Ranger, for me, can't compare to anything in late game [PvE][Jack of all trades]

[KgsRoCks.5103]

I've been playing ranger with my main character, 8 years, and lately I feel like all the specs of ranger fall below others in the current meta. It's not like I am an alternative, it's just that based on effort / reward other classes do the job much better. I tought it was my fault, so I specialized, build up and practised rotations with other classes, and I confirmed that the effort needed to clear the content was much lower. 

 

Not talking about being a dps, as its the easiest to do well enough effortlessly with hybrid sb or spamming untamed high apm condi. And I don't need to do this as I have the better ranger called mech. 

 

In the end, when I am supposed to give heals, alac uptime, or some boons, I ask myself, why should I pick druid or alacdps when there are much better options out there? And people notice this too. Why struggle with a super complex static rotation to provide alac, when other character just need to press 3 buttons and have a 100% uptime. 

 

Should ranger be a backup in parties to improve performance of other roles? Should we make mixed roles instead of hyperspecialized ones? Is it that im just bad? 

Edited October 16, 2022 by KgsRoCks.5103

[Beddo.1907]

Tell me 5 supportive utilities that are great in team content, that aren't spirits... yeah...
The entire design of ranger -druid and spirits is just selfish. Nothing more, nothing less.
Spirits were a bandaid for years and now it's just 100% boon uptime for 4 boons+alac(if traited) with max boon duration, that costs you the entire utility bar. Combined with spirits needing healing, despawning on tp/zipline and moving only every ~16s, causes Ranger to just become inconsistent and that results in high risks=no reward.

The only thing ranger can do well in pve is raw DPS and that's probably going to be the case until the entire kit is fixed.

[KgsRoCks.5103]

4 minutes ago, Beddo.1907 said:

Tell me 5 supportive utilities that are great in team content, that aren't spirits... yeah...
The entire design of ranger -druid and spirits is just selfish. Nothing more, nothing less.
Spirits were a bandaid for years and now it's just 100% boon uptime for 4 boons+alac(if traited) with max boon duration, that costs you the entire utility bar. Combined with spirits needing healing, despawning on tp/zipline and moving only every ~16s, causes Ranger to just become inconsistent and that results in high risks=no reward.

The only thing ranger can do well in pve is raw DPS and that's probably going to be the case until the entire kit is fixed.

 

I understand, maybe it was just me trying to fit an hexagon into a triangle hole. 

[Mell.4873]

5 hours ago, KgsRoCks.5103 said:

Should ranger be a backup in parties to improve performance of other roles? Should we make mixed roles instead of hyperspecialized ones? Is it that im just bad? 

Why play Quickness Warrior when Quickness Firebrand exists, why play Specter Alacrity when Alacrity Mechanist exists.
The reality it is all preference, The main reason you play anything in that supportive role is because you are very good at whatever that class can bring.

A perfect example is I play Mesmer for all roles in end-game content. In practice I can pick Mesmer for Healing roles because I'm amazing at the Mesmer rotation. I'm able to seamlessly change between Well + Alacrity healing to Mantra + Quickness healing.

Okay on to Ranger and by extension Warrior. The reason to play these Classes in support roles is because the entire profession has access to a unique boon. That means you could play a DPS Soulbeast slot in 2 spirits and provide some Alacrity to a Strike/Raid group or play full Harriers Druid and be a main Healer + Alacrity. That's the point of Ranger.