Guild Wars 2

So i’m trying to find my fit in what class to play since I love/prefer ranged combat. I tried engineer…and it isn’t bad to me but I find i’m having a problem with range and damage. I feel I must be doing something wrong since i’m a dedicated range character and yet I see warriors breeze past me with their rifle.

So between all the ranged choices, which would allow me to stay at range while giving the best damage/support to my pve/wvwvw teammates? Also without being a glass cannon that can’t survive a gust of wind (Ala elementalists). Is rifle warrior the best option right now for ranged combat?

If you roll a ranger with Power/Toughness/Vitality gear you won’t be glass cannon and you’ll get some really nice long range damage.

Otherwise you can stat toward condition damage, healing and your pet and use a shortbow along with axe/torch. Your pet can put out raw damage or support, your choice.

Eles don’t have to be glass cannon by the way, but their builds are a lot less straight forward and I have yet to make a workable one in my experiments. I know plenty of other people do well with them.

Ele (like Wasp said, you don’t have to be squishy), Ranger, Necromancer, Warrior, and Mesmer (potentially squishy) all have very viable long ranged combat, with ele and ranger topping the list for certain. Engineer, all things considered, is more of a medium distance class who has ranged weapons. But any of the rest should fill the niche you want.

While we’re on the topic, I want to point out that you can’t always transfer, “that warrior kicks kitten with a rifle,” onto, “all rifle warriors kick kitten ” Especially if you passed one in PvE, you have to consider he might be a higher level than the zone, have a higher tier weapon, or might have been under extra temporary effects. Any player will breeze past you with one or more of those benefits.

In any case, while engineer isn’t nearing the top for ranged output, you have a lot of options outside of warrior.

What about the thief? It has guns doesn’t it? Does it do well at ranged?

Roziel.5720:

What about the thief? It has guns doesn’t it? Does it do well at ranged?

Actually the shortbow for the thief is quite nice and it definitely one of the best ways to stack up blast finishers in combo fields. If I’m not mistaken, pistols are a little “meh” right now.

But its been a while since I tried them.

I wouldn’t consider the thief a long range player. Ranged, yes, but not much longer range than the engineer. Almost all the Thiefs ranged skills cap at 900 distance, whereas most long distance weapons reach 1200. You’ll end up in close combat more often than is enjoyable.

More importantly, a Thief is not being played to the best of it’s abilities if they’re used to just stand back and shoot. Other professions have that part covered far more effectively. I was a bit reluctant to add warrior to the list for that same reason. They’re a slight step better at range than thief, so it’s debatable. But warriors at least are designed to sit out and the open and hit stuff. That doesn’t suit a thief at all. Much too squishy. You’re just asking for a bad time.

Warrior or Ranger.
Warriors and Rangers (in your case the ranger) are both capable of playing the game ranged with no problem at all. The main reason for not playing eitther of them they are limited in the possibility to excell.

You hit hard and kill quick and thats it. Where e.g. the engineer has more specialised roles for e.g. support, healing, kiting, slowing, etc. This means all warriors and rangers are good at the game, but they are limited in getting very good or the best.

I suggest the Elementalist, just don’t spec for a glass cannon. There are plenty of options for survivability builds, such as cantrip or glyph setups.