The World Hates Rangers

Yep i would have to say pretty much eveyone playing gw hates rangers... i mean they are fun and good , but for some strange reason no one wants em. i myself am a ranger and its very rare for me to actually get a offer for me to get accepted into a group . ya even my friends amits to interntially not picking rangers into the group. so for people like me its just hard to get a stupid group to go with u...i guess not so much in pve but it gets challenging and desp[erate to get a group in the tombz. no one wants u, so thus the world hates rangers.

That's because they think Ranger are "Archer".. They don't understand Rangers.
Most people think ranger are there only to make lots of damage from range. IMO Ranger is the most complete profession.
I always try to have at least one when making party. I always liked Rangers. When the game opened in april, i made one and now i like them even more.

In PvP areas I would have to agree. but in the rest of the game PvE they are not too bad actually. They are still quite efficient snipers with a longbow (even with the recent patch). and deal quite a bit of damage at a distance. also most of the nature spells help the entire party, so they are quite useful too. Healing spring is also a plus. Our monks like to stick with me most of the time cause I can do healing spring while he is doing everyone else and we can be some distance from the tanks yet still do some damage ourselves... I'm also half warrior so I can act as a tank when it is necessary to defend the monk. sometimes sacrificing myself to get him clear... So its all in how you use your ranger. They are actually pretty good once you get a nack for it. Trust me 8 rangers all with pets and a few with half monk skills and a few with half warrior skills is quite intimidating... Cause count em. that's 16 against 8. lol We did that one time for a guild battle and people were like OMG!!! Invasion of the Rangers!!! We took on 3 full monks and 5 warriors and they had No idea what happened... The monks where Called and all the pets attacked them while the rest of us attacked the warrior forces... one of these days we will do that again... it was really quite fun...

Something I was disappointed with is not being able to get my pet for my PvP build... So I have been using my Pve lev 20 ranger for that. maybe they will make it so we can choose our pets for rangers in PvP somehow in a future release.

Maybe it's because the people playing the rangers are horrible people, and ranger is not exactly the highest priority on the "want list"

What I'm saying is, people tolerate monks even if the monks cry and bitch because monks give a tangiblel and obvious benefit to the party. Whereas when rangers cry and bitch it's an annoyance since most people wouldn't mind replacing the ranger with a monk or something.

EDIT: And also, all the damn "new pets," "make pets do this," "why do pets suck so much?" and stuff like that is annoying too.

I've never had a problem being a ranger in fact by the end of the round, or mission, or pvp most people are quite nice and like having a ranger around to save the day

My ranger dont use pet at all.. Unless im just running alone in explorable area.
I use Expertise, Marksmanship and Wilderness Survival... I don't even use my second profession.

I hate rangers... a good ranger in PvP is a real pain... =_= They run around like chicken and make themselves a major nuisance by setting traps in mid fight.

They also makethemselves horribly annoying by poinsoning and interrupting everyone.

Thankfully they don't last very long against a good player... if they do it's all those running around the arena :P

Now that's just plain insulting. Most rangers don't run around the battle like pussies, and those that do are hardly going to be classed as the spokespeople for the entire profession. That's like saying that 'all warriors are stupid and don't know when to die' or 'all monks are annoying because they keep rezing their team'.

And the poison, interrupt and traps are what the profession is about.

And what classes a 'good player'? Someone who is of a prof that is good vs rangers you mean...

Enough with the proffesionism, most people don't like rangers because they don't see the depth in the character, or like you they hate rangers because they don't know how to fight them or ahve had bad experiences with them.

Poisoning and interupting is GOOD.
I've kicked warriors off my team in PvP so we can have some rangers with us.

IMO rangers are effective as a hybrid constant damage and support class in both PvE and PvP. Pets generally suck starting when you hit the desert, though.

The problem is, good ranger players are few, and generally unnoticed.

There's really only one thing they can't do all that well: remove hexes and enchantments from a single target. Nature's renewal is cool and all, but affects both teams. Energy draining? Covered by debilitating shot. Snares? Pin down and crippling shot. Caster denial? Take your pick of interrupts, including the hateful concussion shot. Outright damage? Yes. You might not reach an air mage's level of spike damage, but the difference is that it's sustainable without relying on attunement; no one can strip your expertise. AoE attacks? See ignite arrows+dual shot and barrage. Protecting teammates? Throw dirt, traps, etc. Self-defense? Scores of skills here. Conditions? See hunter's shot, poison attacks, melandru's arrows. Anti-evasion? Precision shot and crippling shot can't be blocked or evaded. Denying resurrection? Whoops, rangers are the only class that can do that, with frozen soil. Now give them better armor against elemental damage (nearly 100% of AoE attacks) than warriors. What do you end up with?

Too bad many rangers don't even begin to realize their own potential.

I don't know I leveled up my dune lizard and its kicking some pretty good butt finally... But it took some time. the Dune lizard is a fast little bugger too... With piercing dmg equal to a good sword. I just wish we could transfer them to our PvP characters is all... in the beta it was not a problem cause there were some pets around tomb to get... but there does not seem to be anymore...

If not the kennel concept, Maybe we can have some pets roming on the different guild islands. that would solve the problem, but no forget it they would be level 5 and thats not very useful. I stand by the Guild Kennel concept, on my original proposal for upgrades...

Too bad other players don't reckognize our potential. They're too stuck in the standard MMOG mentality *cough* Everquest *cough* wherein rangers are only good for burst range damage and nothing else. I'm done with this game. I'm going back to killing nazis in Red Orchestra, where class politics mean nothing and you're only as good as your steady aim and trigger finger.

I enjoy playing Ranger - all apart from trying to get into groups. Its tough. It takes ages to get an invitation so I generally end up just running around looking for people with numbers above their head and clicking on them. Its rude, but you have an even chance of getting into the group. Then the next problem is that if there are 3 or more rangers in a group of six the monks and/or warriors will develop strange connection problems and not make it into the mission area. I used to think "Damn, thats a shame we lost our monk" but then I started realising that Rangers seem to have better internet connections than other classes.

Maybe we're so happy to finally get into a group that we pray to the god of ISPs extra hard?

The ironic thing is that groups with lots of rangers in tend to do very well in PvE at least - Especially if they have a range of second professions and all have pets to act as meatshields.

Rangers defeat Mesmers and Elementarists (breaking spells and poisoning) , they get beaten up by Monks and Warriors (just more damage/healing).

Now theres too many Warriors, Monks are way too popular (and still rare) and theres a big lack of Mesmers so:

-> Rangers get hunted down by popular classes with almost nothing to hunt efficiently.

The problem is most people playing rangers (at least in PvE) just think pet classes are cool but have NO idea what to do. About a quarter of the Rangers at lvl 15 start off a mission with a pet that drops dead after the first encounter, and doesn't get rezzed because the ranger in question doesn't have pet heal/rez. That's at least 1/8th of your skills for the rest of the mission wasted, folks, not to mention the points that might have been wasted in Beastmastery. Oh, and by the way, Beastmastery doesn't make your pet any better if you don't bring / use any Beastmastery skills.

Having played a R/Me myself it might be because I know how to identify these retards better. It's hard already to profile yourself in a world where you're never the best at a role, because versatility is difficult to see in combat. Let alone if a large part of your class runs around with a reminder of their ineptitude at the bottom of the party-window.

(This post is dedicated to the Ranger I grouped with in the Gates of Kryta mission yesterday. Yeah, you, the one with the dead pet. Yeah, you, the one with a Vampiric Bowstring in a mission with mostly poison swamps / enemies. Yeah you that didn't take Troll Unguent to combat your own health degen. You made me spoil a lot of heals because of your cool toy. You, dear girl, utterly suck. Rangers, however, are a great class)

are we the only guild that run mass rangers and actually win?

simple, yes it does.

This post should read "The World Hates Bad Rangers!"

Thats because htere are so many of them. Ranger is one of the hardest classes to play in the game and be effective. But one good ranger on a team can change the tide of war in so many ways.

I have no problem with groups even when I and not with my guild. People know what I can do.

The Ranger class is by far one of the hardest to play along with mesmer maybe. Because a Ranger is a Jack of all trades. The trick is to specialize in only 3 fields and maybe 4 at the most with the extra 30 attribute pts and some good runes using fortitude grips and a major or superior vigor to offset the penalties. Also in pvp the beast mastery is a waste I believe and should not be considered by hardcore pvp. These leaves two options, interupter and damage dealer. Interupter is good, but dealing good dmg as a ranger can be difficult. In PvE it is a must to carry several specialized bows and I would believe in PvP this would come in handy also along with finding a hieght advantage and the right mix of skills. Also as a ranger it is a must to use good preperations and stances to suite the situation you are in. The other important PvP aspect is the secondary class. I see R/E and R/W running around and I can't believe they could be recommended in a hardcore environment. R/M and R/N have better options I believe since they can use skills to improve their own defense and skills that can seriously hurt that dreaded warrior attack. To sum it all up......Rangers get a bad rap because of all the pretenders out there. I admit in the beginning I sucked, but through trial and error and being humbled several times, I believe I can now contribute to any PvP or PvE battle.

I like a well played ranger, but there's so much room for bad.

I've been playing in Lornars quite abit 'cause I like the challenge and I've been Joining whoever comes along. It' gotten so I cringe when I see a ranger. There might be one out of five that play well. The rest alternatively think they're tanks or think that for some reason they should be getting priority healing.

Ranger is one of the classes that can do damage from so far away that they don't have to worry about aggro but they always seem to get right up in there.

And I like a ranger Pulling, they don't need to take any damage to do it and with Poison, they can split groups and pull a nearly dead monster to the group. My problem is about 3/4's of the time ranger's don't know how to pull. They shoot the nearest monster stand there waiting for the group to come up. That's not pulling that's just attacking.

A good puller can split one linked group to the party and leave the rest. Most groups don't give them the room but part of it is to ask for the space you need.

Yep Rangers are indeed hated by many... so are Mesmers. I am always happy to have a Ranger and/or Mesmer in my party.

I've been thinking that an R/W would make a better interrupter than R/Me as you would get access to skills such as Flurry, Frenzy or Berserker's Stance that will increase your attack rate, allowing you to use Ranger skills such as Incendiary Arrows or Choking Gas more effectively. I see the W skills as better than Tiger's Fury or Lightning Reflexes as Tiger's Fury has that 5 second skill disable and Lightning Reflexes just has an awful cooldown time. Just saying that R/W isn't necessarily bad. Of course, you would lose the Me interrupts, but they are costly energy wise so I'm not sure that's such a big loss.

i hate rangers. not a good looking character model. i played one for all of 20 minutes just can't stand to look at them.

That's a ridiculous opinion.

I find the bias is horrible in the Ascension quests, to the point of I can't ascend cause I can't get into parties and I don't trust the henches to help. If you're keeping people from FINISHING THE GAME you need help. Seriously.

Tell me one thing a good ranger with GOOD armor can't do, and I'll prove you wrong. That does include tanking. Some of us spend lots of time playing with skill combos to make ourselves the most effective class in the game only to be thwarted by ****ing warriors rushing into a mission. I take a while to pick skills and move points. Deal with it. IF you let me do it, you've never seen the kind of havoc I can wreak. If you don't, you emasculate the ranger and THAT's why a lot of people think they suck. You leave town and leave us with half our skill bar empty.

Pray tell, how do spent Beastmastery points without using Beastmastery based skills increase your pet's abilities ?

Simple, beastmastery on it's own, increases the base damage your pet does.

My best character is a Ranger/Monk. This combo works great in the PvE areas, I have not tried him yet PvP.

I only take 2 monk skills along: Resurrect (or variant) and mending

I'll sit back and drop fire on the heads of my enemies with ignite arrows and dual shot (don't have barrage yet), doing the occasional interrupt (distracting shot) to shut down enemy healing. It's really neat when an ignited dual-shot lands on a mob of 6+ enemies, the damage numbers run all the way across the screen! (4 damage counts for each enemy x 6 enemies = 24 damage counts!)

When in a really hard fight and the tanks are starting to fall, I'll quickly put on the mending (pumped up to +3 regen) and try to pick off the weaker enemies. Whirling Defense can help me withstand a mobbed attack for a short time. If I need to run, I'll turn on the Storm Chaser to get the 25% speed boost to outrun the enemies. After I've lost them, I'll come back and resurrect dead party members. Many, many times I've been the only party member left alive.

My point for all this is that rangers take time to learn. They are not all that powerful in dealing damage (a little too weak, if you ask me), but they can still be completely effective in battle. I really didn't get the hang of my ranger until about the 15th level. When I started getting some of the better skills, I was able to work the advantages better.

So give ranger players a break, it's a harder profession to learn, like the mesmer. (Anyone try a R/ME?)

There will be stupid players for every profession, like the warriors who run from battle to battle and don't wait for others to recharge, then get mad at the monk for not doing his job. Unfortunately, there is no stupid player filter in GW.

So just give Rangers a break. Give them a try, if you don't like the one you've teamed up with, put them on the ignore list.

Just my 2 cents.....
Dwig

This is correct. There is a sticky on gwonline.net (in the Ranger forum), where extensive tests have been run on all pets. At rank 0 in Beast Mastery a pet does 6-8 damage per attack (7 DPS), and at rank 12 in Beast Mastery, the pet does the same level of damage as a max bow (16-28, approx. 10 DPS). All pets seem to cause the same damage.

The point here is, that taking a pet along is only meaningful if you have a high rank in Beast Mastery. But if you have that high rank, your pet does the same damage as a max bow, in addition to the damage you can do with your own bow. Useful combos are having your pet cause bleeding, as well as using poison arrows, for a total of 7 health degen (unfortunately Feral Lunge, that causes bleeding, is broken since the last update, so that it only cause 3 seconds of bleeding, where it should cause 21 seconds of bleeding for BM 12).

Another overlooked advantage of pet skills is that most of them only cost 5 energy, and none of them have an activation time (only the time it takes until the pet's next attack). This means that if you have a reasonable expertise rank, you can spam your pet skills continuously.

I see more warriors doing this than anything else. Warriors are the first ones to complain about everything in my experience.

This is a reply to the ranger's tanking post.

I really don't want to say that ranger's can't tank, just that if they're going to it needs to be clear to the monk in the group that they are.

From my own perspective I've never seen a single ranger that could tank well. I know they have skills that make them better at tanking, I've just never seen one do that well.

I've seen a lot of Rangers that are so good that they make the difference in a group's success but never one of them was a tanking Ranger.

The ranger's that I've experienced that tank are why I don't want a ranger in my group.

Dont rangers have the second highest AL after warriors? Or am I mistaken?

I'm a Ranger/Warrior. I can't heal party members obviously....but I do alot of damage from outside aggro range. I can take out charr from hilltops...I can set traps...I can send my pet in to do the damage. AND I can move inside and be a shield. I've noticed that alot of people that DO party up with me are impressed with how I use my character. I don't limit myself to a bow outside the battle. If team members are getting hit I go in and take the damage so they can get back outside and heal themselves...or get healed. You just need to know your characters strengths and weakness. I know that as a warrior my character can take a good amount of damage and I willingly use myself as a shield if the party needs it.

Maybe its because you don't bother to use spell check before running off at the keyboard.

duz anywun went a rengar tew jein they're pertie?

Playing a Ranger is the most fun I think i could have. That's just my opinion. It takes a lot of work to use the character effectively. I have almost completed the storyline and am just now begin to learn what makes my char most effective. Lots, and lots of ways to use a Ranger.

Very well rounded class. Could use some minor tweaks but for the most part it's pretty bad a$$. There is little use for Rangers in PvP. I beleive thats because the general GW public has given them a bad rap so groups don't even bother trying one on for size.

You have to be good at being a Ranger, you also have to want to play a Ranger. Once you get with a crew, make friends and they see what you are capable of they will invite you back again and again.

just my 2 bits.

I'm guessing he meant if the only skill you bring is charm animal, then if you have a lot of points spent in beastmastery it's still worthwhile, because it determines how much damage your pet does, but obviously that counts as a beastmastery skill.

Barrage removes all preperations, so unless i am mistaken Barrage can not be combinned with incendiary arrows.

P.S. I am a ranger, and Rangers have alot of good and bad points. They also have alot of options. One of the AMAZING parts in there arsanal are there Anti-Class skills.

Combine Poision and Bleeding Degen with energy stealing and Distracting attacks and u can effectivly shut down a monk. The idea is they will be trying to heal themselves, and the energy stealign will prevent them from healing others and distracting shots will make it hard for this to happen. Add Frozen Soil to it, And there monk is now useless, and because of the Degen spells will soon be dead. Similiar strategies can be applied to any class.

Yes, but you even mention frozen soil to a PVP group, and they immediately think you plan on using it against YOUR GROUP. It's a rare person who actually sees the usefullness in ranger spells. Every time I go into Underworld, it's me keeping my group alive, not the monk. Why? Because I can blind, and for most people, they are dead in 1-2 hits in UW. If minos can't see you, they can't hit you for 300 dmg. It's as simple as that. When you can die that fast, monks are only good between fights, not during. It's up to rangers to cripple, blind, and generally disable all attackers who dare to oppose your group. So why aren't we getting groups there? Is it a stereotype that people just can't get past?

Examine the root of ranger..."range"...range of attack, range of skills, range of misconceptions. I bought GW so I could play a ranger because of the character's versatility....Played as Ranger/Mo...then Ranger/Elem...Settled on Ranger/Nec.

I find that I am often the last man standing in a fight, and depending on the situation, I am the one with the most options in how I conduct my attacks...One of my favorite butt-saving tricks, when seeing the monks overwhelmed because the warriors aggored too many mobs, is to run into the fray (short term tanking at best), Throw Dirt (blinding the mobs), casting Healing Spring (+48 health per sec for 8 sec), dropping a Barbed Trap (cripples and causes bleeding) and then running back to high ground to use Barrage. Any number of other skills are used in combination with those four...fire for undead/poison for the living...Troll Ungent is a must...

Ultimately, though, I can back-up anyone..Need more healing? I don't have Mo as secondary, but can still pitch in...Need Tanking? I can help if I must (better than any non-warrior) and might send my bear in as meat-sheild...Need caster control? No problem. Need a good puller? I'm you're man...Jack of all trades and master of some (depending on the allocation of skill points) I can see the value of every profession, but the ranger seems the ultimate support class...nothing wrong with support...I get thanked alot for pulling peoples butts out of the fire...literally in the final mission...three of us left and two henchie healers did it...

What bothers me is the classism in the game in general...I firmly beleive that if people played the RPG part of the game better (ROLE playing game...hello?) that this wouldn't be an issue. Take count of your character's design features...consider what that profession does well....play accordingly. It's simple really. As for the discrimination of characters based on profession...human nature is to criticize that which is not understood. If you don't like the ranger, it's because you don't know how to play one OR you have seen someone play one without knowing how.

I do. I love rangers. I hate good ones in PvP who know how to keep me disrupted.