Originally Posted by
GeneralFear
Well, this is a matter of opinion... I have all classes leveled to 80, including HOX, BS, DT... and I like the ranger over any other class in the game, and won't even play the others anymore, even though some are maxed in T3 and faction gear.
The ranger has a unique mechanic in the game, where you buff your combo ahead of selecting it, whereas all other classes are the reverse: they select combo then follow through with pre-set white hits to the finisher. Because a ranger buffs ahead of time, it gives an opportunity to customize each shot with an upper, lower, both, or no buff... and to make a last-minute decision which combo to trigger. To me, this is more natural and flexible than the typical AoC combo.
In solo pve, you won't be standing around in a bubble aoe'ing multiple mobs. You'll be going into hide, mezzing a target, selecting a nearby target, hitting it with your bleeding puncture or deadly draw (if trained), dropping a trap as it runs to you while buffing up your pen shot, selecting first target again, then triggering your pen shot. The target in front of you is usually dead now, and original one will likely be dead before it gets to you.
Very few classes have to strategize their way past mobs this way.. mostly they just charge (if they have it), knockback or stun, tank'n'spank, and follow through on combos or spells in a memorized rotation. Check on the class forums... one of big questions that comes up over and over is what rotation should I use?
Anyway, not saying you would like the ranger, and obviously lots of folks don't, especially cause they don't like the ranger's combo mechanic. But there are a few of us out there who thinks it's a very fun class to play and a lot more intuitive and engaging than many of the other classes. Some think it's difficult to solo, but it's actually not bad as long as you can isolate targets. It can be a fast, furious and fun run to the top.