Is it that Rangers are undervalued, or too abundant?

I have beaten the game as a W/Mo and now I'm in the desert with my R/E. I went through hell to cap Barrage from Markis in Iron Mines (I took a full group of henchies from Ice Caves to Copperhammer then to Iron Mines as a lvl 18 ranger, and now I'm infused before I'm ascended ) But I'm on my final desert quest which happens to be Thirsy River, and I just cannot get into a group. From my own personal experience, if ANY of the desert quests needs a ranger, it's Thirsty River. Is it that people are ignorant to the uses of a ranger, or has there just been an explosion of rangers of late?

P.S. My build is Barrage, Power Shot, Savage Shot, Distracting Shot, Enervating Charge, Troll Unguent, Storm Chaser, and Conjure Lightning. I have full druid armor, and a max purple lightning bow with +20 health and +12% while enchanted.

herd mentality lately. Nature Renewal :P so too many rangers likely.

Start a group of your own? I've never had trouble getting into a group...and I've been playing since the first week as a ranger.

making a group of your own works best. i made a full group in a couple of mins

I always end up making my own party, people are d**** and tend to not give necros, rangers, etc... a go... its all WARRIOR this and MONK that.

Last night I entered the UW (Paid the 1K myself) to go down some quests... there was 6 of us, all rangers to begin with... quickly reduced down to only 4 due to quiters, and finally only 3 when one went AFK.

But we did it nevertheless, and I got a nice Hearty Black Widow, which I named Carlotta

Needless to say it rocked, massive damage output due to traps, choking gas and apply posion, and no need for monks due to us all being able to self heal, and no need for tanks since rangers have good armor.

The way I see it Rangers are highly underrated.

Rangers are either the most wanted, or the least wanted depending on where you are. If you want to go to the Underground, there are a ton of trapper groups that'd love to have you, also many groups know rangers want to go there to get a spider pet, so usually they are welcomed. Also, rangers are always wanted in Hell's Precipice, as Winter does wonders.
However, go to just about any where else, and you'll be sitting on the bench along with Joe Mesmer and Suzy Necro.

Rangers are as underrated in PvP as anyone, but like all the misfit classes, they have some pretty powerful skills that can be used in any situation, which can make or break a party.

are you kidding? rangers are definately not underrated in pvp. have you seen all the spirit spam teams? besides, most teams want at least 1 ranger just for soil and disruption. its kinda taking over the role of a hammer war

Ranger using whiring defence and throw dirt would take on any warrior... I think the problem is people don't know how to use Rangers and other so-called misfit groups correctly and thus consider anything that not a Warrior, Nuker or Monk worthless.

I am also a R/E and I have seen some problems getting into groups.

What I do if it is taking too long but you see people asking to get into groups is to start my own group.

It used to be worse. I have noticed lately I can get into groups fairly quick.


Sorena Mascar

Believe me, if a group doesn't think a ranger is useful for Thirsty River, you don't want to go with that group...

get choking gas and a good non-ranger group!

Two nights ago as a ranger I started a group to kill Glint, I accepted everyone that whispered me and ended up with 3 rangers out of the 6 slots filled when someone wrote to the rest of the team:

"Boot one of the rangers and pick up another warrior and 2 monks"

I typed:

"No"

and he/she left, we picked up an ele and 2 henchmen healer/prot and walked through the mission and killing of Glint, it was so easy it was borderline boring, but luckily everyone was really cool...

Play your ranger and have fun, you don't want to be in groups that insist on cookie cutter makeups, they don't always work out anyway...

it's easy....ranger is a tough class to play, just like mesmer and necro...and the abundance of people don't use the class correctly..often times resulting in failed missions or a harder time for everyone else having to pick up their slack. This leads people to believe that the ranger is just useless, which certainly isn't the case.

it's quite easy to make your ranger completely ineffective...go try to make a warrior ineffective..it's damn near impossible to screw up a warrior build..

Since I started amy Ranger I've been using him exclusively. Think I finally figured out the trapper mode... can do quite well in the underworld in groups, and with QZ, EW and SQ going can flip out traps at a dizzying pace.

PvP... well, let me just say that Ranger's are indeed hard to master, yet quite fun.

MSecorsky...grab yourself a nice +energy wand and +energy protective icon for trapping and bump that Energy up..you'll be even more effective.

with my wand/icon weapon set and my druid armor equipped i have 56 Energy -1 degen.

Choking gas is a MUST for thirsty. add that to your bar.

then go find a better group lol. nothing interrupts like poison gas. 12 seconds if your WS is at 15

Wild Blow and Mend Ailement

Thank you BigTru. I don't see why a lot of people seem to assume that their enemy would just stand there and do nothing while being beaten on.

-Diomedes

This may be a dumb question as my primary character since GW came out was a R/E but how can you uses a wand/icon while using the bow?

Edit: I'm an idiot, I see what you mean - switch weapons for planting the traps.

Yes I had the same problem as well.


Take your time spot some other rangers and go for a 4x ranger team + Lina and Alesia. Thirsty river will be a breeze. Show some responsibility and take Healing spring.

Ask them if they mind using the same type bow. Flat bow works great in this mission.

You can't fail.

ratatass

I do have a +10 staff with a Hale head and wrapping, both adding life (until I get better upgrades), it also reduces poison... but have the concept at least.

It's funny, some people give me crap if I recommend their Ranger carry a big stick when laying traps. I don't get it.

Well, you could just take a henchmen group for Thirsty River. My roommate got to the desert at around lvl 14 (Lion's Arch to Temple of Ages to Sanctum Cay) and had no hope in hell of getting a group to invite him, let alone have people willing to group with him. It took a few tries, but I think pretty much all of the ascention missions take a few tries, regardless of who you group with.

But yeah, most people are too dumb in PvE to take anything other than ele, monk, and warrior. Anyone else gets an invite because they couldn't find any of the other 3 classes (which happen to be the 3 RP characters I play).

I can honestly say that I have finished the game and PvP with every class in the game. I have two accounts and built my first character (W/Mo) and had fun learning the game early on when warriors were not too common.

Subsequently, I have made a R/E20, E/Mo20, Mo/W20, N/Me20 and a Me/N20.

On the PvE side of the game, Rangers, Necros and Mesmers do get their unfair publicity and find difficulty getting on teams, unless you’re on a guild team or form a team from scratch. The difficulty is that people who play, what I call "common classes" (warriors, monks and mages), do not know the capabilities of the Rangers, Necros or Mesmers. There experience is only in what they have teamed with during their progress in the game. Another possible reason is they may have teamed with someone who does not know how their character is useful to a team. Some people think they are all "Rambo" and can jump into battle.

Since I have played every character-class in the game, I would have to say I have the most fun with my Ranger. I rarely, if ever, play my E/Mo anymore. The Ranger, in my opinion, is the most versatile character in the game.

The N/Me and Me/N are tied as my next favorite classes to play. These 3 classes can and will cause horror to any of the "common class" build in PvP.

Furthermore, all of my characters are designed and built for a particular purpose and to help round out any team that may be lacking in one area.

I think the more people who build and play with other classes will gain a better understanding on where every class has a place in a team. There are just as many people who do not know how to play a "common class" character effectively as the other classes. People only hinder themselves if they fail to learn and study other builds.

Nobody wants a Charlie in the Box!

Its one of those mysteries I have never been able to solve. In the RoF missions having an extra ranger on the team is a god send.
In my guild I am known to be the last man standing in every situation and saving the day :P

Rangers dont have as high rate of fire as a Warrior or as high damage as an Elementalist but they are equiped for almost every situation.

That was a typo, I meant PvE... Yes, I agree with you, Rangers are very popular in PvP, and rightfully so.