Need some motivation to play my Ranger

[Teknomancer.4895]

(Note: Mesmer main.) I've had a Lv80 Norn ranger toon basically since launch, took an 8-year break shortly after HoT then returned last summer, and since then I've still just barely played her. She's got the PS completed thru at least Zhaitan like all my toons, all of the especs are fully trained and she has all but two of the pets (electric wyvern, smokescale). She's at Lv500 crafting on Leatherworker and Huntsman. Her armor is exotic with ascended trinkets, most but not all of her weapons are ascended with the rest exotic (so far my only legendary item is Bolt). Basically, I put a few hundred hours into her way back when, after returning I ran a few HP trains and tamed pets to get her up-to-date and then I just...stopped. Part of it is that Ranger is a versatile class but nothing in the Ranger's kit ever grabbed my attention, so I could never quite figure out what to do with it. It always felt like the classic "jack of all trades, master of none" to me, so I could never decide how to pin it down.

I mainly stick to solo casual PvE OW with open-joining events and metas, filling achieves if there's some attached reward I want, some occasional WvW, and catching up on story when I don't have anything more interesting to do (usually only if I want an unlock or specific reward). Other than occasionally hitting F2 I never really got the hang of pet use and I haven't dabbled with the especs beyond Druid, which I also didn't really get. I know Ranger can be a strong and fun class to play, I just can't seem to find a way to make that happen. I want to give it a fair chance, but not really sure what to focus on (and I don't just mean looking at builds on Snowcrows, GuildJen etc). I main Mesmer so I can handle bursts of high APM as needed, but honestly I'd prefer to not need that all the time. Top-performing builds don't matter if you don't find the class fun to play. I guess I just have trouble finding the "fun" factor in Ranger, so those of you who do, some tips and pointers for maybe getting more out of my poor neglected Norn and her profession would be appreciated.

[Beddo.1907]

You'll just have to try some builds.
Condi Druid and any Soulbeast should be good starting point. Condi druid has interesting mechanic of bleed on immobilize and the rotation is satisfying for me. Soulbeast will remove the pet and replace it with 3 skills and raw stats, which is helpful when getting to overall flow of weapons. Don't try Untamed without being used to ranger.
Other than that, I don't think there is some magic way to get into ranger.

[Dean Calaway.9718]

2 hours ago, Teknomancer.4895 said:

 

Need some motivation to play my Ranger

If you need people here to motivate you to play Ranger, then you really don't wanna play Ranger, and I'm telling you this while I have seven.

People couldn't pay me enough to play Elementalist, and that's ok, if it's a drag for you to play Ranger, park her in a good loot chest and call that done.

[AliamRationem.5172]

I can't tell you what you're going to find fun, but I never liked ranger until a few months ago when I tried Untamed after watching a video on it by Masel.  I ended up going a different way than his build recommendation, but I found the class to be a lot of fun and among the strongest open world builds I've ever played.  Here's a clip of the build I use:

 

 

[Nash.2681]

So you have a female Norn ranger? Maybe try some fashion wars including the new bikini top to raise your motivation to spend time playing her 😜

[Mell.4873]

Any Untamed build while keeping your pet unleashed is pretty decent and high APM. 

You can't really die and if you cc you gain stability. 

[BadSanta.6527]

if you need motivation to play ranger i suggest you play another class since gaming is about to have fun