Guild Wars 2

Kichwas.7152:

Nothing wrong with bow. But many people use it and the pet with it wrongly.

My initial attempt at humor has trapped my comments above into a bit of a snarky attitude that I think has me losing track of the point I’d wanted to make.

- Look through the skills on the bow, look through the pets, find compliments in terms of conditions that work well when both on the enemy at the same time, or other playstyle aspects that can boost performance.

My hunter comment refers to the people that get a bow, get a ‘tanky pet’ and stand way back there spamming a few keys while trying to have the pet hold aggro. Often the pet is chosen for cosmetics – “cute kitty” or “adorable bear” or “vicious dog” rather than because it does things that fit the build / weapon of that ranger.

- Many “hunter” players also won’t swap their pet until its dead or nearly so. An effective “ranger” player will swap the pet anytime it is beneficial to get their other pet’s skills into play, and the better the player, the better they are at timing this (I personally suck at it and just swap on cooldown so that my pets almost never die, but even this is better than the non-swappers – if I tried that in PvP or WvW, I suspect people would see me as a ‘huntard’…).

“Hunter” as I noted it might better be described as “huntard” because even WoW players who are good at WoW hunter don’t do these mistakes. They maximize the toolsets of that class in that game. But the toolset of ranger here is very different from that of hunter there.

Both are pet using classes on medium armors. Both -can- use bows. But that’s about where it ends.

And WoW has more bad hunter players than GW2 has bad ranger players…

(Or did, before poorly skilled players started switching to DK, though I think many have switched back as DK has not been the shiny new thing for almost 4 years now).

The problem is best summed up as “relying on the pet to play the game for you while yourself doing as little as possible, rather than playing the game by using the pet to maximum potential.”

One trick that helped me in GW2 a lot was rebinding all the F1 – F4 keys to shift-1 through shift-4 – so I can use those keys now as fast as I use my core abilities. For my pet that means switching what it is attacking or triggering the ‘F2’ skill are actions I can do with very little hand-movement (all my keys are actually arranged on a nostromo pad, if not, I’d have rebound everything on my keyboard into a tight circle to keep my fingers from needing to stretch).

So, if you aren’t a beastmaster melee ranger, you aren’t playing the class right. Got it. Thanks for clearing that up.

I suppose then they shouldn’t have sold the class as a master of bows then. Should have sold it as a beastmaster melee class. Then there wouldn’t be any confusion.

Kichwas.7152:

You can play it. You can also run around in your underwear and a pink quaggan backpack in Orr shouting “WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS” while hitting mobs with a level 1 stick.

But you aren’t promised to be effective when you opt for foolish. :P

If you think that’s ArenaNet being two-faced, you’re in need a serious reality check on how the world works.

Some play choices will work, and some won’t – but you can still do them. Each class has optimal ways it will function, and ways at which it is less than ideal.

In the real world we call it a “bait & switch” when we are sold one thing but receive something else, usually of lesser value, instead. Anet sold the ranger class as being the master of the bow. That’s their words. Not mine. I’ll paste it for you again, “Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.” which, of course, is true that given enough time you will eventually bring things down. Where that statement is not true: the warrior is more than parallel with the ranger on the long bow and the theif is at least parallel with the ranger on the short bow. Of course, that is my opinion from experience playing all three classes.

I thought Anet said we can play how we want to play…? Meaning I can play as a “hunter” as you said if I want to, but it’s severely hampered if I do. Anet says one thing, but does another. I can’t play how I want to. I want to play a DPS centered ranger and I can’t. I can’t because Anet has deemed that ranged weapons will not DPS any where close melee weapons. So, since I want my pet to live long and apply DPS since my DPS sucks, I have to run a BM build of some kind. 30 pts have to go into the BM line. That sucks. I don’t want to run a BM build. I want to be able to do my DPS and use my pet (since I am forced to have it) for utility, i.e. jungle stalker might stacks and moa fury.

By the way, I know I’m not the only one that has noticed that melee pets do more DPS than ranged pets. If I run a ranged pet while I’m using ranged weapons, I’m doing the lowest DPS possible. That is a terrible position to be in for a class that is suppose to be the master of ranged weapons.

Total Bulls**t:

“Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.” – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/

This is why I rolled a warrrior specifically to run dungeons. Warrior’s rifle is better than the Ranger’s longbow. I even like the longbow better on the Warrior.

jubskie.3152:

thefantasticg.3984:

I like a 30/30/5/0/5 or 30/30/10/0/0 build with knights gear w/superior runes of the dolyak (I think — I ain’t at home to have a look). Running that with a the sword+warhorn and a shortbow is really enjoyable. I also run either entangle or rampage as one with a feline/drake or feline/hyena. Lightning Reflexes, SotH (the speed signet whichever it is), QZ.

Dolyak is the Regen on the 6th rune. It’s not really a good 6th effect because the regen is so low Also, the last 10 points can be put anywhere, I just really like Natural Vigor and Zephyr’s Speed

Yeah, I got home and had a look, I run different runes.. not the Dolyak. I forgot what it is I run. I guess I pretty much run 30/30/5/0/5 or 30/30/5/5/0 or 30/30/10/0/0. I think I’m running 30/30/5/5/0 at this moment. I’ll have to look again and update the thread with what I’m running.

I guess you have to give up something and get the trait that gives pets 30% speed increase just to give the pets a better chance to hit… my buddy who runs a thief and my wife runs a mesmer have no problems kiting the pet and avoiding “getting their face eatin off” as Jon Sharp put it in PvP and WvW

We must be playing two different games because I run the same trait points sometimes, but I run no traits that benefit the pet. I prefer 30/30/10/0/0. I run steady focus, eagle eye, etc. I want to play a Ranger, not a Beast Master. So, I get as close as I can and make do with a kittened pet. So sad. I really like the ranger style and weapons ( despite the lack of DPS from ranger weapons ). I am tired of the mental disability the pet has. I’m to the point I run it on guard 98% of the time now-a-days (PVE and dungeons) and use F2 then recall them when they go to attack. Dungeons? 100% of the time. Pretty much the only time I run on attack is when I’m farming.

jewishjoyride.4693:

thefantasticg.3984:

jewishjoyride.4693:

One of the things that makes the ranger such a strong skirmishing class at the moment is our ability to output consistent dps from 2 sources.

Say what? Consistant? I’m constantly calling my pet back and forth to keep it alive. How is that “consistant” dps? Unless you are referring to consistantly zero.

Im referring to pvp. 1v1 and 2v2 in tourneys as well as roaming both solo and in small groups in wvw.

If you are referring to dungeons I personally found that the buff to pet survivability as well as the change to their pathing has been amazing. With 0-5 pts in bm as well as solid microing of your pet you can keep even cats alive through encounters like lupics or the fire shaman in the grawl fractal.

Ah. I don’t PVP. I also don’t really do fractals either, and when I do it is with my warrior. I sometimes run 5pts in BM, but I really don’t see a difference between putting it there or in WS. Although I generally like it in WS. I mostly just run PVE and dungeons. And since I got my war to 80 and geared up, I stopped running dungeons with my Ranger. It is nice having my DPS completely under my control and not relying on crappy AI. And no, that recent buff didn’t make a lick of difference verse AOE no matter what pet you’re running. Pathing also barely improved. When you say something about the pets is “amazing” I really can’t take you seriously. Before the S&R nerf, my friends liked having my ranger in the group… but that really was the straw that broke the camel’s back and forced me to roll another toon to run dungeons with. After that S&R nerf I asked my friends to tell me honestly why they would want my ranger along and I got nothing in reponse. Whats funny is you say “micro managing” pets but Jon Sharp has said in a SotG interview we shouldn’t have too much control because it’ll scare off new players to the Ranger class. That’s why I had to make a “dodge” macro. Because Anet devs think I don’t need one. Unfortunately, I have to stay ranged for this dodge macro to work (F3-wait 3 secs-F1) and not in red circles myself for this to be effective. So overall while I keep my pet alive my overall DPS is severly hampered and continues to suffer at the expense of keeping my pet alive. Only ones that hit hard are the cats and the drakes, both melee, so they die quick (like to the Fire Shaman in Fire Heart Rise or Slave Driver in COF P1). Spiders and devours do craptastic damage so I don’t want to use them and sometimes they like to facetank anyway. Until they make pets immune to or close to immune to AOE damage, there’s no way I’m taking my Ranger back into a dungeon… unless I’m in a group that doesn’t know any better or really really doesn’t care about how much DPS I am doing at any given time.

This is how the conversation went with my wife:

“I want to make another character.” she said. “Don’t roll a ranger.” I told her. “Why not?” …. “Have you not heard all the *****ing I do when we’re in a dungeon about my pet!?” I exclaim loudly. And I get a deer in the headlights look. “Have you not heard all the *****ing I do when it takes forever for me to kill something?!” I exclaim loudly again. Yet another deer in the headlights look. “I’m going to do it anyway.” she says. “Fine.” … a few weeks later … “I don’t know what you were talking about. My ranger is fun to play.” she tells me. I look and she is only level 15. “Just wait until you start going into dungeons. Then we can talk again.”

I like a 30/30/5/0/5 or 30/30/10/0/0 build with knights gear w/superior runes of the dolyak (I think — I ain’t at home to have a look). Running that with a the sword+warhorn and a shortbow is really enjoyable. I also run either entangle or rampage as one with a feline/drake or feline/hyena. Lightning Reflexes, SotH (the speed signet whichever it is), QZ.

Perhaps. I have been known to do that. Problem for me is I want to play a ranged DPS ranger, and that’s just not an option. I usually run a SB/Sword+Horn power/prescision/toughness build (sometimes SB/LB depending on the event) as I do not like the GS or axe. I also run a cat and drake or cat and hyena. Usually 30/30/5/5/0 is what I run. Been trying different traits and whatnot lately, but because of my play style I keep going back to 30/30/X/X/X or 20/30/10/10/0.

jewishjoyride.4693:

One of the things that makes the ranger such a strong skirmishing class at the moment is our ability to output consistent dps from 2 sources.

Say what? Consistant? I’m constantly calling my pet back and forth to keep it alive. How is that “consistant” dps? Unless you are referring to consistantly zero.

Why do Rangers suck in dungeons?

1) Low DPS
2) Pets suck

/thread

I’d be happy with that outcome.

jcbroe.4329:

In my opinion, Knockback Shot should have been like the Warriors Pin Down skill; a 3s immobilize. This would allow for the player to setup a burst, or play keep away with a melee opponent, and would have lots of synergy with Barrage, weapon swapping to a melee weapon for burst, AND setting up with our pets for some guaranteed pet hits.

Man, that would be great. I would love to knock back, then barrage, then rapid. Then switch to back to shortbow.

Xsorus.2507:

How about we get rid of the notion that you should be allowed to ignore a Ranger pet.

Since that seems to be what the SPvP want…

Very few games allow you to just ignore the pet classes pet…..And generally if you could, it meant the class wasn’t that great.

Uh, no. Since the pet is broken in AI, pathing, and a few other things, not to mention it is painfully obvious Anet (devs in general) don’t see these things as a big enough problem to do anything about them in a timely manner, I’d very much like an option to perma-stow pet for a buff. Or as an elite skill…. Give me the option to play without the pet if I want to is what I want, just like those spvp guys (even though I don’t pvp — cause I don’t run a BM bunker build). I rolled a warrior specifically for going on dungeon runs because I was tired of my pet dying to aoe so quickly, no matter how much management I put into it. What about a devourer you say? Would have been great except the terrible damage and it liked to facetank for some reason. Same with the spider. Oh, and since Jon “I’m a Bag of Dog kitten” Sharp doesn’t think we need to have any more control over the pet (like a hotkey bind for guard/attack for instance) and doesn’t need any kind of adjustment for AOE damage my ranger won’t go back into dungeons. I’m currently leveling a thief, mes, and guard for wvw/pvp.

Since our dps will most likely remain the same I will make my warrior my main. I’m already 60/40 ranger/war. I also have a thief, mes, and guard I’m leveling up because after 400 hours I’m just about to give up my ranger until Anet fixes the AI in general, pathing, dodging aoe, giving us more keybinds (despite the dev Jon “I Hate Rangers” Sharp not wanting us to have more control over our pets) guard/passive and dodge-roll, longbow gets some love…

Had I known what I know now I would have never rolled a ranger. Until they fix AI, pathing, aoe damage in dungeons, and pets failing on moving targets I suggest to anyone who asks roll a different class. All my friends I play with have heard my frustrations with the pet repeatedly… Yet, my wife still rolled one. “What? It’s fun.” “We’ll, yeah. Your ranger is lvl 15. Of course it’s fun right now.” Don’t theives have medium armor??

Yup. I hate the long coat and skirt so there’s next to no options for my human ranger… And the few that are left look like they got put through a cows bowels then beaten with skunk corpses, in other words, crap.

1) Jon Sharp is the same bag of dog excrement that said we don’t need more control over pets.

2) Jon Sharp has OBVIOUSLY never ever played on a ranger at any level or in any pve/dungeon/wvw/pve game.

3) I’d be super happy with a pet damage nerf -IF- they give what was nerfed to the the ranger as a buff.

4) Please fix the AI/root attacking/pathing and before, as someone said, swinging the nerf bat at it. If they pet actually had really good AI, good pathing, and could hit moving targets, they MIGHT be worth having.

5) Please consider giving a perma-stow for pets option! If nothing else, make it an elite skill!

Why hasn’t this been done yet!?

I used it last night and got a good chuckle out of the mining pick… I mean sickle… actually sits above the toon’s hands while using it. Invisible handle on the sickle I guess.

Wouldn’t be making the longbow shoot as fast as the tooltip says be a bug fix….?

Raptors, griffins, dolphins, and wargs… Mostly a Griffin. You can purchase a griffin pet. Buddy of mine had one last night while we were @ FE. kitten ed me off.

Agreed with Terkov. Just as weak as it has always been.

I rolled a warrior specifically for running dungeons. Glad I did. Easy easy easy compared to the ranger. I just have to worry about one character. I still love my ranger for PVE, but I like my warrior for dungeons… I also never have to worry about getting kicked with him. I am only running a power/vit/crit build, not even zerker… Although after hearing the numbers my bro is putting down with his zerker warrior I think I’ll be heading that way with mine shortly.

My logic is this:

Beast Master = Always has Pet and Very few weapons
Ranger = Wilderness Survival and Weapons

I also disagree with the longbow suggestion that it would be OP with any conditions. I use it now but strictly for its utilities then I swap back to whatever weapon I have.

Long bow needs conditions or stun or immobilize added along with a speed boost on #1 with normalizing the damage throughout the range.

Perma-stow pet giving ranger a buff.

Doesn’t take much to make me happy.

Nope. I’m not traited for them. I use the passive movement speed and toughness increase signets, but thats it… and honestly I mostly use them when I’m farming and thats it.

I play 99% PvE and dungeons so… I’d be thoroughly happy with the class if we could perma-stow pets and gain a buff, even as an elite skill (it would be the only elite skill I’d ever use and it would be used 100% of the time). Also, hotkeying guard/attack instead of having to mouse click it. If spirits were just like warrior banners that’d be splendid. If they made it so that my pet didn’t auto unstow itself and start attacking when I was attacked or got attacked… goes back again to Jon Sharp saying we shouldn’t have too much control over our forced-to-have pets… Maybe then I’d put my warrrior on the shelf and start taking my ranger back into dungeons, but not before then.

Jon Sharp has already stated in one of the SotG interviews that we shouldn’t have too much control over our pets (seriously, why is there not an option for hotkeying the guard/attack function!?) because it scares away new players from the class. And had I known before hand that I had to have a pet I wouldn’t have rolled a ranger in the first place… even after I learned I have foolishly held hope that Anet Devs will change their stance and allow a perma-stow option. Anet is very very slow in putting out AI improvements for the pets. So the best solution I have come up with until Anet improves they AI is to macro a dodge function and put it on my naga for ease of use. “F3 – wait 3 seconds – F1” and after about two weeks of use I’m thinking about changing it to a 5 second wait. Of course, they die quickly because I’m not traited for Beast Master (which is what this class should be called, not Ranger since we have no option but to have a pet)… but they still last longer than before I made my dodge macro for my pet. Even though I have a lvl 80 war I still prefer my ranger because it is just more fun to play.

Oh, and I specifically made that lvl 80 warrior for going into dungeons because in the end until there is a severe reduction in AOE damage to the pets or something to that effect it’s just pointless to have pets in the dungeons…

Another side note, the pet dodge macro I have made isn’t of much use to melee rangers. I guess it could be if you’re using sword/X because you can use #2 and then use the dodge macro, but other than that I haven’t gotten much use out of it. When I’m using a bow, be it short or long, the dodge macro is very handy.

You know whats funny? I showed my wife this thread and she said, “That guy needs to learn how to play better. I don’t have much problem taking down a ranger on my mesmer.” I lol’d.

You know what I don’t like? Not having a very descriptive explanation on the mechanics of magic find… like if you have 100% MF gear on, what is the original amount of rate of drop? I.E., if the original drop rate is .0002% I guess that 100% increase ain’t much. I’d like an answer from a developer that actually worked on magic find.

Star Ace.5207:

EDITED
There’s nothing wrong with MF gear-there is, however, with forcing your playstyle on others. Since MF gears don’t force you to use whichever gear you use, while you should force them not to use what they like?
EDITED
In short, Mirta was right when she said the following:

“It’s selfish to care about what others wear”

Why is it our business, and how is it bad for the game, especially since you can circumvent this “issue” by avoiding players with MF gear? No need to tell others that MF gear is bad-I don’t tell you that Berserker’s gear is bad because you are way more fragile employing it, right? It works for you-and other stuff works for other people too.
EDITED

The above edited-for-length quote pretty much sums it up for me.

This kitten me off so bad. It was literally at my fingers every dungeon. I can’t count the number of times my team mates cheered on Snuggles because he was rezzing them after I sent him to rez them (they were defeated).

Now I will never use that S&R again. Period. It takes too long for the S&R to activate to get to the down player unless they are RIGHT NEXT TO THE DOWNED PLAYER. Seen that happen way too many times. You also have to hit it pretty much WHEN the player goes down. It’s too late if you don’t hit it immediately.

Just another reason I’m leveling up a warrior now for dungeon runs.

Nope, still ain’t using signets. I lose too much in other skill lines to make the active signets useful… still.

How do y’all that use signets have your traits lined up?

I made a pet dodge macro. I recommend everyone who has the ability to make a macro: “F3 (wait 3 seconds) F1”

And no, my bears lasted about a minute longer than before against the bosses in AC and MF. All the rest died just as easy as before. All still fall very very easily to AoE.

They had secondary professions!?

Now that I’ve looked that up, that’d be an awesome and welcomed addition.

I saw this thread… Thought he is trolling. Saw the SotG interview… Then got straight up sad for the Beast Master class. Glad to know the pets are getting some buffs but until they fix the AI or make it a perma-stow option it will always and forever be a handicap.

For the record I don’t use anything other than the armored fish and a cat underwater. Mostly the armored fish though because the good damage, f2, and good defense.

So I have it going on right now… watching it. It makes me super sad that Jon Sharp thinks that too much control over the pet is a bad thing. Because new people who don’t have the mental abilities to control a pet will abandon the class. Well, obviously they need a much more simple class to play. This isn’t a ranger class, it’s a Beast Master class. I really wish they’d stop calling it a Ranger. Especially since I’ve read that some devs (the name escapes me at the moment) mean that the pet is now-and-forever a part of the class never to be perma-stowed or made optional in any form and the warrior LB is better, i.e. condition damage and aoe, (my warrior is lvl 33 now and I like that LB a lot more) even though the Ranger is suppose to be the best RANGED class. If I could perma-stow the pet and get some buffs from it I would be in Heaven. If the pet AI can’t dodge hits or AoE it will be forever a handicap and not a boon.

I really like the play style and whatnot of the Beast Master, but I’m leveling up my warrior now and probably going to start on a Mesmer after that to play until the Pet AI is not a handicap anymore.

I’ve been having this problem since I started playing short of a few months ago. My wife is having the same issue. It is completely random and sometimes I will get disconnected and she doesn’t, and vise-versa. It’s really annoying and needs to get fixed.

I would really like this as well