Guild Wars 2 Ranger Information

Guild Wars 2 Ranger Information by Malhavoc Adhamar

The ranger is a nature-themed adventurer profession which combines their use of pets with mobile combat and a focus on ranged attacks. The ranger can use a wide variety of weapons, but they tend to favour bows. Their repertoire of utility skills focuses on pet buffs, traps and spirits of nature.

PETS

The unique profession ability for the ranger is their three named, controllable pets. Most of the time a ranger only has access to one of their pets, but they can swap them outside of combat or through the use of utility skills.

The pet’s level is based off that of the ranger. In addition to this they have an evolution which advances if they are the active pet and the ranger gains experience. As the pet gains evolution levels they unlock up to four special abilities which depend on the type of the pet.

There are 12 pet types and these are divided into three categories:

Terrestrial can only be used on land, aquatic only in the water and amphibious can be used on both terrains. Each type of pet also has it’s own sub types, which have variations of the type’s skills. Example of this is the polar bear having Icy Roar.

To tame a pet the Ranger has to find the juvenile version of the type they want. When they approach the would be pet a contextual skill appears, allowing the Ranger to charm the pet if they have a free pet slot.

A pet’s base health, armour, and damage are based on the level of the ranger that has bonded with it. This means that its basic abilities always match the ranger’s level. In addition to this, the pet evolves over time through 20 evolution levels as the ranger gains experience while the pet is active.

Evolution gives the ranger ways to customize their pets. Each evolution level gives automatic bonuses to the pet, such as health or damage. There are also four ability slots which unlock at levels 5, 10, 15 and 20[ during the evolution. The ranger can then assign active pet skills into these. The skills are unique for the species, for example the moa has squawks which can buff, but another pet might have skills which emphasize damage. All eight skills for a pet are available from evolution level one, so no skill unlocks are required in addition to the slot unlock.

PET SKILLS

In combat pets have their own skills they can use, as currently known from GamesCom:

Bear

Growl: Weaken an enemy by growling. 20s recharge.
Power Bite: Bite an enemy for extra damage. 6s recharge
Snarl: Snarl at an enemy to make them vulnerable. 20s recharge.
Rending Lunge: Leap at an enemy and make them bleed. 10s recharge.
Brutal Charge: Leap at an enemy. 10s recharge.
Protective Stance: Gain stability. 30s recharge.
Howl: Howl to grant might to allies.

Drake

Fire Breath

Dragon’s Roar: Cause weakness
Elemental Shake-off:
Evade
Forceful Bite: Powerfully bite an enemy
Passive Regeneration
Tail Lash

Along with these skills the Ranger can set the pet to be aggressive (attacks targets on sight), defensive (attacks what you attack/whatever is attacking you) and passive (doesn’t attack unless commanded to) and is able to give the pet basic commands, attack, heel and stay.

SKILLS

The Ranger’s skill list, as currently known from GamesCom

Barrage: Shoot a barrage of arrows down on a targeted area, 30 second recharge.
Long Range Shot: Shoot an enemy at long range,1 energy and 0 second recharge.
Point Blank Shot: Shoot an arrow to knock back an enemy that gets too close.
Poison Arrow: Shoots a poisonous arrow at an enemy, 10 second recharge.
Rapid Fire: Hold down to rapidly shoot arrows at a single enemy, 10 second recharge.

Concussion Shot: Shoot an arrow to daze an enemy. To stun enemies, hit them from behind. 35 second recharge.
Crippling Shot: Cripple your enemy with a single arrow, 20 second recharge.
Crossfire: Shoot an arrow that does more damage if it strikes an enemy from behind or the sides. This skill recharges instantly.
Quickshot: Fire a quick shot and then retreat, 15 second recharge.
Spread Shot: Shoot a group of arrows in a targeted spread pattern, 8 second recharge.

Path of Scars: Throw your axe such that it flies back to you, hitting a number of enemies along the way. 20 second recharge.
Whirling Defence: Hold to reflect projectiles while hitting the enemies around you.

Poison Stab: Stab your enemy with a poisonous dagger.
Throw Dagger: Throw a dagger to cripple an enemy

Hornet Sting: Strike quickly at an enemy, then jump backwards.
Serpent Strike: Move like a serpent to hit your enemy with a poisonous attack from behind.
Slash: Slash at your enemy. First part of Slash chain: Slash → unknown kick skill → unkown leap skill

Call of the Wild: Sound the call of the wild to grant fury, might and swiftness to you and your allies.
Hunter’s Call Hunter’s Call: Call a flock of birds to swarm your enemy.

Other skills

Heal as One: Heal yourself and your pet, 12 second recharge.
Healing Spring: Grant health regeneration to you and nearby allies, 20 second recharge.

Comfort Animal: Comfort your pet to heal it, remove conditions, or revive it. 120 second recharge.
Feral Signet: Passive: Your pet deals more damage. Active: Your pet’s attacks are critical for 10 seconds. 120 second recharge.
Lightning Reflexes: Gain swiftness and fury.
Tracking: Temporarily reveals enemies on the minimap and increases perception. 240 second recharge.

Dust Trap
Frost Trap: Set a trap that freezes enemies. 222 Energy. 30 second recharge.
Spike Trap: Set a trap to knock down, bleed and cripple your enemies.
Viper’s Nest

Alpha Strike
Rampage As One: Rampage with your pet, running 50% faster, dealing 100% critical attacks, and ignoring damage. 720 second recharge.

Help Me!: Call for help from allies. Makes you invulnerable for a short while. 20 second recharge
Lick Wound

Special skill types

TRAITS

A ranger has two general trait lines to choose from: Wilderness Survival and Beast Mastery. They also have trait lines for each of the weapons they can wield.

Wilderness Survival: Wilderness Survival is a trait line for the ranger that focuses on general character improvements.

Minor Perception: Increases perception by 10.
Minor Strength: Increases strength by 10.
) Agility (trait): Increases agility by 25.
Strength (trait): Increases strength by 25.
Superior Agility: Increases agility by 75.
Superior Strength: Increases strength by 75.
Improved Trap Deployment
Agile

Beast Mastery

Greatsword: Unknown
Longbow: Unknown
Shortbow: Unknown
Main-Hand Axe

Main-Hand Sword: Unknown
Off-Hand Axe: Unknown
Off-Hand Dagger: Unknown
Torch: Unknown
Warhorn

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: Each point in Strength increases melee power by 1.
Agility: Each point in Agility increases ranged power by 1.
Vitality: Your health will be increased by 10 for each point in Vitality.
Perception: Increases the chance to perform a critical hit.

ARMOR

The ranger is an adventurer profession and they will use medium armor.

WEAPONS

A ranger has eleven possible weapon combinations. A ranger has 2 weapon sets and is able to switch quickly between them.