Curse

Rhedd · Jun 11, 2005, 06:11 PM // 18:11

I am a Ranger. I do not suck. Therefore, Rangers do not suck. The end. ^-^

(Oh, and I specialize in Beasmastery, and pets don't suck either, for reasons I've covered entirely too often in other threads.)

Ensign · Jun 11, 2005, 06:22 PM // 18:22

Rangers are patently awful around level 15 and don't start to become good until they're level 20 with top gear and a Super Expertise rune.

Pets are useful up until that point but become useless in the mountains due to aformentioned issues with Spectral Agony.

The problem with Rangers is that they are both backloaded and extremely equipment dependent. At level 12, your Ranger is awful, no two ways about it. The only thing you can do about this is continue to level until your power starts to catch up.

Rangers need to be listed as an advanced class on character creation. Their play is more akin to that of a Mesmer than a Warrior. Combine that with being backloaded, and of course people are dissatisfied with a Ranger. Throughout the early game when people are learning what's good the Ranger is a weak class that's badly played.

Peace,
-CxE

dargon · Jun 11, 2005, 07:18 PM // 19:18

Evidently Ensign played a ranger and didn't know what he was doing so the class sucks.

Jun 11, 2005, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Actually what he said is true, care to prove him wrong?

LoKi Foxfire · Jun 11, 2005, 09:46 PM // 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moltov joss

Agreed. Ranger if you ask me is one of the best for taking out monks and other casters and easily one of the most misplayed classes along with mesmer in guild wars.

You are correct.

As for rangers in HoH, I see soo many people use them incorrectly. That's along with mesmers who don't know what they're doing. However, used correctly I seen a mesmer drop a monk in less than 15 seconds solo.

As for me, my PvE R/Mo does UW/Fissure extremely well.. (Barrage for damage, Vital for his own HP - along with Symbiosis for even more HP - and then Protective/Vigilant/Shielding Hands for temporary HP boosts.. can throw in Fertile in there to hit over 1,000 hitpoints.)

Ensign · Jun 11, 2005, 11:38 PM // 23:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by dargon

Evidently Ensign played a ranger and didn't know what he was doing so the class sucks.

Hmmm? I said the class sucks at low levels. It does. It sucks hard. I'd rather be spamming Flare than taking whatever the Ranger has to offer early on. 10 energy Power Attacks for +14 damage or whatever are neither powerful or efficient. Penetrating Attack is grabbed early but doesn't even become playable until you start seeing enemies with armor to penetrate.

The only good option in seared ascalon is cranking up Survival for Ignite / Kindle Arrows and riding your preps to victory, because your bow attacks are just sad. the Northern Shiverpeaks work the same way. Throughout pre-sear and most of Seared Ascalon my Ranger/Necro was spending almost all of his energy on Life Siphons, as they did a whole lot more than any of those crappy Ranger skills could. Toss out a couple Siphons, Kindle, blast away for 24 seconds. It certainly wasn't good but it got the job done. I had a lot of dead skills on that bar.

Your fundamental problem is Expertise. The Ranger, as a class, has been balanced around high Expertise, and as a result at lower levels all of your skills are hideously overpriced. You're getting hit with a double dose of suck - first, the skill's attribute is low so the effect of the skill is about what you'd expect for the level you're at, but you're also hit by the Expertise 'cost', meaning that the effect is around twice as expensive as you'd expect. Balanced skills that are hideously overpriced on a low level character with stunted energy and no energy management is not a recipe for success.

Hence the overreliance upon preparations and other long-term effects. You don't have a choice because your energy is going to run out after 3-4 skills anyway.

I was chugging along, kinda scraping by with a mediocre character until I hit level 16 just outside of Ventari's Dell. Up until that point I had been firmly in the Kindle Arrows / Dual Shot / no attack skills mode. Once I hit 16, I grabbed a new armor set, respecced to 14 Expertise / 9 Marksmanship / 5 Survival thanks to the new rune trader and absurdly cheap Superior Expertise runes, and got all of those lovely attack skills back into the fold. Against a given pack I could Prep Kindle and just mash on attack skills until the battle was over. Not exactly an abusive build, but one that felt like it had some oomph to it.

I hit level 18 as I got to the desert last night, and got to 19 this morning as I completed the quest to get Tiger's Fury. Let me just say now that I have absolutely no clue how anyone could even think of playing a Ranger without that skill. After five minutes of being Fury enabled I am completely incapable of playing a non-Fury Ranger. I'm sitting on a cool 14 Expertise / 12 Marksmanship / 8 Beastmastery right now, and with an eight second Fury I only have one shot with my shortbow per ten seconds that isn't boosted. Zealous is paying for Fury, and then some. I can't fit enough attack skills on my bar because I'm using them too fast. Overall the character is humming like a well oiled machine now, and I don't even have an elite or the 10 second Fury yet.

The Ranger most certainly does not suck, it simply is a complex machine with parts that will not come together until you near ascension. Once they do, the Ranger is an absolutely vicious class that's a blast to play. Of course by that time bad habits have been learned (Expertise is worthless, you don't deal any damage, your skills are unwieldly) and people never get to see a Ranger firing on all cylinders as a result.

It's a pity, really, because a tricked out Ranger is the most fun character to play in the entire game.

Peace,
-CxE

dargon · Jun 12, 2005, 02:31 AM // 02:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Hmmm? I said the class sucks at low levels. It does. It sucks hard. I'd rather be spamming Flare than taking whatever the Ranger has to offer early on. 10 energy Power Attacks for +14 damage or whatever are neither powerful or efficient. Penetrating Attack is grabbed early but doesn't even become playable until you start seeing enemies with armor to penetrate.

The only good option in seared ascalon is cranking up Survival for Ignite / Kindle Arrows and riding your preps to victory, because your bow attacks are just sad. the Northern Shiverpeaks work the same way. Throughout pre-sear and most of Seared Ascalon my Ranger/Necro was spending almost all of his energy on Life Siphons, as they did a whole lot more than any of those

Whats funny is that I had the exact same character, a ran/nec, and the only necro spell I really made use of was vamp glare. Some of the missions were hard, but I made it through without any major problems. Yes, I did use ignite, but I didn't have my wilderness survival up, I've always had a high marksmanship (currently a 12). Maybe your strategy was just off a bit.

Sting · Jun 12, 2005, 03:25 AM // 03:25

Yeah rangers are truly the ultimate class unless you take into account that elementalists do more damage and mesmers have better interupts. Dont get me wrong I play R/me and its IMO the funnest, I do pretty well Im certainly not uber and cant 2 or 3 hit like the uber rangers that post on here. But Id consider myself a good interupter (using Mesmer skills) and can make life somewhat miserable for casters and monks. But they do have issues that need adressed as do the other "support" classes. And B4 the usber rangers state all you have to do is use 3 diferent skills for good dmg, IMO that takes a long time to set up while your team is chasing being chased or nuked out of existence.

Moofoo Pork · Jun 12, 2005, 04:30 AM // 04:30

Rangers in Fissure own everyone.... barrage = awesome

Jun 12, 2005, 10:00 AM // 10:00

Some of the Rangers interrupts are better than mesmers