Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone… So I’m trying to get back into Guild Wars 2 and wanted to create a new character and all… Thing is, I’m a fan of ranged attacks. Which apparently Guild Wars 2 kinda discourages…

So I kinda wanted to know the opinion of the community on what classes to go for if looking for a good ranged experience (if there is any, somewhere in this game); I’m trying to for a mostly PvE gameplay.

I’m aware all classes can somewhat go ranged, but (at least some time ago) some classes tended to be almost impossible to be minimally efficient in such role.

So, please, share your thoughts/opinions. Thanks and sorry for posting a somewhat common question.

Necro with scepter/dagger and staff. You can run a minion build for lvling and then switch at 80 to a condition build. Great class for DMG and survivability.

Mesmer with GS and scepter/pistol, maybe? With the GS you do more damage the further away you are. Plus Mesmer is way fun.

i would say get a ranger with a longbow, may not be the highest damage output but still lots of fun and shiny crits

I’m confused at the “…. ranged attacks. Which apparently Guild Wars 2 kinda discourages…”, bit. All my characters have pretty viable ranged options, often more than one and I use all of them quite a bit. (Ok, maybe not my Guardian…..)

Certainly Melee is more powerful, but shouldn’t it be? (Since there is much more risk in melee conflict).

Brother Grimm.5176:

I’m confused at the “…. ranged attacks. Which apparently Guild Wars 2 kinda discourages…”, bit. All my characters have pretty viable ranged options, often more than one and I use all of them quite a bit. (Ok, maybe not my Guardian…..)

Certainly Melee is more powerful, but shouldn’t it be? (Since there is much more risk in melee conflict).

Like I mentioned, I’m aware that all/most classes can go ranged, and I do agree Melee should have some more power since there’s risk, but for what I can figure it’s that the difference is too much and that working around in melee isn’t (apparently) that hard, ending up with those who largely prefer ranged playstyles get sort of discouraged from doing so.

I’ve never been discouraged from a ranged playstyle, unless an event calls for me to stand in melee range… and that’s fine. It doesn’t impede my attacks to stand nearby, after all. I love shortbow (thief and ranger) as well as the mesmer greatsword. Elementalist staff is pretty powerful. Last, but not least, my engineer has many options for ranged, including flamethrower, elixir gun, pistols, rifle and grenades.

Thief and engineer are my two favourite classes, though I will say that necro staff is super fun, too. I guess I’m not a whole lot of help, here!

Got to say Necro is just boring to me. It dosn’t require a strategy beyond when to switch into and out of death shroud. No positioning worries, just boring. Deleted my 80 necro after a year.

Ele is okay but the strongest tend to be in melee range. Engi is the most complicated class to play, at least if you try and play it the best it can be played. Good Engi players are scary, but the level of play to reach that is very high.

I would go with Mesmer.

Maybe try engineer. It is mainly a short-range class. I.e. engi weapons and skills don’t have the range that bows have, but you’re not forced to melee if you don’t want to. At the same time, engis have tons of HP so moving into melee range and back out for some special close-range skill isn’t dangerous.

Main weapons are pistol/pistol, pistol/shield or rifle.

Most of the kits’ skills are ranged, too: flame thrower, elixir gun, toss elixirs, place turrets, grenades.

Then there’s some stuff for should you feel like going melee: bombs, tool kit… but really, it is a class that was designed with ranged playstyles in mind.

It is amazing fun and the versatility allows you to change your playstyle on a whim.

Offair.2563:

i would say get a ranger with a longbow, may not be the highest damage output but still lots of fun and shiny crits

Yeah, i also play my Ranger with longbow and like it. I have also Sword / Torch equipped for melee, but i prefer ranged most of the time

And before somebody says something about bad longbow rangers, i only play open World so i don’t care for max dps.

Well my first character was a Necromancer, he’s still sittin’ around at 66, was going Minion Master. My “ranged depression of Guild Wars 2” kinda came when I started looking for possible builds to try/adapt when 80.
Started with Minion Master not being acceptable at dungeons, then ranged, then conditions (which I find weird, since back on WoW, DoTs were neat…)… So I started looking for other stuff, found Engineer forums, apparently only ’nades are minimally acceptable… And then it was always downhill from there.

Kinda ended up wondering if anyone in this game actually played ranged and managed to even remotely play the game (without being on PvP/WvW)…

EDIT: So when I restarted playing the game I became kinda curious if the whole melee/ranged deal changed…
I don’t mind doing less damage, I do mind however being kicked (for example) just for prefering ranged gameplay. (And people seem to be obsessed about numbers…)

Since the comments were supportive of most (guess we could say all) classes in general about going ranged, think I’ll just pick the one I feel most comfortable with and find the coolest. (Which as I think most people agree, stylewise it’s kinda hard to choose )

TL;DR: Thanks for your opinions everyone ^^ And if anyone finds this post again, and wouldn’t mind sharing his ranged gameplay experience, would appreciate if you did, I think there would be some people that would enjoy reading that there’s people out there that actually go for ranged and not melee only >.<

If you want a ranged class that is accepted in Dungeons then Mesmer IS your best bet.

(I’m guessing Dungeons as that is the only place that getting “kicked” from a party matters in the least).