience, even when i’ve let them face off several enemies at one time. Nice howl effects, normal attack rate is relatively fast but what I love the most about the canines are the lunging knock downs, they consistently do frequently and do quite smartly too, like i.e. when an enemy is about to use a skill and interrupts it. helps me finishes things really fast without giving a chance to take a lot of damage. Really gorgeous smart and fast animals ^^

I run bears in dungeons to absorb stuff and be shields for the team. I’m thinking of using devourers now since they have ranged attacks and can stay alive longer as such perhaps.

Two drakes for water, for their AoE frost and boil, since I find dealing with swarms underwater is annoying and can use all the help i can get.

Yep! Those are my faves.

crosses fingers i hope for some weapon updates…

XD does stripping naked help ward off pursuers? LOL and im from EB too :P

For me I can see how rangers may seem boring, but they’re a lot of fun. I’d say as I have in other threads that rangers are versatile but are more tactical I think. Traps, going in and out of long range/melee, AoE, sending in the pet in and out, using different pets and their pet skills, and on wards… It’s quite colorful if you use it all effectively. I personally go sword/torch and longbow. Sword torch is so fun, lots of evades and moving around but flashy fire as well, plus traps around you, dishing out so much aoe. longbow is more boring but its very tactful and can be fun if you enjoy that. Not every enemy demands it but thats to be expected right? Easier ones are straight forward, but if you have something tougher, you can really think things through and use everything to its potential. You might still survive if u spam autoattack, but its more effective to use everything in your arsenal. The skills in my opinion have a great variety, and you can work out quite interesting tactics, combos, and builds.

Even without the traits its already alot of fun! I think its a personal preference thing, if you like casting and all those kinds of things then sure elementalist is fun. I like non-“casting”, tooth and claw, versatility which ranger provides

Sorry if this is like bringing up an old thread but I think I want to offer my two cents xD

First of all, browsing through this thread, kinda irks me because people are sharing opinions and experiences yet everyone makes it sound like its fact. People have different experiences, styles, and preferences, not pointing any figures but we should all try not to sound like what we say is law and fact.

Now I can offer my own opinion and experience which by no means is what everyone experiences. I am a lvl 80 ranger and had a lot of fun and easy time throughout the game. And I will echo that I don’t think we are totally dependent and focused on our pet. My set up is so that I don’t really trait my pet though I would like to try to do so soon and see how it works. My pet for the most part is just a distraction for my enemies. All I have to do is keep it alive and that is simple to do just by pet swapping just before it dies and healing up both you and your pet when you need it. It usually alternates, heal up both u and ur pet and then while it is in cd, you pet swap so it doesn’t die on you and has really quick cd before u can swap again.

In terms of weapons I go melee really often almost primarily in pvE when I know I can handle them. I’d only stay long range with champions unless they’re too close for comfort. I love melee bc its fun and i like movement. Most of the time I consider this fooling around haha. I clear out mobs extremely fast just fighting like a warrior, sword/torch, tons of AoE with my torch skills, and dropping a trap or two right around me. The sword itself has a lot of AoE and a swarm of mobs can be cleared really quickly. And most of the damage comes from myself not my pet. When things get serious I will think carefully and usually set traps, longbow putting as much damage and luring them to me before going all melee and AoE and condition and then leap out when things get serious to withdraw to long range. In dungeons I also survive the longest in any party not because of the pet though that helps to distract but because it decide to take it seriously and stay at range with longbow and steadily dig away at an opponents life, without being hit myself.

For me rangers are a very versatile class where you can go in melee or long range. And pets really help as well. I think you and your pet are just synergistic, one can do without another like sometimes i just do nothing and watch my pet take on three or four mobs at a time and still come out alive… But together you make a good team!

However I do agree that rangers do have low straight forward dps comparatively and have been killed by ppl in wvw or pvp extremely fast and even pve noticing how fast a mobs life drops. But it isn’t that big of a difference if you do it right. If I have to summarize, I would say rangers do slow and steady damage and finish of enemies over time. Hence In dungeons you truly shine and many parties actually look for rangers from personal experience. Not only does the pet provide a shield but rangers survive super long EVEN if your pets die off.

All that said I will be trying a trap, pet based build later on we’ll see how that is ^^

lolol I love ranger, i love my pets ^^ I’ve always liked ninja-ish abilities like as a thief but pets are more important for me LOL. but other than that, I’m not sure but many people have asked me to join them in PvP and they say they need me for dungeons or whatnot that rangers are useful. But perhaps as a support and tactical steady damage role…

Hey, check this thread out: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Show-pics-of-your-ranger/page/2#post303394 Some nice armors there. For human female, I’m looking to save up the tier 3. Otherwise other than what i have now, I’m not sure I’ve found anything else I like. I guess you can get decent looking stuff at max levels for sure though

@Derek TIER 3!!! I’m trying to save up for that, so expensive!

LOLL I just went to find the wolf pet a few days ago. Got slaughtered by swarms of enemy. I don’t think I went at a very good time, they were pushing our server hard. All that just for my pet. xD If only I could talk to them LOL Be like I come in peace, escort me xD My thief friend survived fine tho. I wish we had some sort of slight stealth like a camoflage, which would make sense since rangers are a wilderness survival/adventurer type class. But details for that might have to be worked out.

All worth it though. Such a gorgeous pet! and Fear rocks. Running with two wolves now

Btw, the wikipedia link is only for NON-Charmable wolves. If you click the pet wolf link, it says Eternal Battlegrounds.

i lovee longbow. I don’t bother with shortbow. I think people are just going back and forth. It all comes down to your play style and strategies/tactics. Longbow is more thinking and staying at safe ranges. I am pretty much the only player who doesn’t die in a team in a dungeon because of the longbow. When I’m serious and know I’m up against quite powerful enemies haha I think, position myself and use the longbow.

I think the characteristics I see it in my playing is steady damage over time while staying alive. You’re playing it slow and safe while killing off your targets. For me its been exceptionally maneuverable except for Barrage where you are rooted for a bit. Not too long tho once the shot is done the arrows still rain down and you can move and throw out other skills.

I exclusively keep my longbow for tactical stuff, if it comes down to AoE you only have barrage to work with, maybe your traps if your running with traps. If you get swarmed, you’d have to switch out of longbow. other than that, I’d say longbow is a specialized useful weapon if you use it for its advantages. Lay down traps, and eat away at their life steadily from a far distance. Keep them far and you’ll see the longbows effectiveness.

I don’t think its about how much damage when you compare SB and LB etc but the specialization and the tactics involved. I’m sure SB users will also use it to its advantage

xD usually have a ninja mask tho

About AoE damage, the sword in its fundamental basic attack, actually applies damage to more than one enemy at one time. Especially if you have them clustered together, it slashes everything within range and the sweep of the strike. I really dig that, helps clear out swarms with my torch very well and along with dropping a trap or two, you become this big storm of AoE damage (albeit kind of self-sacrificing indeed), then you can always dodge out to switch to ranged when you need

Amen to that. XD The entire back inventory slot is up for so many possibilities! I speculate that they were thinking of that actually since that slot is there

Not sure if these have already been covered and suggested, but throughout the game, especially now as we hear more people that feel bored or at a loss of what to do after accomplishing almost everything we can do in PvE, here are some things I’ve been thinking about.

1) Massive World Dynamic Events – Well not sure about that term, but anyway, I’m thinking of some extremely rare DE (like only once a month or something), where something massive happens. My main suggestion is to plunge an entire major city (Divinity’s Reach, Lion’s Arch, etc) into an instance. Whoever enters the city enters this instance. In this instance, for example, one of the Elder Dragons attacks the city and the map literally crumbles and falls apart, a destructible environment. Meanwhile all the players rally together to defeat the mega boss destroying the city. This can take place in different servers, at different times, can be random or scheduled. Other than dragons, other things can happen which is on a large scale, such as natural disasters, or even a take over of a “safe zone” city by bandit terrorists or something. I feel that we need larger scale random events that shakes up the player’s world which feels so constant and safe. Another example outside of cities is if a new Elder Dragon awakens, much like Kralkatorrik and its branding of the land, if we can have an event where we can see the dragon corrupt the land and attempt to stop it. On that note, it may play out to be a larger scale storyline which affects the history of the world etc, instead of simple personal storylines whereas the normal world remains unchanged. The current system of Dynamic Events to me wasn’t so dynamic as it repeats easily (sometimes quite often) and is not a permanent dynamic. Even killing Claw of Jormag, blasting off its wings is kind of jokes since it comes back a while later with new wings. LOL

2) Evolving Maps – It seems like there are a lot of new maps waiting to be updated, so I’m excited for it. Lots of gates that are guarded and inaccessible with teaser messages from NPCs. Crystal Desert, Dominion of the Winds etc. Of course there seems to be more Elder Dragons to face. However, will the actual map change as we complete our storylines. For example, the current story line finishes at Trahearne cleansing the land of Orr and it is supposed to be recovering again. But this obviously only takes place in an instance. Is there any way to incorporate a constantly evolving and changing map?

3) Residential/Community – I think this has already been asked and discussed, but perhaps maps that are exclusively residential and community based, where players/guilds can purchase houses, have communal buildings such as lounges etc with additional benefits and onward. I feel that as serious as the game can be, people can really also appreciate a constant place to sit back and relax, interact/socialize with one another to keep up with the fun element. I know people who end up being bored at times and feel like they need a breather. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a safe place to do so. To elaborate, Lion’s Arch, Divinity’s Reach, large cities like that sometimes has random gatherings of strangers and exchange conversations, or fool around with tonics and dances. However, most of the time people may not respond to you when you speak to them randomly, and players generally keep to themselves. Even in DE and after events, I often don’t see much conversation exchanged. So it’s not quite comfortable in a way. Is this a server thing or is this shared universally?

4) On a more personal note, please fix the ranger 1h sword skills LOL. It is buggy as it is slow to execute, misses often, overshoots, and is even more so on tricky terrain, as well as lacking a proper gap closer.

5) This has been discussed before, will there be “cloak” back accessories available? It’d be really cool to put on and display a cloak over top your armor.

Other than that, still a great game, and will be here for a long time

haha I love all the names. I think i only fool around with my aquatic pet set up…

My Salamander Drake (which is a fire lizard of course) – Charmander … charmander in the water??

and my shark – Sharkfin Soup

LOL yep

and plus your pet would die if you were in a place with the appropriate level, and it gets attacked by a few mobs… lol. But it does serve as a good guard in a relatively safe area ^^

I run with Sword / Torch (Longbow for range) exclusively and I really enjoy it even though it is kind of annoying and buggy. It proved to have worked very well for me and other weapons I feel are more limiting.

I turned off auto attack… lol and it works well! I mash that button HAHA but its not that bad. I’d rather have the option to evade and stuff. Without auto attack on, it does immediately stop after whatever step in the chain you stop at.

I’m more annoyed at the lack of gap closers that alot of classes seem to have. Even guardian has a teleport sword skill, even though that is kind of thief-ish/mesmer-ish? The greatsword has a swoop but I like off hand weapons. Right now I’m getting by with this weird makeshift technique – as the Hornet Sting rolls back first before the actual Monarch Leap which has incredible range and distance – without anything selected, i about face turn away from target and roll back, before spinning around to Monarch Leap lock on LOL. It covers great distances. And it has fast enough cooldown to use it again soon in combat. Still it’s dumb.

The skills are buggy, whereas we need the responsive evasion skills, hornet sting roll back is slow to execute, Serpent’s Strike misses half the time, even attack 1, with the whole leaping forward to your target if it moves or switching to the next nearest target, sometimes causes you to over jump…. It’s more buggy than horrible skills I guess.

However I still prefer the sword, it’s just something that suits me. I love the damage I can do, the crippling effects of the attack 1 chain. Clears out swarms (tougher mobs too in my case) in PvE very well. It’s a fun weapon if you can live with the inconsistencies and some dumb things about it and really try double as hard to dodge and evade when you need to.