Guild Wars 2

I was still skeptical as well as other seem to still be about how well Rangers can do at 48 and no one cared to show it so I gave it a real shot. They are actually pretty good but have their flaws.

The videos aren’t perfect and are just normal runs so there are some downs and such. They are all around the same times as the ones I had for my cleaner runs for my guardian guide using 2g/2w/1 ele/mes or extra guard/war. I used 2g/2w/1r for the ones posted below instead. I just don’t enjoy fractals enough anymore to get cleaner runs or more but these are plenty good enough.

Swamp

Mossman 3:20 – http://youtu.be/cwjn2lFO_9E

Not too much diff than a warrior except a little bit less armor. Sword/Dagger is pretty nice with 3 evades and good dps. I didn’t have a bow for the video since I was hoping he wouldn’t transform but I would use warhorn before the fight and swapping it out for longbow if I did it again.

Bloomhunger 1:18 – http://youtu.be/8GirF3psJMU

Easy fight if you can stay behind him which is difficult with a sword. The 3 evades from the sword/dagger is helpful though. The pets die right away the first couple times I killed it but managed to stay alive mostly on the video run which seemed like a fluke.

Uncategorized

Harpies
Sword can make you fly off after you kill one which is pretty lame. Offhand axe comes in handy

Champ room
You can’t use sword against the shaman. Sword roots you in front of wall of reflection which gets you killed. It sucks to be a ranger in this room.

Old Tom 0:42 – http://youtu.be/NLT2MVmtgVQ
You can’t use sword against old tom if you using the tome stacking method since it will root you in front of the guardian. Rotating longbow burst skills and shortbow auto isn’t too bad though and we still got it done. Pets die fast.

Raving Asura 1:12 – http://youtu.be/2TnAlbhFqbA
Sword can be a pain if a golem is on or a bit in front of a wall since it roots you in front of the wall or you push it front since it attacks so fast. Axe can come in handy to pull them.

Dredge

Throughout the dungeon
Pets were a pain since they wander off from the los spot. Other than that they seemed fine. We were able to take stuff down fast and rally just fine.

Dredge Powersuit 2:21 – http://youtu.be/h1R9Anl7h1g

Well the ranger actually really shined here except at the end where I died like a noob. I usually get around 3min with a clean run but with a Ranger it was definitely faster. Muddy terrain was pretty nice too. The pets pretty much instantly died and were useless.

Grawl

Guards
Pet wandered from los spot which was annoying but the rest was fine.

Break the bubble
Great for running the rocks. They can do decent damage from range in between and use point blank shot or muddy terrain to help keep them back.

Champ shaman
We did it in about 1:15-1:30 I think which is faster than usually even with me and 2 bows and ranged pets. I’m not sure if its since my group actually max melee ranged the whole time and didn’t get hit. It might be that I don’t know but I deleted the video by accident. Still though you can’t use sword since it roots you and you will make your group get hit with his melee attack. You are forced to use ranged pets for the same reason as well.

Imbued shaman
You can entangle the boss to root it. It seemed pretty good to have a ranger to deal with this and while the others hit it a few times then get rid of the elementals faster. It didn’t seem like you can deal with the elementals as well as the other classes though. The pets are cannon fodder and dead the 90%+ of the fight.

Cliffside

Archdiviner
Sword seems like it’s not an option to use here given how fast and frequent the attacks are. You pretty much get 1 shotted with everything. Maybe someone mastered the sword well enough to do this and I would like to see it. It seems too miserable to really try again. The pets die quickly too. It sucks to be a Ranger for this fight.

Chest Seal
Sword isn’t an option here since it will root you in the lava. The pets die right away. You mine as well grab a warrior’s banner since it sucks to be a ranger here.

Arm Seals
Healing spring is quite amazing here to put down at the los spot to get rid of vulnerability. Warhorn will provide swiftness to people running the hammer which is also nice. The pet will wander off if the the targeted chanter you don’t want to kill is in the hallway so it is pretty useless here and will be set to passive.

Final Seals
Sword isn’t an option and pets die right away again.

Ascalon

I didn’t get it but I’d imagine it would go the same as the dredge.

Underwater

Who cares

Snowblind

Same as underwater

Conclusion:
Rangers are fine to take for fractals and won’t slow the run down much or at all if they are played well. The DPS was pretty good even with dead pets though if sword was viable for the fight and for dredge end bosses. Aside from DPS they bring a 12% damage buff to the group with spotter and frost spirit that stacks with what other professions can bring, provide a lot of vulnerability at the start of the fight and throughout for the stuff you need to range, they provide a decent amount of fury with warhorn 5, they can give protection to the group if you don’t have a hammer guardian, they have some good cc skills but not for general fighting, and the healing spring can be helpful for los spots or if everyone melees bosses.

The problem is that it takes a lot of effort and skill to contribute the most as a Ranger. Another problem is sword is the best by far but not a viable option for many parts and GS seems not worth it at all and has dodging issues also. Pets are pretty much trash for most of the bosses since they instantly die. If they ever fix the sword and pet mechanics and survival then this class would really shine. Until then I’d rather take an ele or another war for fractals though I’d be fine with having a good Ranger in the group and can see their worth. The other dungeons are a bit more forgiving so it would be a better fit there.

I can see why this class is so poorly played though I don’t get the whole 2 bear thing. It really is a hard class to play. I did enjoy playing it because of that and it was a change of pace. Hopefully more people will start using a sword and zerker gear and drop the tanky 2 bow 2 bear setup that I’ve seen 90%+ of pug rangers use (seen 2 use a melee weapon since launch). I used Brazil’s setup and it was quite good http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/84268-the-perfect-dps-ranger-guide-for-real/

ANET – fix sword and pet mechanics please

Pet dead, pet dead, pet dead, pet dead…

They really need to do something about that -.-

swiftpaw.6397:

Pet dead, pet dead, pet dead, pet dead…

They really need to do something about that -.-

Indeed. I was curious to see if it was the case after seeing it not die from Alpha’s AoE but they just died all the time here like I thought. Always bet against fractals I guess.

obal.3218:

swiftpaw.6397:

Pet dead, pet dead, pet dead, pet dead…

They really need to do something about that -.-

Indeed. I was curious to see if it was the case after seeing it not die from Alpha’s AoE but they just died all the time here like I thought. Always bet against fractals I guess.

Yeh I remember running zerk ranger for my 30 dailies, it was always dead
Best part about ranger in fotm was the aoe cc’s.. Very strong there. Entangle and MT are the greatest strength, especially on grawl fractal and dredge. You can have some great burst on the shaman vets that go to push villagers off the edge too. I’ve never taken even a somewhat decent pug ranger in there, they are always a dead weight.. but when I take an experienced friend or myself, I find them acceptable.

Good stuff as usual, Obal.

Fixing pets in pve by heavily buffing them? Fixing broken traits? Broken weapons?
Noooo.
Cuz esports.

deSade.9437:

Fixing pets in pve by heavily buffing them? Fixing broken traits? Broken weapons?
Noooo.
Cuz esports.

We cant hurt the tpvper’s feelings ok?

Btw there’s a big ol’ cry thread at this very moment about ‘op spirit rangers’ in the spvp area, it’s a pretty good laugh.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Passive-Benefits-Are-Terrible/page/2#post2454633

swiftpaw.6397:

deSade.9437:

Fixing pets in pve by heavily buffing them? Fixing broken traits? Broken weapons?
Noooo.
Cuz esports.

We cant hurt the tpvper’s feelings ok?

Btw there’s a big ol’ cry thread at this very moment about ‘op spirit rangers’ in the spvp area, it’s a pretty good laugh.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Passive-Benefits-Are-Terrible/page/2#post2454633

Thanks for the read, it was hilarious.
And I thought the dungeon section was full of drama! I’m so naive. Ahaha.

i sort of want to level a ranger and try it out after watching the first 2 videos

New rangers let their pets die a lot. You should play with me obal, and use my high level fotm build.

The main problem as melee with pets is probably the uselessness of f1/f3. Maybe making f3 more of a GTFO-and-stay-away-from-aggro button then it would be less of a consistent problem.

Chopps.5047:

New rangers let their pets die a lot. You should play with me obal, and use my high level fotm build.

Obal only does 48’s. Doesn’t slum it in the 20’s.

Thanks for posting the videos, very much appreciated.

tl:dr my ranger is viable in high level fract but i need 2 guards

sorry, all classes are viable when there are two guards in party

Chopps.5047:

New rangers let their pets die a lot. You should play with me obal, and use my high level fotm build.

The pets die mostly at bosses. I just can’t see anyone babysitting them while in melee range of bosses that one shot you if they hit you. A fix is really needed for pets.

I saw your build but I like Brazil’s better since it maximizes DPS which is better suited for organized groups at 40+, especially if you melee everything. If you melee for 40s you don’t really need a range set for your secondary (except for mossman). It’s best to los and stick it out and rally off of good dps than fall back so sword/warhorn and sword/x seems best for trash mobs. The only thing I can see needing the energy regen for is imbued shaman but food would be a better option since you have 3 evade skills with sword/dagger. Your setup would probably be better for pugging though.

I like the dagger offhand for an extra evade for the bosses. Axe just seems really weak and not worthwhile unless you pug and have to fall back so I stick to longbow for ranging since I only range if sword isn’t an option. I guess I could give torch a shot for the trash since I was swapping to axe for it. It looks like a great choice if an ele is in the group. It’s best to have at least 1 guardian in the group and one of them should be running a hammer so the protection spirit shouldn’t be needed if you have one.

loseridoit.2756:

tl:dr my ranger is viable in high level fract but i need 2 guards

sorry, all classes are viable when there are two guards in party

It was a test to see if a Ranger would slow down a run in an optimal group.

Every proffesion can deal similiar amount of damage under optimal conditions, I don’t really know why you had to test it. Issue with other proffesions like ranger is their utility and what can they offer to the team.

haviz.1340:

Every proffesion can deal similiar amount of damage under optimal conditions, I don’t really know why you had to test it. Issue with other proffesions like ranger is their utility and what can they offer to the team.

Frost Spirit and Spotter is a 12% group damage buff.

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Frost Spirit and Spotter is a 12% group damage buff.

I think interested parties realize that. But like I’ve said, any proffesion can bring something to the team like vuln stacking, blinds, aegis, projectile defenses, cc, etc. And in my opinion obal should focus on that part, not damage capability. In other words, what ranger can do that other proffesion do worse or can’t at all.

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Chopps.5047:

New rangers let their pets die a lot. You should play with me obal, and use my high level fotm build.

Obal only does 48’s. Doesn’t slum it in the 20’s.

Oh burrrrn… is a painful condition. >.>

haviz.1340:

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Frost Spirit and Spotter is a 12% group damage buff.

I think interested parties realize that. But like I’ve said, any proffesion can bring something to the team like vuln stacking, blinds, aegis, projectile defenses, cc, etc. And in my opinion obal should focus on that part, not damage capability. In other words, what ranger can do that other proffesion do worse or can’t at all.

Other professions can’t summon spirits or run the ranger passive trait buff.

I updated my conclusion to reflect what else they bring besides dps. Their utility value was a lot better than what I expected.

Oh! And Rangers bring Healing Spring! It’s a great heal skill and benefits everyone. Not to mention that between VoJ spam on Guardian and Opening Strike spam when traited will cap mobs out on vulnerability super fast, a pretty big plus when added to Frost Spirit, Spotter, and Healing Spring.

obal.3218:

swiftpaw.6397:

Pet dead, pet dead, pet dead, pet dead…

They really need to do something about that -.-

Indeed. I was curious to see if it was the case after seeing it not die from Alpha’s AoE but they just died all the time here like I thought. Always bet against fractals I guess.

They’re just gonna increase pet HP like they did with mesmer illusions, and it will fix nothing because the aoe fields/cleave from bosses do such obscene damage that even if the pet had 50k hp it would die pretty quickly still.

Another problem with the pets is that none f the melee pets besides the drake cleave.

They also need to do something about mainhand sword root, or increase the greatsword’s autoattack damage by a good bit. Greatsword autoattack damage is too low.

Maul’s bleed is useless, it should be removed for 8-10 stacks of vulnerability instead. Or convert the bleed portion to straight out physical and make it give the ranger a short duration fury boon.

Another big issue with the ranger is lack of aoe burst, let alone sustained aoe outside melee cleave.

Player Character.9467:

Other professions can’t summon spirits or run the ranger passive trait buff.

That’s just damage increase. I was asking obal to emphasize their strong points that aren’t simple dps increasement. To avoid further misunderstandings, I know what they are capable of, I’m just trying to improve opening post which contains some false information.

haviz.1340:

Player Character.9467:

Other professions can’t summon spirits or run the ranger passive trait buff.

That’s just damage increase. I was asking obal to emphasize their strong points that aren’t simple dps increasement. To avoid further misunderstandings, I know what they are capable of, I’m just trying to improve opening post which contains some false information.

Please elaborate on the “false information” part, I am curious.

mike.7685:

Please elaborate on the “false information” part, I am curious.

Volcanic fractal part.

obal.3218:

The pets are cannon fodder and dead the 90%+ of the fight.

There’s the false information, everyone. It should be something like 97%.

obal.3218:

Imbued shaman
You can entangle the boss and pretty much solo the bubble off with warhorn 4 and long bow 2.

Every skill in the game just remove one stack of the shield… are you sure about this information?

Every hit. Entangle, warhorn 4, and LB skills ( 2 and 5) hit multiple times.

Anubarak.3012:

obal.3218:

Imbued shaman
You can entangle the boss and pretty much solo the bubble off with warhorn 4 and long bow 2.

Every skill in the game just remove one stack of the shield… are you sure about this information?

I told the others in the group to not go for it and it was going down so it seemed like it was working. I guess they didn’t listen . I tried it again and it doesn’t. I updated the OP.

edit: kk

haviz.1340:

mike.7685:

Please elaborate on the “false information” part, I am curious.

Volcanic fractal part.

You still did not clarify anything. Give me a specific statement or situation that was posed as false or misleading.

Bleeds also tick off hits of his shields. The more you know!

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Bleeds also tick off hits of his shields. The more you know!

o.O seriously?… then just warrior lbow 5 it…

The ranger just takes far to much effort for the middling results he provides.

He’s like a worse version of the lightning hammer ele. Both require heavy group composition adjustment and much more careful play, yet at least the ele can surpass a warrior’s output when provided with the right circumstances. The ranger doesn’t.

It’s just grating to play a ranger. I’ve tried that spec a long time ago, and the fact is the average warrior or guardian will provide far more consistent results at less effort put in, with much lesser risk involved.

And there’s something deeply annoying about the fact that your class mechanic is dead on arrival for most “hardcore” content because developers are pigheaded about introducing WoW’s aoe avoidance/damage reduction for pets/minions in this game.

Zenith.7301:

The ranger just takes far to much effort for the middling results he provides.

He’s like a worse version of the lightning hammer ele. Both require heavy group composition adjustment and much more careful play, yet at least the ele can surpass a warrior’s output when provided with the right circumstances. The ranger doesn’t.

It’s just grating to play a ranger. I’ve tried that spec a long time ago, and the fact is the average warrior or guardian will provide far more consistent results at less effort put in, with much lesser risk involved.

And there’s something deeply annoying about the fact that your class mechanic is dead on arrival for most “hardcore” content because developers are pigheaded about introducing WoW’s aoe avoidance/damage reduction for pets/minions in this game.

Ranger doesn’t require changing anything about the group composition aside from replacing a Warrior. Ranger DPS is on par with Warrior, not to mention you are boosting everyone else’s DPS by 12%.

Sure, it’s more difficult to play. It also feels a lot more fun and more rewarding for me to play Ranger instead of a Warrior, Guardian, or Mesmer. Maybe other people don’t feel the same, but I’m not slowing things down when I play Ranger, I improve them.

I don’t have problems with the pets for the most part. If a boss targets them with a single target attack, they will most likely die or take heavy damage. AoE doesn’t do anything to them for the most part, though. It could be improved, sure, but it’s not as bad as people claim it is.

How does ranger require a change in group composition? And the only change hammer ele requires is fire field uptimes…

Zenith.7301:

And there’s something deeply annoying about the fact that your class mechanic is dead on arrival for most “hardcore” content because developers are pigheaded about introducing WoW’s aoe avoidance/damage reduction for pets/minions in this game.

The fact that wow got such a stupidly simple solution right while GW2 didn’t makes me feel ashamed as if my dad caught me while kissing the cat. Passionately.

Oh, only in PvE, of course. We don’t want our precious top-super-hyper-pro tpvp players to get kitten.

E: sometimes I hate this filter. Even though I love kittens.

mike.7685:

You still did not clarify anything. Give me a specific statement or situation that was posed as false or misleading.

He wrote that ranger is able to basically solo shaman bubble with lb2 and wh4, since those skills hit multiple times. That’s a false statement because every skill removes just one stack, no matter how many times it hits. That makes long channeled skills like lb2 not only bad but even detrimental. I’ve seen players claiming to be good using a5 on warrior just to get rid of the stacks while there was no grub nearby. Seeing something like this should move your hand towards your forehead.

Player Character.9467:

o.O seriously?… then just warrior lbow 5 it…

He’s trolling you.

obal.3218:

Anubarak.3012:

obal.3218:

Imbued shaman
You can entangle the boss and pretty much solo the bubble off with warhorn 4 and long bow 2.

Every skill in the game just remove one stack of the shield… are you sure about this information?

I told the others in the group to not go for it and it was going down so it seemed like it was working. I guess they didn’t listen . I tried it again and it doesn’t. I updated the OP.

Sorries. I was probably going for the lava eles and the shaman was in the way.

haviz.1340:

mike.7685:

You still did not clarify anything. Give me a specific statement or situation that was posed as false or misleading.

He wrote that ranger is able to basically solo shaman bubble with lb2 and wh4, since those skills hit multiple times. That’s a false statement because every skill removes just one stack, no matter how many times it hits. That makes long channeled skills like lb2 not only bad but even detrimental. I’ve seen players claiming to be good using a5 on warrior just to get rid of the stacks while there was no grub nearby. Seeing something like this should move your hand towards your forehead.

I thought I was seeing 1HB only remove one stack for the duration of the channel instead of one per hit, good to know I wasn’t imagining things. Now I have to pay extra close attention to frostbow and meteor storm next time I’m in there with my ele.

I always thought Smite was doing multiple shield ticks to the shield. Live and learn!

Broadicea.8294:

I always thought Smite was doing multiple shield ticks to the shield. Live and learn!

Smite works.

Here are 2 contradictory statements:

“ Haviz..
That’s a false statement because every skill removes just one stack, no matter how many times it hits. ”
and
“obal…
Broadicea.8294:
I always thought Smite was doing multiple shield ticks to the shield. Live and learn!
Smite works.”

So please explain to this blonde. Which one is correct? Isn’t smite a skill?

SkyChef.5432:

Here are 2 contradictory statements:

“ Haviz..
That’s a false statement because every skill removes just one stack, no matter how many times it hits. ”
and
“obal…
Broadicea.8294:
I always thought Smite was doing multiple shield ticks to the shield. Live and learn!
Smite works.”

So please explain to this blonde. Which one is correct? Isn’t smite a skill?

What Haviz said is a false statement. Since smite works, I figured the 2 ranger ones I used would but they don’t. You can check the wiki http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Volcanic_Fractal

“Also, saving the “multiple shot” skills for these occasions is recommended. Note that not all multi-hit skills tick the shield multiple times; for instance, the Guardian’s Smite skill ticks the shield extremely rapidly, but the Engineer’s grenades only tick once per volley."

I have heard about smite did multiple hits before but never bother to check during the fight. Since Haviz is a renown expert of GW2, he must know more than a blonde like me so I would take it @ its face value due to his credibility.
Hmm. Serve me right to be a lemming. Note to myself: Make another blonde asura.

Max level i tried on my ranger was 30 and it felt like i was leeching compared to what could be done on a mesmer

haviz.1340:

Player Character.9467:

o.O seriously?… then just warrior lbow 5 it…

He’s trolling you.

-_- we know, you also can’t condition a block

I still need to watch the videos, but I can say this: I main a Ranger and I do fractals lvl 48 almost every day. I already have 8 Fractals Weapons in my bank, plus 2 on my Ranger and 2 on my Guardian.

It has nothing to envy the Warrior. Zerker Warrior may be good on CoF runs, they can clear it very fast, but Fractals is another monster entirely. Bosses have so much health that a burst of damage every now and then doesn’t make them easier. Plus, on almost every fight I see them using Rifle, which is not optimal at all, and it doesn’t offer anything better than a Ranger with SB. Now, please don’t get kitten ed, I’m not saying that “Warrior suck”, I’m happy to take a Warrior into Fractals, I have no issues with them, but they are not that much better than Rangers in high level Fractals, and I always lol a little everytime I read “Guardian or Warriors only” on gw2lfg.

That being said, pets NEED a rework, even with the most amazing micro management they get destroyed. And I’m not talking about DPS loss, but all the other stuff we lose when the pet is dead: Signets, SnR and shouts in general, the pet’s skill, traits, etc. You can’t save a pet from a random axe throw from Mossman or attack from the Grawl Shaman, or the endless AoE on the Asura, or just almost every attack of every fractal boss.

I’d wish ArenaNet realizes that they’re not only a burden to the Ranger, but it’s just not fun. Having half your skills taken away on every boss fight it’s just stupid, and I hope they start making changes to fix this. Giving them immunity or reduced damage to AoEs could be a start, but so would be giving us more tools to manage it and make the best out of them.

I see that you use Sword a lot, which is probably the better choice, and I would love to use it myself, but having a more than average ping (being in South America does that), I simply cannot dodge reliably fast to keep bosses from stomping me, specially because of the sword root, so for now I’m using a power/condition build, but I’d really like to try Brazil’s build.

I’ll end with this: I remember when we beat the Grawl Shaman fractal with 2 Rangers, 1 Warrior, 1 Ele and 1 Thief with no wipes (No guardians!), it made me proud to be a Ranger and having another competent Ranger (and other party members) by my side, when everyone else think Guardians are a must-have in Fractals 48.

I’ll check you videos right away!

obal.3218:

What Haviz said is a false statement. Since smite works, I figured the 2 ranger ones I used would but they don’t. You can check the wiki http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Volcanic_Fractal

“Also, saving the “multiple shot” skills for these occasions is recommended. Note that not all multi-hit skills tick the shield multiple times; for instance, the Guardian’s Smite skill ticks the shield extremely rapidly, but the Engineer’s grenades only tick once per volley."

If you speak from experience, you should really spend more time in fractals. Watch this simple clip. Smite not only doesn’t remove more than 1 stack, it doesn’t even remove more than 0. I heard you were a good player.

Player Character.9467:

-_- we know, you also can’t condition a block

You can with necro or warrior with signet of might.