Guild Wars 2

Hi! So I’m really new to this game, and my first (and only) character so far has been an elementalist. I’m only at level 21 right now, but the different attunements is kind of overwhelming for me. I don’t think I’m really that good enough of a player to do very well as an Ele unfortunately Especially at end game content.

But ranger also looks super appealing to me (I generally enjoy being ranged classes) and I thought maybe I should try one out! But I was wondering what they’re like too. I heard that in the new expansion pack, they’ll be getting a “druid” spec and I am VERY interested in that even if I don’t know how it works yet.

I’m probably going to put my ele on pause while I go and try ranger out, but I just wanted to know from you guys what they’re like? And if Ele gameplay changes at later levels or not? Thanks!

(Also, forgot to mention, I will only be doing PVE. I don’t do any PVP whatsoever!)

Due to game mechanics, all classes are best place in relatively close range to receive buffs from other group members (most have a 600 range) and most classes are best played with melee-weapons. Staff Elementalist would be the only exception, being at their full potential as long as they’re within buff-range of their group. So if you’re looking for Range, I’d still stick with Elementalist.

A staff Elementalist also doesn’t juggle Attunements as much, mostly staying in Fire whilst in combat to not lose their DPS. Other attunements are mainly either for outside of combat (Air 4 + Air 5 for Swiftness, Water 3 + Water 5 for minor Healing and Condition Cleanse.) Or in the opener (Earth 2 → Glyph of Storms (Air for damage, Earth for Blind) → Fire 2) and thus might be something for you. Other weapons sadly do require some attunement juggling, which I found rather do-able with a little practice, but only you can judge if that’d be your thing. Other weaponsets also play in melee-range (or close to it) for the best results.

A Ranger, despite it’s name, will often use Sword for sustained DPS and a combination of Longbow (5→2 swap) and Greatsword for burst (3→2→auto) for openworld where stuff dies quickly. Campings Longbow or Shortbow will not yield great results, though gw2 can be played how-ever you like and it will still get done. (This goes for any class however since every class has Ranged, as well as Melee options, often Melee being superior.) If you think you’ll enjoy the pet-mechanic, it’s always worth giving it a shot.

Ele is superior for every aspect of the game but somehow this class is stupidly hard to master and a lot of player has this problem but very reward if you can master Ele and the gameplay won’t change if you can’t master it.

Ranger is more newbie friendly class easy to play not too hard to master but too easy mean boring if you enjoy it then it doesn’t matter.

The different between Ele and Ranger in end game content is fractal/dungeon every group alway have an open slot for ele or two and ranger….not so much some jerks will kick you out if you are a ranger in pug group but you can go with guild/friend to solve this problem.

But you can having 2 main in your family so why not lvling them both ?

Ele is not superior to ranger in every way. That is a very classist thing to say. The truth is rangers are easier to play, but hard to play correctly. This is why rangers are so dreaded in PUGs is they are a noob friendly class.

I am not a fan of ele because they bore me. It will play differently later on. Once you figure out combo fields, blasting mechanics and the sort, eles will be a lot more appealing if you like them. With the trait system how it is, you cant properly trait them and it makes leveling harder than it should be.

The short of it, at 80, I prefer my ranger over my ele for any content I do, but I don’t use either of them for almost anything any more.

Oh and if you need to learn about combo fields, blasting and the likes to make your ele stronger, look me up in game and I will show you.

Well ranger is very different from elementalist.

Elementalist focuses on combining different attunements to create powerful combos. A series of rapid attacks that combine into something destructive. The exception is pve staff, as you end up camping fire attument. It gets easier with practice, and zerker gear with a staff weapon is actually very easy to play. (and you can grow a lot as a player with it too, as survival for the weapon is more complicated.

Moving onto ranger, ranger is about how you build your character. They have a lot of flexibility, and some really cool weapons, but they are all pretty straightforward. The challenge for ranger comes from planning more than actual combat, however there are still many tricks to uncover from playing. They are more defensive by nature, and have good mobility (if build right). You can take a ranger with a longbow to max level and still not learn much about the game, so I advvise you try diffrent weapons.

Something a lot of people complain about with ranger, is actually the same thing that allows any weapon or any profession to do open world. NPCs have to stop moving to attack. This means that if you circle npcs, they generally cant hit you, some attacks can get to you, and you’ll have to dodge, but mostly learning how to deal with the A.I. in this game is baseline. Once you do, ele or any profession is easy.

Play what you like best, and try a few of the professions in heart of the mists (there is a portal to it in lions arch) Elementalist is very fun, but so are many professions in this game. No one class is perfect, and you just have to choose your poison. For elementalist, its being squishy by nature, and having more complicated rotations for max damage (except staff). For the ranger, your weakness is reliance on your pet (which is sometimes an advantage) also your weapons aren’t very flexible so careful planing of weapons and utilities is very important. (Again unless you are just doing heart missions, etc. in which case anything works)

Good luck choosing a main.

I have both Ranger and Ele at max lvl with ascended/exotic items. I’ll start with Ele. When You play Ele you can go to daggers, conjured or staff, that’s the main builds for ele, while playing with daggers you must be Asian player with 1000 click per second to play it good, I mean you will have to move a lot and change attu very often to maintain alive, with conjured weapons there is different story. Your best friend there will be Lightning hammer swappable with Ice Bow, and that hammer can hit hard, but again its melee, and Ele have very low survival. Last but not least, The Staff. I’d like to call it mobile artillery because it’s gamestyle is very similar. You stand behind others and shoot balls of fire with every auto attack AoE, your other skills on fire are AoE too. So You stand behind and watch for numbers, but when You are solo against lvl 80+ mobs like Orr or SilverWastes then You’ll have to do little running to stay alive, because those mobs can 2 shots kill you. Thats all for Elementalist

Now for a Ranger. I’ve discovered that it’s easiest class to level up next to guardian and warrior. I’ve noticed that mob and pet AI have been some kind improved since pre-living story GW2 (I have ranger then, but it was bugged to hell, so I deleted it and make another couple months ago). Your pet actually aggro mobs, and your cat don’t die on 2hit from simple mob. Ranger have this advantage that your pet aggro mobs so you can shoot safely from distance, and Longbow have been improved as well, on every 8s you can deal 12-15k dmg with your 2 skill on LB, but it’s single target, thats the difference between Ele and Ranger, Ele is AoE type, and Ranger Single Target, and Don’t listen to anybody that saying Ele is better at range of ranger, thats total BS, I’ve checked these 2 characters on same berserker build, Ele is good for AoE, but when it comes to deal massive ranged dmg to single target, then ranger shines, many people forget about boons and condis, but ranger at opening with skill 2 gives 15 stacks of vulnerability, that 15% increased damage on that mob for all those who are attacking it ! You can have pet to give boons too.

You can compare it very easily, on any builds site, and without any traits and armors or additional stats compare flat dmg from skills Staff ele and LB Ranger.
Ranger:
LB Basic AA – 321 dmg at max distance every 0,75s, can be improved by traits
LB Burst – 1340dmg for 2,5s burst = 536dmg/s 10s CD, CD and dmg can be improved with traits
LB AoE – 1704dmg for 2,25s = 757dmg/s

Elementalist:
S Basic AA – 317dmg every 1s
S Lava Font – 1160dmg for 4s = 290dmg/s CD 6s in one place
S AoE – 486dmg per hit if it hits at all, fast mobs can run from its range quickly, because of no slow like ranger have, and don’t forget about 3,75s casting time.

as you can see ranger flat dmg is better, furthemore if you do open world i’ts really hard to keep mobs for full duration in your lava font, that it can deal full dmg, unless you will facetank, or run around circle, but higher level mobs can hit you easily at close distance, and your survivality is like dry branch.

So people telling that ele dmg is better at ranged than ranger surely they don’t know how to play ranger. Ele is good for dungeons, when you can stack and let your team take dmg, or even bug some bosses that they can’t even hit anything, then you are safe to do your pools for stacking might lure mobs into lava fonts etc… I can agree with that. Ranger isn’t good for dungeons because of limited range where it’s shines at long distances. it’s better for fractals PUGs where most of people prefer using ranged to fight bosses, because its safer, then ranger deals best damage among all classes to single target boss.

And open world, if you do dynamic events with a lot of people then ele is better because of it’s loot vacuum AoE Staff, but when You do hard mobs like champions, then Ranger is better IMO. I can do Open world champions solo with my ranger. These classes are very different in gamestyle and it’s purposes. Ofcourse any class is good for anything but some are better than other in some cases