Why play a ranger when you can be elementalist?

This is a serious question, I have lvl 8 ranger/elementalist. I love the ranger but I was really surprised when I noticed that by putting all my points into fire I was actually making more damage then I do with marksman. Of course I don't have the energy pool to keep casting like that but an elementalist do. So... Why play a ranger? What makes them interesting at higher levels? Am I playing them wrong or should an elementalist always outdamage a ranger?

I'm planning to play with a Warrior/Necro and a Elementalist/Monk at higher levels, if it helps...

Elementalists WILL always do more damage than a ranger, yes. But rangers can interrupt skills almost as well as a mesmer, can use conditions, can survive better than an elementalist generally, can have a pet as an ally for front line fighting and has THE best range out of all the classes. Of course I still prefer my elementalist.

Can an Ele cause all conditions like a Ranger can? Can they set traps? Do they have pets? Do they have 100 armor vs Elemental Damage? etc, etc.

Rangers are more flexible than Elementalists, and I'm actually enjoying my Ranger more than my ele, but to each their own!

Elementalists can't cause -11 health degen while interupting with a viable self heal. Rangers can.

While Eles may outdamage them Rangers are more versatile. They are good interupters and are able to inflict conditions effectivly.They also gain the use of traps and Preparations.

They use Expertise as their primary attribute which lowers the cost of Attack Skills, Rituals, and touch skills. This makes them effective for builds such as the Bunny Thumper or Touch Rangers.

If your aiming to just deal mass damage you may aswell go for Ele but Rangers are a very fun profession once at lvl 20

Are you refering to a trap for the health degen? Like I said I'm still low level so not sure what to expect higher up.

Burning Arrow (Elite) and a poison preparation. Been a while since I've played a ranger so I forget the name. -7 degen burning -4 degen poison.

*gasp* y..you mean Aura of Restoration isn't the best heal around?




....joking

Each profession in Guild Wars tends to be particularly adept at certain things. Rangers are good at condition spreading and disruption, as well as generally staying alive. Elementalists focus is damage dealing, however to make up for it they're a lot squishier... Each has it's pros and cons, good and bad points. I would say yes, an Elementalist should usually out-damage a ranger, just please don't try to play an elementalist as R/E...it doesn't work

No, I'm referring to a BA ranger.

Neither ranger or ele can do alot of damage at low levels. At level 20, sure elementalists can do higher damage, but they are not as flexible as rangers. Every class has pros and cons, no profession is better then another profession.

Every class has different strong points. In general the strong point of an Elementalist is outright damage dealt. On the other hand, the Ranger is a sort of jack of all trades and can make very good use of the majority of secondary profession skills from all classes.

You should try making a PVP Elementalist and playing a bit of PVP in Random Arenas. It won't take too many games for a Ranger interrupter to target you and stop you from casting any spells whilst killing you in the process.

Equally, if you can target a badly played Ranger you should be able to kill them relatively quickly.

Every class and every build has a counter that will kill it stone dead. It all depends on what skills are equipped.

This is like asking why play Ele when I can play Mesmer. Well ranger job is not to rain down holy heck on the enemies, that's ele's job, that's why people called them nuker. Ranger can do dmg as well depending on the build, they can use degen attack like burning, poisioning etc, They can trap and pull the enermies to their doom, interruption is also a ranger best friend.

I'm guessing you're new at this game. A good interrupter can stop an enermy from using his/her skill dead cold, in pvp a ranger can annoy any caster to no end with daze, chocking gas etc. There's also a beastmaster ranger but lets not get in to that right now.

If you like to do tons of dmg go with ele, they're good at that. E/Mo is a good choice. As long as you focus on one type of spells, be it fire, water, air or earth, it won't matter much in the beginning anyway.

Oh don't worry, I'm back to marksman/expertise.

I'm guessing Burning arrows and incendiary arrows must be interesting skills for a R/E. Don't Ele have a skill to increase fire damage done?

I have R/E, its my only char. I think its great combo, i use fire like you. I got my points diveded between markmanship,beastmastery and fire. I think its well balanced in fights(but im small time player). My pet take most of the beating, gives poison and interupts,heals me, and i concentrate on nuking and keeping my pet alive.

Its not so much a good solo char, but a good teamplayer

mzzls

PS. plus i like the ranger looks better

A Ranger at level 8 is rather limited. Stick it out, and as you level up I think you will find that the Ranger is quite fun to play. It is one of the most versatile and self sufficient classes.

In the early part of the game, yeah I guess it's fair game to play however you like. But later on when the game's gear shift upward, it's will be better if you focus on one type of the build. As mentioned above by Beaver never play a ranger as a nuker, it's rubbish for so many reasons.

being a R/E you can also add a little extra damage with conjure flame and a firey bow string. this adds extra fire damage with your bow.

My first character was an ele and I had great fun playing nuker, echo nuker, etc. After a while, I got bored with it. I had also wanted a ranger so I could have a pet (stupid reason, I know but I'm an animal lover) so I made one and loved it. My ranger now has more exp points then my ele or any of my other guys. I also have a necro, monk (which I rarely play) and warrior who I play even less then my monk.

I love interrupting, trapping, etc with my ranger.

As the posters above have pointed out, each class has its own tricks.

An elementalist is unmatched as far as raw firepower is concerned.

Of course, when you meet an enemy that does the same damage, you WILL miss the 40 extra armor you had on your ranger. You will also miss the ability to interrupt those nasty skills that now really hurt you. When an enemy warrior begins to thump you, you will miss those stances that made 75% of the attacks miss...

As a ranger, you will miss out on damage. You will however get a lot in the way of being a downright pain in the ass of the enemy's casters

My first char was a ranger but I couldn't get the hang of it, so he ended up a mule before finally being deleted. Then I played a W, an SS nec and a nuker (and the rest of the crew eventually). I've loved each of the profs as I played them (well, except for the 'sin), eventually settling onto W and SS nec as my two most-played.

Then I ended up giving ranger another go and have really gotten such a kick from it that he's replaced the W in the 2 most-played duo.

At lvl 8, you're just getting started - give yourself a chance to grow into it and give it a chance to grow on you. Sure, it's lots of fun to nuke the bejeebers out of the enemies but, as others have noted, rangers are probably the most versatile class.