Guild Wars 2

Hey guys just wondering which is the best bet for PvE, WvW, and dungeons I can not decide which to take to 80 as my main. I have a ranger in the upper 30s and thief in the low 40s, so I know a little bit of each class.

Thanks for your input and help.

No one has any insight into my problem.

johnIV.3849:

No one has any insight into my problem.

Fine I’ll help you find a main.
Get in game =)

johnIV.3849:

No one has any insight into my problem.

The problem is that deciding on the ‘best’ profession is entirely subjective. Rangers and thieves are quite similar in that they are based on movement and evades rather than soaking up damage. You are going to find that people will unfairly pigeon hole you as a less desirable profession whatever you decide as the medium armoured professions really have issues when you compare them to the others. E.g they are not as flexible as an ele, not as much aoe dps as a warrior, not as much debuffs as a necro, not as support orientated as a guardian or mesmer.

I would go with figuring out which weapon sets you enjoy most and work from that. When I started I rolled thief over ranger because I loved the movement from Shortbow over the rangers more static Shortbow skills.

I would say ranger is better than thief in pve. With the help of the pet you have more survivability + its great for helping you rez when downed. as for wvw and pvp everyone have their own opinion.

What you should focus on is which one of the two do you enjoy playing the most ? if you cant decided then level both to 80. might take some time but you will get there eventually.

There is no "best " choice. There are different choices though, and i personally like thief more. That however does not mean you will. Pick whatever you think you will like. I have a lvl 42 ranger, but while i like the weapon sets, i despise the utility skills.

You can’t go wrong with either one. Like others mentioned see which weapons you have the most fun with, but also see which profession mechanics you like more. For me, the Thief stealing mechanic was ignorable and not really fun or effective. On the other hand the Ranger pet mechanic is fun and effective (in open world PvE).

In PvE there is no best, but the Ranger would have better survivability in a non-boss encounter setting. A Thief can likely put out more DPS than a Ranger (but not always).

Any situation that is going to bring quick, high damage potential (Vets, Champs, Environmental damage, etc.) is going to present a problem for any Ranger that has any dependence on their pet (as the pet has such low survivability in those situations). Their DPS will be reduced (by how much depends on their build) and they will loose their “agro-magnet”, thus putting them into a “pet-down mode” that completely changes most Ranger’s play style. For these reasons, Rangers are regularly shunned by Dungeon and Fractal groups that are going for high-efficiency and speed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love playing my Ranger, but you have to accept and plan for the limitations that are shackled to them by the pet mechanic.

Rangers are pretty bad in WvW, and thieves are better for solo roaming or picking people off on the sides of a zerg, but apart from that neither are that special.

For PvE, thieves bring more DPS but rangers have nice utility with frost spirit and spotter and still have nice DPS (as long as you use your sword, not wrongbow/bear)

Holy literal crap. It’s like Anet doesn’t want Rangers to exist in their game anymore, so they’re nerfing them into the ground repeatedly. Choose Thief, choose thief before you’re cursed for even talking about Rangers!