Guild Wars 2

Ok, my question is this: will rangers be viable as counter periphery / gank squad after the next balance patch?

With reduced cast times and signet changes I feel as if rangers will be able to offer burst damage comparable to that of thieves (All the while staying at range). The signet changes are going to offer a very impressive invulnerability skill as well as a significant damage output (plus stability) utility. Another option that should not be overlooked is Sic Em. This skill is apparently receiving a buff to its reveal portion, which I believe could prove invaluable in targeting the enemy gank. 3k autoattacks are mean enough already, I would hate to think what a 1.5 second Rapid Fire (that tracks) could do to that squishy squishy thief over there.

I guess no one knows for sure just yet, but I feel that these may be just the changes we need in order to find ourselves a place in GvGs.

pets dont have cleave dmg, pets cant fight against multiple targets, pets cant hit moving targets. ele have 90k dmg within a second, thief have 80k. ranger dont have fields or blast finishers or even mass cc. a tanky warrior do the same dmg with hammer as a zerker ranger + cc
somewhy devs think pet is an advantage
(btw ranger will be better as now)

Ranger is already viable for GvG. Problem is you find 1 good ranger player out of a thousand in this game that understand the class fully and how it needs to be played in WvW. Next update will make them stronger but the issue with rangers in GvGs is you have everyone relying on their pet for kitten to get done instead of them self and it needs to the other way. Build 100% for yourself, expect to have no pet at anytime.

I’ve used an extremely good ranger as periphery before and the combo with a thief is outstanding, though I would probably never do it with any other player til he proves himself over and over to show me what he’s doing

McRangie with dancing pets for the win

McWolfy.5924:

pets dont have cleave dmg, pets cant fight against multiple targets, pets cant hit moving targets. ele have 90k dmg within a second, thief have 80k. ranger dont have fields or blast finishers or even mass cc. a tanky warrior do the same dmg with hammer as a zerker ranger + cc
somewhy devs think pet is an advantage
(btw ranger will be better as now)

Lol I think you missed my point. First of all, have you read the patch notes? I highly doubt it if you believe ranger will be better as of now. Also, how is it that thieves can deal 80k damage in one second??? If that is true I have been really missing out while playing on my thief.

I was saying that ranger could offer RANGE (FROM A DISTANCE) damage comparable to that of thieves. Their main burst skill (post patch) tracks through stealth, and the Sic Em utility will provide 6 (8?) seconds of reveal. Not sure if you have played a GvG before, but 6 seconds is easily enough time to burst a stealthless thief.

Again no clue where you are getting your numbers from, but a 7-10k Rapid fire seems to me like a fine way to get the enemy gank.

No combo fields? Ranger has the longest lasting water field in the game (not saying it would be the best option) and provides a blast finisher that grants fury, might, and swiftness. Don’t like the blast? Take Dagger instead to further help you self survivability. Don’t have stealth? Oh wait yes we do, and it happens to be on a very reasonable cool down.

Of course we will need support from our fellow gankers, but I feel that they will have both the survivability and burst output increased in this patch.

Where are the patch notes that you guys are reading?

Also Rangers should make fairly decent periphery gankers and can also contribute to recovery with their water field on healing.

1500 range bow: you can track enemies with damage even into their frontline, decent 1v1 survivability (to shake off other gankers) with traps. That’s all the hallmarks of a ganker periphery. There are a few builds that can work in gvg.

McWolfy.5924:

pets dont have cleave dmg, pets cant fight against multiple targets, pets cant hit moving targets. ele have 90k dmg within a second, thief have 80k. ranger dont have fields or blast finishers or even mass cc. a tanky warrior do the same dmg with hammer as a zerker ranger + cc
somewhy devs think pet is an advantage
(btw ranger will be better as now)

Ranger’s have the best mass CC in the game, so perhaps you should log onto yours again wolfy, because you are making yourself look like a fool.

That being said, to address the main point, the pet is what really limits a ranger in a GvG. It’s X amount of useless damage in a scenario like that. Pets are great, don’t get me wrong, but they won’t get the job done in a GvG. Another issue with ranger is to compare with a thief or mesmer on the backline, they have to sacrifice a lot of survivability, or at least more than a mesmer or thief would. This is coming from somebody who has played a ranger in a GvG, and humbly acknowledges that is not where rangers shine.

Having said that though, to say something like Wolfy did just shown a complete disconnection with reality when it comes to ranger.

They’ll make good gankers with the change to Rapid Fire next patch. The problem is they’re still trained down pretty easily because the evades don’t hold up well to massed AE CC and RaO has a cast time and Entangle is so easy to counter (though with a 48 second cooldown maybe). The pet also doesn’t hold up to any attention from more than 1 or 2 opponents. Group utility is also non existent.

Really the only thing the class gained with this is RF now doing real burst and an effective 10% increase in damage from the RtW change imo. But that is also a curse because people tend to let the Ranger be one of the secondary targets or backline eventually intercept them. Now they could be hit by a train early on or be a primary target.

Signet of Stone

Respectfully disagree on the lack of Ranger group utility, even post 7/25 balance pass. I know, I know, I’m overruled. But waterfield/warhorn sure can be refreshing for those willing to stay on tag. An oldie but goodie – Just my 2 cents.

One thing that will be really useful is the ranger water field. Thieves have an easily spammable blast on their short bows, so this now enables a full periphery heal/reset.

The upcoming changes will make roaming rangers in WvW more competitive but the ugly truth for this class still remains, it cannot specialize in anything that a GvG group wants or needs and still be effective. It has a couple bright spots marred by a lot of lackluster traits, skills and effectiveness.

Still it is good to see ANet buffing the least effective WvW class.

want group support?

take 2 points into nature magic, Circle of life.

You die? who cares, you drop a condi cleansing water field lasting 12 seconds…. Even in death you’d help your allies.

Want pets to work in GvG? take guard + malicious training + krytan drakehound. Drop guard on the flank of the enemy zerg so pet stay AWAY from the damage. then activate F2 and Entangle to trap some backliners to be easily picked off.

Can rangers work in GvG? yes, without a doubt.
Will ONE RANGER, do the work of 2-3 other classes ? NO IT WILL NOT.

However, taking a ranger with piercing arrows (since most GvG’s doesnt have much long range combat) and Rapid fire can deal some serious damage. Not to mention Barrage cast time was slightly reduced (which makes it slightly less suicidal to use).

Even in full zerk, rangers can bring a sun or stone spirit, drop it, and grant a little group support.

@Prysin
there’s a problem with piercing arrow though, you can’t have 1500 range + faster bow + piercing arrow at the same time, 2 master traits and 1 grandmaster don’t fit toghether.

Full zerker Rangers are going to be mandatory for GvG after the balance patch, also, people are going to be crying rivers of tears on the amount of kittened long range damage rangers are going to be doing with their longbow, and they will be right sadly.

Being viable on the periphery doesn’t depend on damage alone. It depends on damage mitigation, which rangers are still going to do more poorly than thieves, mesmers, and d/d eles.

Rangers simply don’t have the same access to stealth, evades, and blinks that the other classes do. And on the periphery, you desperately need all of those, since you can’t rely on your train/backline to save you. Even if you do pack a punch, you’re going to be trained down very quickly. I highly doubt rangers are going to be “mandatory” after the patch.

To those who think rangers are currently viable in GvG’s/there just aren’t good ranger players, you’re very mistaken. Other classes can do what rangers do better — there’s no reason to slot a ranger over something else in the current meta.

Hard to predict where they’ll go with the patch. But unless they get better damage mitigation options, I don’t see rangers becoming a big deal in periphery play in GvG’s.

Stealth, Signet of Stone and 48s CD Entangle (even though it lasts 5 seconds, it stacks an even longer immobilze) are going to be extremely good selfpeels, that along side 3,5k autoattacks, 11k Rapid Fires and Barrages make for a solid contender, maybe not mandatory but they will definetly have a spot.
Rangers already do 3k autoattakcs on my 3,1k armor Warrior, if they can do that damage now, next path they will have some much needed clutch survivavility and +10% attack speed, Stability and +25% damage with Signet of the Wild, get ready.

Lachanche.6859:

@Prysin
there’s a problem with piercing arrow though, you can’t have 1500 range + faster bow + piercing arrow at the same time, 2 master traits and 1 grandmaster don’t fit toghether.

you don’t need faster arrows or 1500 range when in a zerg. when running lb you’ll be surfing with the lights who are all ~1200 range, and since the zerg runs as a blob you’ll be hitting quite a few as is. worst case scenario you hit TOO many people and go to 25% from retaliation

Khenzy.9348:

Full zerker Rangers are going to be mandatory for GvG after the balance patch, also, people are going to be crying rivers of tears on the amount of kittened long range damage rangers are going to be doing with their longbow, and they will be right sadly.

and it will still be WAY less than a staff ele and lack most of the fields and be less survivable

No decent GvG team is going to run ranger after the patch unless there is some secret sauce I am not seeing.

Prysin.8542:

You die? who cares, you drop a condi cleansing water field lasting 12 seconds…. Even in death you’d help your allies.

You rallied half the enemy team and undid all of your allies’ work but, kitten , that healing spring 2 stronk…

mango.9267:

Being viable on the periphery doesn’t depend on damage alone. It depends on damage mitigation, which rangers are still going to do more poorly than thieves, mesmers, and d/d eles.

Rangers simply don’t have the same access to stealth, evades, and blinks that the other classes do. And on the periphery, you desperately need all of those, since you can’t rely on your train/backline to save you. Even if you do pack a punch, you’re going to be trained down very quickly. I highly doubt rangers are going to be “mandatory” after the patch.

To those who think rangers are currently viable in GvG’s/there just aren’t good ranger players, you’re very mistaken. Other classes can do what rangers do better — there’s no reason to slot a ranger over something else in the current meta.

Hard to predict where they’ll go with the patch. But unless they get better damage mitigation options, I don’t see rangers becoming a big deal in periphery play in GvG’s.

SC you making me cry. I thought we were going to have ranger gum.

mango.9267:

Being viable on the periphery doesn’t depend on damage alone. It depends on damage mitigation, which rangers are still going to do more poorly than thieves, mesmers, and d/d eles.

Rangers simply don’t have the same access to stealth, evades, and blinks that the other classes do. And on the periphery, you desperately need all of those, since you can’t rely on your train/backline to save you. Even if you do pack a punch, you’re going to be trained down very quickly. I highly doubt rangers are going to be “mandatory” after the patch.

To those who think rangers are currently viable in GvG’s/there just aren’t good ranger players, you’re very mistaken. Other classes can do what rangers do better — there’s no reason to slot a ranger over something else in the current meta.

Hard to predict where they’ll go with the patch. But unless they get better damage mitigation options, I don’t see rangers becoming a big deal in periphery play in GvG’s.

This gentleman know what he’s talking about. Is not about damage, is about mitigation.

For ganking an enemy back line I’d rather take a thief or nike warrior.

I can see rangers doing better at flanking and hitting the enemy back line from range, but not actually jumping right into the back line. They are still at risk of being CC’d to death.

There will be some, but they will be few and far between.
At the end of the day it will come down to the player/group synergy and GvG size.

I wouldn’t expect to see them in anything smaller than 15v

Gs aa gonna get a dps buff, maul hitting more people, evade on swoop, counter attack being less suicidal.
Axe stacking might.

How to build ranger for gvg so that it will be durable, but helpful?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3fjMq0xaFLOsQ1aAChaZA8uNjhi1dOUDb9JvqRrA-TViDABLcQAa4BAwz+DpqEsM1fAS5HAXAw8XL6GQ4IAQKAmEGB-w

A perfect build? No, a viable, sustainable build that can be adapted to fill multiple roles? Yes.

Like that apart from circle of life as i personally hate traiting for downs. Why not Natures Protection or Strength of Spirit?

The problem with the ranger buff is that it’s boosting their 1v1, which they’re already good at, but ignoring their relative lack of teamplay options.

Prysin’s build features pretty much all of the possible melee train utility a ranger could have post patch and it’s just not as good as a warrior or guardian.

AdziH.2360:

Like that apart from circle of life as i personally hate traiting for downs. Why not Natures Protection or Strength of Spirit?

Strength of dpirit is nice, but bring little team utility. Natures prot will proc then prot willbe corrupted or stolen, meaning you’re left with a useless trait slot.

Rule nr 1 of zerging: you will go down eventually. Better make that down count.

Another thing is that the healing spring from circle of life heals your downed state instantly, so it would take a ally just 2-3 sec to get you back up, instead of the usual 5-6 sec.

And no, rangers can bring more and better support, but that makes for a less “no brain” build

GvG. Easy. Take Necros,eles,Guards and warriors. Kaboom. Finished.

Will Rangers become mainstream in GvG, too early to tell

Fuzzion.2504:

GvG. Easy. Take Necros,eles,Guards and warriors. Kaboom. Finished.

Will Rangers become mainstream in GvG, too early to tell

topcheck

It’s not just a matter of how much damage they do on the periph. It is also a matter of mobility and survivability. In order for a ranger to do a high burst…he has to give up a good amount of survivability. Also they lack mobility. So if you are fighting on the periph and the driver pulls the frontline over to try to burst you, what do you have to survive or escape? Thieve’s can stealth as can mesmers and destroyer warriors run greatsword for high mobility….what does a ranger have to survive and escape? Nothing…they will simply end up being focused on the periph and out of position and become a liability. Regardless of the damage they do.

There are a lot of people in this thread who don’t seem to know what a periphery is. Comparing a ranger to staff ele? Seriously? Rangers have a utility/elite for stab, a WATER FIELD, 3s stealth on a 12s cooldown, and evades for days. Not to mention that their arrows track through stealth to blow up thieves and mesmers. Rangers can easily survive and get to a periph reset with all this to get smoke/blast or refuge stealth, and now that reset has a water field as well. And a power longbow build will absolutely light up glassy eles and necros.

Demus.4571:

There are a lot of people in this thread who don’t seem to know what a periphery is. Comparing a ranger to staff ele? Seriously? Rangers have a utility/elite for stab, a WATER FIELD, 3s stealth on a 12s cooldown, and evades for days.

You do know that staff eles have great water fields (that are also ranged) and can be cast more than twice as often as the ranger. While Tornado isn’t RoA, coupled with Armor of Earth they have more stability more often along with stun breakers.

They also dish out numerous fields including a fantastic fire and lightning field. They posses some of the best AoE damage in the game, some nice control skills, a decent reflect, lots of escape and a host of other utilities.

Few top tier GvG groups run without an Ele (any?) and few run with a Ranger (any?). I doubt that will change post balance patch.

Demus.4571:

There are a lot of people in this thread who don’t seem to know what a periphery is. Comparing a ranger to staff ele? Seriously? Rangers have a utility/elite for stab, a WATER FIELD, 3s stealth on a 12s cooldown, and evades for days. Not to mention that their arrows track through stealth to blow up thieves and mesmers. Rangers can easily survive and get to a periph reset with all this to get smoke/blast or refuge stealth, and now that reset has a water field as well. And a power longbow build will absolutely light up glassy eles and necros.

Depends on what you define as periphery….the way the guilds I have always run with..in a gvg we have sort of 3 distinct groups….periphery (Thief/Mesmer or Zerk Warrior)…their job is to hunt around the edge of the groups and pick off out of position players and/or ele’s/necro’s that they find…or other peripherals. Then we have the backline, consisting off ele’s and necro’s and then the frontline of warriors/guards.

The ranger in a backline role IMO is useless…..it doesn’t not have near the AoE DPS of the other two classes and ele’s bring two RANGED water fields, where as the ranger only has 1 close range water field. So ranger’s don’t really fit into the backline and ele/necro would be better to have…

In a peripheral role…..they may be able to find a niche….their biggest issue again…is mobility… thieves and mesmers can almost move around freely and if a driver tries to focus them they have many means to escape. A ranger would be pretty limited on “oh kitten” buttons and escape skills and they don’t have really great mobility (similar to necro’s).

Clearly….in a frontline role…they are not ideal…in order to increase survivability they would lose dps….they really only bring a decent waterfield and decent CC.

Rangers simply don’t have a really good place in any of the roles….you MIGHT be able to TRY and find a place for them in a peripheral sense, I just think they will end up becoming targeted and trained and they won’t have enough mobility to escape and would end up being a liability.

McWolfy.5924:

pets dont have cleave dmg, pets cant fight against multiple targets, pets cant hit moving targets. ele have 90k dmg within a second, thief have 80k. ranger dont have fields or blast finishers or even mass cc. a tanky warrior do the same dmg with hammer as a zerker ranger + cc
somewhy devs think pet is an advantage
(btw ranger will be better as now)

Don’t pay attention to people like this.
They always exaggerate things and spread false information that they have no idea what they’re talking about.
These people usually have little to no experience of other classes at all, and just buy in what other people had said from the forum without actually testing them.

Prysin.8542:

AdziH.2360:

Like that apart from circle of life as i personally hate traiting for downs. Why not Natures Protection or Strength of Spirit?

Strength of dpirit is nice, but bring little team utility. Natures prot will proc then prot willbe corrupted or stolen, meaning you’re left with a useless trait slot.

Rule nr 1 of zerging: you will go down eventually. Better make that down count.

Another thing is that the healing spring from circle of life heals your downed state instantly, so it would take a ally just 2-3 sec to get you back up, instead of the usual 5-6 sec.

And no, rangers can bring more and better support, but that makes for a less “no brain” build

Wrong. Rule no.1 of zerging is to avoid going down at all costs, because if you rally the enemy, whatever waterfeild you drop won’t compensate for X amount of players getting up for you. Natures protection or strength of spirit would be much better in this case, sure natures protection might get corrupted, but then again, so can every other boon on you, so best not to run anything that gives boons?

The build itself is good for a zerg setting, but if we’re talking about a GvG there is a few things you would want to change. Change circle of life to strength of spirit or natures prot, and also ditch torch for axe or dagger. Might stacking is easy enough without fire fields, and with 200 condi damage, torch will be very weak. Sentinels armour, aside from being ridiculously over-priced, is also hampering yourself. Soldiers, or a soldier/zerk mix would be better for a backline harrassment role.

Demus.4571:

There are a lot of people in this thread who don’t seem to know what a periphery is. Comparing a ranger to staff ele? Seriously? Rangers have a utility/elite for stab, a WATER FIELD, 3s stealth on a 12s cooldown, and evades for days. Not to mention that their arrows track through stealth to blow up thieves and mesmers. Rangers can easily survive and get to a periph reset with all this to get smoke/blast or refuge stealth, and now that reset has a water field as well. And a power longbow build will absolutely light up glassy eles and necros.

Staff ele uses magnetic aura. It’s super effective!
Staff ele dodges and attunes in water. It’s super effective!

Prysin.8542:

Gs aa gonna get a dps buff, maul hitting more people, evade on swoop, counter attack being less suicidal.
Axe stacking might.

How to build ranger for gvg so that it will be durable, but helpful?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3fjMq0xaFLOsQ1aAChaZA8uNjhi1dOUDb9JvqRrA-TViDABLcQAa4BAwz+DpqEsM1fAS5HAXAw8XL6GQ4IAQKAmEGB-w

A perfect build? No, a viable, sustainable build that can be adapted to fill multiple roles? Yes.

interesting build, a bit different from what i’ve been playing with. but i can be irrational like that thx for sharing, will certainly try it out!

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Ok, my question is this: will rangers be viable as counter periphery / gank squad after the next balance patch?

With reduced cast times and signet changes I feel as if rangers will be able to offer burst damage comparable to that of thieves (All the while staying at range). The signet changes are going to offer a very impressive invulnerability skill as well as a significant damage output (plus stability) utility. Another option that should not be overlooked is Sic Em. This skill is apparently receiving a buff to its reveal portion, which I believe could prove invaluable in targeting the enemy gank. 3k autoattacks are mean enough already, I would hate to think what a 1.5 second Rapid Fire (that tracks) could do to that squishy squishy thief over there.

I guess no one knows for sure just yet, but I feel that these may be just the changes we need in order to find ourselves a place in GvGs.

What are you talking about? Ranger buffs are the best that could happen to thieves. With that kind of insane, tracking ranged burst, QQ will finally leave the thief class and will shift to the ranger. I think it will be great but I will only take a step in wvw with loads of reflect.

Prysin.8542:

How to build ranger for gvg so that it will be durable, but helpful?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3fjMq0xaFLOsQ1aAChaZA8uNjhi1dOUDb9JvqRrA-TViDABLcQAa4BAwz+DpqEsM1fAS5HAXAw8XL6GQ4IAQKAmEGB-w

A perfect build? No, a viable, sustainable build that can be adapted to fill multiple roles? Yes.

I nameth this build Pancake! No stability and no stun break…. not even durable enough to deliver a Healing Spring on the stack. All this thing is good for is getting run over and being a rallybot. I know you can do better than this build.

Challenge accepted ;o

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsYRjEqUyaFLOsQ1igBha9AEvBQrXg186cJuhTWxhaB-TFTDwATeAAzUpIgJOhK/qcIAWoEEk+gBHBAAmHkcCAipuSq9HIFQELjA-w

and

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBMhFakQlKWLZxhFqWDMIUrHg4NAaNDuXiborLYzB-T1TAABYcIASSZwGPAAc2fQJlG8o+DgnAAnUiVhSQAOACsovhBzfPcgA84IEQwBEgUARsMC-w

Though I would agree that thief and warrior can do the job better in most cases, ranger isnt useless. Its just that they are outclassed in most aspects because of the pet part and ANet wanting to use it so badly it makes them a major crutch in term of WvW.

Ok Straegen I seriously doubt you have ever played in a GvG. Everyone seems utterly confused. Of course rangers can’t offer the kind of AoE damage eles and necros can. If you will notice I specified counter-periphery / gank squad. This means they (with a small group of other thieves and mesmers) target the enemy gank, before moving on to pressure the enemy backline.

Rangers are going to offer the highest ranged single target damage in the game after the patch. And no, they don’t have to sacrifice offense for defensive / escape options. Evades from the sword and dagger and stealth from the longbow provide plenty. Not to mention signet of stone.

Offence? check, Defense? check, Utility options? check.

Sounds pretty good to me. And if you guys are wondering, I do have extensive tpvp and GvG experience. I know how to dodge thiefs and mesmers, with this build it really isn’t that hard. You guys are forgetting that you are going to have a thief and/or a mesmer with you to give you mass invis and shadow refugee while the enemy is going after you.

Edit: Added the build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YnMqQDLWyCuCCXLGYPoWHAFwZ3uHu2dw1WUyoeC-TVCFwACuAAA3fApyPGHEAWq/kW3wijAAgHAwVlgBAQA25OTn1ZgduzduzduzCBMaCA-w

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Everyone seems utterly confused. Of course rangers can’t offer the kind of AoE damage eles and necros can. If you will notice I specified counter-periphery / gank squad. This means they (with a small group of other thieves and mesmers) target the enemy gank, before moving on to pressure the enemy backline.

Organized GvG has a limit on the number of players (5v5, 10v10, 25v,25, etc). Every slot that is not maximized is wasted. Open field GvG is different but the tenants still apply… guilds want the most optimized class/build they can get for each slot. We almost never see a GvG group asking to fill a ranger slot as they have no slot since other classes currently perform better. Nobody is confused except when forum posters show up and try to sell the ranger. Even ANet knows they are underpowered hence the upcoming balance patch which is not an insignificant upgrade to the class. Even with that upgrade I don’t think they will warrant use in organized play.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Ok Straegen I seriously doubt you have ever played in a GvG.

You would be wrong on that speculation. I have played all styles of WvW, all classes to 80 most with full ascended (including a Ranger) and I play WvW almost exclusively. I prefer roaming and skirmish but still occasionally zerg and on a rare occasion sub in GvG. I would GvG more but usually it is an hour setting up a fight and five minutes of action.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Rangers are going to offer the highest ranged single target damage in the game after the patch. And no, they don’t have to sacrifice offense for defensive / escape options. Evades from the sword and dagger and stealth from the longbow provide plenty. Not to mention signet of stone.

Offence? check, Defense? check, Utility options? check.

First, there really isn’t much utility here for your team, except the water field, which you probably want to reserve for a self-heal. So all in all, not much utility.

Defensively, no one says rangers don’t have any defensive options. The problem is that it’s not enough, especially when compared with mesmers and thieves. You have one stunbreak on a 60 sec cd, no blinks, one short stealth on a 12 sec cd, a few evades, no invulnerabilities, no consistent source of vigor, almost no condi cleanse, etc.

Compare this to mesmers and thieves, who stunbreak much more frequently, run multiple blinks, can stealth very frequently, and evade more often. Even with the defensive options that mesmers and thieves bring, a good group will still be able to train them down. Rangers would get trained down even faster. For this build in particular, if someone catches you without your stunbreak or hits you with an immobilize, you’ll be dead in a few seconds.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Sounds pretty good to me. And if you guys are wondering, I do have extensive tpvp and GvG experience. I know how to dodge thiefs and mesmers, with this build it really isn’t that hard. You guys are forgetting that you are going to have a thief and/or a mesmer with you to give you mass invis and shadow refugee while the enemy is going after you.

You’re not just dodging thieves and mesmers on the periphery. You’re also dodging the enemy frontline. You just don’t have enough defensive options to do both effectively.

You also shouldn’t rely on shadow refuge and mass invis. Both are on a fairly long cd, and if a mesmer or thief has to use it on you, that means they can’t use on themselves, limiting their play. Groups would much rather take a periphery class who can self-sustain over one that will depend on other people for defensive options.

Lol
THIS IS FOR AFTER THE PATCH AS THE TITLE OF THE THREAD MAY INDICATE.

I do have an invuln, 6 sec on a 60 sec cd.

I can be stealth 1/4 of the time. I can be invuln 1/6 of the time. I can evade around 1/3 of the time. I would call this an adequate defense.

You say I have no utility, then wtf is Sic Em???

I am not and have never said that rangers are viable as of now. I am also under the impression that neither of you have actually read the patch notes, which you would be wise to do so before making uninformed posts.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Lol
THIS IS FOR AFTER THE PATCH AS THE TITLE OF THE THREAD MAY INDICATE.

I do have an invuln, 6 sec on a 60 sec cd.

I can be stealth 1/4 of the time. I can be invuln 1/6 of the time. I can evade around 1/3 of the time. I would call this an adequate defense.

You say I have no utility, then wtf is Sic Em???

I am not and have never said that rangers are viable as of now. I am also under the impression that neither of you have actually read the patch notes, which you would be wise to do so before making uninformed posts.

First of all, check your math. 6/60 is 1/10, not 1/6.

Secondly, like I already said, this just doesn’t compare to the defensive options other classes have. For example, mesmers have an insta-cast invulnerability on a 45 second cd (even shorter if you trait for shatter recharge at 50%). Similarly, you don’t have the same access to stealth, evades, stunbreaks, and blinks that thieves do.

Thirdly, sic ‘em isn’t really a group utility skill — good for bursting down thieves, but not much else. Certainly not like an aura sharing ele or a thief with shadow refuge to res on the periphery.

Lastly, I have no idea why you even posed a question in the original post. You “asked” whether other players thought rangers would be viable in a GvG periphery, but you respond to all the answers you don’t want to hear with insults and belligerence. Many posters have responded to you calmly and rationally, but it seems like your mind’s already made up.

Yes, it’s impossible to tell how the meta will evolve. However, from the current vantage point, even with the buffs rangers will receive after the patch, it still doesn’t seem like they’re are an optimal choice for periphery play.

In the end, haters gonna hate. Those who do not think ranger is or will be viable will never think so. Regardless of any buff

No synergy, no viability. The patch isn’t addressing that, therefore ranger is unlikely to become viable.

The only place a ranger could possibly see any use is as part of the gank squad, but the only trick they would have for that is rapid fire, which is fairly minor seeing as it’s just purely a dps skill with all the weaknesses of projectiles for added fun.

I love how people are saying that thieves and mesmers are peripheral players because of stealth, but rangers that carry a reveal and a channeled, stealth tracking burst are useless. Logic.

It’s because the Ranger’s defensive options are largely useful in dueling scenarios. When that train comes knocking, your evades aren’t going to hold up.

The Ranger’s solution to this is a stealth on a short cooldown, but no viable movement skills to change location so the enemy is going to know where you are visible or not. You can SoS, but a lot of the Ranger’s group value comes from their utility skills which you just sacrficied for 6 seconds of invuln. What utility isn’t located on your utility skills is in your pet, which is absolutely, 100% useless in any scenario involving more than 3 players. You then have an Entangle, which is a good anti-train skill overall, but it comes at the expense of stability which you can’t afford to lose because you simply don’t have room to take SotW on your bar.

As a back line or periphery player, you only bring a single burst skill on a 10 second cooldown and lack any real group utility or viable defensive options. The class is an amazing duelist. The changes will allow power builds to work better in dueling roles and PvP. In WvW and GvG, not much has changed unfortunately.