In the ongoing slow drip of information about Guild Wars 2, today’s revelation is another profession to join the Elementalist and Warrior — the Ranger:
The ranger is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of them all as well, relying on his keen eye, steady hand, or the power of nature itself. A master of ranged combat, the ranger is capable of striking unwitting foes from a distance with his bow. With a stable of pets at his command, a ranger can adapt to his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.
A ranger is accompanied by his pet, a loyal animal companion. Rangers charm pets and then bond with them. A ranger can have up to three pets at his call, but generally speaking, only one pet can be active at any time. Pets’ base health, armor, and damage are based on the level of the player that owns them.
My very first Guild Wars character was a ranger (Raphia Naon), so I’m happy to see his “descendents” will still be around in the 250-years-later continent of Tyria.
Update: PC Gamer‘s Tom Francis talks to Eric Flannum about the updated Ranger:
The Ranger is nature based, primarily a ranged attacker. Rangers are special because all Rangers have a pet. In your biography you will get to choose between three different pets that you can start with, and that varies between race. Then you can have up to three pets, and you go to a pet management screen to pull out any of the three that you want – provided that you’re not in combat. And so what we wanted to do is encourage Rangers to have up to three pets that they nurture and adventure with, and those three pets can be very different, purpose-wise.
So I can have maybe a bear who is good at tanking, or a snow leopard who’s a good damage pet, and then maybe a Moa bird who’s a good support pet, depending on the situation I’m in. So say I’m grouped with a bunch of Warriors and I really don’t need a bear to tank, I can pull out my snow leopard. If I wanted some support I could pull out the Moa. And so Rangers are designed to have those choices with their pets, where the pets fulfill very specific roles.
The pets automatically level to the level of the Ranger, so you don’t actually have to level pets. So if you get to level 50 and you want to go get a new type of pet, you don’t have to spend a bunch of time levelling that pet. The pet’s going to basically be effective.
And also, in that last paragraph, we learn that the level cap has been raised from 20 to (at least) 50. Also, unlike the trap mechanics in GW, traps have changed in that a Ranger can only have one trap active, and must be in the vicinity to keep it working (but it will continue to work as long as the Ranger stays in range). Spirits are also a larger part of the Ranger’s abilities, but still limited to a single spirit at a time.
Update the second: Rubi Bayer also reports on the Ranger’s abilities:
Let’s begin with what sort of pets are obtainable. “ A ranger has three active pet slots. Outside of combat, or through the use of utility skills, the ranger can swap their active pet. There are 12 different types of pets, including some terrestrial (spiders), some amphibious (lizards), and some aquatic (sharks).” Since pets from Elona and Cantha won’t be an option. ArenaNet has beefed up the selection in Tyria. “Within each type there are subtypes that can influence pets’ abilities. For example, a polar bear might have an Icy Roar, while a brown bear might have a Fearsome Roar.“
Yes. Sharks. You can tame a shark. While the idea of having a shark pet is awesome just on its own, the implications are even more exciting. First of all, you’ve got a pet that can accompany you in underwater combat. But since your faithful aquatic pet can’t go traipsing through the woods with you (sadly, it is not a landshark), rangers need a bit more variety available to them. This limitation is removed through the ability mentioned above, allowing rangers to have up to three pets “on call.” You can switch between your pets to adapt to your enemies or your surroundings as needed.
These changes should work to make playing the Ranger a better-balanced experience: over the last year or two, Rangers seem to have been trapped (sorry) into a few specialized functions, but generally aren’t as useful on mission and quest teams as other professions. Certainly they aren’t as welcome in pick-up groups as monks, elementalists or ritualists are.
