How are Rangers?

[Toppy]

Back on the subject of rangers though as a class. They are fun, which is important. But they can also be kinda hard to use. They ultimatly will need to be in melee, and their melee is very very involved compared to other classes. Though this is GW2, so that is not saying much since GW2 is notorious for its ease of play.

The main thing you'll need to get used to as a ranger is your pet. They are horrible. They have broken pathing, they can seldom attack on the run, they die easily, need to be baby-sat but dont follow your commands half the time, and account for a LOT of your damage. It's been an ongoing issue in the ranger community that our big defining skill is our pet (each class has a big skill like that) but unlike all other class skills, ours openly and constantly is a detriment. It's been holding the class back as a whole for ages, and a-net refuses to fix it.

When asking yourself if you want to be a ranger, you have to ask myself "Am I willing to deal with a frustrating, broken, and just plain bad mechanic" as well as "Is this horrible mechanic worth dealing with for the fun weapon skills and secondary skills"

[Exroyal]

Rangers in GW2 are 100% more fun than hunters in WoW - I regularly play both (I actually have 2 rangers in GW2 and 2 Hunters in WoW - among many other toons!)

Some quick cool differences... Rangers in GW2:

1) Can actually use melee weapons, even greatswords!
2) Rapid fire is actually an awesome skill in GW2... not a lame buff like for Hunters
3) Pets are weaker than Hunter pets - more utility/little extra damage less tanky

Hunter pets from WoW are also much better then pets from GW2, but that's because GW2 pets are broken and they run like headless chickens into aoe and die and do other stupid stuff, this is something that will PROBABLY be fixed in the future....we hope.

[Toppy]

Hunter pets from WoW are also much better then pets from GW2, but that's because GW2 pets are broken and they run like headless chickens into aoe and die and do other stupid stuff, this is something that will PROBABLY be fixed in the future....we hope.

You realize people have been waiting for pet fixes since release (2 and a half years ago), right?

Its not happening. The same pet complaints now, are the same ones that have been around since the game launched.

[Maarius]

I've never had problems with the AI of my pet, makes me wonder if you know how to control it properly. Also: ranged pets easily hit targets on the move.

Here a bit of Ranger-gameplay for the OP



- - - Updated - - -

but that's because GW2 pets are broken and they run like headless chickens into aoe and die and do other stupid stuff

I don't know if you've noticed, but pets need to be controlled and you can easily call your pet back to you to avoid any aoe via the F-Skills.

[Toppy]

I've never had problems with the AI of my pet, makes me wonder if you know how to control it properly. Also: ranged pets easily hit targets on the move.

Here a bit of Ranger-gameplay for the OP



- - - Updated - - -



I don't know if you've noticed, but pets need to be controlled and you can easily call your pet back to you to avoid any aoe via the F-Skills.

1. Range pets do a very low amount of damage. Even with a melee pet not being able to hit half the time, it'd do more damage than the range.
2. The issue with pets not listening has been an ongoing issue that many people experience. It's not just baseless complaints. It's a notable problem.

[Maarius]

1. Range pets do a very low amount of damage. Even with a melee pet not being able to hit half the time, it'd do more damage than the range.
2. The issue with pets not listening has been an ongoing issue that many people experience. It's not just baseless complaints. It's a notable problem.

You don't take pets for maximal damage, you take them for utility. The poison field of the ranged devourer for example is quite useful for weakness-combo finisher and the poison effect - less heal for your opponents.

2. ...which has been fixed a while ago. Well I can only speak for myself of course, but I can't agree with you about an unresponsive pet-skill.

May 20, 2014

Balance, Bug-Fixing, Polish

Profession Skills

Ranger Pets

• Ranger pet special (F2) skills are now significantly more responsive.

http://reess.carina.uberspace.de/gw2-patchnote-search/

[Meledelion]

The pets used in that video are used because they offer control and don't suffer from the common complaints.

K9s are used because their howl has a decent range (mitigating the walk, stop, try to attack fail, walk, stop, cycle) and leaps with control effects (again mitigating the problem), basically 3/4 skills of k9's do not suffer from the most crippling issue.
The spider again is used for control (immobilize spam) and reduces the problem thanks to being ranged. However this opens up another problem which is flight time and strafing being enough to avoid most projectiles, this in turn is solved by the spit skill which covers the ground.
Smart players can still abuse the pet-issues by kiting backwards and forwards in the same direction, causing the pet to have to move in range all the time (easily done on thief/ele/engineer/...)

If you're talking about PvE the problem isn't fixed at all, it's just that in open world it's easy to kill stuff before your pet even matters, world bosses being static and dungeon bosses being forced to stand still.
Additionally in PvE most issues are "solved" thanks to AoE having a 5 target cap which prioritizes players over NPCs, meaning that if a boss casts one dragon's tooth and everyone is in stacked together, your pet will survive. That isn't really a fix though and when the AoE does anything else or summons more projectiles your pet will die.

Yes ranged pets will hit most AI enemies fine but they hit for next to nothing and don't provide additional utility.
Spiders = immobilize/poison
Devourers = bleed/poison and KB if foes come in melee-range of the pet(which often harms more than helps)

All support pets are melee, might, regeneration, protection, fury, vulnerability, swiftness, ...
That's ignoring the stats given to pets Devourers get lots of armor and health, and spiders just get a huge health buff. Both are completely useless.

If a pet gets the same buffs as another player(they don't in practice) they do a maximum DPS of 1.8k(ish) and the ranger does around 15k, these pets have 700 more offensive stats than their ranged counter parts who also won't be getting buffs (unless they are in melee, but at that point why bother with a ranged pet?). So you are severely hampering yourself and your team by using a ranged pet, to the point that you're better of with a pet that only lives for 10% of the fight.

Denying there are issues with pet-AI doesn't help in the slightest. It's highly frustrating to solo content and be forced to use a tanky pet just because of how unresponsive pets are (solo HotW p2/3 and you'll notice that the only way to keep your pet alive is through having it on passive...). That's without touching on the weird pathing on call-backs.

[Maarius]

If I didn't know the Ranger and would read your post, Mel, I definitely wouldn't try that profession... and boy what a mistake I would have made. Enough said for me here.

[Meledelion]

It's just an explanation on what's not working on pet AI, and why melee>ranged pets. My post became lengthy because IMO if you're going to point out issues you have to be thorough so that people know the bounds of the problem.

Note that I did say that the problems are covered up quite well and that in most circumstances you won't notice the issues.

If you're talking about PvE the problem isn't fixed at all, it's just that in open world it's easy to kill stuff before your pet even matters, world bosses being static and dungeon bosses being forced to stand still.

I'm surprised that's enough for anyone to be put off by a profession, especially since I'm only talking about the issues of a pet and not the profession in general.

[Valeron]

I'm surprised that's enough for anyone to be put off by a profession, especially since I'm only talking about the issues of a pet and not the profession in general.

any apparent weakness, by design or mechanical deficiency, of a class (profession here) in a game will put off people from playing it no matter how minor it is. Pretty much basic psychology in this case.