Guild Wars 2

How is the Ranger in WvW?

And especially solo/small group Roaming?

For Solo/Small group roaming it is simply GODLIKE. For zerging, it is viable, but not overly efficient.

While you can survive on the frontline of the melee train, you WILL DO, less DPS, less cleave and thus less tagging. However you do have a potent hard CC avaliable (muddy terrain) and a very strong waterfield.

Contrary to popular belief, spirits WILL survive, albeit not for long. Their HP pool let them tank 2-3 pushes, beyond that is pure luck. At best, the spirits will survive for 15-25 seconds. Which makes them “effective” if we are to follow the math.

For solo/small group roaming you want to go with one of 5 builds;
A: Condition BM Bunker (easy)
B: Spirit Bunker Ranger (easy)
C: Trapper (medium)
D: Full Zerker (hard)
E: Power BM Bunker (hard)

The Zerker and Power Bunker is hard to play because one has crazy DPS and non-existent survivability. The other has crazy survivability and almost non-existent DPS.
The most successful way to play power builds are to play them semi-defensively. Do not take unnecessary risks. It will cost you. Play smart, be calm, try to make up a strategy.

If your goals are dueling/roaming and you are fine playing with a condition build, you’ll have a great time. It’s very strong in this area. As you branch out to do more larger group things in the 10+ range or outright zerging you’ll be very disappointed.

If your intention is to play as an ‘archer’ type with a power build you’ll be very disappointed.

You should also keep in mind that the issues with the class have gone ignored by ANet for quite some time and ANet has actually said they have no intention of fixing them anytime soon. So if you find issue with the class, be prepared to live with it as ANet will not change it.

Ranger is great in WVW if you know how to play and you can deal with being made fun of constantly. I’ve been playing my ranger as front line melee for over a year and have had no problems with survivability or getting bags. That being said your utility to the zerg is practically nil except you can blast your own water field. PVT gear, RAO and stick very close to your cmd and you’ll be fine.

Simple thing :
If you go for condition bunker, despite how bad you can be with it at start, you’ll find it very strong and easy mode
- If you decide to go Power spec and don’t run in zerg, only solo/duo/trio roam…Well, be prepared. You’ll have to play flawlessly to win gainst most of meta builds. Even when playing without single mistake, sometimes you won’t be able to win anyway.
Power spec for Ranger is probably the highest “10x effort = 0.5 effectiveness” build along most classes and specs. Well, rifle engineer might be comparable if we talk about SD burst, but he has some damage at least