[sammoHung]

Originally Posted by TytosOfEight [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I’ve noticed a lot of people who “play” rangers either don’t understand the class or just aren’t very good at it. It’s kind of cringe. In group content, my ranger consistently kills faster and takes less damage than my monk, even though both are similarly geared (mostly BiS or second BiS). My ranger has a bit more HP, while my monk has higher AC. The real difference? Earthcaller is overpowered.

I prefer my monk for places like Seb Disco because he can flop there, but in almost every other scenario, my ranger is the clear winner. To test this, I recently parsed 30 Geos on both characters, testing the difference of 100 AC. The result? My ranger took less damage overall, thanks to Earthcaller. Even during leveling, my ranger outpaced my monk, despite my monk being better geared. Around level 50, my monk’s progress slowed, but my ranger just kept trucking with Swarmcaller.

Another example: I was recently taking on the back four Guardians in Skyshrine. On my monk, I had to bandage/clicky heal after every fight. I swapped to my ranger, used Harmony to split, and downed all four before even needing to med. No contest.

Sure, a BiS monk with 1600 AC will tank better in raid content, but for group content, if Earthcaller lands, my ranger takes less damage. Oh, and I regularly tank HoT, Fear, Hate, and ToV trash on my ranger. Slap on an Aary shield and a 100 HP weapon, and you’re golden.

TL;DR: Rangers are underrated in group content, especially when played well. Earthcaller/Swarmcaller make them surprisingly tanky and efficient.

Earthcaller is indeed OP but as someone whos played both a monk and a ranger: the ranger definitely does not tank unslowed mobs better than a monk. Shid, my rogue tanks an unslowed mob better than my ranger does. Even with 1200AC my ranger gets clapped sometimes when I can't land the Earthcaller proc. Difference is the ranger can root and shoot if HP becomes dicey and wait for the chloroplast / fungi tunic regen to get them back up to a reasonable range.

I don't have BiS gear on either but for instance as a joke I was tanking dock mobs in the hole naked with just epic fist equipped on my Monk, and didn't even need heals. Granted I had a group with me DPSing down, but my ranger needed a dedicated healer to tank for the same group. Also when my monk reached 1300 AC something weird happened and fights got way easier. I haven't got that much AC on my ranger, is it the same for them?