Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to find a “Main Toon” to play in Guild Wars, but I’m having some trouble…

Not only do I want to have a toon that can adapt to nearly all areas in game, I also want a toon that can look awesome too!

I’m been trying multiple builds lately, creating my own, trying every skill Rangers and Elementalists have to offer, but I still am having trouble picking one out of the two :/

Can someone give me some info on where one can excel over the other for WvW?
I want to know positives and negatives for each class from different points of views. I also want to know why “YOU” think one is better of the other, and please provide a detailed explanation.

Thanks in advance for the help everyone!

ranger is good for roaming solo/in small groups, but gets screwed zvz (pets), has superior mobility since RTL was nerfed
… longbow seems pretty niche; 1500 range is pretty safe to pew pew, offers decent aoe tagging (but as soon as a guard pops SYG; say bye to your health) and has nice utility in its stealth ‘tracking’

staff ele is amazing zvz, but gets screwed 1v1/x… can be mitigated by carrying round weapon swaps with an ambiguous build (but it sucks if you get caught in combat)
- could build bunker and run in zergs with d/d… but if they focus you…

i mostly play ranger in wvw; mainly because i like roaming; capping camps (which ranger excels at) and stuff; im not big zerger

Elementalist without a doubt.

Having a quaggan with a pitchfork by your side is better than a Ranger.

Elementalist may not be the best at everything but it’s probably the only class that’s good at everything. Maybe even almost the best.

as someone who plays both at 80, it depends what you want to get out of it.

eles are in a terrible state right now build wise, there is pretty much 1 viable build and everyone runs some variation of it. if changing your spec and trying new things is something you enjoy, ele is not for you atm. gear wise, the common setups are beserker+staff or bunker gear+any weapon. compared to a ranger which has many viable specs and gearing combinations.

play wise, if you run staff your ele will bring more to a zerg than a ranger will (tons of aoe’s create area denial). unfortunately, even in full zerker gear a moderately geared longbow ranger will out damage you most of the time and will definitely be better at “living through the fight”. both can bring speed, aoe cleansing and regen.

if you run anything besides staff, you are going to have to sacrifice damage gear for survivability (since you are closer, getting hit more), and at that point your damage and group utility takes a nose dive but you become one of the hardest classes to kill.

i prefer the ranger. eles may have the most skills, but lack of weapon swapping means they are really only effective at 1 distance at a time, and incredibly weak base stats means that you have to play bunker (unless zerging) which just gets really boring. because the survivability is only an issue for those wanting to play offensive ele’s, its something that will probably never be fixed.

Dezarys.1372:

Not only do I want to have a toon that can adapt to nearly all areas in game, I also want a toon that can look awesome too!

Since others have made the most pertinent comments with respect to combat and mechanics, in terms of cosmetics, take a look at the cultural armor galleries for light and medium across the races. (See, for example: here, here and here. Savant armor is pretty cool; here is my current look.) (Note: Asura are small and so aren’t the best if cosmetics are your primary concern.)

This can entail reading the wiki or even just standing on the bank steps in LA and watching players for 20 minutes.

I play both in wvw. But I’d say that for running with and contributing to a group of any size over 4….Staff Elementalist by a longshot.

My only 2 lvl 80 characters are ranger and ele. I will tell you that the elementalist is significantly stronger in WvW but it is also painfully boring to play.

As a staff ele all you do is mash your ’5’ key on the keyboard. Meteor Shower (Fire 5), Healing Rain (Water 5), Static Field (Air 5) and you just keep rotating them as they come off cooldown. Now don’t get me wrong, all 3 of those skills are huge in WvW but a 4 yr old could play a staff elementalist well.

I spend most of my time on my ranger which isn’t nearly as strong as the ele but is a heck of a lot more fun to play.