The role of a ranger

[Mordyth]

Hi guys
Wondering if someone can give me some insight to the ranger class. I understand the roles of a monk in a group, as well as those backstabby rogue guys, but I dont understand how rangers fit.
Is their damage comparable to monks or rogues? Do they make up for it some other how? Buffs/some heals?
What am I missing with my understanding of the class?

Please note, this is not to be offensive to anyone who plays a ranger, I just dont get the usefulness of them in the game

[Baler]

Zone tracking
Discipline: Weapon Shield

15 seconds of fame on raids...

Originally Posted by Mordyth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Is their damage comparable to monks or rogues?

No

Originally Posted by Mordyth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Do they make up for it some other how? Buffs/some heals?

No

[darkreap]

Rangers fill a variety of roles when other classes aren't available.

-They are excellent CC with root when there is room to move mobs around.

-They are good DPS (not best)

-They can fill in as tanks and have some of the best snap agro spells in the game.

-They give good attack/ac buffs

-Sow

-Amazing pullers in outdoor zones

-Excellent at agro management with flame lick spells

A well played ranger will surprise you when it hits the fan.

[Fasttimes]

Originally Posted by Baler [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Zone tracking
Discipline: Weapon Shield

15 seconds of fame on raids...


No


No

Their damage falls between rogue and monk with bfg and true shot. It's pretty comparable actually. Every 72min atleast.

[Troxx]

Ranger dps is more comparable to warrior rather than monk or rogue. Played well their spells add quite a but of utility that either could be critically useful, disappointingly redundant, or frankly not needed. Outdoor zones/dungeons they are great pullers. Indoor their snare has the potential to be a life saver if no other class can. They have some marginal buffs that might be useful if nobody else can do it. 56+ they can cast regen if nobody else can do it. Heals aren't potent but they've got them and there are situations it could minimize downtime.

Rangers.

-Well rounded class.
-Lots to bring to the table but redundancy depending on group composition
-consistent dps, but less than monk, rogue, mage, necro, ench
-comparable dps to warrior (better or worse depending on gear)
-Fairly self sufficient
-worth having around if played well
-not worth the spot if played poorly
-no longer has nasty xp penalty

[Jimjam]

90% self haste, 50% slow, 12 hp/tick regen buff... add in fungi and that is a decent standing regen!

As such, in ad hoc groups they can plug a lot of gaps, or be resilient to missing key classes.

e.g. A rogue with no haste in the group looses a big chunk of dps, a ranger doesn't.

With Velious out rangers can easily stack sufficient AC to mitigate hits on XP content fine. They still do shaman level avoidance though. Silver lining is that it helps rangers do more dps through damage shields than other tanks.

Double damage bow shots let rangers do passable dps in all caster / no healer groups.

With their mixture of snares / roots rangers can pull a cloud of mobs and time the root breaks so the camp is constantly fed with a stream of mobs without having to waste dps time by leaving camp again for each mob or arsing about with FD splits.

Snare/camp out trick is an excellent way to make some sneaky single pulls. This is how I was soloing the frenzy camp in Velks on my ranger at 59 (not sure if rogue or monk could do that at same level so easily).

They have a targeted AoE unresistable pacify which doesn't require line of sight (outdoor only though), and bind sight to jump their vision through the zone and acquire targets / verify the exact location of named spawns. Lull animal is a passable means to pull named shamans without line of sight (crit resist on pet).

Raidwise trueshot/bfg does decent dps, but without that combo... A warrior with 1:2 weapons will out dps a ranger with exquisite velium + swiftwind epic.

Early levels they have similar defence caps to other melees until 40, and again with Velious gear available, that makes them a strong contender for best tank through those levels as well as capable soloers.

Rabid griffons in North Karana, Kunark and Velious provide a tonne of fear kite options.

It's a fun class and definitely not a wasted group slot outdoors. Indoors it can feel a bit like a gimped warrior. In shit/fan moments those roots/heals can feel a lot more important than the fraction more dps you might have from a monk or rogue.

[Cecily]

Outdoor puller, emergency CC, DPS + snap agro tank, raid savior, DT taker, DPS, tracker, lover of nature, butcher of animals, ranged DPS, kiter, ATK buffer, lv 20 cleric, run speed enhancer, running joke, running mob stopper. Really really good green farmer too.

[Tnair]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

e.g. A rogue with no haste in the group looses a big chunk of dps, a ranger doesn't.

Do rangers really do this much of their dps with spells in a group/non-kiting situation?




Rangers I've grouped with (never played one much) seem very skill/attention dependent, maybe more so than anyone else in terms of being effective. That's why they're joked about so much; a subpar ranger is just that godawful. But a good one will impress the hell out of you when needed, CC all over the place, saving the squishies when aggro goes out the window with heals and roots and flame licks. They seem fun to solo because they can do a little of everything, and hard to group as because of same.

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by Tnair [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Do rangers really do this much of their dps with spells in a group/non-kiting situation?

That's not what I'm talking about. Rangers have the capacity to be 90% self hasted, so in a group with no enc/bard/shaman they are still pumping out a lot of dps (95% of their potential). In a similar group a rogue would only be pumping out about 70% of their potential (or 80% with eye patch).

Originally Posted by Tnair [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Rangers I've grouped with (never played one much) seem very skill/attention dependent, maybe more so than anyone else in terms of being effective. That's why they're joked about so much; a subpar ranger is just that godawful. But a good one will impress the hell out of you when needed, CC all over the place, saving the squishies when aggro goes out the window with heals and roots and flame licks. They seem fun to solo because they can do a little of everything, and hard to group as because of same.

This seems a reasonable assessment to me. If not leveraging their abilities they are just a bad warrior.

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's not what I'm talking about. Rangers have the capacity to be 90% self hasted, so in a group with no enc/bard/shaman they are still pumping out a lot of dps (95% of their potential). In a similar group a rogue would only be pumping out about 70% of their potential (or 80% with eye patch).




This seems a reasonable assessment to me. If not leveraging their abilities they are just a bad warrior.

They have this capacity only if they have these specific items ...

Vast majority of people won't have these items. Outside of turbo twinks, no ranger will have them for the majority of the time spent leveling.