Guild Wars 2

I’ll try to keep the details brief. I’m coming back after about a year, and I would like to adjust my play style towards an optimal ranged DPS build. I once thought Ele would be capable of accomplishing this, but the only way to play an optimal Ele is to make the best use of all your attunements, and the simple truth is that I’m not good enough to juggle 25 different skills and adapt them for the best situation. So Ele aside, I’m wondering where the best place to invest some effort would be. I’d like to just throw on some Zerks or Assassins and just go to town from a distance, but I’d also like to do reasonably well soloing if I need to. Off the top of my head, here’s what I’m thinking.

-Longbow or Shortbow Ranger
-Longbow or Rifle Warrior
-Pistol/Pistol Thief

But given that I’m kind of out of touch with the current state of the game, I’m not really sure which of these would be best, and I don’t really have the time to invest play into all of them. Any thoughts on what I should go for? Other suggestions are welcome as well.

Thanks!

Tbh unless you are a ranger it’s kind of hard to stay ranged as any enemy will run straight at you anyway.

I still use ranger for any farming I do as he kills very fast with my build. Berserker, Stalker for pet with full pet trait line, he does bulk damage and is constantly healing himself. With longbow and my stalker I can easily throw some 20 or so stacks of vulnerability on enemies. He can tank pretty much all vets and some champs even. I have a bear on standby if he gets close to death to buy him some healing time vs champs.

You can send your pet at one enemy by hitting F1, then change target to another and kill a separate one yourself as well. Or what I personally like to do is run close to a group of say 4-5 enemies and send my pet at each of them, hitting them all once each. Wait for them to gather around him then smash them with Barrage. Piercing arrows is a great trait as well as you can line many of them up and hit them all.

Of course you will get others saying ranger sucks bla bla and that you can just melee. But if you really want to go ranged I would def give ranger a try.

I don’t have enough experience to say how optimal it is, but i have been doing pve with my lb Ranger and i got no complaints. I solo’d every pve content during world exploration, even Orr. I aim for Berserk gear and had mostly masterwork pieces, and – don’t remember from the top off my head the traits but – got nothing on BM and maxed out the first two traitlines. I use any pet i feel like but my main one is River Drake as he is well balanced stats-wise and got a good aoe skill.

Ranger shortbow is mainly a condition weapon and range is shorter than a longbow, so following Paulyntz’ advice the longbow would be a better option. Just be aware that damage drops the closer you are to the enemy, but maintaining distance shouldn’t be a problem with the pet as distraction.

Other options I can think of:

Mesmer greatsword. Similar to Ranger longbow (unless you trait to increase the longbow’s range), and you can use Clones/Phantasms to distract the enemy in place of a pet. Not as easy to pull off as with the Ranger though.

Guardian Scepter. One word: Smite (skill #2). Probably the best DPS range option, but only if you can rely on the enemy staying in the AoE. Against a single target, Chains of Light (skill #3) immobilizes. Against multiple targets, hopefully there’s a friendly meatsh…err, Warrior, around to distract them.

I would add Engi to the list except that what you stated about the Ele is also true for Engis…

If you prefer a more casual approach, Ranger with longbow is the best option. Just avoid dungeon speed runs. :-)

OP is referring to open-world for PvE?

virtualtourist.6438:

Ranger shortbow is mainly a condition weapon and range is shorter than a longbow, so following Paulyntz’ advice the longbow would be a better option. Just be aware that damage drops the closer you are to the enemy, but maintaining distance shouldn’t be a problem with the pet as distraction.

Other options I can think of:

Mesmer greatsword. Similar to Ranger longbow (unless you trait to increase the longbow’s range), and you can use Clones/Phantasms to distract the enemy in place of a pet. Not as easy to pull off as with the Ranger though.

Guardian Scepter. One word: Smite (skill #2). Probably the best DPS range option, but only if you can rely on the enemy staying in the AoE. Against a single target, Chains of Light (skill #3) immobilizes. Against multiple targets, hopefully there’s a friendly meatsh…err, Warrior, around to distract them.

I would add Engi to the list except that what you stated about the Ele is also true for Engis…

If you prefer a more casual approach, Ranger with longbow is the best option. Just avoid dungeon speed runs. :-)

I main an Engi and I can say that the ranger far out does me damage wise at ranged or even melee range. Engies really have no real burst damage, the flamethrower is as close as we get and that’s still slow. I have to say tho Engis can be a very good survivalist as well as slow killer solo of champs but then again I guess any class could be in a survival build/gear.

Pistol/pistol thief isn’t bad if you trait for it (pistol damage, improved dual attacks) but Unload, your main source of damage, eats up a lot of initiative so you’ll probably want to invest in some initiative-restoring abilities, and P/P is absolutely useless against groups unless you take Ricochet (bullets have a chance to bounce) and/or Sigil of Fire (possible AOE burst on your target on critical). On the other hand, it has an interrupt, a blind field, and an immobilize, so as long as you’re not up against too many enemies, with practice you can control the enemy’s distance and keep them at bay. Thief shortbow is viable too, but it mostly shines up close where you can spam skill 2 (Cluster Bomb), and the shortbow relies on condition damage (bleeding from the bomb and poison from Choking Gas). On the plus side, mobility will never be a problem with the shortbow because you have what amounts to a near-limitless evade (skill 3) and a shadowstep (skill 5) that lets you take charge of pretty much any situation.

Any class can play Ranged and for no class it’s optimal, except Engineer and in group situations it’s still best to stick closer to the group for buffs. So pick a class you actually enjoy.

If you plan on open-world PvE only I’d recommend Ranger because your pet can make sure enemies stay at range. If you plan on teamplay I’d recommend Elementalist or Engineer since they’re not much weaker at range than melee, unlike most other classes.

The ranged options for any class how I’d recommend them:
Elementalist – Staff – You stay in Fire and spam 2 on recharge and fill with 1 and 5. It’s one of their highest DPS-options aswell (assuming you use damage modifiers and stay close range, but at full range it’s still strong.)
Mesmer – Greatsword(/Staff) – The longer range the better. Your phantasm cripples, making it easier to keep at range. Go a Shatterheavy build because your AoE will be miserable and your phantasm is far from the strongest.
Necromancer – Scepter(/Dagger) + Staff – Marks on staff for AoE and Scepter(/Dagger) is a wonderful Condition weapon (note: in groups the bleed cap will hurt)

Engineer – Grenadekit – Spam 1-2-3-4-5 as they come of recharge and make sure you trait it for increased damage (Grenadenier especially)
Ranger – Shortbow/Longbow – Longbow has good burst with 2-5 and strong damage if at full range, you can swap to shortbow when enemies get near/auto-attack spam.
Thief – Pistol(/Pistol/Dagger) + Shortbow – Compared to their other sets Pistol/any is rather weak and the Shortbow is only really good for movement and AoE. Pistol/Dagger makes it very easy to stay at range with 3 being a high damage distance-maker and 4 a tiny cripple and it compensates for the lack of AoE you’d have with Pistol/Pistol.

Guardian – Scepter/any – Scepter is your only real range option with 1200 range (the Staff only has 600) Trait for increased Scepter damage and more damage whilst under the effect of Aegis (20%!) since at range you shouldn’t get hit anyway.
Warrior – Rifle or Longbow – Longbow has some AoE and a firefield, aswell as immobilize and a blast-finisher. Rifle is the slightly higher damage no utility option.

Paulytnz.7619:

virtualtourist.6438:

Ranger shortbow is mainly a condition weapon and range is shorter than a longbow, so following Paulyntz’ advice the longbow would be a better option. Just be aware that damage drops the closer you are to the enemy, but maintaining distance shouldn’t be a problem with the pet as distraction.

Other options I can think of:

Mesmer greatsword. Similar to Ranger longbow (unless you trait to increase the longbow’s range), and you can use Clones/Phantasms to distract the enemy in place of a pet. Not as easy to pull off as with the Ranger though.

Guardian Scepter. One word: Smite (skill #2). Probably the best DPS range option, but only if you can rely on the enemy staying in the AoE. Against a single target, Chains of Light (skill #3) immobilizes. Against multiple targets, hopefully there’s a friendly meatsh…err, Warrior, around to distract them.

I would add Engi to the list except that what you stated about the Ele is also true for Engis…

If you prefer a more casual approach, Ranger with longbow is the best option. Just avoid dungeon speed runs. :-)

I main an Engi and I can say that the ranger far out does me damage wise at ranged or even melee range. Engies really have no real burst damage, the flamethrower is as close as we get and that’s still slow. I have to say tho Engis can be a very good survivalist as well as slow killer solo of champs but then again I guess any class could be in a survival build/gear.

True, but I still love using grenades, bombs and flamethrower with an engi. Burns and big boom never get old. :-)

Having said that, my favorite toon is a ranger using greatsword and twin axes.

Just one note to add to Esmee’s comment about the Warrior’s rifle: trait for Crack Shot. All rifle shots pierce and skills have reduced recharge time, and benefits also apply to the harpoon gun for aquatic combat. Rifle skill #5 knocks back enemies at close range and cleaves (so it can affect up to 3 enemies). The burst skill takes a long time to activate though.