Guild Wars 2

Hey guys… I’m in need of some help… I already have 4 lvl 80 characters and I want a 5th one (I only want 5, I won’t get more character slots… I know you can buy it with coins and I have plenty but I just don’t care that much to have more than 5)

Which means that I only have 1 spot left and 4 characters to choose from… I currently have a warrior, guardian, thief and mesmer… outside of guardian they are mostly played ranged… I like playing ranged more… I build my characters to be pretty glass but not too glass… kind of balanced but leaning toward damage for sure (only mesmer is truly glass)

I’m leaning towards an ele but I just don’t know… seems most are played to be bunker d/d and I would probably prefer to be glass 1200 range staff…

I also have a lvl 21 ranger that I guess is alright to play but is largely unremarkable… I really want to like a ranger but I just don’t see anything special in it, the pets get annoying… I would be more likely to play a ranger if I could perma stow the annoying pet but you can’t do that and the pet just massively ruins dungeon runs…

Engineer seems interesting on paper but I had one around when the game opened up and he seemed boring… I don’t wanna build turrets and damage without them was lackluster plus gameplay seemed like a massive gimmick…have they gotten better?

Necro seems to be in the same boat as ranger for me…I.really want to have one because I love them in other games but I just hate condition damage…

The fact that they are pretty much all condition damage massively turns me off, necro is definitely the least likely option for me

So what are all your thoughts on this? I like rather glassy ranged combat, helping out guildies, being in the back of WvW zergs and definitely a lot of dungeons… which of the four should I pick for my final character? THANKS!!!

Ranger could be well glass canon if traited for it, but because pets are a core mechanic of the profession, you can’t go stow them forever and it’ll just cripple your overall damage output. You can choose 2 buff pets (red moa/jungle stalker), make them stay in passive all the time and don’t have to make your pets fight if you feel like they die too quickly.

Here are 2 dps oriented builds that you can look into:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Max-DPS-Shortbow-Berserker-Build/

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/WvW-Power-SB-Ikiro-BSW/

Thank you very much for the builds! I would almost want the pets to die… I love running dungeons and you have no idea how many times a ranger pet ruined things for us by drawing aggro for a mob

Engineer seems lackluster, but are supposed to be getting buffs. Rangers, like you said, are remarkably unremarkable =). Necros are fantastic in WvW and farming, but don’t have any glass cannon builds.

Ele or ranger seem to be best suited for what you want. You might struggle has a glass cannon staff ele, but it will probably be more fun that glass cannon ranger. Glass cannon ranger is pretty much auto attack #1 w/ sbow. You can go with a more defensive/utility trap build where you use GS or sword which is a blast, but melee.

Yea the choice was essentially between a staff nuker ele or glass cannon ranger… I like the eke for the flexibility but also at the same time the gameplay seems too… I don’t wanna say complex because it’s not really complex, I played an ele close to 20 and it wasn’t complex… I would say it’s just… unnecessarily mashy…also it doesn’t seem like there is a logical glad staff build…

Ranger on the other hand seems unnecessarily simple… Traps are a gimmick, shouts seem too situational so as sad as it is, the best utilities seem to be signets…

Overall who do you think will be more fun back of the line nuker… button masher ele or barrage laying ranger?

guys… help me with deciding anyone please?

Have you looked at the mesmer yet?

I have a mesmer already… I have warrior, thief, mesmer, guardian…

I have played warrior, thief, necro, and engineer (i rarely leave the mists). I say engineer – very unique class. Switching kits is a lot of fun in my opinion. Throwing grenades around me likey.

do a necro!!
it’s been pretty fun so far. my other classes are namely Guard, Warr (lvling) and a lowbie Engi.

check out iamoneandiamlegion’s video’s on youtube. lot of great info on the necro and iirc, he has a glass spec as well.

I really don’t know if I can do necro… I’m strongly leaning towards ranger now… the 1500 range just somehow speaks to me lol

eXs.6210:

I really don’t know if I can do necro… I’m strongly leaning towards ranger now… the 1500 range just somehow speaks to me lol

I also think necro would be more fun.

However, if you’re purely looking between ele and ranger, go with ranger if you can handle the pet. Both professions area really easy to be bad at if you’re lazy. Ele you have to manage attuenments and combo fields to be good, while ranger you have to micro manage your pet and skill timings to be good.

Rangers are viable ranged options if you can learn to love the pet. If it annoys you, don’t play Ranger. The pet is a massive piece of your damage output and utility. But you can certainly deal damage at long range (1500) and kite endlessly.

Engineer is great fun. They’re better now and seem to be getting more love from Anet all the time. If you skim the forums, you’ll see that people feel Engineers are at the bottom of the pile but a look thru the Engi forum shows more people having constructive convos than griping (as opposed to Ranger). Just proof that despite its apparent drawbacks it’s way fun to play. (this is my vote)

Necro is ok, but if you don’t like the Ranger’s pet, you def won’t like the brainless minions. And I found the profession-specific Death Shroud to be very lackluster.

I haven’t taken a ranger to a level high enough for dungeons so I don’t know how bad it’ll annoy me there… maybe set on passive mode it’ll be better… what drives me crazy in dungeons are other people’s pets that aggro everything and their mom and get the whole group killed… maybe I’ll just go with a passive buffer pet…

There’re three kinds of rangers, those who despite pets, never want to learn them, complain and re-roll type, those who tolerate pets but never spent enough time to learn them, average player, and those who learn what their pets’ weaknesses and strengths are, and learn to micro-manage their pets, the above average ones.

Even if you have a buffer pet, it’ll go on to aggressive once you use its skill. What’s important for new rangers to know is that ranger is easy to learn, but hard to master. Its class mechanic, the pets, actually need a lot of attention than people might think. You have to manage its health and position very well, sometimes even sacrifice your own heal skill when you’re full health so it could stay alive. Keep in mind that if the pet dies, your damage will be cut down significantly.