Guild Wars 2

Ranger is my 6th 80. These observations strictly pertain to WVW large-scale (zerg, GVG).

So, I’ve been trying hard to make ranger work in WVW large-scale (as in, not solo roaming) but the best-performing setup i can come up with continues to be a power-based 1500 range LB/GS with survival utilities/elite and SotF (new nature trait).

Unfortunately, it still isn’t nearly as good as my other characters though, mainly because of the weak AOE damage potential and poor group utility.

Pets, even ranged pets, continue to be overall more of a liability than a benefit, the pet controls are just too poor and the utilities they provide don’t justify their existence most of the time. I also feel like there’s a real lack of (for want of a better word) character, eg: cat pets should be really fast, bird pets should be immune to AOE (they’re flying…) and should probably be able to attack on tower/keep walls, spiders should have leaps, etc.

Traps are my favourite way to play ranger and while they are solid for any kind of solo roaming, their short (600) range and obligatory condi-based damage make them weak and fairly suicidal when you try to scale them up to the large-scale stuff. I really think they would be well-justified in gaining another 300 range when traited as other classes have considerably better AOEs with longer range, better effects, easier application etc. For example, ranger traps are effectively functionally identical to necro marks, yet marks are 1200 range, larger by default, similar short CD, similar effects, yet traps require 30 trait points and are only 600 range even when traited.