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:
* Amphibious pets
Bear
Dog
Drake
Lizard
Snow leopard
Wolf
* Aquatic pets
* Terrestrial pets
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
Brown bear
Fearsome Roar: Causes weakness
Polar bear
Icy Roar: Deals cold damage
Dog
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
Salamander Drake
Fire Breath
Dragon?s Roar: Cause weaknessElemental Shake-off:
Evade
Forceful Bite: Powerfully bite an enemy
Passive Regeneration
Tail LashAlong 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
Longbow skills
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.Shortbow skills
Axe skills
Ricochet: Throw your axe, to bounce it off multiple enemies. This skill recharges instantly.
Splitblade: Throw a group of axes in a targeted spread pattern. 8 second recharge.
Staggering Throw: Knock an enemy back with a thrown axe, 20 second recharge.
Whirling Defence: Hold to reflect projectiles while hitting the enemies around you.Dagger skills
Throw Dagger: Throw a dagger to cripple an enemy
Sword skills
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
Torch skills
Bonfire: Light the ground on fire to burn the enemies caught within.
Throw Torch: Throw your burning torch at an enemy.
Warhorn skills
Hunter?s Call Hunter?s Call: Call a flock of birds to swarm your enemy.Other skills
Healing
Heal as One: Heal yourself and your pet, 12 second recharge.
Healing Spring: Grant health regeneration to you and nearby allies, 20 second recharge.Utility
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.
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
Elite skills
Rampage As One: Rampage with your pet, running 50% faster, dealing 100% critical attacks, and ignoring damage. 720 second recharge.Downed skills
Help Me!: Call for help from allies. Makes you invulnerable for a short while. 20 second rechargeLick Wound
Special skill types
Chains ? three skills that share a single skill slot, which are executed in sequence on a single target.
Preparations ? apply a preparation to a weapon to change its abilities.
Spirit skills ? summon a nature spirit that influences the area around it.
Traps ? utility skills that can be placed at a ranger?s current location. When an enemy enters a trap, it is triggered.
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.
Beast Mastery
* Speed Training
Drake Affinity
Canine Affinity
Bounty Hunter
Greatsword: Unknown
Longbow: Unknown
Shortbow: Unknown
Main-Hand Axe
Axe Mastery: Axe attacks do more damage
Main-Hand Sword: Unknown
Off-Hand Axe: Unknown
Off-Hand Dagger: Unknown
Torch: Unknown
Warhorn
Call of the Hale and Wild: Call of the Wild grants health regeneration.
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.
Two-handed
Greatsword ? brute force, heavy-damage weapon.
Longbow ? stationary and slow, but damaging long ranged weapon.
Shortbow ? very quick skirmishing weapon allowing movement while firing.
Main-hand
Sword ? mobile attacks which can be used to distance the ranger from the target.
Axe ? short ranged throwing weapon which can ricochet off a target.
Off-hand
Axe ? short ranged throwing weapon.
Dagger ? throwing weapon.
Torch ? can light areas on fire which can, in turn, ignite arrows passing through the effect.
Warhorn ? call in temporary animals to attack.