Ranger vs Engineer

From what i have read, and the skills i have played around with on the skill builder Engineer is going to be one of those classes that really takes work to be great at. I imagine we will see tons of Engi's but the ones that are truly good will stick out.  I play more support/defense in PvP so looking forward to working with Engi's in my build.

I think it will depend on the preferred playstyle of the player. Rangers are more geared towards damage with some skills that effect mobility and vulnerability. Engineers seem to be more on the support side. I don't think right now anyone can say that one is "better." Maybe a ranger could win by dealing damage...maybe the engineer could win with conditions and fight control.

Well you have 2 pet classes basically, but one has a more mobile pet...  It might come down to who has greater range, or can the ranger keep the engineer pushed out of range of his turrets etc.

Hopefully it will depend on the skill of each player.  I think people that PvP on a higher level will have weapon swap outs that allow them to account for the weaknesses of their main weapon build (added mobility for example).  With all the elementalist abilities I can't imagine them not having an answer for just about anything.

Yea I don't think you could even say "all else equal, who wins." With the flexibility of GW2's traits, skills, and weapon systems, I doubt you will be able to find a situation where "all else is equal." It's going to come down to which player knows his/her class better and can better adapt to the situation (assuming abilities are balanced appropriately).

No problemo 

Has to be Engineer for me.  The ranger is a little too one dimensional and the pet is a real liability.  I also love the Engineers Elixirs and Flamethrower 

Like those before me have said I don't think there is a rock paper scissors aspect to this game. They have tried pretty hard to eliminate all of that with their dynamic skill sets based on weapons and traits. There are just too many variables including the players ability. Given different situations either one could could either dominate or it could be incredibly close. 

If anything, it might depend on how buggy pet AI is. If it doesn't work right then the ranger could be losing a lot of their damage.

Ranger or engineer? ...hmm, tough one, but I think I know the answer.

Necromancer. They just happen to be awesome

No, seriously speaking I don't think we can say who would win. Perhaps after the beta weekend we might have a general idea if one is noticeably better than the other, but even after that all the numbers are probably going to change several times by launch.

For me it hinges on the pet AI. I'm hoping at the moment it is just place holder and they haven't had a chance to polish it up yet. 

If and when they do that it gives Rangers a lot more build depth. Its equal to having another one handed weapon, which you also swap in combat.

While the Pet AI is important, I am looking forward to checking out how effective the traps and spirits are to the Ranger.

I would say Ranger has a bit of an advantage in this.  I do admit to not having played the Eng much, but I just feel that the Ranger has a greater variety of attacks in its weapon choices, while the Eng is more one noted, if you will.  I don't see as much variety in the type of skills, where as in Ranger you gain a broad range of attacks just by have a good first and second set of weapons.

Of course, I just like the Ranger much better on very principle, so that may be part of it for me as well.  At least its not a necro :)...heheheh

Galen

I'll never forgive you.

Anyways, back on topic, in response to the "ranger's have more weapon sets" argument, you seem to have forgotten about Engineer Kits. Obviously the Engineer has a disadvantage in vanilla weapon skills seeing as it only has 3 possible combinations, but if you count kits in then Engineers easily rise up to meet other classes in that respect.

In fact, when it comes to amount of weapon skills you can have in your build at any one time, Engineers come in second only to Elementalists, with somewhere around 5 and 8 for them, respectively. Many other classes which have 2 weapon sets at most, including Ranger, pale in comparison.

Most of the kits aren't as useful as weapons themselves in PvP. Worse, they don't benefit from stats or sigils.

I'll have to hand it to Rangers in a 1v1 situation. Even turrets don't compare to pets.

Figured I'd ask this here instead of starting a new thread.

How are the ranger's ranged pets? I briefly gave the profession a try at the weekend and went with the cat, but the thing seemed to die any time a mob glanced sideways at it (seriously, my necro's blood fiend could take much more of a pounding!) so I went off to try something else instead. But I'd like to give it another chance for the next weekend and was wondering if the ranged pets are any more survivable?

One thing I noticed is that you have to switch pets in combat. If you pet starts taking damage, replace it. I actually ordered my pet to stay behind and chase a low health target a couple of times while I ran away and if its health started dropping I changed pets before it died. I don't think you can switch pets if your pet dies though, so be sure not to let its health ever reach zero!

Anyway, I didn't have any problems with my birds dying, but maybe it's just because I didn't play with a ranger that much.

I played the Engineer during BWE1 and I enjoyed him. I didn't really care for all the abilities he had, but loved the Rifle. BWE2 I have been planning on Ranger just because I  want to try it out.

Engineer definitely seems like it will take a lot to get used to. It might not be for me right off the bat, but I will keep on one my account to practice with.

After picking an engineer for my 3rd toon, I must say I was surprised by how much funz it was. In fact turning out to be my fave of the weekend. Finding similarity with GW1 Ritualist, the ability to plonk down a turret *when running away like a little girl* to draw foe aggro was a blessing, especially when soloing. Didnt spend a lot of time with my lvl 3 ranger as I wasnt getting a good feel for playing it.

Next bwe will spend more time with ranger and the thief, as I hear the thief shortbow might give me the *pew pew* action I like, without the gimped pet ai as a liability.

First of all....Sorry Scooter.  I'll try to be better about my necro bashing in the future...heeheh :)

Now, on to the subject of the pets.  I also notice my pet, since I was a Charr Ranger I opted for the river drake starter, was dying on a regular basis.  I managed to get a hyena rather quickly and I noticed that, at the same level, the pets had very different stats.  The hyena, which managed to last a bit longer, has a higher toughness and vitality than my river drake, or scale...whatever the lizard was, I forget its exact name.

You can see the stats of your pet by clicking on its picture right next to the pet switcher button.  It pulls up the pet management window.  I only gave it a cursory glance, but it would seem different pets have different stats, different things they are better at.  So perhaps that can help explain the kitty cats penchant for death.

Either that or the kitty really wanted to be a Necromancer's pet  (see, Scooter...I told you I'd get better :) )

Galen

You're correct.  All pets do have varying stats, with Bears predominantly used to "tank" or to act as a damage sponge, where as Feline pets deal significantly more damage.  How did you find pet AI?

In response to Yski (comment #19) about switching pets: I'm pretty sure you can switch pets when they're defeated. They just take a lot longer to heal whilst switched out. From the GW2 wiki: 

"While an animal companion is in a defeated state, a ranger still has the ability to switch to another companion to continue the fight. This allows for quick adaptation during fights. If the animal companion is in a defeated state, the recharge time to bring it back out will be longer than normal. A defeated pet that was swapped out will be at full health when it is swapped back in. If the pet isn't injured, the recharge is about 20 seconds."

As for who would win between ranger and engineer... I reckon it all comes down to skill between the two players. You can spec your build to target and be great against one other profession, but then you're gimping yourself versus the other six. 

Thanks, I knew I should've checked it 

In response to the OP.My first character was a Norn Ranger.I absolutely loved the realm and the class. My 2nd character I made was an engineer.(yes ranged fighting is my "thing" ).THE FACT IS we really have little concept of what a full blown Ranger at 80 or a specced out Engineer might be...skills and traits fleshed out.My initial impression was leaning toward the Ranger.(engineer turret went down a little too fast).All of the above is assuming a WvW context...not PVE.

I suggest going into the Mysts  with a Ranger then again with an engineer.You will see a full blown version of the class and that might help you decide.

I actually just posted a reply to your article, Lewis.  I really enjoyed it.

The pet AI is not the best in the world, to my experience, but then as I have mentioned manytimes....I don't really do the who delving into the mechanics thing very much.

As a result, after reading some of the other comments, I see that there is a lot that can be done with the pets.  It seems to me they have set it up so you can actually have a great deal of control in the use of your pet.

As a result, I'm not sure the problems are as much in the Pet AI as in my own lack luster use of the F Keys to order and control my pet more.  I'm definately going to have to do a bit more playing around with the pet controls next beta.

Mostly I just sent him to attack what I was attacking then ignored him till I was done with the fight, letting him basically just tank on his own and reviving him when he came back and the fight was over.

I did use the special abilites a few times, but was always kind of, "Is this right way to be doing it?"

I had read on the Beta Forums that some people felt the biggest let down of the Beta was actually information dissemination.  I think that may be true.  They were talking about the fact that by linking through Lion's Arch you can take your char through all the different areas and level faster just by exploring and doing the basic heart missions in all the starter areas.

I, however, think it goes beyond that.  I have been reading as much as I have been able to while not at work or sleeping and I constantly come across things that make me think, "I wish I had known that when I was playing the game."  The use of the pet command interfacing being just one of many little things I wish I had known.

Galen

Anyway, I had to say neither of them is good. It is up to your character.