Ranger and Thief

[Charlex]

Well, I've been researching this game quite a lot lately, and I've narrowed what profession down to two choices: Ranger or Thief. I've been looking at a TON of beta videos and Game Con videos, and there's a reoccurring trend in each video I see. I see the Thief and the Ranger completely outplaying the other characters, but still getting killed ten times easier with a combination of a couple skills from the enemy (in pvp, of course).. I'm not sure if this is incompetence brought on by only have a limited time to play, and it not being a proper representation of the profession.. Or maybe the Thief and Ranger are at a bit of a disadvantage? I don't know for sure, but I would love other people's opinions!

[Vasyl]

All professions will be balanced when the game comes out so it was likely the skill of the player and not that they were at a disadvantage.

[Charlex]

I hope so. But there's still the choice of which one to choose! -sigh- So many choices, and WAAAY too much time to obsess! I have faith in Arenanet, though, so I'm not too worried..

[Centaur]

Hi Charlex, welcome to this forum.
If you've been watching the videos from the press beta weekend, then keep in mind that a lot of those press members only had 2 days to play the game. Several of them used a 'power boost' that the developers provided to let them jump directly to level 30, so they never played through the entire game to slowly learn its mechanics. So most of the people playing those press beta videos were not very skilled. As Vasyl already indicated, ArenaNet is trying hard to make all professions approximately equally powerful (and they will continue to balance them after the release), so it's best to choose your favorite profession by what you like best, and not by which one currently appears to be the most powerful.
Also note that, when the game is out, if you can't decide between these 2 professions (or others, for that matter) you can create a character of each of those 2 professions, run through the tutorial, then teleport to The Mists (the competitive pvp zone), where you will be level 80 with all skills unlocked. There you can test both characters and decide which one you like best.


[PS: thread moved to the Professions section]

[Charlex]

Yeah, I've seen a lack of skill in mostly all of the videos, like I said. I guess some classes ARE a bit more skill oriented with a higher learning curve, but that's more down my alley, anyway. Thank you, guys! This is a really good, supportive forum, from what I've seen! I'm thinking Sylvari Ranger, but Thief still looks very nice.

[Vasyl]

Awesome another Sylvari fan (like myself). I plan on creating an Elementalist myself. I plan on making a character for each class and race. For Ranger I am planning on using sylvari as well.

For other classes I'm using other races (Mesmer and Thief are gonna be asura)

ANYWAYS like Centaur said, those videos were made people during the press beta weekend event and the people playing them likely weren't gamers and only had a limited amount of time to play the game so they didn't learn how to use their class, though this didn't hinder them in PvE very much.

There were a few who chose not to skip to lvl 30 and they seemed to play their classes fairly well.

[Charlex]

Yeah, the Sylvari seem to match Ranger very well! The whole nature thing, and their home instance is so nice. Unlike the Char, which would sort of make me uneasy, and the only other race that sparked interest was Norn, but I think they're too big. Over time, I'm sure I'll end up making every race, though.

I just wish we'd have some people get good at the game so we can get a real representation of the game. With these very short betas, we don't really get to see their unique combat system really be used. I mean, you can read the skills to try and build a character, but it's hard to get a real feel for your profession until you see some good game play, or play the game for yourself. I just hope the open beta comes out soon. I am glad they're making an effort to the game other than just rushing it out, though. It's nice to know some companies still care about the players!

[GW2]

Play by preference, not by what is better. Balance will always be updated.

[iDwarf]

Welcome to the forums!

Personally, I'd go with the thief. Have you seen the dual dagger skill Leaping Death Blossom? It's amazing. But you should try out both and see which one you like better. You can always play the other one whenever you feel like it.

[Vayne]

The choice for most people is pretty easy, I thought, because the ranger is largely dependent on having a pet and a lot of people don't like having to depend on pet AI and prefer to be more independent.

In any event, the current pet AI wasn't shown that weekend and there will be improvements to it, so anything you've seen about the ranger will change almost immediately.

Thieves thrive on mobility and you'll have to be very mobile to stay alive. That requires a lot of practice. Rangers tend to stay at range, though they do have melee options in Guild Wars 2 which is nice. I still think Rangers are stronger at range with their pets running in, but close up, I think Thieves will have the edge.

Either way, I agree with those saying pick a playstyle, not what you think is most powerful. Aside from the fact that the most powerful character changes all the time as people learn the game, learn the builds, balancing happens, so if you just choose based on power, and suddenly you're not most powerful in a month, will you start over? Will you then start over again a month after that.

Those who live by flavor of the month, die by flavor of the month. Fortunately, Guild Wars 2 is being designed so that playstyle is just as important as things like min-maxing, and it is quite likely a person playing a playstyle they enjoy will outplay a min-maxer playing a play style they don't, just because it happens to be powerful.

In the end, there's always people who play every class really well, no matter how they're balanced. The people who end up saying their class isn't good enough are usually the people not playing it well. Often that's because they're playing against their own natural playstyle.

[HypnoGoggles]

Since all of the classes are supposed to be balanced, I would choose ranger. I have always hated the classes with pets but I love the graphics and the aspect of having three different pets that you can choose. I briefly played GW1 as a ranger a long time ago so I believe you could do this in the other game but it only was with one pet. The three pets is just a major plus that you can switch out. It is not bland with only one pet you can have like in other games that you can't choose.(I am talking about you RIFT!) I am not going to choose this class but this would definitely would be a second choice.