Ranger weapons that aren't linked to Marksmanship

*calls PETA

Being a ranger doesn't imply you're an archer. The name is to do with being a keeper of an area of land, and using whatever tools are appropriate for the job - at least that's what a ranger is in the UK.

I'm all for weapons tied to other attributes because I don't use marksmanship much either!

Someone already mentioned something similar to this ->

expertise: hunting knives, possibly thrown or dual wielded (as in the 'whirling defense' icon)
wilderness survival: a druid's staff, just like a caster staff - or as a quarterstaff to be used in melee
beast mastery: whips

(edit: currently as a ranger/necromancer I use a truncheon and idol... eww... nice touch strikes though!)

Well Rangers do need another weapon look at my Tally of different attribute offhands and Weaopons for other professions

Ranger Weapons-1
Offhand-0


Warrior Weapons-3
Offhands-2

Monk Weapons-2
offhands-3

Elementist Weapons-4!
Offhands-4!

Nerco Weapons-3
offhands-3

Mesmer Weapons-2
Offhands-3

I didn't add those crazy out of the box collecter items thou.

Seems unfair to me. HOWEVER I think only Beastmastery should be another weapon.

Trappers have a weapon its called TRAPS. There already power. So none for Wilderness Survival or Expertise. Just Beastmasters need them because already there just too weak putting a weapon in for Beastmastery would make them HoH material.

Um...then by your way of thinking I could point out that the pet is the beastmasters weapon, and that having a beastmastery based weapon would not make them so incredibly better that they would be HoH material.

I can understand reasons why Expertise wouldn't have a weapon associated to it, but there is no reason why Wilderness Survival shouldn't have a weapon associated to it. A staff for trappers would NOT make them any more powerful.

I think the better solution might be to just have a staff that gives a ranger bonus. You already have a secondary profession, if you want something that kicks butt to go with your ranger who doesn't shoot bows then you could just get a staff that helps a ranger out. That way you would have to sacrifice attribute points for your staff [say, it is an elementalist staff, so you need to have your air magic up to a certain level or something for it to be completely effective] in order to get all the bonuses that come with it. Balances things out.

No major changes in gameplay.

Being primarily a ranger throughout the game (and I have finished the game with the other 5 char types as well) I can agree that it would be nice to have some kind of weapon supplement for Beast Masters. I don't see anyway they could ever dominate or become FoTM in halls (believe me, I've looked into that! lol) But for PvE it would really rock. Expertise should NOT have any bonus weapons because some serious abuse could occur there and trappers already use staffs so no need to make them any more powerful. On a side note, although i love LOTR as much as anybody, I have to tell you its a standing rule in my Guild to target rangers named Legolas first. We will ignore monks, mesmers and everything else to take down someone unimaginative (and obviously uninformed since last time I checked Aragorn was the ranger) enough to run a Ranger named Legolas all the while spamming "Legolas must Die!" in chat. Its cost us a couple of wins but nothing replaces the sheer satisfaction of whacking some elf-wannabe in Tombs. -Pagan

Ranger has nothing to do with attacking at a distance but with traveling...as in scouting one of the main uses for rl rangers.

er...

Give me staves that are Beast Mastery or Wildernes Survival-linked!

Staves would be a good idea, a melee staff linked to wilderness survival that doesnt give a large bonus to energy (and has different upgrades than caster staves) would be a good idea. I'd like to see a little more variety in bows too, since its the only weapon rangers have at the moment.

But was Aragorn not a "Ranger"? Since you started it by bringing Legolas into the discussion, let me point out that Aragorn fought with many types of different weapons and he was a Dunedain-a Ranger of the North. Legolas was an "elf" which, by traditon, were archers (in his region of Middle Earth they were, anyway). A Ranger is a "jack of all trades" and being such should give you a wider mastery. Elementalists can carry around 4 staves if they like-each that will do max dmg and require a different attribute. Warriors have axes, hammers, and swords. Mesmers, Necromancers, and Monks all have canes/wands and offhands that require any of their attributes but Rangers have bows....and all bows require Marksmanship...I think it's a little ridiculous.

And if we don't have the defense for melee, then the responsibility to stay alive would rest on us. I mean, Rangers have much higher elemental protection than warriors do and MANY evasive stances. So, yes, you may do more damage to a ranger when you hit him....IF you can hit him, so really, it balances out.

To whoever suggested melee staves: I LOVE the idea of seeing my Laurelin kick butt with a quarterstaff. The female's 15k Druid's wouldn't look so out-of-place then (though I can hardly say I'd condone the look any more than I do now but that's an entirely different thread right there). I wouldn't necessarily suggest having it like a caster staff, but rather like a hammer linked to Wildnerness Survival: 2 handed, high-damage, slow attack speed, etc.

While I love the idea of an Expertise Dagger, I think it'd be unfair to the other classes as none of the other 5 have a weapon associated with their primary attribute, with the exception of monk: I have indeed seen a Divine Favor staff.

Edit: Sorry it came out as 2 posts guys-I was hoping it'd shrink into 1...
Edit: Merged into one post. -PieXags

I really like the idea of having beastmaster or wilderness survival weapons. I agree with some of the previous posters that having a bow would be slightly silly. all the other weapon classes(daggers, swords, axes, hammers) have their own attribute, so marksmanship should stay with bows.
however, having a staff or rod/focus would be really neat. it would acknowledge that the ranger class is a crossover between combat(archery) and spellcasting(traps,spirits,pets) classes.

In order to keep things balanced these weapons would have to have a relatively low damage output which would transform the ranger into more of a support or caster role rather than damage dealer of a archer.

I know that staves and so on are available for other classes and we can always use those, but it seems silly to have to use up 6-9attributes into a skills set that you don't want to focus on in order to be able to use a weapon as well as skills effectively.

I also really like the idea of Laurelin posted above that the staves would be short range. quarterstaves are by far my favourite combat weapon and it would be awesome to have it in the game, and then the ranger class would be even cooler(and it would justify us having such strong armor)

/signed

I think that a quarterstaff would fit well with the entire image of what a Ranger comprises. Two Handed weapon that can be either Beast Mastery or Wilderness Survival.

The only negative, I've collected quite a few bows for different applications - now I would have even less storage trying to manage quarterstaves!

i think that we should have a Trapper weapon. not that i'm not happy with my bows, but there is too many builds based on trapping, and oviously we are using stuffs... but how about a weapon req wilderness survival, with something like: halves preparation time on skills 10% chance, or halves skill recharge on Traps 20% chance.

lol the only way i imagine a beast masterer weapon is a whipe....

One discussion I've had while discussing this idea with a guildie resulted in the idea that crossbows would probably be best for Wilderness Survival - that way, you're still firing something arrow-like enough for preparations to still work . On the flipside, however, the crossbows should have less DPS than a bow of the same type for balance, and a smaller selection of types (I would defenitely expect to see an equivalent of the horn bow, but not of the shortbow, for instance). Another balancing element is that it wouldn't have the bonus to energy of a staff, so the trapper wouldn't be getting both a big boost to energy and an effective weapon off the same attribute.

For beastmastery, just to be different, we came up with a sling - nice simple weapon using basic materials, with the same general rules as a crossbow (except with different types available - I wouldn't expect a horn bow sling, but I would expect a shortbow or flatbow sling...)

Also, one thing to consider on extra weapons for rangers - It also helps ranger secondaries, especially W/Rs, by giving them a ranged weapon without having to make a large expenditure in Marksmanship. The ability to pull out a ranged weapon when fighting at melee isn't advisable for one reason or another is something I really missed when I experimented with Gwenyth as a W/R.

hmm...beast mastery..give the ranger claws! haha

Every profession has one main weapon that they put thier attribute points in. You have chosen beast mastery so your beast is your weapon. At this point your bow becomes secondary basically a pulling weapon. No profession gets two weapons to use at the same time, which is basically what you are asking for.Why should a ranger or any other profession for that matter have two high damage dealing items that can be used at the same time. The ranger is already one of the best professions in the game. I believe you need to use your beast skills better because what you are asking for here will never happen the way you want. If a warrior is a sword warrior his points go into swordsmanship if axe they go to axe mastery and so on. Think about what you are asking for and understand that that your pet IS A WEAPON. By the way my favorite profession is the ranger i just believe what you are asking would throw it out of balance. Maybe give your pet a weapon claws perhaps.

yeah...but if you start implementing humvees, .50 cals, and other firearms, it fails to be Guild Wars anymore and becomes BF2 or something.


Rangers in GW use bows..warriors use swords...so on and so forth. The only thing that would be neat would be the addition of crossbows (that would be kinda cool)..

something like sling's(firing stones) or using Blow Darts(would mostly be condition inflincting rather than pure dmg) could be dependant on expertise/wilderness survival.

I like the staff idea. Give rangers a basic weapon if they aren't into marksmanship.

But ranger staves shouldn't give an energy bonus like the caster staves. That would be unbalanced.