Rangers and their friends

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While there was much speculation going on after yesterday’s release of another possible profession announcement, ArenaNet today overwhelmed us with what I find some very cool stuff. The profession release? The Ranger of course, alongside its trusty pet!

First off, the Ranger has received numerous new weapon possibilities. You now can throw axes, swords, use a fire torch or call upon the nature and their inhabitants.

Pets

Since your character history is not in an empty state in Guild Wars 2, you will now have the choice between three pre-determined (via your personal story) pets to your disposal. Of course you will have the possibility to change these pets later on, by charming other animal, but you can only have three active animals to choose from. (The moa farm will probably fill up quite fast!) When you’re about to charm a new animal, you have plenty of choices, because there will be 12 different types of pets, some of which are terrestrial e.g. spiders, some are amphibious e.g. lizards, and some are aquatic e.g. sharks. Within these types different subtypes of pets exist too(ex: polar bear or brown bear) these will enhance the pets’ abilities accoridingly.

No longer will you need to start over training your pet (although sometimes, it was fun doing so) as it will level alongside with you and will rise in attack, armor and health as it grows. This will go as far as the evolution level of 20(Attention: this is not the max lvl for players themselves (50 or more)). When a pet reaches a certain level, it will enable the player to slot it with four pet abilities based on the pet type which will allow for a much grander customization as with its predecessor.

Another improvement over the original Guild Wars is the way you can command your pets. Where in the original Guild Wars pets got a boost similar to heroes with an Attack, Guard and Heel option, you can now order your pet to: Attack (‘attack my target’), Heel (‘Come to me’) and Stay (‘Do not move’). Instead of giving specific commands each time, you can also set set an ongoing behavioral for your pet: Aggressive (‘Attack what I’m attacking’), Defensive (‘Attack enemies that attack me’) and Passive (‘Don’t Attack’).

Oh boy, how do I want to charm a shark right now or wear one of those fancy Ranger armors!

Skills & Weapons

The Ranger is all about pets, but next to pets, a ranger is known for his bow, or at least, it was until Guild Wars 2. Examples given on the skill types a ranger has are the following:

Traps – In Guild Wars there were skills that a player would set by kneeling on the floor, in Guild Wars 2, the ranger will be using a new kind of weapon, a torch. As seen in the Skill video below, the ranger sets the ground burning and then, when triggered, it can shoot arrows through and lit them up.

Spirits – No, no these are not the spirits of the wild, often connected with the Norn, in comparison these are but a fragment of these powers, although still very powerful. A spirit often boosts your attacks, the Sun Spirit for example, makes your fire attacks extra fiery and thus extra strong, but also to other attacks of other allies. As in the original Guild Wars, spirits are active for a set amount of time (possibly enhanced by your level) and wander off when the time reaches its limit, the ranger runs away, or an enemy kills the spirit.

All in all, the Ranger can use the following kind of weapons:

Main hand: Sword, Axe
Off hand: Axe, Dagger, Torch and Warhorn
Two-handed: Greatsword, longbow and a Shortbow

All in all I’m very impressed with how they gave the Ranger a bit of a new flavor and went with a refreshing approach for him/her. I’m really looking forward to how this will turn out. Perhaps a ranger may be in my range of professions I’ll use this time around.

Check out the video below for some awesome skill preview videos!