Ranger Appreciation Thread

[Jeremy.2804]

Hey yall,
I have seen a lot of negative feedback and thought I would like to share some positive feedback to offset some of loud voices in the community.

Recent Balance
I am very happy with most of the recent changes. I enjoy the new sword and its abilities, I really like having two different leaps, it opens up a lot of combos field options especially pared with Untamed unleashed for 3 leaps. The power coefficients are nice and the damage is good.

I like the shift from spamming ranger spirits for alacrity, that iteration of boon spam has been very stale and boring. I do believe the devs have more work to do on the CA spam now as that is not fun either. I am confident that a good solution can be found. 

Fervent force : I am sad to see this go but I understand that this was not good for the spec. This GM brought some amazing gameplay at times but at a huge cost(insane APM).  

Weapons master training
I had a blast trying all kinds of builds. There is so much potential for ranger to shine with this crossover. The beta was an absolute joy to play. With the new rune and relic rework I can already see many more options.

Overall
I really love how ranger plays, all three especs and core. I really enjoy untamed and its hammer mechanic, it feels so much fun to smack things around with my pet and going in and out of unleashed when I need too.

Thank you devs!

Does anyone else have any positive feedback they would like to share?

[SkyCake.4216]

I recently got back from a month long trip and today was the first day I got to play any Guild Wars 2. Jumped on my Ranger because I've been wanting DPS Druid for a long time. 

Honestly, it's so much fun! I can't wait to try it with D/D. I tried Vipers vs Celestial and even though Celestial was only doing like 80-85% the damage, I was really enjoying it. I like the new Spirits for DPS Druid. I made a new look for my Norn Ranger for it and I'm enjoying this "blood moon" look I have going on. It's a top 3 DPS character for me, now. 

I'm not saying it's perfect. But, I think it's a very fun.

[Mell.4873]

Yeah, I have done a few Open World events with Druids. The numbers they pull are amazing even if they are healing most of the time.
Seems like they really nailed the synergy between DPS and Healing. They just need to boost the Alacrity duration and then its golden.

[Mic.1897]

Druid and Soulbeast are in a good spot this patch

Untamed still needs love though

[Levetty.1279]

9 hours ago, SkyCake.4216 said:

I recently got back from a month long trip and today was the first day I got to play any Guild Wars 2. Jumped on my Ranger because I've been wanting DPS Druid for a long time. 

Honestly, it's so much fun! I can't wait to try it with D/D. I tried Vipers vs Celestial and even though Celestial was only doing like 80-85% the damage, I was really enjoying it. I like the new Spirits for DPS Druid. I made a new look for my Norn Ranger for it and I'm enjoying this "blood moon" look I have going on. It's a top 3 DPS character for me, now. 

I'm not saying it's perfect. But, I think it's a very fun.

Yeah with how badly they dropped the ball on Alacrity Druid, they really did a good job with dps Druid with an interesting and unique way of doing the damage which makes it feel different from condi Soulbeast and opens up different options for damaging utility skills that normally wouldn't be considered. If they tied alacrity on Druid to regen application I think they could do something similar with its heal build.

 

I also really like the new sword skills, lots of fun jumping around and hitting hard and hammer on Soulbeast almost makes me want to get the expansion just for that.

Hopefully they can polish up Untamed some more and let its Quickness build and even a Heal Quickness build with staff really shine too.

[Puffer Fish.1796]

This past week was my first week back in the game in 5 years. after goofing around with several of my chars, I ended up deciding I'm going to main Ranger again as my reintroduction to the game.

I love it just as much as I did before I left, if not moreso. I'm actually loving axe/dagger and longbow, which is a combo I would have hated previously (I was a shortbow and sword/sword before...never said I made good choices). Now I can't wait to unlock Untamed so I can give it a try, to see if people complaining are just mad about something they knew changing or if it's actually "bad"/hard to play. I still feel meh about Druid, but I also am not interested in relearning how to play it just yet so that's probably why.

The hard part for me now is deciding if I'm going to stick with my Asura or switch to my Charr! lol

Edited July 10, 2023 by Puffer Fish.1796
additional information

[Mauti.3520]

I join in.
Numbers on some are a bit off.
Design I like. Much fun on Ranger these days.

[Loboling.5293]

On 7/5/2023 at 6:11 AM, Mic.1897 said:

Druid and Soulbeast are in a good spot this patch

Untamed still needs love though

Druid needs help with alacrity, but otherwise I agree. 

[BumboJumbo.1308]

On 7/5/2023 at 8:11 PM, Mic.1897 said:

Druid and Soulbeast are in a good spot this patch

Untamed still needs love though

In what way does untamed need love?

[AkantorCZ.8952]

I appreciate that cooldown reductions were applied across the board and removed from the single corresponding trait. Also I like most of the changes to traits especially nature magic trait line.

Unfortunately I'm kind of sad in regards to the rework of my favorite weapon - sword. I don't care about numbers too much. What does matter to me is the feel and how the weapon plays. There are definitely some positives but overall the weapon was kind of streamlined and became less interesting to me. Saying that I still really really appreciate the fact Arena Net is making effort to rework stuff! I know it usually isn't high priority from business perspective but for me it's more important than new content!

Last thing I want to appreciate is outstanding technical quality of the game. Sure you can't fix all the bugs, nothing is perfect, but overall GW2 really is high quality game. Can't wait to see other improvements planned for the future.

Edited July 13, 2023 by AkantorCZ.8952

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

I agree with OP on this one. June 27 was brutal to us necros but you rangers got some really good stuff, even without realizing it.

Spirit rework (nerf to some) was a huge step in the right direction. Finally you can play support without mandatory spirits.
They're still great for the role, but you aren't arm twisted to choose them. Long overdue build freedom for supportive rangers.

Druid got a great condi build now. Finally a ranger spec that can go condi without going full traps on utility bar.
Another breath of fresh air and build freedom for condi enjoyers.

Fervent Force is gone but now you can nearly double your unleashed ambush casts which for some builds are big.
And weaponmaster training beta showed ranger's the one getting the really good stuff.
MH dagger works with all specs, customizable hammer is amazing and staff introduces some big fun avenues of supporting for untamed.

A-net really did fine job with this one. Appreciate it, not all profession came out this well outta it.

Edited July 16, 2023 by ZeftheWicked.3076

[Matoro.9708]

Can someone explain to me why the new dumbed down sword is better? Is it really just unga bunga glue me to the enemy? Previously with hornet sting you could still have 2 back to back leaps in combo fields + tons of evades. Unwashed VFX is really ugly, like you and your pets are playing as a very specific part of the hulk. It's entirely turned me off the spec. I'm not really sure how to feel about the spirits. 

I guarantee mace/mace will have some pointless overlap with other weapons like the hammer. Mace/Shield or even just shield would've been better for buildcraft I think. Why must they release weapons symmetrically? 5 skills is 5 skills. 

[AkantorCZ.8952]

5 hours ago, Matoro.9708 said:

Can someone explain to me why the new dumbed down sword is better? Is it really just unga bunga glue me to the enemy? Previously with hornet sting you could still have 2 back to back leaps in combo fields + tons of evades. Unwashed VFX is really ugly, like you and your pets are playing as a very specific part of the hulk. It's entirely turned me off the spec. I'm not really sure how to feel about the spirits. 

I guarantee mace/mace will have some pointless overlap with other weapons like the hammer. Mace/Shield or even just shield would've been better for buildcraft I think. Why must they release weapons symmetrically? 5 skills is 5 skills. 

It has probably something to do with the sword being the best direct damage dps weapon right now. So mostly numbers I guess. I can't even describe how depressed I'm about this change. Damage numbers, skill effects, cooldowns, animation speed, etc can always change. But the moveset only got worse from the original version with the spinning kick auto-attack honestly. At least in my opinion.

Sorry I know this is appreciation thread but I just couldn't help myself.

Edited July 16, 2023 by AkantorCZ.8952

[Puffer Fish.1796]

I'm having a great time maining ranger through the story, and got up to the start of LS1 last night (which I missed when it released, so it's brand new for me. I finally have context for the NPCs we meet at the intro to HoT). I keep feeling the urge to switch to guardian for a different playstyle, but every time I do, I inevitably find a pet I don't have yet on my ranger and think, "man if only I was here as my ranger right now". So I've just decided to main ranger at a minimum until I have all the pets lol.

Been running an incomplete Druid unlock with bow (both long and short, usually long) and sword/axe and it's honestly been great fun. I only recently rejoined the game after a long time away, so the changes everyone is so salty about on this forum don't really affect me. It's just nice to have a reason other than map completion to explore everywhere to find all the pets.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Puffer Fish.1796
additional information

[kharmin.7683]

15 minutes ago, Puffer Fish.1796 said:

 so the changes everyone is so salty about on this forum don't really affect me

I often find that the complaints about the changes are more from the competitive crowd (PvP and WvW) and instanced content runners (raids, strikes, fractals).  OWPvE and storyline just take the collateral damage hits.

[Scynte.1340]

I'm enjoying the new version of quickness Untamed, post July 18. Until this point, I hated the elite spec and couldn't touch it even though I otherwise like Ranger a lot. Now, I finally kind of like it.

I still don't like the F5 toggle or the unleashed F1-F3 spam very much, but it's better with the ambush refresh on weapon swap with Let Loose. 

I'm excited to experience this change with the dagger and staff. 

The new spirits, especially storm spirit make it feel good too.

[Mell.4873]

On 7/17/2023 at 4:48 AM, AkantorCZ.8952 said:

It has probably something to do with the sword being the best direct damage dps weapon right now. So mostly numbers I guess. I can't even describe how depressed I'm about this change. Damage numbers, skill effects, cooldowns, animation speed, etc can always change. But the moveset only got worse from the original version with the spinning kick auto-attack honestly. At least in my opinion.

Sorry I know this is appreciation thread but I just couldn't help myself.

Sword before this patch barely played beside a small subset of the Ranger audience. It was pretty much a PvP or solo PvE weapon but you had so many better optimal choices.

Now is it a DPS machine with many clear advantages over the old Weapon. Ranger is all bout gap closing abilities and mobility. This fits right in way better than a weird dodge back or around the enemy. 

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Matoro.9708]

3 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Sword before this patch barely played beside a small subset of the Ranger audience. It was pretty much a PvP or solo PvE weapon but you had so many better optimal choices.

Now is it a DPS machine with many clear advantages over the old Weapon. Ranger is all bout gap closing abilities and mobility. This fits right in way better than a weird dodge back or around the enemy. 

 

Am I to read this as minority playstyles don't matter? Shall we just delete all but the most efficient classes? and "A weird dodge back" bro on god you have never even heard of the Skirmishing tree