Guild Wars 2 fangasming

So they just had an English demo.  With Ranger gameplay.  Confirming a lot of my hopes about the class.

It was really hard to tell in Guild Wars 1, but Rangers were the very first class that relied a lot upon positioning and agility in battle moreso than just running in all guns blazing.  There were skill types and specific skills that aided this, such as the traps and the elite stance Escape.  For the longest time I used Escape as my elite because I recognized that the rest of my bar was decent damage and support-wise, so I used Escape for defense and to reposition myself during fights.

Rangers in Guild Wars 2 will get damage bonuses and a chance to stun by flanking their enemies, and the different bow types play into your strategy as well.  This really embodies what the Ranger tried to be in Guild Wars 1, but couldn't due to limitations of the engine and mechanics.

One thing I'm sure they'll cover in the months between now and the release is racial bonuses and skills.  They've mentioned racial skills in the past, but haven't elaborated save for an example that only used Warrior and Elementalist because those were the only classes announced at the time.  I'm really having a tough time deciding what race I want to make my Ranger, and knowing about things like this ahead of time will make all the difference.  I don't want to get 50 levels in and then realize I made the wrong race choice and have to start the whole character development process all over again.  I know their whole emphasis is on "no wrong choices", but the wrongness of the choice will be entirely due to play style and not mechanics, and I want a race that will supplement my play style very well.

• Human, well, is what my current Ranger is.  I'm curious what incentives there will be to play a Human character vs. one of the four other races they're adding.
• Norn sounds like it could work well for a Ranger. Basically, combine the pet with the Norn's shapeshifting abilities and some melee weapons.  That sounds like it could be fun.
• Sylvari kind of meshes with the whole point of Rangers: to be one with nature.  Perhaps the least is known about Sylvari since they were born at the end of Eye of the North.
• Charr Rangers were honestly the most threatening of the Charr classes in Guild Wars 1.  Since they used Ignite Arrows, combined with the fact that it was a low level area and you had crap for armor, they really pumped out the damage.  All the other Charr were really just there to get between you and the Rangers, or to prevent you from killing them.
• Asura is absolutely my least likely choice for a Ranger.  Asura just sounds like it would be better suited for a casting class.  Though I do plan to make an Asuran Warrior, just to find a really big melee weapon so I have a tiny character with a huge weapon.  Combine that with their golems and you might actually have a potent melee capability...  Or maybe their golems could be treated like pets and work alongside a pet for an Asuran Ranger?  I dunno.

If it sounds like I regard the Ranger as the best class in Guild Wars, well, that's correct.  Ranger is indeed the best class in Guild Wars.  They're far more versatile than any other class, capable of delivering pressure, sustained DPS, disruption, area control, and more.  About the only thing they can't do by themselves is use skills on allies, but that's what a secondary class is for.  You can play a competent and viable Ranger with no skills from a secondary class.  Once you bring that secondary into play, you get a ton of versatility.  With creative use of your Expertise attribute (moreso at the game's release, it's been nerfed a ton by now), you can do things far better than any other class.

This post will now descend into random notes.

A build I want to put together and try out (once I'm done capturing elites as it requires a Necromancer secondary) involves taking a pet along with the Necromancer's Flesh Golem (and probably Death Nova).  I'm calling it a Corrupted Beastmaster.  Attribute spread before runes 12 Expertise, 9 Beast Mastery, 9 Death Magic.

Arenanet has always loved putting references to all sorts of things in popular culture into Guild Wars, and it shows.  With skills like "For Great Justice!", "Make Your Time!", "Never Give Up!", "Never Surrender!", "It's just a flesh wound.", "The Power Is Yours!", Sight Beyond Sight, and many, many more, it's clear as day.  So, I was looking through GuildWiki a while back and noticed that there's a boss named Grabthar the Overbearing, who drops Grabthar's Hammer.  "By Grabthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged!"  I went and farmed it just for the lulz, even though I don't like its stats (Earth damage, seriously?).

I've also had an idea for a "Walking Reference" character who just uses skills whose names reference things.  The best class mix for this is Paragon and Warrior, as they have all the shouts, and a good portion of the shouts are references.  We actually have a choice of elite skill, since both "The Power Is Yours!" and "It's just a flesh wound." are both elite.  In fact, the build can be almost entirely shouts.  I currently have it at seven shouts and the stance Bonetti's Defense.  And of course, the only proper weapon to wield with the build would have to be a reference, to which Grabthar's Hammer would work perfectly.  It's not meant to be a viable build anyway.