Friday, February 4, 2011

In-depth look: Ranger


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 favor bows. Their repertoire of utility skills focuses on pet buffs, traps and spirits of nature.


Ranger concept art.

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. Rangers have been announced to have a utility skill which allows stealth.
A pet's level is based on its owner's level, which determines base attack, armor, and health. In addition to this, each pet has an evolution level, which advances if that pet is active while its owner gains experience. Pets start out with no pet skill slots but, as they gain evolution levels, up to four pet skill slots become available. A pet's equippable skills are based on its specific pet type.
Rangers have a special user interface element for controlling their pets that provides simple behavioral modes and direct commands for their pets, but they cannot directly command their pets' skill usage.

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.
See list of ranger traits.



Attributes
Rangers can put attribute points into Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Perception, the other attributes being considered minor for this profession.

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

Weapons
  • Two-handed
    • Greatsword — A brute force, heavy-damage weapon.
    • Longbow — A stationary sniping weapon, used for rapid fire strikes or barrages at long distance.
    • Shortbow — Quick skirmishing weapon relying on movement and positioning for quick kills.
  • Main-hand
    • Sword — Mobile melee strikes which can be used to distance the ranger from the target or surprise them from behind.
    • Axe — Medium ranged throwing weapon which can ricochet off a target or can toss a cluster of axes in a line.
  • Off-hand
    • Axe — The ranger can enter a stance to reflect incoming strikes or throw the axe for a boomerang effect.
    • Dagger — Used as a crippling ranged attack, or a quick poisonous stab for melee.
    • Torch — The ranger can throw the torch at enemies for burning damage, or can light areas on fire which can ignite arrows passing through.
    • Warhorn — Call in temporary animals to attack or used to buff allies.
A ranger has eleven possible weapon combinations. A ranger has 2 weapon sets and is able to switch quickly between them.

More media:

Ranger wallpaper.



53 comments:

  1. for some unknown reason, i always prefer dual wield in rpg games, and i tend to do it clumsily

    and hate having a pet or a second character around -.-

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  2. I usually ended up playing as a ranger when I played D&D. Liked being able to dual weild.

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  3. Nice detail you have here. This is one of the games im hoping to play in the next month or so. What is it like when compared to WOW?

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  4. Damn, that concept art is really something. Just looking at that makes me want to play gw2. I might cover it some time soon on my blog. lodimas-techlife.blogspot.com Not in as much detail, of course.

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  5. Why had I never heard about a second version?! :/

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  6. you don't miss anything dude


    following

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  7. I'm loving these posts. Alot of detail put in.

    random-midget

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  8. This is the character I want. Are there assassins as well?

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  9. Great blog, Im gonna start following you!! Check out mine blog too if youd like.

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  10. I almost always play as the rogue type characters in RPG's. They're always just so much more interesting than your average brawling berserker. Here's to the assassin's and rangers in games.

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  11. I think I won't get ranger this time. That gameplay look awesome, but I'm afraid of getting killed too much.

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  12. Ranger class always appeals to me the most no matter what the MMO

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  13. When I saw the name I instantly thought Aragorn. I'm a nerd, I know.

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  14. Holy crap! Saw the video, looks fuckin awesome bro!

    Following and supporting!

    http://marksantsrants.blogspot.com/

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  15. Im getting this in a couple of weeks! keen

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  16. A nice level of thought and detail put into this. Most guides don't go so far. Ranger seems pretty interesting. May have to give it a go.

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  17. Actually started to look forward to this now!

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  18. Rangers were probably my favourite class in the original GW. Let's see how they are in the new one :)

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  19. I'de play a ranger over WoW's hunter any day. Thanks for the read!

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  20. Looks like they did a very nice job on balancing that class out.

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  21. This looks like the classes that defines me best, can't wait to try the game.

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  22. wow, so much good information in here, thanks

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  23. Ranger is the best class, no doubt.

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  24. Damn man, guild wars 2 sounds pretty tight, might wanna start playing.

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  25. Guild Wars is a pretty fun game. I have a ranger, actually. I love it.

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  26. Great detailed writeup! Good effort, followed!

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  27. whats the best weapon for a ranger?

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  28. Another good writup. Its nice to see someone put effort in their blog!

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  29. Awesome art bro. Following.

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  30. Ranger concept art looks pretty cool. the cat has some style

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  31. I love how thorough these are, a lot of good information. Thanks!

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  32. I'm here more for the concept art than anything else. However, should I ever decide to play GW2, I now know where to look. It'd be nice to be able to have a clone, or an extra set of eyes and arms with a partitioned brain. I'd be able to try out twice as many games.

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  33. very good info, i think im gonna start playing GW2 when it comes out. thanks

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  34. good info, i always liked rangers best.

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  35. Legolas, what do your elf eyes see?

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  36. omg i just love your blog gw forever

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  37. Same here. This game looks pretty awesome. Following :)

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  38. Pretty sure ill be playing Ranger. Love their skills and playstyle, played Hunter in WoW, Ranger in FFXI. So in GW, Ranger again.

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  39. I wonder how the rangers will turn out this time

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  40. you do a great job describing each class

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  41. Good details, thanks for that

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  42. wow this is sick! I might play this..

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