Guild Wars 2

Hello!

My question will be about weapon switching in general, the ranger will be just an example, since its my only chara so far.
So could anyone tell me why is it worth to swap weapons during combat? Atm i use either a long or a shorbow as a primary weapon (im lv15, so i use the one which is stronger- if i dropp one etc.), and a sword/dagger or healing horn in the secondary set. However usually when i use all my skills with longbow, and a few autoattacks, the cooldowns are already gone and i can use my skills again, + its pretty comfortable fighting from far, while my pet is tanking. (I guess its the same for other classes, like a warrior with a greatsword, it deals more dmg even with normal autoattacks than a dagger/sword?)
So why is it good to switch during fight, and could someone help me with switching weapon sets effectively? When should i switch how, etc. Generally for every class, since im new to the game, and this is the first mmo with this system:D

Regards.

In regards to PvE swapping weapons is all about rotation rotation rotation. For the most part you want to avoid auto-attacking as that generally does not offer the most optimal DPS rate. Ranger is in an odd situation in that the Skirmishing specialization promotes weapon swapping, but Rangers don’t rely as much on skill rotation for optimal damage. For a Ranger you want to burn a few skills on Longbow and then swap to sword to auto-attack permanently (I’m generalizing, but you would also throw in the odd off-hand and utility skill now and then).

When’s the right time to swap weapons? That’s highly situational based entirely on what build you are running on your class. Unfortunately, trying to explain weapon swapping over post isn’t necessarily that simple, and it’ll make much more sense if you were to see in-game examples.

Yeah but as far as i saw it, my autoattack with a longbow does much more dmg than the skills with a sword or dagger :/
Thanks for the answer, i will watch some videos than to learn some tricks

In PvE a Longbow ranger can get lazy relying on the pet to take agro. The ranger can sit back a pew-pew from long range and safety.
That is a bad habit to develop.
In WvW or PvP your opponents won’t focus on your pet. They will close distance to you in a flash. Then your longbow damage will be ineffective.
You will need to switch to melee for dps, mobility and survivability.

The same thing applies to PvE with multiple mobs in higher level content. Silverwaste outpost defense comes to mind.

Btw, I love my 5 rangers.. They are habit-forming, but lovable.
Most have melee and range options. One is strictly melee (a beast in the right situation).

Good luck and enjoy

Damage on a longbow will also seem better because the individual Damage number you see on a longbow’s auto-attack is higher; however, the attack rate of the longbow is rather slow is why it’s supplemented with a more damaging weapon such as Sword.

Specifically, Longbow is brought into a fight for its Rapid Shot(2) and Barrage(5) as those two skills offer high burst damage. Beyond that you would want to switch to Sword and off-hand Axe. From there you would cast Path of Scars(4) and finish out with Sword Auto while keeping a mental track of your longbow cooldowns. Sword and Axe Damage numbers will look smaller, but they attack much faster and rack up more damage than a Longbow.

My point of view is primarily from a instanced point of view (story, dungeons, fractals, etc.). In open world you can continue with your Longbow tactic while hiding behind your pet, but as Slalom mentioned this is a bad habit to develop as this hinders your potential in more team orientated situations. From an instanced perspective, we want to keep team members fairly close to each other as the majority of key buffs have a small share radius. Thus, if you’re pew-ing from afar you’ll be missing out on key buffs that the rest of your team has.

Anyways, weapon swaps and rotations are something that I wouldn’t necessarily worry about until you’re much higher level. At your level I would encourage you to try each weapon and skill to get a feel for how each of them work.

Hmm, i kind of get it now, thanks for the answers
Could someone recommend a good site where they show many and different builds for each class?

MetaBattle is a great source for builds though it’s currently in limbo as the community is revising the builds to match the 6/23 update.

Other than than Reddit’s Build and Theorycrafting is a good subreddit for posting questions and getting feedback.

My two cents (without having read the whole thread).

First of all, as a Mesmer, I use a Staff and two swords. The swords do better damage, and I like getting up close and personal. But the staff has some nice skills too, like Arcane Storm (or something like that) that adds conditions to the enemies. Plus, it also lets me summon a phantasm warlock that does more damage to the enemies if they have conditions on them. So first casting the storm, them summoning the warlock does some nice damage. I can then switch to my swords to finish off the enemies, wile the storm and warlock are still active.

Second, there are times when i need to run and/or kite the enemies. Switching to a staff will help a lot in these cases.

Third, there are the group stuff, like dynamic events. It can be very useful to switch to the staff and fire away from a distasnce, while other players hit the enemies with their swords and sticks. I get full reward for hardly any risk at all. Win-win. For me, anyway. But if I need to defend myself, I quickly switch to the swords.

And btw, I’m a leftie, so I remapped the weapon switching to Left Ctrl + V. This lets me switch weapons quickly with hotkeys, without moving my fingers at all. (V is already used for jumping, and Left Ctrl are used for skillls.) And for convenience, I remapped sheat/unsheat weapons to LeftCtrl + S.

This example is one of the main reasons new player should NOT learn the combat system with an LB ranger….it simply teaches lazy habits that will result in frustration (for the player and allies) when the game difficulty ramps up.

(Note that I’m not picking on the OP specifically and I too play an LB Ranger (as well as every other class) and find myself leaning toward lazy combat mechanics when doing so).

Okay, i will make a thief then tomorrow, wanted to make one anyways, but this encouraged me more, i heared thief is kinda hard, so i guess that will be fine to learn

If you’re wanting an easy to learn on I would recommend Warrior. The class’s mechanic is very straight forward, and they are one of the best classes to learn weapon swap/rotation techniques as they are the only class that can obtain a base weapon swap cooldown of 5 seconds. Necro is also a very straight-forward class, but the play style can be a little frustrating as their damage potential also interferes with their survivability due to the nature of their mechanic as you are literally giving up life force to do damage.

Thief isn’t necessary kitten paper, but their initiative mechanic is very odd for most new players. The best way I can describe it would be a thief’s weapon skills have no cooldown but rather work off of a resource similar to mana/MP in typical RPG’s.

With your ranger, your pet swap is just as important as your weapon swap. A full health pet to soak up damage or a well placed knockdown can make the difference. However you should be able to melt anything down early.