Guild Wars 2

Hi

What is in your opinion the best profession for ranged burst damage in a PvP/WvW small scale scenario?

Static Discharge Rifle Engineer;
S/D Fresh Air Ele;
Longbow Power Ranger;
Power Necro;

Can’t think of others… What do you think and why?
I’m thinking about a build that can go in, burst and down an enemy quick and go out.

I personally vote for Fresh Air Eles, but I haven’t got much experience with the others.

Thank you for your responses!

Skyhammer hands down!

Ranger has good sustained damage from a distance but no real burst. What you want to look at is a phantasm mes or a killshot war.

I have good experience with Ele and necro, and a bit with ranger, so I can give you my opinion.

What are you look for in burst? Some people define that as a huge spike of damage happening in the span of one second, so that it lands before an enemy can react. Of those choices, fresh air Eles are the only ones that can truly burst if you use that description, but just so you know, that playstlye is not fully ranged, and that many of the S/D burst combos can start from a distance, but many use lightning flash, ride the lightning, and a hydromancy sigil, in melee range, to maximize burst potential, youtube S/D ele burst combos to see what I mean. Some combos can be performed at range, but those offer less damage and can be a bit harder to use on a moving target. Basically earth 2 (hurl) into phoenix into an air burst is probably the best purely ranged burst I can think of, but I haven’t delved into that playstyle too much, because I’m more into larger scale WvW fights, where S/D ele can function well on a gank squad, as can D/D, but most guilds would prefer you to run support staff for water fields for recovery or glass staff periphery for damage.

Moving on to power necro, it can work in the envrionment you want, but I wouldn’t say it fits the definition of burst, but rather high sustained single target/piercing damage, but power necros also bring burst AoE to the table in the form of wells and life transfer. For small scale, it can work but condition is usually more optimal for that purpose, as with power necro you rely on being glassy as kitten, doing absurd damage with your dagger auto, although warriors can literally 3 shot you that way, while life blast hits really really hard, (In WvW I hit a gank squad thief for 5K with one DS auto, which is like half of his health lol) its a slow and clunky attack, but it is fun and you feel like a dark magical firing squad while doing it. If you want to get into large scale WvW, power necro provides some of the best AoE burst damage from mid- high range, especially in organized groups where your driver (commander for your group) can coordinate and time bombs (wells mixed with guardian binding blade pull and ele CC).

Rangers I’ve only worked with a little bit, and the longbow provides decent burst with the number 2 skill, but relying on the pet for so much damage is crippling, and overall the class as a whole isn’t in a truly great place for any metagame.

So basically the point of my post is, most burst isn’t fully ranged, its typically melee, and S/D ele needs both to be bursty, while S/F can do that from ranged with less burst and more team support and defense. Necros are best for AoE burst and mid ranged nuking in large scale wvw fights, and rangers have tons of problems with being viable in either scenario, but can provide good ranged damage if glass using a longbow.

The person above me suggesting killshot warrior is probably correct about that. Also shatter mesmer can work, but its really hard to set up, clunky and buggy burst that is completely ineffective in larger scale fights.

Ranger rapid fire isn’t a burst, it is a long channeled skill that does the same amount of damage as if you were auto attacking. It is best saved for fighting thieves and mesmers, or if you still have a longbow out and someone is in close range to you.

At long range there really isn’t any reason to use any skill on longbow other than the auto attack. Depending on the other players armor you can easily hit from 1-4k without even going full glass. Most fights are over before the enemy gets in spitting distance of you.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Ranger rapid fire isn’t a burst, it is a long channeled skill that does the same amount of damage as if you were auto attacking. It is best saved for fighting thieves and mesmers, or if you still have a longbow out and someone is in close range to you.

At long range there really isn’t any reason to use any skill on longbow other than the auto attack. Depending on the other players armor you can easily hit from 1-4k without even going full glass. Most fights are over before the enemy gets in spitting distance of you.

Yeah that makes sense. I only have like 10 agonizingly bad hours on my ranger, so I in no way claim to know that much about them lol

All depends on your time span for burst. If you allow around 8 seconds then its Necro assuming they stay in your wells. If you consider times less than 8 seconds then other classes have more burst.

Well.. my staff ele can substain permanent burst which kills my player target in 1-2 sec- in an aoe- (Allow’s me to actually win a 1v10 xD)

Big Tower.5423:

Well.. my staff ele can substain permanent burst which kills my player target in 1-2 sec- in an aoe- (Allow’s me to actually win a 1v10 xD)

Until a random aoe Retaliation doesnt appear : 3
LoL

Signet ranger can mimic a thief backstab from 1200+ range semi-effectively.