Guild Wars 2

I’m gettin’ bored with this Ranger. It’s hard to kill 1v1 (Im not gonna rant here). I feel like I am just running in a huge group and don’t help too much. Maybe I am just bad. Anyone have a suggestion on a new class to roll just for WvW? I wanna be more involved and have more survivability while helping in killing people too.
Thanks all

Imo, ranger is bad in 1v1. You’re probs not gonna feel (that) useful running in a huge mindless zerg with any class unless your zerg is coordinated and running synergy builds. But in terms of 1v1, go something like mesmer, d/d ele, thief or engineer.

I play a soloranger mainly. and i must say that the only 1v1 i find hard is good mesmers.
but you kind of have to lay down the bow. sword warhorn and greatsword works nice 4 me. spec heavy into regen and use onom ghost food to lifesteal on crit, skill roof is thrue the celing tho alot of micro with pet wep swapps and evades on wep skills that makes you dizzy the first months

A decent specced Ranger is awesome in 1v1 …
Fire, kite (repeat) ad a few stun blocks and cripples and melee classes such as Fighter/Guardian can’t touch you (Speaking from watching Rangers wipe the floor with these classes)

Ranger is bad in 1v1. Ha! This is silly.

I just got done running some duels in pvp with my guild on my condition/trap ranger, and I was kicking some serious butt. The only class/build that really got me was a thief with clones, and almost everyone else was crying. Seriously, in 1v1 I am VERY hard to beat. 1vX just depends on how decent your opponents are, but with my trapper/condition build I had good players crying that my conditions were melting them.

Try a condition trap ranger, full CARRION gear, spec 0/30/30/10/0. Prec line is very important for the trapper for the trap skills, and of course the condition/toughness line is a given.

I run with axe/warhorn and Shortbow, using believe it or not…the very cheap superior runes of the undead. Poison, Fire, and Bleeding traps, and Entangle as Elite…and that is not a useless skill. My Entangle description does 18.5k damage over its whole course. If you can’t constantly keep conditions off of you and kill me fast, good luck.

This idea that 1v1 is useless is silly…you’re just not doing it right. If you want to try and duel me, let me know! Not saying I am unbeatable or the best, but in the very least, I think I can prove that it’s not useless like some suggest.

There is a ranger in my guild that is so freaking aweosme in wvw and he always changes specs and weapons he’s very versatile. I loved his beastmaster spec where his pet was critting people ridiculously high. I don’t know enough about rangers to recommend anything since mine is level 2 waiting to be played but seeing this guy in action has made me want to level one.

I give you one simple piece of advice, if you see a warrior with mace/shield then run. I have yet to lose against a longbow/shortbow ranger with my mace/shield warrior since I run the trait “reflect missiles while blocking”, let alone all the stuns/dazes and condition removal I have!

glass cannon rangers (full berserkers gear) do crazy damage, very good against your average zerg and the most fun build I’ve found. Rapid fire with piercing arrows, and barriage, both can hit over 20k total damage fairly often against a large group.

Bad thing is that you have to be careful not to kill yourself on all the reflection/confusion that’s tossed around with organized wvw teams.

condition/trap ranger is good for 1v1, spvp, but not really that useful in fluid wvw situations where enemies don’t have to kill you to take positions and really 1v1 means that at least one of you isn’t helping capture or defend points.

Just saw the ‘20k damage ’ claim. Against anyone halfway decent, half your rapid fire will miss/dodged/obstructed/etc. Barrage you’ll be lucky if it hits the same player twice in a zerg, and if you’re solo then GL getting more than two arrows to hit any decent player. Adding to this you have to stand still while casting barrage making you a favorite target of any gap closing class.

I love glass cannon rangers for the easy kills they give me- start your barrage, I QZ, charr racial, lb 3, lb2, and by the time you finished standing in one spot you’re either dead or nearly dead and I’ve just avoided your barrage. Using mesmer against it is even more fun- GS2, shatter confusion, glamour and watch you kill yourself if you fail to cancel your barrage fast enough.

So it seems like this topic is divided in two.

Victory, please tell me your server so I can transfer. If you have rangers there who try and use barrage 1v1 I need to come there LOL. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Grats for killing a dumb kitten ranger.

Ranger’s are fine in WvW, it’s really just a question of build and usage. If you want to be effective in combat but also support the group, I would suggest a trap condition build with a pet that heals such as the Moa or Fernhound, as well Healing Spring. Trapping chokepoints, creating combo fields, clearing conditions etc – all very useful.

As a Ranger, if you trait into extra range for Longbow, you’ll be important for clearing point defenses and siege on fortification walls – there are lots of ways a Ranger can be effective in WvW. You just need try something different before giving up.

why are you trying to 1v1 in WvW anyway,no wander your bored (and probably dead).
The Ranger is always doing something useful in WvW as others have said ,defending and attacking the walls,traps,buffs and a pet to manage boredom is the least of my problems.
With my fire dog elite skill i can burn down a supply camp on my own and if i do get caught on my own i can usually get away (from some classes anyway ).

PS never AOE in 1 v1 ,i sometimes hit it in panic,not a pretty sight,LOL

Victory.2879:

condition/trap ranger is good for 1v1, spvp, but not really that useful in fluid wvw situations where enemies don’t have to kill you to take positions and really 1v1 means that at least one of you isn’t helping capture or defend points.

Just saw the ‘20k damage ’ claim. Against anyone halfway decent, half your rapid fire will miss/dodged/obstructed/etc. Barrage you’ll be lucky if it hits the same player twice in a zerg, and if you’re solo then GL getting more than two arrows to hit any decent player. Adding to this you have to stand still while casting barrage making you a favorite target of any gap closing class.

I love glass cannon rangers for the easy kills they give me- start your barrage, I QZ, charr racial, lb 3, lb2, and by the time you finished standing in one spot you’re either dead or nearly dead and I’ve just avoided your barrage. Using mesmer against it is even more fun- GS2, shatter confusion, glamour and watch you kill yourself if you fail to cancel your barrage fast enough.

The flip side of that is a decent ranger won’t put themselves in the position for you to do those things. The more common scenario with a good ranger is that they will use barriage on stacks of people in a chokepoint or on a wall, or get a good line up on rapid fire to guarantee that they will hit a lot of people. And your average zerg doesn’t have a lot of people that would do half the things you mention.

I don’t play my ranger a whole lot because I don’t think they are nearly as useful for the type of gameplay I enjoy (organized 15-20 man groups). But of all the gear/build combinations I tried, glass cannon was the most fun. I went full healing gear and tried some BM/healing specs, but felt I was even less useful with those.

I’d give you an advice, try to play this "unknown "class and be the champ in wvw

Actually rangers are very good 1v1, but if built this way they suck in group fights(not even zerg fights… ).

But if they are bulit for zerg fights, they suck 1v1 lol so they become easy pickings.

Sword + Dagger / Greatsword while keeping your buff up with warhorn when out of combat is devastating to most classes 1v1. Yeah, Rangers are pretty lacking in general and need buffs in certain areas, but this combo will beat anything but tanky kit Heavy Engineers, Guardians, and certain Mesmer builds (while others you’ll kill with ease). Eles can draw with you since they can’t bring down your sustain and you can’t bring down theirs.

I build pure tank/sustain with 30 Marksman for signet share, 30 Wilderness Survival for pet removing conditions from you, 5 Beastmastery for 2 seconds of quickness of pet swap (single best minor trait in the game), and 5 Nature Magic for the extra Vitality. Use Healing Spring as you can do 4 leaps with Sword + GS during it’s duration making it heal for way more than any of your other heals as well as removing conditions. Rampage As One, QZ, SoS, and SoW for signets. Keep warhorn swiftness up as much as you can then swap back to dagger. Drag your longbow out when sieging keeps for Barrage or to do damage to a zerg. Wolf pets for knockdown + cripple. Your damage is terrible, even with 2.2k+ power, but there really isn’t a good way to do lots of damage with a Ranger without relying solely on the pet (we probably have the lowest overall damage of all the professions); however quickness + sword is still some pretty good burst damage.

Also LOL at not being built for zerg fights. You can rush in with GS and Sword/Dagger and cause hell to a zerg while having 30 seconds straight stability, massive quickness, and 6 seconds of invuln, and tons of evasion, not to mention Healing Spring being possibly one of the most broken WvW abilities in the game when you run with a good group who uses blasts finishers.