Guild Wars 2

Just wondering which class does more damage from distance?

Rangers do the most single-target dps from ranged.

Ranged AoE? I’m not sure.

yes single target.
u mean rangers with LB or SB?

Kain.7164:

yes single target.
u mean rangers with LB or SB?

Shortbow, by far. Also make sure you’re always flanking and keep your pet alive for maximum damage.

thieves do it best.

Single target ranged damage

Warrior / Mesmer.

Ranger lol..

If you want bursty, single target only damage, I would say ranger does it best. But when it comes to AoE, GC ele would be a better choice.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Max-DPS-Shortbow-Berserker-Build/

TexZero.7910:

Ranger lol..

Lol yeah, no.

Single target would have to be either Warrior rifle or Thief dual pistols. Multiple targets/aoe, maybe warrior longbow.

Are you using this for PvE type events like dragons? I discounted a few things from certain classes on the basis that they are not as useful in these PvE events.

I guess I should’ve expected the “Ranger, Lol” posts.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Shortbow-vs-Warrior-Rifle-DPS-tests/first

Tests I’ve ran. Gives you a pretty good idea of Ranger SB dps vs a War Rifle dps, but Ranger, while flanking, with pet alive, wins hands down.

Anet has stated also that Rangers have the highest single-target ranged DPS.

But not all damage is equal. Rangers have higher dps, but War rifle does FAR more burst damage. It’s up to you to decide what kind of damage you want.

playing in WvW today on warrior

traited for 20/30/0/0/20 (pretty glass cannon)

i use a full set of knights gear with runes of hoelbrak, and berserkers jewelry with a berserkers rifle.

using healing surge and berserkers stance to refill my adrenaline i regularly hit targets for 10k+ using [kill shot], when i use the skill [volley] on thieves i normally get about 6k damage. it can be tricky to consistently hit your target with these skills, but i believe that this is the highest ranged single target damage in the game.

ranger probably beats this damage in a sustained fight, however the first few seconds of a fight or if i get the drop on an opponent, i easily outdamage them in the short term.

I laugh at the people saying warrior! Sure those 10-12k crits are nice… after you’ve knelt down for 3 seconds waiting for it to go off….. unless ofc those Ranger dots have killed you while you stood still by that point :P

Anyway Rangers have the best single target and I’m tempted to say that Necros have the best AoE ranged (with the proper traits ofc).

Vicarious.3047:

I laugh at the people saying warrior! Sure those 10-12k crits are nice… after you’ve knelt down for 3 seconds waiting for it to go off….. unless ofc those Ranger dots have killed you while you stood still by that point :P

Compare that to my thief build. I can do an immediate 13k burst, then another 13k burst, then another 13k burst, then roll for initiative and do another 13k burst. Downside is I die to one-hits from so many classes abilities :p I guess over certain timeframes, a ranger would do more damage, but I use the timeframe it takes to kill a single target in WvW, where the Thief and a Warrior both perform better. Except of the are a good player and run skills that reflect damage or temporary invulnerability. But the average WvW players skill is pretty low.

But really the question from the OP is open to alot of “but ifs”, so to speak.

Vicarious.3047:

I laugh at the people saying warrior! Sure those 10-12k crits are nice… after you’ve knelt down for 3 seconds waiting for it to go off….. unless ofc those Ranger dots have killed you while you stood still by that point :P

Anyway Rangers have the best single target and I’m tempted to say that Necros have the best AoE ranged (with the proper traits ofc).

I lol at people who think condition damage on a ranger is superior to straight Rifle burst.

It’s okay though, keep dreaming. Ranger Damage is good in long drawn out skirmish or if the target is completely zoned from the Ranger. Same can be said of the Warrior however

Vicarious.3047:

I’m tempted to say that Necros have the best AoE ranged (with the proper traits ofc).

Hmm, I don’t think so. That would have to go to elementalists if they go pure glass cannon. They don’t do that though because of how insanely squishy they are, however.

It’s funny how just a few mentioned elementalists, staff eles need a proper role instead of jack-of-all-trades. -_-

I Lol’d at the bit where someone included pet damage – if you are firing from range in any sort of battle your pet will miss 50% or more of the time against anything other than a stationary target.

Ranger ranged damage is worse than warrior and thief. Ranger Dots are fairly pointless unless it’s a long drawn out battle and the other player is useless at condition removal.

sostronk.8167:

Multiple targets/aoe, maybe warrior longbow.

I lol’d at this! Thanks.

Also if you want high ranged aoe dmg, thief sbow is pretty good but if you run condition engi with grenades… oh ma gaw. They alone can stack full stacks of bleeds and vuln while having access to all the damaging conditions. All this at 1500 range and every attack being aoe. Tested this in fractals too. PPC engi does a helluva lot more ranged dps (even vs a single target) with grenades thakittenerker (how is helluva not a “kitten” work but zerker is?) warrior. It wasn’t even close.

Oh but I should add, if you can’t land the cluster bombs or grenades, then you’re not going to be doing as much dps. Also grenade engi is nerfed if anyone else is competing for those stacks so make sure there’s only 1 condition stacker on the team.

Elementalist… rule AOE dmg but only if built to die before you can see your AOE take effect… pur glass cannon builds are nornally high up the DPS curves in most if not all classes but whether its single target dmg/burst dmg or ranged AOE.. if your dead after the forst hit your DPS counts for nowt and can have a knock on effect to others in your group/team/zerg, who take the time to pop you back up time and time again.
There are good players and great players that run around with the skills and experience to playout the glass cannon build but unfortuantely there are far too many of… sub-standard skills and experience that think seeing very large dmg on the occasion they are alive, makes the build awesome sauce.
I have a glass cannon Ele and love to see that big hit.. but even I know, after playing these kind of builds across various MMO’s for almost 10 yrs… I am never gunna be a reliable weapon in the group without alot of heals and support… but I guess thats the trade off.
On the upside if the party is sufficiently balanced and skilled in their roles then glass cannons can and should be far better suited and miles more effective.

As for single target, I would have to agree with most in this thread in picking rangers for sustain drawn out DPS but cherry picking short stacking kills I think either Thief or Warrior.. but as I dont play my warrior much in GW2 since early access I am leaning towards Thief

@randomfightfan… you know I forgot about the Engy… ma bad… considering all the issues that have been piled on the Engy since day 1, I ’ve never gotten round to playing one… maybe I will give that idea of yours a try, sounds fun.. and that is what interests me more tbh

Bloodstealer.5978:

@randomfightfan… you know I forgot about the Engy… ma bad… considering all the issues that have been piled on the Engy since day 1, I ’ve never gotten round to playing one… maybe I will give that idea of yours a try, sounds fun.. and that is what interests me more tbh

Grenade engineer while fun is heavily reliant on the stupidity of other player and the engineers positioning. Abusing terrain / LoS etc… and even then its overall DPS isnt as high as say Ele. It does however have some good burst and wins the war of attrition if not locked down.

TexZero.7910:

Grenade engineer while fun is heavily reliant on the stupidity of other player and the engineers positioning. Abusing terrain / LoS etc… and even then its overall DPS isnt as high as say Ele. It does however have some good burst and wins the war of attrition if not locked down.

you are thinking about zerker grenades I’m pretty sure. With ppc, you’ll be doing okay damage… until you get your condition stacks up, then it will be GODLY. Also, can get 10 stacks of bleeds in about 2s with grenade engi if you land. Also, it’s not on the stupidity of the enemy, it’s on the skill of the player. Also, if you can, go underwater. The grenades no longer use ground targeting and just follow the target like missiles. Only the f2 skill doesn’t work very well there.

Inb4 underwater combat lol. You can hit targets on land while you’re in the water. If you can sneak up on something and initiate like that, the damage is godly burst and instantly stacks those conditions for the long term fights.

You really don’t have to use the underwater trick I mentioned, it’s just a tip to help out those who aren’t used to the class yet. Can still deal all the damages on land that you could underwater (even more cause f2 works amazing on land).

For PVE warrior rifle is probably the best,just because their super obvious killshot won’t be dodged.
For PvP and wvw,a theif or Mesmer or ranger would Probbaly be better.

Zerker SD+Rifle spec engi does great burst damage if thats what you want. Plus you get some very bursty close quarter abilities too (blunder+jump). I’m running mixed defense/offense armor+spec myself and I still do great damage on mine.

But the class takes a bit getting used to, but if you learn it, the engi will preform great.

For WvW you have massive control and great burst, no long cast times and things come in seperate attacks instead of the very easily avoidable killshot warriors have. The only class I find more bursty is the mesmer. AoE or single target, it does insane amounts of damage both from shatters and phantasms, iWarlock can crit for 13k+ if you pop him at the right moment or if you run in a condition heavy group he will crit for that amount very often.

I would think Mesmer would win any ranged DPS race if the fight lasts long enough for them to have 3 phantasms out for a while.

Minion of Vey.4398:

I would think Mesmer would win any ranged DPS race if the fight lasts long enough for them to have 3 phantasms out for a while.

GS#2, GS#4, Dodge, F3, decoy, mirror image, F1 = dead whatever.

Kain.7164:

Just wondering which class does more damage from distance?

warriors, sometimes mesmers (if exploding clones are “ranged damage”)

Now I wonder if both sides had retaliation, which class would win?

Vicarious.3047:

I laugh at the people saying…
after you’ve knelt down for 3 seconds waiting for it to go off…..

You laugh at people yet you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Killshot has 1.75s channel not 3s.

Anyways, it’s a tough call, it all really depends on the situation.
There is no class that’s always best at X in all situations.

I’m not counting Mesmer because their illusions get within close range.

Long range single target: Ranger if you count Pet, Warrior if you don’t
Long range AoE: Elementalist
Medium range anything: Engineer

sostronk.8167:

Compare that to my thief build. I can do an immediate 13k burst, then another 13k burst, then another 13k burst, then roll for initiative and do another 13k burst. Downside is I die to one-hits from so many classes abilities :p I guess over certain timeframes, a ranger would do more damage, but I use the timeframe it takes to kill a single target in WvW, where the Thief and a Warrior both perform better. Except of the are a good player and run skills that reflect damage or temporary invulnerability. But the average WvW players skill is pretty low.

You can only burst that high against under lvled players or other glass canons. I’ve had several P/P thieves try comboing my guardian with those high burst skills and recharges, but they always end up running away once their second bout of initiative has been burned through.

Yeah protection is nice, regen helps, and healing saves me, but a ranger who’s good at kiting could probably kill me, where as a burst thief and definitely rifle warrior cannot.

I guess I don’t like saying P/P thieves and rifle warriors have the highest damage cause I personally don’t like the busting mechanic and never have in any MMO. Live through that and that bursty piece of paper is dead or running, survivable sustain is how I roll lol

TexZero.7910:

I lol at people who think condition damage on a ranger is superior to straight Rifle burst.

It’s okay though, keep dreaming. Ranger Damage is good in long drawn out skirmish or if the target is completely zoned from the Ranger. Same can be said of the Warrior however

LOL rifle burst is the easiest thing to avoid and at the same time rifles warriors are one of the easiest class/spec combos to kill. I see a warrior kneel down in front of me with a rifle I just run straight past him and it cancels, or if I’m too far I dodge at the extremely predictable moment it fires. DONE.

The ranger however, if specced right which most PvE and WvW players don’t quite understand how to do I’ve noticed, can burst almost just as high with their condition stacks PLUS they can survive better then most burst classes while keeping up pressure and damage.

Any decent ranger will beat any decent rifle warrior, the ranger has too much control for the severely lacking rifle of a warrior.

I play a staff ele and every time I see a thief spamming cluster bomb, I wonder why I bother. Whose Idea was it to give them that?

Ursan.7846:

I guess I should’ve expected the “Ranger, Lol” posts.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Shortbow-vs-Warrior-Rifle-DPS-tests/first

Tests I’ve ran. Gives you a pretty good idea of Ranger SB dps vs a War Rifle dps, but Ranger, while flanking, with pet alive, wins hands down.

Anet has stated also that Rangers have the highest single-target ranged DPS.

But not all damage is equal. Rangers have higher dps, but War rifle does FAR more burst damage. It’s up to you to decide what kind of damage you want.

And, warriors, traited for rifle, with inspiring shouts and quick bursts, are going to have kill shots available often. I have a ranger and warrior at 80 both built similarly (power/crit) and the warrior far outperforms the ranger in ranged damage.

Vicarious.3047:

TexZero.7910:

I lol at people who think condition damage on a ranger is superior to straight Rifle burst.

It’s okay though, keep dreaming. Ranger Damage is good in long drawn out skirmish or if the target is completely zoned from the Ranger. Same can be said of the Warrior however

LOL rifle burst is the easiest thing to avoid and at the same time rifles warriors are one of the easiest class/spec combos to kill. I see a warrior kneel down in front of me with a rifle I just run straight past him and it cancels, or if I’m too far I dodge at the extremely predictable moment it fires. DONE.

The ranger however, if specced right which most PvE and WvW players don’t quite understand how to do I’ve noticed, can burst almost just as high with their condition stacks PLUS they can survive better then most burst classes while keeping up pressure and damage.

Any decent ranger will beat any decent rifle warrior, the ranger has too much control for the severely lacking rifle of a warrior.

WvW is not about 1v1 and people who think that way are not good WvW players. It’s about objectives and actually winning. In a 1v1 or very small group encounter, the rifle burst animation will be detectable and avoidable. In the more common WvW scenarios, trust me, it goes undetected the majority of the time. Ranger condition damage is largely worthless in WvW given the amount of condition removal going on. It is very disheartening to play my necro in WvW because of this. Invest time in dotting up a target and see it removed a second later. Sorry, the rifle warrior is going to far outperform a condition ranger in WvW.

Ursan.7846:

Rangers do the most single-target dps from ranged.

Ranged AoE? I’m not sure.

kitten trolls these days.

B2T: Maybe mesmer with 3 pistol phantasms up or Warrior, like always, when it comes to dps.

Raine.1394:

Vicarious.3047:

TexZero.7910:

I lol at people who think condition damage on a ranger is superior to straight Rifle burst.

It’s okay though, keep dreaming. Ranger Damage is good in long drawn out skirmish or if the target is completely zoned from the Ranger. Same can be said of the Warrior however

LOL rifle burst is the easiest thing to avoid and at the same time rifles warriors are one of the easiest class/spec combos to kill. I see a warrior kneel down in front of me with a rifle I just run straight past him and it cancels, or if I’m too far I dodge at the extremely predictable moment it fires. DONE.

The ranger however, if specced right which most PvE and WvW players don’t quite understand how to do I’ve noticed, can burst almost just as high with their condition stacks PLUS they can survive better then most burst classes while keeping up pressure and damage.

Any decent ranger will beat any decent rifle warrior, the ranger has too much control for the severely lacking rifle of a warrior.

WvW is not about 1v1 and people who think that way are not good WvW players. It’s about objectives and actually winning. In a 1v1 or very small group encounter, the rifle burst animation will be detectable and avoidable. In the more common WvW scenarios, trust me, it goes undetected the majority of the time. Ranger condition damage is largely worthless in WvW given the amount of condition removal going on. It is very disheartening to play my necro in WvW because of this. Invest time in dotting up a target and see it removed a second later. Sorry, the rifle warrior is going to far outperform a condition ranger in WvW.

This guy gets it. Sadly ranger fanboys dont understand what’s written. Your damage is only good if you’re allowed to sit there and sustain it. Which the same can be said about sustained Rifle damage. Rifle burst is superior to sb burst and no one in their right mind can deny it. Also GL dodging rifle burst you cant see coming when its from the back lines of a crowd of 20+ people.

The ranger is my favorite class, by a good margin at this point. I dont think they are even close to as bad as people make them out to be. So, feel free to consider me a Ranger fanboy through and through!

That said, I definitely havent found them to be the most effective ranged DPS. They are programmed to have a large percentage of their damage reduced due to the fact the pet is expected to make up the difference. Thats an important point, since in many places in the game your pet will at best miss constantly, and at worst, be dead all the time. If that was the role I was going for, I would go for other classes like warrior, thief, or ele. Not only do they all have massive DPS at range (if traited, of course), they have extensive options to keep their opponent at range. I know one warrior who literally just uses the greatsword to mainly keep distance for the rifle.

While the ranger also has these options, it is all mitigated by the fact their damage in reduced due to having a pet. If they were more reliable, it might put them closer but as is, their effectiveness comes from other areas like combo fields (healing spring is the best water field in the game, imo).

Ursan.7846:

Shortbow, by far. Also make sure you’re always flanking and keep your pet alive for maximum damage.

- “By far”? This is very debatable topic. Traited longbow has 1500 range, shortbow has 1200. Longbow skills deal more direct damage, while shortbow deals damage mainly through conditions. Wilderness Survival trait line for increasing condition damage is uninteresting for ranged gameplay. Finally the shortbow’s AoE ability is more effective on close range and lacks the free targeting utility of longbow’s Barrage.

Zenith.6403:

- “By far”? This is very debatable topic. Traited longbow has 1500 range, shortbow has 1200. Longbow skills deal more direct damage, while shortbow deals damage mainly through conditions. Wilderness Survival trait line for increasing condition damage is uninteresting for ranged gameplay. Finally the shortbow’s AoE ability is more effective on close range and lacks the free targeting utility of longbow’s Barrage.

This is a great point. But according to my tests and calculations, Crossfire’s physical damage does very similar DPS to Longbow #1 at the longest range, and Longbow #2. Barrage, of course, does way more dps than Crossfire, but is handicapped by its long CD when you want to discuss sustained DPS. (It’s still an amazing skill!)

Which means that although the statement “SB deals damage mainly through conditions” is true, it’s a bit misleading. If you add in the conditions, even without condition damage, the SB is way more favored.

Calculations: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Shortbow-vs-Longbow-Damage-Calculations/first

my warrior rifle build blows away my ranger build by far. i destroy rangers in ranged fights easily too. mesmers and rifle warriors are better than rangers.

What about necro? Are they that bad currently?

Ursan.7846:

Calculations: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Shortbow-vs-Longbow-Damage-Calculations/first

- Crossfire has attack speed of 0.54 seconds per attack, so 1/0.54 = 1.852 attacks per second. Long Range Shot is correct at 0.8 attacks per second. Also you didn’t take into account that shortbow has no damage-increasing traits, but longbow has Eagle Eye, which give its skills +5% damage.

Zenith.6403:

- Crossfire has attack speed of 0.54 seconds per attack, so 1/0.54 = 1.852 attacks per second. Long Range Shot is correct at 0.8 attacks per second. Also you didn’t take into account that shortbow has no damage-increasing traits, but longbow has Eagle Eye, which give its skills +5% damage.

Was wondering where you got that 0.54 s/attack from? My numbers is derived simply from timing myself. (58 shots in 30 seconds.)

Lets see how it affects the numbers though. with 1.852 Attacks/s, Crossfire’s physical damage will do 248 DPS (134 * 1.852)

Overall longbow DPS at 30s, with Eagle Eye from long-range, is 296 * 1.05 = 310 DPS.

Bleeds without condition damage do 42.5 DPS. So basically, if you can keep 2 stacks up with SB, the SB will outdps the LB, even with Eagle Eye.

But then of course you’re not taking into account the team-wide benefit Longbow #3’s vulnerability, as well as the amazing AoE of Barrage. So whikitten utdamages LB, don’t dismiss LB!

the ranger is the best single target damage dealer for long boss fights in pve, when specced right and swapping out long bow and short bow.

I’m actually not surprised no one mentions a necro in a AoE situation using blood is power and other conditions then a good epidemic going off..ah, us necro’s so misunderstood

Warrior is the best. If 100b can do 47k+, then why wouldnt ranged be just as good but way less ofc. Still better than any class

GoZero.9708:

I’m not counting Mesmer because their illusions get within close range.

Long range single target: Ranger if you count Pet, Warrior if you don’t
Long range AoE: Elementalist
Medium range anything: Engineer

Didn’t realize 1500 was mid range… those poor engis always in harms way

Vicarious.3047:

You can only burst that high against under lvled players or other glass canons. I’ve had several P/P thieves try comboing my guardian with those high burst skills and recharges, but they always end up running away once their second bout of initiative has been burned through.

Yeah protection is nice, regen helps, and healing saves me, but a ranger who’s good at kiting could probably kill me, where as a burst thief and definitely rifle warrior cannot.

uh… thief steals the protection, retaliation and regen. Now how are you going to beat a p/p or sbow thief? D/D or sword/x thief could also take you then and there IF they play it just right.

Also this post is about ranged dps in GENERAL, not just in wvw or pvp. You have to take into consideration pve as well. Ranger and engi do have the highest sustained single and aoe (respectively) dmg if they are using all of their potential. They might not be the best in wvw due to condition cleansing but they still do have the highest dps over a long period of time. Not saying highest burst, saying highest dps.

Depends what you mean by distance. Rangers can deal damage to targets up to range 5000 (pet leash range).

Brighteluden.2974:

I’m actually not surprised no one mentions a necro in a AoE situation using blood is power and other conditions then a good epidemic going off..ah, us necro’s so misunderstood

Gen an engi to stack 25 stacks of bleeds and vuln, some burning, poison, confusion and chilled all on a small group. After that get a necro to add in blinds, cripples and add to the duration of the poison and whatnot. Then necro gets to spam epidemic onto a LARGE group. This over and over melts people. Doesn’t work every time but b/c this rotation can be spammed every 15s, it’s a very strong (even if they are fighting for stacks) combo vs anything aoe.