Guild Wars 2

Friend of mine recently got into the game, thing is: they only ever play range options in MMO. Myself, I pretty much go straight melee, so my knowledge on this is limited. Essentially: How viable are the various range options in the game from a PvP and a PvE standpoint?

It really depends on the class and it will differ between PvP and PvE. Some more details would allow us to better answer the questions. Perhaps give us a few classes your friends are interested in and what kind of role they like to play.

Range options in dungeons are really sub-par. You should avoid being ranged as much as possible. Open-world anything goes.

I’m sure a lot of people will reply to this telling you how well they do in dungeons on ranged weapon sets, but you’re far better off being melee.

Well, they’re big on bows and guns. So I suppose Warrior, Ranger, and Engineer are areas of interest.

Blegh, now that I think on it, they liked casters too in WoW. So Necromancer and Elem. Though from my understanding, only viability for Elem in PvE atm is thunder hammer.

Namica.2951:

Well, they’re big on bows and guns. So I suppose Warrior, Ranger, and Engineer are areas of interest.

Engineer is easy. It’s all ranged. You have a choice of rifle, pistol/pistol, or pistol/shield.

Warrior, as said above, should be going melee in PvE content. In PvP recently, many warriors run around with a longbow. It’s pretty solid, but I don’t recommend using it 100% of the time. You have to be willing and able to switch to a melee set to get the damage spike in.

Ranger, I don’t know enough about to comment on.

Necro in PvE is going to be most useful going with a power build. That means axe/focus and dagger/warhorn, usually. Axe/focus is 600 range so kind of ranged…but…not really. In PvP, you’d be going staff and scepter/dagger with a condition build if you want to be competitive. Both are ranged options and are very solid.

Ele is an interesting case. I essentially run the same build in PvE as I do in PvP, which is scepter/dagger. It works quite well, but it’s certainly not the PvE meta.

Ok first of all, are we talking viable as in the actual term? That being will it succeed?

Or are we talking about the typical forum version of viable, that being “Will it be uber king of dps yo?”

Celestina.2894:

Ok first of all, are we talking viable as in the actual term? That being will it succeed?

Or are we talking about the typical forum version of viable, that being “Will it be uber king of dps yo?”

I don’t want them feeling useless.

Namica.2951:

Celestina.2894:

Ok first of all, are we talking viable as in the actual term? That being will it succeed?

Or are we talking about the typical forum version of viable, that being “Will it be uber king of dps yo?”

I don’t want them feeling useless.

That’s does not really answer the question as if you ask person A if they feel useless using for example longbow in dungeons, they will say yes. But if you then ask person B they will say no.

So, if we’re talking DPS, then melee is by design capable of more DPS due to the safety provided by range.

That being said, with the actual meaning of viable being used, yes all weapons are in fact viable even range. There are exceptions in PvP however, for example a Ele trying to use staff in a 1v1 fight is just begging to die. However a Ele using staff in a zerg vs zerg fight in WvW is able to put some very respectable pressure on the enemy from a distance.

Namica.2951:

Celestina.2894:

Ok first of all, are we talking viable as in the actual term? That being will it succeed?

Or are we talking about the typical forum version of viable, that being “Will it be uber king of dps yo?”

I don’t want them feeling useless.

Well there’s very few things that they could do to be “useless”. They should be golden as long as they do not:

• Mix a ton of different mods on gear (most people go 2, 3 at most)
• Try to play a full healing/full tank spec
• Try to do a bit of everything
• Die every 10 seconds

But really, it depends on the person. Some will feel useless just knowing that someone on the team is dealing more dps or providing more boons or combo fields. And honestly, there’s nothing you can do for those people.

Namica.2951:

Blegh, now that I think on it, they liked casters too in WoW. So Necromancer and Elem. Though from my understanding, only viability for Elem in PvE atm is thunder hammer.

every ele weapon set is viable in PvE, it will depend on the purpose.
scepter mainhand deals burst damage
dual dagger for more sustained damage
staff for large AoE CC’s and support.

the lightning hammer is when you want to feel like a warrior and 11111111111 your way through content

Happyfool.8951:

Namica.2951:

Blegh, now that I think on it, they liked casters too in WoW. So Necromancer and Elem. Though from my understanding, only viability for Elem in PvE atm is thunder hammer.

every ele weapon set is viable in PvE, it will depend on the purpose.
scepter mainhand deals burst damage
dual dagger for more sustained damage
staff for large AoE CC’s and support.

the lightning hammer is when you want to feel like a warrior and 11111111111 your way through content

Suppose I should stop reading the class forums who make the world seem like it’s always ending!

Yes, definitely. Also consider people do this viability talk (especially on DPS) when we have no DPS-meters and very few of them actually do the math.

Just make sure they never try melee combat, and they’ll be fine.

I was always a range type player as well before GW2. I’ve taken four professions (classes) to 80 and geared in exotics, and two others into their 60s, and I can tell you that the ones I play the most are the strong melee professions.

As a general rule melee simply does more damage, while not being all that much harder to survive. You’ll find a lot of people have more fun doing melee even on the classes that seem to lean toward range. Dagger eles were everywhere for a long time, a huge portion of mesmer builds include sword as one of the two weapon sets, and even the assumed bow-and-arrow ranger can do a lot with melee.

Ranged weapons are perfectly viable. Just stay away from melee weapons so you don’t have a comparison.

GW2 converted this ranged player into a melee player.

Range is the safe way of doing damage. For this reason, range does not do as much damage as melee. The problem is, the content in dungeons is so easy that you never really have to go for the safe ranged option.

Namica.2951:

Happyfool.8951:

Namica.2951:

Blegh, now that I think on it, they liked casters too in WoW. So Necromancer and Elem. Though from my understanding, only viability for Elem in PvE atm is thunder hammer.

every ele weapon set is viable in PvE, it will depend on the purpose.
scepter mainhand deals burst damage
dual dagger for more sustained damage
staff for large AoE CC’s and support.

the lightning hammer is when you want to feel like a warrior and 11111111111 your way through content

Suppose I should stop reading the class forums who make the world seem like it’s always ending!

Yeah….the class forums are bad about that. While there is sometimes truth……..must of it, as you said, “end of the world!” talk. About the only class you won’t see doing that is Guardian…….for the most part.

Namica.2951:

Friend of mine recently got into the game, thing is: they only ever play range options in MMO. Myself, I pretty much go straight melee, so my knowledge on this is limited. Essentially: How viable are the various range options in the game from a PvP and a PvE standpoint?

My suggestion is make sure they never play in a dungeon. They’ll just be a useless leech since range does awful DPSand they will mess up any LoS strats where you clump enemies since there’s the risk they’ll just aggro them away from the group’s cleaving attacks.

Open world PVE is fine, and going pure range will most likely get you wasted in PVP, you’ll inevitably close distance with your enemy no matter how much you try to keep away from them.

Also, pure range leaves you weak to reflects.

Craptrain.7203:

Namica.2951:

Well, they’re big on bows and guns. So I suppose Warrior, Ranger, and Engineer are areas of interest.

Engineer is easy. It’s all ranged. You have a choice of rifle, pistol/pistol, or pistol/shield.

Not precisely. 9 of 10 engineers don’t use weapons for DPS, they use kits for damage, and at least 5 of 10 of the engineers that use weapons for DPS suck.

@OP: I would advocate Elementalist, Engineer, or Ranger. Staff ele has great AoE damage and utility, bow-based rangers can bring decent damage to the table (but aren’t doing that well compared to other classes) and engineer has some of the best long-range AoE damage, as well as the undisputed best vuln stacking ingame with grenade kit. Furthermore, many of an engineer’s melee options (Particularly flamethrower) aren’t 100% melee, and may provide a unique and attractive playstyle.

Finally, melee in this game is a lot different than in other games. I’ve got a friend who only ever played range in other games, started as a ranger in GW2, and was happy until level 80. He hated the ranger’s melee options, even after trying them extensively. However, when he tried d/d elementalist, he fell in love with their playstyle. Steer them towards range, but advocate that they try both.

Sylentir.8913:

Craptrain.7203:

Namica.2951:

Well, they’re big on bows and guns. So I suppose Warrior, Ranger, and Engineer are areas of interest.

Engineer is easy. It’s all ranged. You have a choice of rifle, pistol/pistol, or pistol/shield.

Not precisely. 9 of 10 engineers don’t use weapons for DPS, they use kits for damage, and at least 5 of 10 of the engineers that use weapons for DPS suck.

Grenades are perhaps one of the best damage options, which are also ranged. Sure, you can go close up with flamethrower or PB with bomb kits, but in all honesty, are those really better damage options?

Craptrain.7203:

Sylentir.8913:

Craptrain.7203:

Namica.2951:

Well, they’re big on bows and guns. So I suppose Warrior, Ranger, and Engineer are areas of interest.

Engineer is easy. It’s all ranged. You have a choice of rifle, pistol/pistol, or pistol/shield.

Not precisely. 9 of 10 engineers don’t use weapons for DPS, they use kits for damage, and at least 5 of 10 of the engineers that use weapons for DPS suck.

Grenades are perhaps one of the best damage options, which are also ranged. Sure, you can go close up with flamethrower or PB with bomb kits, but in all honesty, are those really better damage options?

I wasn’t saying melee options are more damaging, I was saying that telling someone that an engineer’s options are rifle, P/P, or P/S is somewhat dishonest. I think we kinda just misunderstood each other :P You’re certainly right about the grenades being a good damage option. Zerker FT is fun, and also has its place, but I typically like grenades better.

Berserker ranger in an Exotics/Ascended mix can get crit chance up well above 80% and multiplier above 100% (for >2.5x base damage). Longbow skill 1 can deliver between 2-4K per hit at the longest range, and the recent tweak to longbow aftercast did improve longbow dps. However, longbow damage decreases as you get closer to your target. The longbow ranger in group play is going to stay away from the rest of the group (which is likely in melee). This means the ranger does not get the group’s buffs, nor does the group benefit from the ranger’s buff. Rangers solo can deliver slightly higher dps in melee with LS or GS, and in group play that will be magnified by group buffs.

Namica.2951:

Friend of mine recently got into the game, thing is: they only ever play range options in MMO. Myself, I pretty much go straight melee, so my knowledge on this is limited. Essentially: How viable are the various range options in the game from a PvP and a PvE standpoint?

The ONLY reason to switch to a ranged weapon… ever… is to briefly use it’s CC skills then switch back to melee in order to actually Kill whatever you’re fighting in WvW or D.E.’s.

I run up and melee all the World Bosses on my Ranger, I don’t even give a kitten b/c I’ll out-regen Jormag’s stacks of Corruption like they were hardly even there. Wanna kill Lupi in less than 5 minutes? Melee. Want to be the fastest moving Roamer? Melee. Want to nuke a Zerg and make it rain Baggies? … Roam faster with Melee leaps to carry supply faster & build more Arrow Carts. Want people to take notice that you can actually Dodge & Block and not suck at vidya gaems? MELEE.

ilr.9675:

Namica.2951:

Friend of mine recently got into the game, thing is: they only ever play range options in MMO. Myself, I pretty much go straight melee, so my knowledge on this is limited. Essentially: How viable are the various range options in the game from a PvP and a PvE standpoint?

The ONLY reason to switch to a ranged weapon… ever… is to briefly use it’s CC skills then switch back to melee in order to actually Kill whatever you’re fighting in WvW or D.E.’s.

I run up and melee all the World Bosses on my Ranger, I don’t even give a kitten b/c I’ll out-regen Jormag’s stacks of Corruption like they were hardly even there. Wanna kill Lupi in less than 5 minutes? Melee. Want to be the fastest moving Roamer? Melee. Want to nuke a Zerg and make it rain Baggies? … Roam faster with Melee leaps to carry supply faster & build more Arrow Carts. Want people to take notice that you can actually Dodge & Block and not suck at vidya gaems? MELEE.

Depends on the profession. Engineers have insane AoE damage at 1500 range, and actually for the most part suffer to deal similar melee damage. My current build sacrifices might-stacking for mobility, but can maintain 15-20 bleeds and 20-25 vuln indefinitely on an immobile target. Remove the mobility to add in the HGH might stacking that most DPS builds go with, and bump up the damage even more.

Also, most mobile? Surprisingly, the 2 most mobile classes I’ve seen are a thief with a shortbow and an engineer with speedy kits/rocketboots. The former will usually switch back to melee for combat, but the latter rarely does.