Ranger Theorycrafting

Taran

Taran

New Member
If you are looking for the "right" build for your Ranger, I've been testing and taking notes to learn what traits/skills do. Since we have a few people also interested in Rangers, I'll post what I've learned so far from my tests.

Traits:

Marksmanship

Steady Focus actually gives more damage bonus than the 10% listed in the skill description. It was actually anywhere between 11% to 17%. Damage variation could be the result of the target's armor. Squishy targets seemed to take more damage.

Spotter affects the Ranger in addition to nearby allies.

Eagle Eye gave more longbow damage than listed (a little more than 20% more damage)


Skirmishing

Traps stay up about three or four seconds before fading. Good for only "in combat" situations. With Trapper's Expertise the casting range is only 600 feet (same as Point Blank Shot). So traps are still set very close to where the Ranger is standing. However, other players reported that traps CAN be set on WvW walls, stairways, and elevated positions.

Agility Training failed during BWE3. Hopefully that's just a bug. Pets are supposed to move 30% faster, but didn't. Normal speed only.


Wilderness Survival

Vigorous Renewal works with Healing Spring (utility). Every time Healing Spring pulses its healing AoE affect, Vigorous Renewal bestows Vigor (endurance regeneration). So with Healing Spring going, you can dodge more often, too.

Bark Skin only lasts for three or four seconds. So its helpful only for brief periods. Hopefully, that's just a bug and they'll extend the time on it.


Nature Magic

Strength of Spirit did not seem to give full potency. It seemed to only put out about half the percentage bonus advertised.


Beastmastery

Natural Healing didn't seem to work at all. I'm guessing its bugged right now.


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Pets died really fast. Traits to increase healing and/or toughness may be "required" rather than optional.

Bird pets seemed to do an extra 50% more damage as any other pet. Other players reported that the raven was especially good, but I didn't get a chance to try one.

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I would have liked to have tested the synergy between the Marksmanship trait Malice Training (pet condition duration lasts longer) and Wilderness Survival trait Expertise Training (pet condition damage increased).
 
You are definitely the Master Ranger.

I am planning to have a Sylvari ranger - so I'll be watching this thread.

Thanks.
 
Remember it was only a beta, all bets are off until the game goes live, both good and bad can happen between now and then.
 
ursen said:
Remember it was only a beta, all bets are off until the game goes live, both good and bad can happen between now and then.
Click to expand...

QFT

I've had to forcibly stop myself from planning my guardian's build until I have finalized skills/traits/etc. But the general stuff should all be good. Rangers will still use bows :p
 
I noticed the pets dying fast also. Would be about 2-3 hits and dead. Some of the skills working differently could also be that tooltips weren't just updated. I will definitely be watching this thread as Ranger will be one of my mains.
 
Also at the end of the beta my pets had a tendency to stand around picking their nose instead of attacking, unless I specifically targeted and told them to get busy. Early on all I had to do was hit something and away they went.
 
Today I noticed Anet is buffing pets (I have my limited sources). Across the board, it looks like every pet attribute was increased one notch. More damage, more armor, more health, more chance to critical. Everything up by one level.

Granted this is only today and the Alpha testers will be working out the stats for release, but Anet is definitely working to increase pet effectiveness as we "speak". So that's encouraging.
 
Pet AI was upgrade this past BWE along with Necro pets and Spirit Weapons. They all have the same, or similar AI now.
 
Yes, the AI was functioning better, but their stats were nerfed (and caused them to die very quickly).

So with the better AI and now, buffs to all their stats (maybe it'll turn out that the stats will 'stay'), pets are looking better for release.
 
I did like the addition of putting your pet away. Not so much because I didn't want my pet around, but because that was solely implemented from player's asking. It's nice to see Anet tailor their game to our desires.
 
I will also be creating a Ranger as my first toon (human) and definitely enjoyed him on the beta weekend. I did have one question though about them. Other than the pet I started with I have no idea how tame new ones? I had clicked on a dog at one point on the weekend (it was in an npc area where a quest giver was) and suddenly he was in my stable, but I have no idea how or even if you are able to tame pets out in the wild like you could in WoW with Hunters (the Rangers WoW counterpart).
 
In GW2, we can tame many pets. Any pet you come across that has the name "juvenile" in it can be tamed by a Ranger. When you get close enough, the "F" (interact) button will pop up asking if you want to "charm" it. Hit "F" and you will gain that pet. Once you have it, you don't need to tame another one (of the exact same kind). You'll be able to "equip" two pets at a time (two for land and two for water to make four pets actually). So when you get your starter pet, you should go get another one very, very soon.
 
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