Guild Wars 2

Recently I’ve decided to return to GW2, I played for a short time at the beginning of HoT, but ended up losing interest as several people I played with at the time quit and I was not really motivated to find a new guild/etc.

I have a few questions for the community:

- What are the good ranged dps profs/builds currently?
I have previously played Ranger (power based), Elem (staff), and Necro (Sinister/Condi, but really just for pvp).

I have 80 Ranger/Elem/Nerco, and can use the 80 boost on anything else. Ideally I’d like 2 options to try out that at the least do enough dps in pve/fractals that I won’t hear complaints.

- How active is the WvW scene? this is something I enjoyed previously, but after trying it a bit I noticed it had vastly declined at least on my server, is this the case in general or have people just moved elsewhere?

- Is there anything important I should look into / read up on / etc as a returning player?

Welcome Back

Ele ofc is the best ranged class no matter what
Condition Necro is very powerful with HoT
Ranger become a healer but you need gear with healing power on it for raiding ofc.

If you gonna use 80 boost i suggest Guard because elite specs Dragon Hunter can use longbow quite strong.

For WvW it remain the same just ppl like to transfer to high rank servers.

You probably want to check out new build for your classes, gears, and masteries system.

Eros.6801:

Ele ofc is the best ranged class no matter what

This is an opinion. And one I strongly disagree with in many cases.

Fluffball.8307:

Eros.6801:

Ele ofc is the best ranged class no matter what

This is an opinion. And one I strongly disagree with in many cases.

On this topic Ele is the strongest straight physical DPS class, only 2nd to thief in some instances. However “best” is a vague term depending on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for utility, you’d run into mesmers. If you’re looking for easy rotations, fortitude, and heavy aoe condi damage I’d suggest necromancer.

As someone who fractals everyday Necro is a safe bet. I’ve ran into some bad necros, but none that have ruined a run. The ascended viper stat trinkets are a bit hard to get, but this patch just released some blood stone ones. Search up the Viper horror build as it tends to have multiple variants.

I’ve looked into builds a bit, so far Elementalist seems the same to me (which in this case is good and bad as I previously enjoyed staff elem in group content), though truthfully I’m a bit hesitant because I never enjoyed Elem in open world content so I never took mine too far, so instead I tried necro a bit, with a few changes and so far I am enjoying it.

Is Dragonhunter viable as a purely ranged class? (In the way that LB/LB ranger aka “Bearbow” was in the past).

On that matter is Rifle/Bow warrior viable? or is it still more of a gimmick spec or are those weapons only really good as backups?

Compared to WoW’s raids, how difficult are the raids in GW2? Are they on par with early progression Mythic content (Very difficult, under 1% of the population can complete/etc)? or more similar to late progression mythic or heroic content? (only moderately difficult, requiring coordination but should be completed by anyone willing to put in the effort).

Yes DragonHunter basically a ranger without pet, LB skill are pretty strong with low cd #2 and recently scepter got some love too.

For War there is a build name Gunflame and war have very high regen if you specs into Defense, bow is a condi weapons after HoT, condi war are pretty good now.

Well this game raid are easier than WoW but still need organaized group with everyone know what they are doing. Alot of guild offer raid training program you should find one. Also in raid we now have holy trinity system.

Tenkiei.3894:

I’ve looked into builds a bit, so far Elementalist seems the same to me (which in this case is good and bad as I previously enjoyed staff elem in group content), though truthfully I’m a bit hesitant because I never enjoyed Elem in open world content so I never took mine too far, so instead I tried necro a bit, with a few changes and so far I am enjoying it.

Is Dragonhunter viable as a purely ranged class? (In the way that LB/LB ranger aka “Bearbow” was in the past).

On that matter is Rifle/Bow warrior viable? or is it still more of a gimmick spec or are those weapons only really good as backups?

---

Compared to WoW’s raids, how difficult are the raids in GW2? Are they on par with early progression Mythic content (Very difficult, under 1% of the population can complete/etc)? or more similar to late progression mythic or heroic content? (only moderately difficult, requiring coordination but should be completed by anyone willing to put in the effort).

When I took my elementalist into HoT, I was pretty much getting one shotted by the mobs. It was depressing and not fun. I found a good build and gear suggestion from a video by Wooden Potatoes on the elementalist forms that someone posted. After I got used to the build, she kicks some butt and doesn’t die nearly as often. She’s still a squishy after all. If you like, look me up in game and I’ll be happy to link my gear (it’s only exotics right now) and build for you.

With my Dragonhunter, I use the bow a lot. It is surprisingly high damage. When I feel the need to bash something in, I’ll switch to my melee weapons.

I’ve not looked up warrior builds yet. But I have found out in HoT, it is best to have a good ranged weapon for those Hylek. They do love to shoot poison at you. I’ve heard the same about a rifle build, and I’ll be looking that one up in a few days myself.

And I’ve not raided in HoT, so I can’t compare between this and WoW. WoW raiding soured me on the whole aspect.