Guild Wars 2

I have one character slot left right now, and am considering either rolling a ranger or thief. I have tried both at some point and deleted, but I’d like to give one of them another go following the different changes accompanying the recent patch. If possible, could you all kindly give me your assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each in general pve, WvW, spvp, dungeons, etc., or even just the overall state of the classes in those areas? Also, if you have any overall thoughts or complaints about the strengths, weaknesses, or value of the classes in general I would be happy to hear them.

Haven’t really played Ranger, but been playing Thief quite a lot recently (PvE only).

Thief’s a pretty easy profession to play that’ll give you a ton of mobility and survives easily by using stealth and dodges. It’s fun to play, and can do well at both range and melee combat. Biggest weakness would be somewhat limited party support I guess, it does have some, but not to the extent of what classes like Guardian and Elementalist have. Overall, it’s a fun profession to play if you like having mobility, with good survival and damage.

This is my take for WvW/PvE-dungeons/casual sPvP.

The TL;DR is this: my own guild tells me “Go Thief” for WvW and dungeons, and I love my Thief, but I really love the Ranger when it all comes together…it just comes together less often than the Thief. However, my RL friends I play with in dungeon content regularly prefer my Ranger, but I also choose to believe it’s because my Thief smokes targets and makes them feel less bad kitten

I play both. I actually have a similar dilemma, as I want to focus on one for the summer, but love both. Here are my thoughts, especially post-patch:

They both have strong, supportive skill sets. Both dish damage out, but in different ways.

The Ranger can do damage, but the trick is you can’t really get that Might yourself. In groups where you can stack it on yourself, you will start to massively pull ahead, especially with Sword/Something and Greatsword. I go melee in dungeons unless I desperately need to be ranged (for now, the MF bosses depending on the group, and then I go shortbow). I consider Axe melee because of the shotgunning of bleeds, but it does let you pull back for breathing room. The Chill and weakness on Axe 3 is fantastic. Axe OH is wonderful with the sword if you have a lot of combo fields going on, especially with light or water. Saves your butt and heals/cleanses less than careful players. If you do the twirl in melee range, which you usually can with a good Guardian, it stacks some Vuln.

The Sword is really evasive, I prefer Sword/Torch, and it plays like a sword thief – auto attack, and you have two evades on demand. If you bring Dagger, that’s another, but I prefer Torch for the combo field at your feet, or Warhorn for some nice hard hitting birds and buffs. Greatsword also rips things up (again, work with your group to get more Might) and has a ranged and melee block that can be a lifesaver. The daze is also great, and you can swoop out of trouble or to a stray mob and lock it down.

You bring traps, which are great for trash. Fire and Cripple are great, but you have an Ice field, which is actually not that common. Learn to love Chill. You bring spirits, which can still be killed, but with proper placement and attentive control can offer some nice buffs – I don’t think they’re a Must Use! yet, but if you can drop them, they do work nice when they’re alive. You bring Entangled, great for overzealous pulls or players.

Shortbow is nice in a pinch, but pretty boring. Longbow is useful for Barrage and Hunter’s Shot, which stacks Vuln at 10%, more if you’re pet is traited for Opening Strike. Can be useful if paired with Sword.

Your pets are nice now, after the patch. Drakes simply don’t go down with half-hearted management, and their breath hits reliably and HARD. Each drake has it’s use. I still wouldn’t throw a cat into a melee fray with explosive spell graphics unless you’re really paying attention, but they do stay behind targets when they can, and it does improve the up time. You’ll really just have to play around and find out what works at what time – swap often. Maybe you just want Fury buffs to aid your group. Maybe Chill or dog control. You have options. Oh, and drakes have a blast finisher for your fire and water fields; once you learn their AA cycle you can abuse this.

As for the Thief, Shadow Refuge and Smoke Screen can be invaluable. As long as you don’t have dredge, OH Pistol can turn most dungeons into nap time. Sword control is fantastic, with the teleports. Mobility is key, and you’re a little more selfish then other classes. I prefer to take advantage of the weakness, poison, and bleeds than outright Backstab, along with sword cleaves and dazes. You don’t really focus on multi-targets as much as a Ranger can, but that’s okay because you’re spiking things down one by one just as fast in the end.

Melee is risky, but outside of a Guardian, when isn’t it? Learn you Evade timing on every weapon, learn your dodging, and learn to see through the mess of spell FX on the target. You’ll get the hang of it – play like a boxer, get in, get a few hits in, duck out, repeat. The Thieves I see who die a lot try to play it like other games and just staying on the target’s back.

Shortbow is still good because of it’s gas AoE and blast finisher, but I don’t consider it mandatory.

I highly recommend Shadow Arts as your dungeon tree, the lower cooldown on Deception skills is great.

I enjoy both classes, the mobility on them and group synergy is fun. Yeah, you’re not going to be bringing as valuable toys as a Guardian or Mesmer or sometimes Warrior. And there are people who only want those three. But honestly, even if you’re just the tagalong and know the class, people will respect you and soon be asking for you.