The Ranger Thread - Woo Yay Rangers Yay Woo

[President Weasel]

Some of the other classes have threads, so let's have one about Rangers.
I am sure a more knowledgeable player can chime in with better info but here are some things I have found out.

Where can I get an owl?
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdgYcG84XvI

Why does my pet keep dying?
- Are you using an owl? Get a tanking pet, like a bear. Better yet, get two bears. I have a brown bear and a polar bear. If you swap your pet out before it dies, it will heal up while its on standby. Then you can swap out the other one when its health is low.
(You can find charmable polar bears in the icy lake in the Norn starting city (which I believe is called Readybrek?))

How can I make people like me?
- Healing Spring is a 3 point healing ability which should make you the life of the party. It creates a healing spring which gives your allies (and you, and your pet) regeneration for a short while. Try not to die while it's on cooldown.
Also if you choose a one-hander and a hunting horn you can buff the party with your parps and tootles.

Why do you always play the pet class?
- Hey, I played a shaman that one time in DAOC.

What are the different weapons like?
- Longbow is ranged and has a knockback, and the auto-attack does more damage the further away from your enemy you are. I found it a bit dull and it gave the impression it wasn't doing a lot of damage on single targets - although it does have a nice, traditional, 'rain-of-arrows' aoe, and a single target 'shoot-a-lot-of-arrows-quickly' ability.

- Shortbow is ranged and has a debuff and a poison and a stun. It's more positional than longbow, as the auto-attack has a stacking bleed which only works if you're not in the target's front arc. It gives the impression of doing more damage because it shoots quicker than the longbow, although each shot does less damage.
It's my favourite weapon for PVE, as I get to run round and round things rather than standing still a long way away.

-Big Sword
It's a big sword and you hit stuff with it. I learned the abilities and never used it again.

-One hand sword
Quite fun! There's a jump away and jump back in again move. You get to use an offhand. It's not ranged, so you will have to actually get into melee range of your targets, but that's not usually difficult. There's an evade-and-poison move which keeps missing for me, but evade is nice.

-Axe
A throwing axe. The auto-attack does a ricochet to other enemies nearby. Might be useful in situations with a lot of enemies, like PVP and events. You get to use an offhand.

- Torch
It's an offhand. You can throw the torch, which is underwhelming, or set a bonfire for pbaoe burny.

-Dagger
It's an offhand. You can throw the dagger to cripple enemies (which I think hits more than one, maybe?) or do a poisony evade thing, which seemed pointless when I had one on the sword but in PVP it might be handy to have two.

-Hunting horn
Another offhand. It does an aoe ally buff and you can summon hawks to attack your target. Why not? I would probably take one over the dagger or the torch.

-Axe in the off hand
Why did nobody tell me this was so awesome?
You get one move called "path of scars" which is described as throw a returning axe which hits enemies on its way out and its way back. They should call it "path of inadvertent pulls" since it often seems to go out of its way to aggro bystanders.
You get another move which I am sure has a name but I am choosing to call "Whirly Whirl of Whirling Death", a pbaoe of hitting things a lot with your axe, which does very nice damage as the hits do increasing damage with each one. Also the animation is rather likeable too.



Utility skills

- the 'traditional' hunter traps like spiky damage, ice, fire, bucket-o-snakes
- summons
- I tend to use the buff ones, like "the one that makes you 10% faster", "the one that makes you and your pet tougher" and "the regen one" because I am lazy.




Pets
- there are 4 pet slots: pet; other pet; underwater pet; other underwater pet.
You can tame as many as you can find, and they go into a collection from which you can choose them when you're not in combat. It's not like WOW where you could only have three pets and if you wanted to tame a new one you had to let one go.

[Screwie]

I tried the ranger in beta as it was the class I was perhaps least interested in and it totally won me over.

The axe/torch combo is delicious and powerful. I used that for most of my time as a beta ranger with one of the bows in my 2nd weapon set. Use Bonfire or Healing Spring as your own combo field with a spray of axes that cause bleeding, add Sharpening Stones and you can stack a LOT of bleeds (plus burnings, from the Bonfire) in one nasty point blank attack. It's tremendous.

The small bird pets (raven, owl, etc) are great for travelling in PvE and WvW as they intermittently grant an AoE swiftness buff.

Bears are the tankiest of pets but ranged/semi-ranged pets are rather good for staying alive in combat too, just by the virtue of not being in the way. I like the drake with lightning breath, but more conventional ones would be the spiders and devourers.

[Anthile]

I'm playing a Norn ranger and it's good fun so far. I tried out all the weapons and unlocked almost all skills, except for greatswords but unless you can somehow hurl them at your enemies I doubt it's going to be any good.
Sword/axe is my favorite at the moment, followed by the shortbow but no combination was completely useless so that's already good, I think.
Also, are there any truly ranged pets?

[Screwie]

Also, are there any truly ranged pets?

The spiders and devourers definitely use ranged auto-attacks.

[DiamondDog]

I started as an Asuran Ranger, after enjoying the class in the beta. I'm still not at all sure on the best setup of weapons and abilities. I started out with shortbow and axe+warhorn but outside the standard evade it didn't feel like it gave me a lot of escapes. Getting caught and smashed to bits in PvP was a bit of a problem (although I don't rule out me just being bad at the game!).

Currently trying out sword in main and axe in offhand which is a load fun with all its evades and movement. Might have to tweak my armour to survive a bit better in fights but I'm enjoying it more so far. The ability that makes your pet take all your damage seems to work well in the middle of a ruck.

Also yes, the owl looks cool as fuck, but is next to useless in a fight. I use my polar bear Bill 90% of the time and I like the idea of just getting a brown bear and having them on rotation. At at the moment in the PvP environment any buffs or abilities I could use to make my pet more dangerous just seem a waste because they get melted in big fights. Like Screwie says I think this might be where spiders have an advantage, being able to stay at a distance from all the AoE spam.

[President Weasel]

I believe it is possible to tame a blue jellyfish. I must now tame a blue jellyfish.

[Aithael]

Yep, cheers for the handy youtube link. I'm off to tame a jellyfish too - maybe if I've befriended one of them they will stop ganging up on me every time I go for a swim.

[starmatt]

Hello, I have a question about pet's names. Is it normal than when you charm a new juvenile, it takes the name of your previous active pet? Cause that's pretty annoying, I'd like my pets to all have unique names! Thanks a bunch guys.

[President Weasel]

Hello, I have a question about pet's names. Is it normal than when you charm a new juvenile, it takes the name of your previous active pet? Cause that's pretty annoying, I'd like my pets to all have unique names! Thanks a bunch guys.

It appears to be more that your two pet slots each have a name. So slot one would be "Fluffy", and slot two would be "Lil President", for example. Assuming you had a cat called "Fluffy" active and you tamed a polar bear, you'd have two choices depending on your answer to the "make this pet active now?" question it asks you.
1) Make the pet active now. You now have a polar bear called "Fluffy" in one of your two pet slots, and in your pet inventory collection thing you have a cat called "juvenile snow leopard".
2) don't make the pet active - you still have an active cat called Fluffy, and in your collection you have a "juvenile polar bear". (I think - I've never actually said no to that question yet).

From my own experience, swapping a pet out of "storage" and into an active slot gives it the generic "juvenile whatever" name so you'd have to rename it, but swapping between the two active slots while playing doesn't change the names.
It would be nice if you could perma-name all your pets in storage, but it's not a dealbreaker for me that you can't.

[starmatt]

Yeah it's not a big issue. It's still kind of immersion breaking. Anyway, I hope it's a bug and that they're working on it!

[Taverius]

If you want your pets to be tanky, your choices are the bears, the two jellyfishes, and the armorfish.

The Moas have a self-heal as well and while they're not as hardy as the bears they're decent. They also share a trait major with jellyfishes, so they're potentially a good choice for someone who puts points in the beast mastery line.

[Nalano]

I am a tree.
I have a fern hound by the name of Maumau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising).
I have a shark by the name of Chompers.
I have an eagle named Sam (http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ukmdBSHg1qc7bf6o6_r1_400.jpg).
And I have a cat named Chairman Mao (http://zhongwen.com/cgi-bin/zipux2.cgi?b5=%BF%DF).

The cat, being amphibious, can fit in both a land and sea slot simultaneously, so in effect I have three pets available rather than four.

I like longbow because I like pew pew pew (http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMUQJATVjAVJ2FWCWs2Bg1j96LQ2DDZcRXBUPZBPgE) tab pew pew pew tab pew pew pew tab pew pew pew. Shortbow I use to run away with.

With my fernhound's regen, my ability regen, my signet regen and my trait regen, I am a very selfish, but very alive ranger. As it stands, my fernhound can tank three veteran mobs five levels above him.

[President Weasel]

Axe in the off hand, sword in the main hand, the cuisinart special! Why did nobody tell me offhand axe was so good?
It slices! It dices! It minces! It chops! It does a pbaoe whirlwind of death move!


I have now got a Polar Bear called Fluffy, a blue jellyfish called Jelly Baby, an Armourfish called Mr Grumpy, and a dog called Wooferton Smythe. Life is pretty good. Two bears for infinite tanking would probably mean I die less, but there's something nice about having a dog following you around. Also, a bear called Wooferton Smythe would be stupid.
The armourfish and blue jelly and the dog can all be found in Lion's Arch, so they're relatively easy to pick up. To get the armourfish though, you do need to find and swim through some underwater tunnels.

[Taverius]

But the sword is a bit naff in that it has no range closer, serpent's strike misses a lot, and both it and Hornet Sting/Monarch's Leap tend to make you fall off ledges.

Greatsword lacks the excellent pbaoe, but it has a daze/stun, a block/knockback-counter that toggles as a ranged cripple, and a ludicrously long range (1100!) closer that's also a leap finisher in groups. It also hits in a 180 degree arc with every damn swing.

Offhand axe works much better with a mainhand axe imo, I use that or Axe/Warhorn with a Greatsword for melee.

[hawksbane]

yay, a Ranger thread. I have a Norn Ranger too, the Rain of arrows cripples so you can slow an advance - although I tried this on a bunch of lashtail devourers and got thoroughly mashed.

On a similar note, the birds seem to be the best at not getting poisoned but the owl is universally rubbish (I use a Raven); but I want a hawk does anyone know where can I get a hawk? and a Shark.

As for weapons, I love the long bow (probably because I hate running around), also use the sword & torch; but have unlocked every weapon now and different combinations seem better for different situations.

[Taverius]

Shark is at the bottom of Viathan Arm, Viathan Lake, Kessex Hills. Human 15-25 area.

Haven't seen where you can get the hawk yet.

[hawksbane]

Shark is at the bottom of Viathan Arm, Viathan Lake, Kessex Hills. Human 15-25 area.

Haven't seen where you can get the hawk yet.

ah thanks, haven't checked out the Human areas yet, there seem to be lots of Hawks around the Dessai Plain [?] Charr 15-25 area, but I haven't found one I can tame - might need to go to the beginners area.

[Shooop]

I saw a person throwing axes when the first day I played the full game and wondered who had access to those. They look like fun. Definitely going to make a ranger in the near future.

[President Weasel]

But the sword is a bit naff in that it has no range closer, serpent's strike misses a lot, and both it and Hornet Sting/Monarch's Leap tend to make you fall off ledges.

Greatsword lacks the excellent pbaoe, but it has a daze/stun, a block/knockback-counter that toggles as a ranged cripple, and a ludicrously long range (1100!) closer that's also a leap finisher in groups. It also hits in a 180 degree arc with every damn swing.

Offhand axe works much better with a mainhand axe imo, I use that or Axe/Warhorn with a Greatsword for melee.

It is true that I've inadvertently hurled myself to death at least twice now that I remember. Maybe I'll pick up a greatsword again - or go for double axe.

[squirrelfanatic]

It is true that I've inadvertently hurled myself to death at least twice now that I remember. Maybe I'll pick up a greatsword again - or go for double axe.Leap skills are a two-edged sword as they can you get out of position really easily. This is especially true for jumping puzzles... :|

[Lightbulb]

In PvE I have been using Longbow :-

1v1 Lay traps, 3 for weakness, start backing off, 2 for flurry of shots, they will hit the traps (burning and cripple), 4 to push them back, 5 to rain arrows and cripple again, 1 to finish off.

Vs groups put the rain of arrows sooner then kite in circles - or switch to great sword which is practically a AeO with the basic swings.

I definitely the traps the most useful - though only the burning and cripple ones. I use the condition removal as my third utility since getting rooted leads to a swift death.

----

PvE is definitely a million times easier with a bear (or two :)) since the cats I was using before got 1 shotted by any melee enemies a few levels above mine. The bears seem to be able to tank anything 3 or 4 levels higher for long enough. Especially if you switch pets when one get low.

The polar bear is trivial to get (won't give spoilers) so I would recommend to all for PvE.

---

Recently I have switched to Shortbow and Axe and Torch based on conditions - more for a change than because its more effective. I was underwhelmed by Axe main hand at first but then I realised it hits 3 targets at once so its actually not that bad. Torch has good synergy with axe main hand 2 (burning field + projectile finisher), and the area burning also works pretty well with traps.

---

Sword, meh. He prances and dances but he doesn't do a lot. Probably just need to practice though! :) Maybe better in PvP.

---

Horn I like since it gives a speed buff. Duration is pretty limited though. I tend to pick this up for WvW. The summon birds seems to do next to no damage though with a pretty long cool down.

Dagger - not really used it to be honest.

[magiuspaulus]

Just found out the GW2 RPS forums :)
Currently i have a longbow/shortbow swap, which seems to work nicely for me (but then again, i'm only lvl 26 atm).
I do have a question, a very basic one, but i fail to find a good answer to this:
Should i go for Power, precision or is a combination between the 2 the best? It is not very obvious to me, though on 1st sight power seems better. The same for the traits, i have a hard time choosing between the 1st (bonus to power and +condition damage) and 2nd (bonus toprecision + crit chance). The condition damage is nice to have with the shortbow, but the +crit chance seems better in general. Any help would be appreciated!

[Nalano]

I'm level 72, still using long/shortbow.

I'm as selfish (http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMUQJATVjAVJ2FWCWs2Bg1j96LQ2DDZcRXBUPZBPgE) as they come (three signets!) and it works great. What really makes the build is the Piercing Arrows: What that means is that all arrows go their full travel length, so like column shot in AoC, they just run through mobs of enemies, cutting a line through them. In other words, all my shots are AoE.

You don't know how it feels until you knock back 3+ enemies with a single Point Blank Shot, then unleash a Barrage and a Rapid Fire that hurts them all.

And since I have four different types of regeneration, just about any pet I put up front does perfectly fine. Hell, I've been dabbling with Summon Fern Mastiff to have two fern hounds (http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e342/jonmphy/Lanos/gw121.jpg) running around with me, knocking things down and eating them.

[President Weasel]

Woah, you are hells of selfish. I am running three signets but at least I am using the healing spring rather than the "screw everyone else" troll unguent.
I'm also experimenting with using a pink moa, since a) Pink. Moa. and b) it's got an aoe heal ability that will occasionally proc, which should allow me to give a bit of extra heals to the party without having to remember to press F2 for the fern hound's command heal.

I really like the lynx model, and it does a very satisfying amount of damage, but as soon as a fight gets interesting I go back to wishing I was running double bear and could basically tank forever. Bear/Giant Flamingo should work nearly as well and allow me to do a wee bit more damage. Plus, Pink. Moa.

[Nalano]

Woah, you are hells of selfish.

:D

10characters

[zoombapup]

I ding'd level 80 on ranger a few days ago. Getting my arse kicked in the final story mode thingy. Advice welcome!

From what I can tell, the "level 80" guys in the final story quest (victory or death) are actually level 140-ish for some of them (seems pretty random which, some go down easy, others literally take 10 minutes to kite ONE of them while my little group does damage).

Anyone done this story quest got any pointers? I wasted maybe 50 silver on trying to do it (you have to repair your armour enough times they give you an armour repair place within the quest itself).

Another thing, they give you a revive orb just before this quest. Think they were taking the piss with that?

[duff]

I ding'd level 80 on ranger a few days ago. Getting my arse kicked in the final story mode thingy. Advice welcome!

From what I can tell, the "level 80" guys in the final story quest (victory or death) are actually level 140-ish for some of them (seems pretty random which, some go down easy, others literally take 10 minutes to kite ONE of them while my little group does damage).

Anyone done this story quest got any pointers? I wasted maybe 50 silver on trying to do it (you have to repair your armour enough times they give you an armour repair place within the quest itself).

Another thing, they give you a revive orb just before this quest. Think they were taking the piss with that?

What kind of a bloody muppet can't do the last quest. LOL ITS A GROUP QUEST U NOOB!!!!1111!!ONE!!1

[zoombapup]

NOOB indeed duffin old chap. Yeah, for some reason I didn't see the "requires 5 people" bit at the door when I went in the instance :)

Man that quest is loooooong. I was nackered at the end. Can't say it dropped anything brilliant either. But at least its done now. I can retire to my knitting and crochet. Now somebody fetch me a cup of cocoa and read me a story :)

[duff]

So does that mean you'll do some pvp now? :P

[harhis23]

I often used Swoop in my journey. :) Dagger and axe are perfect as well.

[zoombapup]

So does that mean you'll do some pvp now? :P

Of course honey plums. I'll do pvp anytime. Just need to figure out a build. Still watching instruction vids for that kind of thing. Try it tonight?

[squirrelfanatic]

Of course honey plums. ... Try it tonight?And in the game!!

Hahahaha! :)

[zoombapup]

And in the game!!

Hahahaha! :)

Oh you wag!

I still don't know what I'm doing in PVP, so if anyone wants to see truly horrible play, join us tonight!

[zoombapup]

Holy carp. I just saw in a video that your pet can res you if you're downed! I didn't know that! I just spammed the keys that weren't on cooldown when downed. :) no wonder I revived so much. You live and learn.

[harhis23]

Yeah... I can agree more. Same as me before. Just keep on playing.