Guild Wars 2

Ive been wondering if theres any of the classes that primarilly deals damage at range?

I am currently playing a revenant, I find it quite boring to be a boonbot. And melee feels so disadvantaged in large groups. The name spam makes it all but impossible to see ground effects up close, since you cant turn off names in squads. And solo wise, Maguuma in particular have so much melee hate, like the mordrem spamming lava lines for one.

Rev hammer feels quite inefficient compared to melee in pve, and ive been eyeing dragonhunter guardians. But is there other options?

There is no “primary ranged damage dealer” profession. Be it for PvE or PvP content. Beside, most of the time you’l be more at your advantage in melee range than at range (mostly due to slow cast/projectile or monotarget effect. Being melee give you at least some cleaving effect.)

There are 2 things that you need to learn :
- How to dodge.
- How to counter some mechanisms.

Dodge :
I know that it may not be obvious but that’s your primary defensive mean and survivability in GW2 depend a lot of your ability to dodge what’s need to be dodged.

Countering mechanisms :
There are mechanisms in GW2 that need to be countered. It may be a mob that explode leaving a devastating field that you simply let explode in a safe zone and step away. Or a mordrem that leave lava line that you’ll stun lock. Crippling mordrem that rush you to prevent them to rush… etc. GW2 is full of counter for it’s mechanisms, you just need to learn the proper way to counter each mob.

Ranged profession:
Now, on the topic of the most efficient profession at range you may narrow a bunch of them :
1- Staff Elementalist : For me it’s still the top contender when it come to “range” damage.
2- Grenad Engineer : an engineer while pretty difficult to master can be monstruous at range.
3- Condi necro / mesmer / Condi warrior : these 3 are good option for ranged damage.
4- Ranger : forth position due to the fact that it lose dps in the hand of player that do not know how to manage their pets.
5- Thieves/ revenant : I believe that these 2 are efficient at range only in specific situation which make them at the bottom of the profession you should use for range damage. Note that they still have some really good DPS in the specific area where they shine.
6- Guardians : This is probably the worst profession to use at range. Beside Dragonhunter do not shine at range they shine in melee range with their traps.

My Ranger is 100% range

Rev’s hammer and Cond Berserker’s LB1 do the highest consistent “range” damage in the game, especially against bosses with big hit box.

I don’t consider Ele’s ground-target AOE as “range damage” though.
Meteor shower cd is abit long, and lava font is not reliable against mobile target.
My fresh air staff Tempest usually kill everything within 600 range.
Not to mention the damage does not outshine the above 2 if the above 2 hit the target more than twice.

Dadnir: I think you underestimate the consistent range damage hammer can dish out from a Revenant. It adds up higher than ranger that’s for sure. Glint/Mallyx even do more damage as hammer. Switch to Mallyx and watch your damage raised by 20%. I can see numbers like 18k per hammer 2. Not to mention it hit boss 2~4 times depending on hit box.
And ranger is not “that bad” with the introduction of Bristleback, but that’s only against a single target though.

Cond Necro, on the other hand, actually have pretty bad “range condition dps”, You have to go melee with Duuhm Fire Reaper 1 to have “decent damage”, but still nowhere close to the above classes I mentioned in terms of dps.

Do note I have all of them, and those highest dps classes is actually the build I’m using right now (all of them fully geared), so I have a good comparison between each of them.

Valky.2574:

My Ranger is 100% range

You can make any profession 100% ranged. That’s both the right and wrong answer. Right in that you can do anything that is fun in PvE and wrong in that completely ranged professions are usually worse builds than ones that use both melee and ranged.

If u search for nemesis’s wraith necro build on utube ull find a good allround stronk ranged dmg build. Normally ranged weps do less dmg than melee, but this one hits a sweetspot. I think his utbue name is i am legion or something

Hrm, interesting. I asume its switching to mallyx for the elite transform? It says 10% increased stats, how does that translate to 20% increased damage?

nacario.9417:

If u search for nemesis’s wraith necro build on utube ull find a good allround stronk ranged dmg build. Normally ranged weps do less dmg than melee, but this one hits a sweetspot. I think his utbue name is i am legion or something

“Strong” but still far from “strongest”

There’re at least 5 classes that outdamage that in range.

Aomine.5012:

Dadnir: I think you underestimate the consistent range damage hammer can dish out from a Revenant. It adds up higher than ranger that’s for sure. Glint/Mallyx even do more damage as hammer. Switch to Mallyx and watch your damage raised by 20%. I can see numbers like 18k per hammer 2. Not to mention it hit boss 2~4 times depending on hit box.
And ranger is not “that bad” with the introduction of Bristleback, but that’s only against a single target though.

Cond Necro, on the other hand, actually have pretty bad “range condition dps”, You have to go melee with Duuhm Fire Reaper 1 to have “decent damage”, but still nowhere close to the above classes I mentioned in terms of dps.

Do note I have all of them, and those highest dps classes is actually the build I’m using right now (all of them fully geared), so I have a good comparison between each of them.

I’m considering more the “open PvE” side of the things. Which usually mean loads of mobs to kill. I’m looking at the practical way to use each profession in this area and still, outside large hitbox, there is close to no reason to take a revenant with a hammer. A revenant will benefit more from using Mace/X with mallyx then taking a Hammer for most of the In game event.

For the ranger the issue lie in it’s lack of aoe and the fact that most of the player don’t know how to manage their pet. My point is more that ATM, you wouldn’t take a ranger for the sole purpose of being a range damage dealer. Beside, it would end up the same as the revenant, you’ll lose a lot by denying melee option since trap are more or less melee and that’s the greatest tool of the ranger in open PvE.

I think you underestimate a lot a condi necro. The condi necro strenght lie in long lasting condition and aoe. A burn Necro have it’s use but that would be as a melee condi necro. A ranged condi necro try to maximize it’s condition duration and use it’s ability to controle condition to controle it’s foes. A ranged condi necro main tool is the scepter and it’s utilities, not the shroud.

ranged profs that aren’t bad in PvE (may or may not be meta for raids and harder content so be warned)

Staff Ele
Nade/rifle engi
LB ranger
mesmer
axe necro (power) scepter necro (condi)
rifle war
hammer rev

you can kind of play thief and guard ranged but I wouldn’t.

I think for PVE, and ranged, Necro is a winner. I won’t claim it’s the highest damage range profession because I play the real GW2, not the excel version, but it’s certainly the most versatile in terms of builds you can have that do ‘ranged’ things.

If you main hand an axe or scepter and use minions, it’s probably the most balanced range builds you have access to in the game; reasonable damage, pets will tank for you, give useful utilities, condi clear and healing. I ran through HoT solo with such a build.