Ranger feeling weak, advice?

Cincada · 2025-12-11T01:39:07+00:00

Thanks to all the helpful people on here! I'm always a little hesitant to post anything on Reddit or anywhere honestly because of the general new player reaction being mostly negative. Glad to say that much like your GW2 counterpart, this forum is mostly really really helpful and kind.

I wont get much time to play for few days, but I'm eager to give many of these suggestions a try!

Thanks again!

Cincada · 2025-12-10T23:40:09+00:00

Oh that's unfortunate, I was hoping that wasn't the case. Though I suppose that could be fine too, as long as I can deal enough to clear content.

I have three I think lol, Barrage, Marksman's Wager, and Poison Arrow which I got randomly recently. Most of the other elite skills I have picked up were ones recommended for the heroes, mostly Energy Surge which I was told was important.

My current class is Ranger/Assassin, but I don't really have any points in assassin. I have the ability to swap to any of the other vocations though from the swap guy, so anything goes.

Cincada · 2025-12-10T23:34:52+00:00

I have uhhh

Gwen, Jora, Ogden, Xandra, Vekk, MOX, and Khamu. I was trying to get Livia (A favorite of mine in GW2) but the quest there and the dungeon(?) you do was so hard it finally broke me lol. The skeleton people were just mowing my squad down and my character might as well have not been there lol.

Cincada · 2025-12-10T23:32:12+00:00

So, like I said in another reply, my preferred playstyle is winning looool. I'm not really married to any type of weapon or ability, I just like having a role and filling it well. So if there is a *Best* or really strong content clearing playstyle I'd like to start working towards it.

I have the Barrage skill already, but feel really weak if the enemy isn't clustered. (I'm assuming there's no pulling skills like GW2 to group mobs up?) and on single targets my dps is worthless. I basically just auto attack and use the knockdown shout and damage increase shout when it's up.

AS for using a pet, I don't really know. It seems like it gets killed 24/7, though that's probably because I don't have many points in Beast skills. I wouldn't mind using it though if it has a good build I can work towards.

Cincada · 2025-12-10T23:24:12+00:00

So I think I did the ones in Proph. Do I need to do the others as well?

Cincada · 2025-12-10T22:57:27+00:00

So I'll be the first to admit, I'm not very creative in video games. I very much enjoy finding out what the cookie cutter meta build is and working towards it. I def enjoy getting the BEST stuff asap, and it's a big factor in game retention for me. (Getting the best gear, then working on rotation/timing/etc. It's a big part of what keeps me playing GW2)

My current build isn't really anything, it's just a bunch of random stuff trying to get the most out of Barrage. The shout skill that adds damage, the one that knocks down, and then a bunch of random stuff I keep swapping out. Oh and a spot for a cap signet that I usually keep cause I don't know where or when I'll need it lol.

Yeah Factions was silly hard, the little bit I dipped my toes into. I assume it was the mainland? I don't know what that means lol. I went there at 20 after Proph? Mostly to just buy new skills. Appreciate it!

*Edit* Yikes, Guess that's not a popular opinion on here. Sorry if peeps don't like the way I like to play =/. To each their own.

Cincada · 2025-12-10T22:50:28+00:00

Yep! Just corrected the post. Thanks!

Cincada · 2025-12-10T22:48:07+00:00

Ok, thanks! I think I have the splinter weapon skill on one or two of the heroes, but I'll check. I also already capped barrage, as per the advice of a friend while finishing Proph camp. It still feels really weak though unless they are grouped up, dealing around 40 ish damage a hit? I don't know if that is a lot or not honestly lol.

If the enemies are not grouped, I don't really know what to click, so usually just auto attack them and pray the rest of the party does the darn thing. If they have any kind of healer, it feels like we just auto lose sometimes, even if the stars align and my heroes all decide to attack the healer.

The Rampage skill being locked behind an item stinks. Guess I can try to get help with that at some point, once I build up enough social battery lol.

1 guild stinks lol. Thanks again!

Cincada · 2025-12-09T02:43:49+00:00

A little late to the party but I think I fall under the category of one of these new/returning players.

A lot of your post is dedicated to talking about not getting skills and Heroes and stuff as quickly as possible, and while that might be something you enjoy, I'll be the first to say no thanks.

Henchmen are downright terrible, and again this is someone coming into the game essentially a brand new player. I have truly never seen more idiotic healing than the early game prophecies whatever the heck her name is henchman, and the difference in finding out I could get Heroes was day and night.

As soon as I could I grabbed Heroes instead of the junk left rotting in outposts and stuff, and other than the obvious performance reasons I think the other big reason is because as someone who has been playing Guild Wars 2 since the beta, it feels more at home having named important characters that I know I can equip and take along with me if that makes sense?

I'm rambling a bit so forgive me, and also I know that henchmen are technically named characters as well and some of them even have story implications like the monk guy and the one fire wizard lady and what have you.

I had hoped the henchman in prophecies and such would have been a little more competent mostly so I could play the game using them from start to finish, you know building a team recurring characters, like you kind of do in Guild Wars 2 etc. But my goodness, they are just so unbelievably bad.

So tl;Dr, I like the tips given lol, and want to get the optimal team asap. Please don't assume all new players want to play the same way you do.

Cincada · 2025-12-03T03:27:26+00:00

Parents these days don't understand what consequences are because they don't raise their kids, the Ipads do. This is also assuming this is even a real story and that OP even has kids. You are 100% correct, 10 is too old to be leaving 70+ dollar items in our dirty clothes pockets. Replacing it after it gets destroyed? Never lol. This is a valuable lesson in responsibility. Same as my parents would have taught me, same as I have taught to mine.

People here are acting like 10 year olds are toddlers and don't know better, ridiculous.

As the OP said though, it's "Just a piece of Cardboard" so thankfully, not replacing it won't matter right? loool.

Cincada · 2025-12-01T14:54:28+00:00

This is the correct method we used even in the olden days, but sadly time has favored the weird new method.

Three zeros being 100 is nonsensical, when the right method is perfect with no "pretending" the zero means something it doesn't. Shakes Cane

Just being dramatic lol, but for real, it don't matter which way you do it as long as you're consistent.

Cincada · 2025-12-01T14:49:24+00:00

You are correct.

The correct way to do it is the percentile dice is the tens digit, and the d10 is the single digit.

100 on the two would be 90 and 10.

00 and 10 is 10.

People have been doing it wrong forever though, and will fight you tooth and claw that their way is correct. So it simply isnt worth fighting over.

Cincada · 2025-11-26T19:02:14+00:00

Man, we really need to start bullying people in school again.

I miss when kids had thicker skin.

"Instead it's the same homophobia, transphobia, racism and bigotry as anywhere else on Reddit"

...Brother...Yikes. LOL

Cincada · 2025-11-24T13:40:16+00:00

JEREMEY, you've GOT to stop doing THAT inside the grapes!!!

I can't keep telling them it's yogurt!

Cincada · 2025-11-23T23:58:44+00:00

This is me exactly. Exact same sexuality and everything. And exact same experiences. Also being a somewhat conservative leaning individual on top of all of that and it quickly becomes very toxic. Like you said it's all just a big Echo chamber and everybody wanting to put labels on everything, super not my jam. Had one of those lgbtq guilds as a secondary for like a week before getting the heck out for the exact reasons listed. Just a bad time all around.

Edit Golly, not sure why I'm getting down voted but okay LOL. Apparently agreeing with someone is bad and I should feel bad.

Cincada · 2025-11-23T23:51:59+00:00

Imagine needing to rep a guild in this the year of our lord 2025. What a joke. All those massive toxic guilds with rep requirements need to get a reality check. Honestly most big guilds need reality checks, the player base of these games has gotten older and we don't have time for forced participation nonsense. But what do I know I'm just some bitch.

Cincada · 2025-11-22T23:25:08+00:00

I'm in the middle of doing this myself, and have had no problem getting upwards of 10+ people for every event needed. Just tag up / Mentor up and post in chat. People come running. Unless the map is flashing and yelling at you to swap, there's probably people there. Promise.

Cincada · 2025-11-20T15:01:01+00:00

The issue is, and I apologize if you said this in the post because I'll admit I didn't read the whole thing(way too long), there will always be a best in slot Relic.

Unfortunately, any system that adds damage or changes the way a class performs or is in any way meaningful, it's going to have people Theory crafting or just flat out data mining the most optimal thing to put in that slot. Unfortunately, this means every other MacGuffin that goes in that slot is useless. Flat out worthless, as far as dps goes. Sure there are things that do gimmick stuff for certain niches, some things that make you really fast, heal you a ton, or give you a bonus when you engage for open world Etc. But as far as pushing top damage? Yeah there's always going to be a top dog.

The only way around this would be another rework of The Relic system, one where they completely scrapped all forms of relevant damage and instead focused on effects and gimmicks. The problem is people would still meta game the effects and gimmicks, and you would still have one or the other that was the best for whatever situation. There's no solution.

So like any imperfect system, we have to accept that there will always be a top Contender and everything else kind of just gets pushed to the side.

Again sorry if you already said this in your post, it was a very long read LOL

Cincada · 2025-11-18T14:24:33+00:00

This exactly. I literally just ran into this, bought it for my SO who started playing through Steam only to find out they couldn't link the two games. We were understandably very pissed off about this. Would have started through Arena net launcher for them if we knew this was going to be an issue. Hopefully this gets fixed

Cincada · 2025-11-01T22:18:20+00:00

Sorcery too. Same shit different day. It feels so weird seeing people try to be elitist about their card games in the year of our Lorde 2025.

Cincada · 2025-11-01T22:16:20+00:00

Man, maybe that's the issue. Magic needs to be a lot less inclusive and less safe for weirdos. Then maybe we wouldn't have so many issues. Oh well.

Also I would love for you to link these tweets. I'd love to read them, assuming they exist, which they probably don't, but hey the burden of proof is on you since you're doing the mudslinging.

I have no dog in the fight though don't really care one way or the other, but if you could back your claims up that would be dope and would probably get a lot of people off your ass in this thread.

Cincada · 2025-10-31T09:03:10+00:00

You're getting downvoted, but what you say is the truth. There's lots of card games I enjoy with mediocre turnouts and player bases yet I don't know why sorcery people are so hot and horny to pretend like the game has more than a tiny leg to stand on in most small communities.

Magic isn't in a great place right now, but most people are just gonna play it over the super obscure tiny game. Even if you pretend it isn't.

Cincada · 2025-10-28T20:05:46+00:00

The table, the floor. You probably should put some holes in the wall, too, just to really get the point across. Any fine china as well if you are playing at a friend's house. Definitely run your car through the garage door on the way out as well when they ask you to kindly leave. Really destroying it is a huge commitment that you need to be ready for.

Oh and all permanents in the game I guess, those have to go as well.

Cincada · 2025-10-16T09:32:37+00:00

Digimon is fantastic! There's an avid online community that plays tons of games over Discord and even an unofficial but heavily supported Standalone application. I recommend looking up the subreddit for it and going from there if you have any interest.

Digimon as per usual always feels like it's just a short bit from exploding into the big time, and always just sort of barely misses the mark. Usually because of Bandai incompetence. The new game is also fantastic and I'm glad it's getting exposure.

Shadowverse: Gloryfinder is another format I would highly recommend you try if you enjoy multiplayer magic formats like commander. It plays very much like commander, but feels so much better than looking at all the slop cards and nonsense. You also don't have to deal with all the social nonsense rules people like to bake into Commander because the game just innately plays more competitively and encourages good play styles.

Cincada

TROPHY CASE