I got to level 25 in beta, so keep that in mind when reading this. I'll start off with the weapons I used-

Greatsword- Ridiculous Damage.  1 skill is all you need considering its crazy damage and each third attack evades.  2- gap closer jump 3- counterattack, 4 applies bleeds and 5 stuns.  Before I even go on to why the greatsword is the only melee weapon rangers will be using, I will first say it gets highly boring, and feels like a hack n slash.  With the build I ran spamming the 1 key was winning. 

The trait signet of the beastmaster gives me the active effects of signets as well as my pet.  I ran signet of stone for a 10 second invulnerability, and signet of the wild for a bestial wrath.  Pair those two with Rampage as one ( + fury might swiftness atk speed) and quickening zephyr ( movement and atk speed) and you have no reason to run another build.

In structured pvp I found myself easily taking on 2 and sometimes 3 people by simply popping all these at the same time and spamming the 1 key with my greatsword.  I used my jump when needed, had no reason to counter attack, and only stunned when needed.   Now I experimented with other weapons, none even came close to the damage output or mobility of it.  I'll also add in that the sword was a huge dissapointment considering the fact that you cant move while using the 1 skill.  War horn was fun, not the most effective in pvp either, same goes for dagger offhand.

Now enough with melee, longbow time.  I wanted to primarily use the longbow, I have always played the ranger class in every game and am a huge fan of long range combat.  Sadly, words cant describe my dissapointment with the longbow.  Without my utility or elite skill, the attack speed is way too low.  With alot of power and decent crit, the 1 skill did a suprisingly large amount of damage, but with such a slow attack time people could easily just deal with it and then cast their self heal leaving you feeling worthless unless they were at low health so start with.  The 2 skill is alot better, definitly the most damaging skill there is.  The 3 skill applies vulnerability which would work better if the 1 skill ( which is main damage dealer) didnt take so long to use.  4 skill was a favorite, free knockback w/ damage I was a fan of it.  5 was a nice aoe as well, damage was a little bit low but a small buff could balance that out.  To conclude I found myself only needing to use the longbow during WvW when i was providing ranged support on keep defenses, or if my greatsword jump was unavailable.

Pets- I was a little confused by how they worked.  At first I thought they were horrible because I was using a drake for an extensive period of time, and then I found a bear.  Bears in questing could easily TANK multiple mobs damage, and in pvp I felt like my bear was another player with how it was performing.  I also experimented with the dog, and pig but none could even compare to the bear.

By concept, I think what they have layed out for the ranger is really cool and enjoyable but when it actually plays out there are obvious changes that should be made not only for balance and challenge purposes but for enjoyment purposes as well. 

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

I had some similar comments on this profession, and used it as a topic for one of main posts on my blog.  Please note, that I did not play the class extensively during the beta and am limited to my initial feelings, and forum comments.  

If you are a fellow lover of animals or just like bows, ArenaNet points you towards this class.  I disagree, and I'll tell you why after the break.  I love most of the professions, but this is not one of them at the moment.  There are some glimmers of hope in the class, but the profession is in need of some work.

The ranger is...alright.  I'm not excited about the class, at least, not as much as I thought I would be.  The pet AI is still so messed up, that I can't really gauge how useful a pet is at the moment.  Some pets are pretty finished, while others are relatively useless.  The pet's controls are simply non-responsive, and I was really hoping they would fix this between the press beta and now.  It was one of the press's biggest complaints, so I would have put money on that they would have fixed it by now.  I'm sure they will get to it, but it really should be a top priority because the pet system is one of the major attributes of the ranger profession.

The pets also die constantly, and need some more survivability.  I understand that you don't want to let them tank the mobs, but the poor pets get slaughtered in WvW and 5v5s.  No one even goes out of their way to attack them and they die.  I think they could increase their resistance to aoe's, and that would solve the majority of this problem.

 The third major problem is that the ranger is pretty decent without a working pet system.  That almost seems to show how useless the pets are at this moment.  I saw an interesting suggestion on the forums that seemed relatively popular.  Instead of trying to fix the AI, they might just want to incorporate the pet into the moves that the weapons kills do. For example instead of your bow knocking the enemy back, your pet rushes into them and knocks them back. I think this is a band-aid fix, and won't fix the problems of mesmer's and necro's, but it is a decent solution.

The melee weapons are consistently good. They are not only able to put out control, damage, and some AOE, they also are interesting to use.  The warhorn can summon down birds to attack your enemy, that is pretty visually cool to see. The greatsword uses really fantastic animations to leap, to add bleeds, does fantastic amounts of damage and looks great.  The same cannot be said of the shortbow and longbow.

I feel most people who like the concepts of rangers also like the concepts of bows.  Don't get me wrong the bows have decent-to very good range, have decent amounts of damage as a ranged weapon, and are useful.  However, they just don't have the "wow" factor.  My thief's shortbow was far more interesting than the shortbow of a ranger.  I try not to be biased, but it was pretty upsetting to see how much my interest fell by switching to this class.  There simply aren't any interesting animations involved (maybe one on the longbow, but again its only mildly fun).  I shoot my bow and I shoot it again, oh I can shoot it fast now, and oh I shoot it again.  Yes, you may be crippling, causing your foe to gain vulnerability, or daze them, its just you can't tell that from watching the animations.  Every shot looks the same, and is one the same major complaints of the thief's pistols.  There really should be a way to tell what the ranger is doing from their animations, I shouldn't have to look at the enemy's conditions to tell that.  This makes sense from a game that wants to cater to the esport audience and be visually appealing.

I will say though, I really like how the weapon skills that you use, also affect your pet.  I love that, and its nice to see that in everything, the weapon skills, traits, and utilities all add to this aspect.  Ideally, your pet and you act as a cohesive unit.

The utility's are pretty good. You have the traps, the signets, and totem-like spirits that provide buffs.  The traps can be ground targetable with traits, and make for a decent list of utilities.  The spirits can move to follow you with traits.  There is a decent variety, and they all seem to fit the ranger archetype, so I have no complaints.

The traits are decent.  Again, I have no complaints, and some are pretty good.  I'd really like to know how camouflage works for the one trait in Wilderness Survival.

In conclusion, the ranger is a little underwhelming.  Its effective, its just lacks flavor in several key areas.  The only part of the ranger I like right now is the fact that I can switch pets, the greatsword, the sword, and the warhorn.  Everything else is just eh...I know some will disagree, but this profession is one of the classes that needs the most work.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

Hardly, Elementalists have a Glyph that can instantly revive up to three nearby allies. Warriors have Battle standard, Engineers have healing turrets. Most classes have a skill that can instantly revive an ally

The pet skill only works on downed allies not defeated, and the skill is on an 85 second cooldown. I really do not think it will see that much use.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

They can res 5 people instantly (spirit elite, it can be used at least twice before it dies too) too, make fantastic support (I'd have to put them over Engineer after experiencing it first hand) they are the best class for keeping up offensive support buffs, do some of the highest burst damage in the game, have multiple AoE condition removals, have some of the strongest healing in the game (below Elementalist and Guardian though), and have near permenant swiftness, can spec into 20 seconds of stability, have invulnerability for 10 seconds with a utility + innate toughness for both them and their pets.  Have some of the highest base health in the game (below Warrior only I think).  Their pets do very good damage and the Ranger shares buffs with them.  Overall the Ranger needs very severe nerfs to some of their utility skills such as Signet of Stone and Quickening Zephyr as well as a reduction in the damage of melee weapons and axes (it's not just the Greatsword, but the Greatsword is the biggest culprit).

On longbow:  It's a very balanced weapon.  The damage is low, but it has good CC especially when paired with a trap heavy build.  You can easily solo Champion MOBs with it in PvE.  I soloed a Champion Spider I found in a cave (no, this wasn't the personal story one) a few levels lower than me for example after about an hour of kiting.

On pets:  Dog and the Cat are best pets for PvP in my opinion.  The dog has the most CC especially when traited.  Cat does the most damage.  For PvP you want a tankier ranged option in which case both the devourers outperform everything (they have the tankiness of a bear and are ranged to boot) though bear is good too if you always want your pet tanking.  Other options for both are Moas which provide AoE heals, fear (when traited), and daze as well as do suprisingly good damage for a support oriented pet.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

Elementalists can rez 3 people at once.

Edit:  nvm, someone already covered it.

I only played the Greatsword until I unlocked all the skills, then switched back to Sword/Dagger.  I didn't like the feel of the weapon and much preferred the gameplay of the other set, so I can't comment on it.

Longbow was my main equipped weapon and I used it extensively.  I didn't find it at all underpowered due to it's speed.  Rapid Shot has such a quick cooldown that it I felt my overall attack speed, averaged out, was quite fast.  It certainly felt like I was dishing the damage, especially when I followed Hunter's Shot with Rapid Shot.  In fact, the cooldowns for all the skills were pretty low, aside from Barrage.  But Barrage, even at 30s, was still pretty quick, considering how effective it's cripple was.  And when you look at Hunter's Shot, the vulnerability effect lasts 10 seconds while the cooldown was only 15, so for two thirds of the fight, my arrows were slamming in for sick damage.  Finally, Point Blank Shot did such an impressive knockback (when actually used point blank), that not much was able to come near me. 

If I was to call for an adjustment to the set, I'd be more likely to want it nerfed.  But I don't.  I like it right where it is.

Pets were tricky and I noticed the same thing once I tamed the bear -- they are tanks, easily able to hold of small groups of trash mobs for long enough for me to whittle them down to something manageable.  But that just shone a very bright light on how ineffective the other pets were.  Sure, they had more useful abilities, but they would barely have a chance to use them before they were downed.  I remember finding a spider (after sneaking around the champion mother guarding them) and thinking that it was cool that it had a ranged attack.  Unfortunately, it rushed into melee range to use it, which kind of defeated the point as far as I was concerned.

What I would like to see is the damage output of pets decreased, their toughness and vitality increased and more reliance on pet skills and traits to boost damage output.  That way, all pets can be used for their utility by any Ranger, no matter the spec, but those that spec for beastmastery will see the damage go way up.  Right now, there are only two pets that I would consider for combat and that's bears and birds.  Bears because they can actually survive combat and birds for their healing, and I would keep them passive unless I wanted to use their particular attack skill.  I'd pull them off aggressive immediately after it was used.

I realize that swapping is part of the gameplay mechanics of the Ranger and that it is supposed to be how you gain some longevity with your pets, but I see that as more a fallback to be used in tougher fights where even the bear would be unable to sustain enough damage to last for more than 10 seconds or so.  Against normal mobs, I don't think it should need to be used very much at all.

Fun class.  Played it to 20ish before switching to something new at the end of the weekend.  Very potent and very resilient.  And the ability that allows your pet rez you when downed is impressive all on its own.  Definitely on my list of the first professions I will create after launch.

Originally posted by Ezekel

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

Hardly, Elementalists have a Glyph that can instantly revive up to three nearby allies. Warriors have Battle standard, Engineers have healing turrets. Most classes have a skill that can instantly revive an ally

The pet skill only works on downed allies not defeated, and the skill is on an 85 second cooldown. I really do not think it will see that much use.

Yeah, that 85 second cooldown has to come down a lot.  I took one look at the CD while building a support Ranger and dimissed it out of hand.  With how often people are downed in this game, especially in tougher fights, I'd say 30 seconds would be a lot more worthy of investing one of my precious skill slots.  Given that your pet still has to be alive when you use it and the odds of that actually happening, they might as well make it 10 seconds right now.

@Unlight  Have you tried the devourer pets (Charr area)?  They have the same toughness level of a bear yet all their attacks are ranged (the only pet type that is completely ranged).  They are the best pets for PvE IMO.  I agree birds (Moas, not the squishy useless Ravens) especially when beastmastery traited and bears are nice too.  Drakes and Boars are also okay alternatives as they have decent survivability.

Originally posted by Magnum2103

@Unlight  Have you tried the devourer pets (Charr area)?  They have the same toughness level of a bear yet all their attacks are ranged (the only pet type that is completely ranged).  They are the best pets for PvE IMO.  I agree birds (Moas, not the squishy useless Ravens) especially when beastmastery traited and bears are nice too.  Drakes and Boars are also okay alternatives as they have decent survivability.

I didn't do any exploring in the charr areas so didn't come across any devourers at all.  The only ranged pet I had was the spider and I was unimpressed at its penchant for rushing into melee, where it would be summarily stomped in seconds.  I will visit the charr lands next time and find myself a devourer to play with.

Originally posted by Unlight

Originally posted by Ezekel

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

Hardly, Elementalists have a Glyph that can instantly revive up to three nearby allies. Warriors have Battle standard, Engineers have healing turrets. Most classes have a skill that can instantly revive an ally

The pet skill only works on downed allies not defeated, and the skill is on an 85 second cooldown. I really do not think it will see that much use.

Yeah, that 85 second cooldown has to come down a lot.  I took one look at the CD while building a support Ranger and dimissed it out of hand.  With how often people are downed in this game, especially in tougher fights, I'd say 30 seconds would be a lot more worthy of investing one of my precious skill slots.  Given that your pet still has to be alive when you use it and the odds of that actually happening, they might as well make it 10 seconds right now.

I was toying with the idea of support Ranger myself and came up with this build:  http://www.gw2tools.com/skills#r;aafpp;aaaaaaYaabYeWcZ;ceYa;bdWVb.  It's pretty crazy how much support a Ranger can provide.  The pets used would be White and Red Moas of course.  I agree that the pet res a waste of a utility slot, there are quite a few of those I consider newbie traps at the moment; however the elite's res ability (and condition removal AND healing) is borderline overpowered.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Aren't rangers destined to become the dedicated rezzers?  They are the only class that can rezz 2 people at one. (pet rezz)

Elementalist can rezz 3 people at once with one of their utility skills

Agree with the OP 100% on this. Rangers, last beta, were broken imo when traited and equipped the way you stated. Also, anything with a warhorn (preferrably axe/warhorn) was ridiculous. They are too tanky for the damage they do I think. Playing my Ranger in PvP made me wonder how someone could pick a Thief over them, unless they REALLY wanted to roll a Thief. I'm sure certain aspects of them will be balanced before long, so I can't worry too much about them at the moment.

I feel the ranger is getting a lot of attention solely because they have a surprising amount of damage output with a melee weapon.  Few talk about the burst warrior who can drop people faster that the GS Ranger using Quickening Zephyr and RAO.  A ranger being able to do solid damage with something other than a ranged weapon worries some people. 

I would like everyone to look at true DPS thieves, warriors and (in some cases) guardians.  They can do the same kind of damage, and far more often.  Understand, these extreme videos you all see with the ranger using a GS with Quickening Zephyr and RAO can only do so once every 3 mins (IIRC).  That is no where approaching OP.  TBH, if you see a ranger coming at you with a GS, you should know to get the hell out of the way by now.  A few well placed dodges will completely negate these ranger abilities using a GS.

I am tired of people throwing out the "Thats OP" statement just because they dont want to learn how to overcome another obstacle.  It is something a child does because he doesnt like losing.

In SWTOR, I never said the Operatives/Scoundrel DPS was OP, I corrected my response to the scoundrel's opening salvo and learned to overcome it.  Nevermind that their core abilities were nerfed into the ground.  I found a way to deal with it beforehand. I didnt go and cry on every forum that would listen. 

I think one of the main reasons Anet hesistated on having their own forums is because they didnt want to hear all the WHINING, BITCHING , MOANING AND COMPLAINING.  Thats is also why the forums are "read only" now.

Originally posted by Maephisto

I feel the ranger is getting a lot of attention solely because they have a surprising amount of damage output with a melee weapon.  Few talk about the burst warrior who can drop people faster that the GS Ranger using Quickening Zephyr and RAO.  A ranger being able to do solid damage with something other than a ranged weapon worries some people. 

I would like everyone to look at true DPS thieves, warriors and (in some cases) guardians.  They can do the same kind of damage, and far more often.  Understand, these extreme videos you all see with the ranger using a GS with Quickening Zephyr and RAO can only do so once every 3 mins (IIRC).  That is no where approaching OP.  TBH, if you see a ranger coming at you with a GS, you should know to get the hell out of the way by now.  A few well placed dodges will completely negate these ranger abilities using a GS.

I am tired of people throwing out the "Thats OP" statement just because they dont want to learn how to overcome another obstacle.  It is something a child does because he doesnt like losing.

In SWTOR, I never said the Operatives/Scoundrel DPS was OP, I corrected my response to the scoundrel's opening salvo and learned to overcome it.  Nevermind that their core abilities were nerfed into the ground.  I found a way to deal with it beforehand. I didnt go and cry on every forum that would listen. 

I think one of the main reasons Anet hesistated on having their own forums is because they didnt want to hear all the WHINING, BITCHING , MOANING AND COMPLAINING.  Thats is also why the forums are "read only" now.

The reason I don't think Warriors are way over the top (and they are outperforming other classes like Thief at the moment) is they aren't providing amazing supportive skills to the team while doing it.  The Ranger on the other hand applies swiftness, fury, and might to their team in any of the standard melee DPS builds.  A Ranger can also have Rampage as One for 20 seconds of stability (and even longer fury, might, and swiftness) + condition removals making the only CC you can land on them a stun, has the invunerability for 10 (or was it 6) seconds and nearly the same level of health and toughness as a Warrior.  A Warrior can actually be countered by kiting while a Ranger is simply impossible to get off you once he/she's on you.  Also the Ranger GS spec is completely mind numbingly easy relying primarily on the autoattack while the Warrior spec at least requires doing stuff in a certain order to perform well (and can still be countered).  And no, you can't dodge out of a Ranger's GS, that's 2 seconds of immunity with 2 dodges while the Ranger is barreling at you with stability and near infinite swiftness (+at times speeds higher than swiftness) with gap closers.  If the Ranger chooses to forego the stability in Rampage As One they can opt for an elite that heals them for 450 a tick (with no +healing mods) in Conquest, can AoE res allies, and remove conditions giving them a great deal of extra survivability.

The combination of the way too high damage on their melee weapons and the ridiculous good utility and warhorn buff puts them above other classes.  They are overpowered at the moment.  They need to be nerfed.  This is what beta is for, testers obviously can't find every potential problem with the game but 200,000 people sure can and at least a few are going to raise legitmate concerns, but it's hard not to look at Ranger's skill set, particularly a few of the utilities and not see how obscenely powerful they are.

---

Originally posted by Maephisto
I think one of the main reasons Anet hesistated on having their own forums is because they didnt want to hear all the WHINING, BITCHING , MOANING AND COMPLAINING.  Thats is also why the forums are "read only" now.

---

And that's why the very idea of an e-sport game not having official forums is just plain ridiculous.
 

Originally posted by wowfan1996

 

---

Originally posted by Maephisto
I think one of the main reasons Anet hesistated on having their own forums is because they didnt want to hear all the WHINING, BITCHING , MOANING AND COMPLAINING.  Thats is also why the forums are "read only" now.

---

If people didn't give their feedback on class balance, no game would even have even a semblance of it. What you call "whining" is actually people spending their invaluable time to provide valuable feedback. Any sane developers appreciates feedback, no matter how critical.

 

And that's why the very idea of an e-sport game not having official forums is just plain ridiculous.

Also the official reason for making the forums read only is so the devs can look through and sort the feedback.  Not all feedback is good, and yes people complain and bitch about things when they don't know what they are talking about; however again it's more likely 200,000 or so people are going to catch something the testers and devs (200-300 people I would guess) missed completely.  No game is every going to be perfectly balanced with the complexity of Guild Wars 2 (the only game I can think of that has perfect balance is Rock, Paper, Scissors) so it's important the developers listen to feedback and evaluate it based on that.

I can't speak for SW:TOR, but take Rift for example.  In PvP there were typically one or two specs at a given time that dominated.  There was often overwhelming feedback regarding these imbalances.  Sure, there were people who would ocassionally complain about a particular class that was balanced or underpowered, but generally if enough people raised a stink about it, the class was probably a bit on the overpowered side.  Subsequent nerfs follow.  Take a look at League of Legends also where major balance changes are being done every single patch due to champions either needing a buff or a nerf, often changing based on how the current meta works.

So you played 1 class and call it op? Very nice thinking, i will tell you that other classes can do very similar.

Did you try the one handed sword? I tried it out in the arena and would own people. that with the warhorn for speed boost, i was tough to get away from. The 1st skill actually stuck me to the enemy, and even i had trouble getting off to dodge lol. But it works when they're trying to run away. Anyways, the mainhand sword was more exciting that the greatsword imo.

Originally posted by ruonim

So you played 1 class and call it op? Very nice thinking, i will tell you that other classes can do very similar.

this....