Guild Wars 2

Is the expansion worth it for Ranger PvP only? My Ranger playstyle is kiting.
I was pretty good back in the day at this game, now, I’m back and in the 80% win rate with a modified Power Survival build.

I’m almost to Ruby – where people are saying you get stuck and more team skill is needed – is my lack of Druid line going to impact me/team that much?

Second question – can I use that Smoke Scale to blast a 3 second stealth in pvpon myself and teammates – or is that wvw/pve stuff?

Not sure I could give up my GS mobility and blocking for the staff – but maybe if I could stealth it might be interesting.

Yes you can stealth from smokescale.

All elite specs are a massive improvement over the core classes. I can’t tell you if that alone is worth 50 bucks to you though.

thanks for your help Fluffball

For my own curiosity I have been solo queuing on an alt account playing core ranger. Going through Ruby I had a 100% winrate.

https://www.twitch.tv/eurantien/v/56788837

Honestly, I didn’t feel under powered at all. With proper pet control I was able to CClock my way through most of my opponents.

Eurantien.4632:

For my own curiosity I have been solo queuing on an alt account playing core ranger. Going through Ruby I had a 100% winrate.

https://www.twitch.tv/eurantien/v/56788837

Honestly, I didn’t feel under powered at all. With proper pet control I was able to CClock my way through most of my opponents.

I remember you – you’re the Pro guy that was playing gs/lb in the finals a year ago..or sometime around then?

I see you have Spike Trap and no LR – is spike trap that good now? I haven’t done much playing around with stuff. What do you suggest for utilities for a return GS/LB? I don’t have much field vision because it’s been a year so I need some “resets” like LR

Also, is the Ruby Tier as bad as the forum warriors say – or is it just another bracket?

Ruby is where average players wind up capping out, but since all you do is PvP, presumably you’re above average and will blast through it with an extremely high win percent. It’s very all or nothing; until you hit where you “belong”, you’ll have an insane win percent. I wound up in mid-diamond and returned to my normal 55%ish wins, so I’ll probably not bother grinding to legendary. If I get there in time playing 2 or 3 games a day, I get there.

Hmm. As far as core spec vs elite specs go. Take what I am about to say with a grain of salt and judge for yourself.

In the first PvP season I challenged myself to only play the build I enjoyed. Which at the time was considered THE WEAKEST Ranger build possible as far as that current meta goes without going double longbow or double melee.

I played a longbow greatsword marauder Shout (this was before the shout rework) ranger without using the elite spec at all. Keep in mind this was before the aura nerf on tempests so most team fights I spent 70% of the time having my shots reflected back at me by aoe magnetic aura.

I was able to reach legendary using that build and only solo queing. What that taught me is that when it came to PvP knowing your builds strength and weaknesses, knowing how each individual mechanic works and chains together, and knowing how those mechanics interacted with your opponents mechanics (Knowing what you can and can’t fight, HOW you should fight something, and exactly when a fight needs to be abandoned or engaged), were all much more important that what your build actually was.

I did not repeat that challenge with this season. Since shouts were buffed it did not seem like it would have as much “meaning” to me. But what I did do was play a variant of the druid build that was the closest to my original playstyle. And I was able to hit legendary again fairly early in the season.

What I am trying to say is. It is likely not necessary for you to have the meta build in order to reach or even compete at high level gameplay of PvP. What likely IS necessary is an in depth understanding of not only your opponents builds,skills, and weaknesses but your own as well.

If you wan’t to progress without druid I feel that is especially necessary. As druid is a very EASY to use fall back option. And when traited correctly can act as a get out of jail free card in most situations. It just means you will have to win your fights without that easy way out that most rangers are currently going to run. It will probably be harder. But a pure ranger has OTHER capabilities that druids sacrifice. Playing to those strengths will likely give you some significant results.

Thank you both for your responses. I think I am just going to stick with my old account for now. I’ll just keep playing until I stabilize and see what happens there.

@ OP none of the builds on my twitch page are accurate. I don’t use spike trap anymore for several reasons. But mainly I like to run with signet of renewal signet of stone and a stunbreak. Just to be succesful in queues I was running search and rescue in place of a stunbreak and was trying to avoid the necessity of one by always +ing fights and through positioning in even fights.

There is what appears to be a “MMR hell” this season where players are matches together with teammates of similar MMR and are then matched vs a team with the same pip range. This means that if you end up on a losing streak your MMR will drop and you will end up with other lower MMR players. Meanwhile you could be matched against a team of all high MMR players who have been on a win streak simply because you are in the same pip tier as them (ruby for example). This then repeats over and over leaving players stuck in a “MMR pit” they can’t climb out of. Still there are arguments as to whether this MMR hell means the players stuck there aren’t good enough to carry. I believe this is the case, however, these good players loath the current system because they feel they should be at a tier where they are the ones who make the big mistakes, instead it is usually their teammates who are constantly making mistakes, leading to a very frustrating time in PvP.

The general consensus was that since I was on a pretty fresh alt account my MMR was volatile and once I started winning I was matched with other higher MMR people and we just sailed right through all the tiers. It is also believed that this phenomenon will occur until I reach the point where I meet other high MMR players, which would be legendary.

@OP notice all the shouts have been reworked and many of them are just the best options for utility slots. When playing as a core ranger I recommend using beast mastery, nature magic, and then whatever else you want. With we heal as one you then get a ridiculous amount of boons because of the synergy between these lines. Then since you can trait for shout can reduction, the new protect me shout can be a stunbreak on a 24 second cd. So as a core ranger when I wanted a stunbreak besides signet of renewal that’s what I would take.

Eurantien.4632:

@ OP none of the builds on my twitch page are accurate. I don’t use spike trap anymore for several reasons. But mainly I like to run with signet of renewal signet of stone and a stunbreak. Just to be succesful in queues I was running search and rescue in place of a stunbreak and was trying to avoid the necessity of one by always +ing fights and through positioning in even fights.

There is what appears to be a “MMR hell” this season where players are matches together with teammates of similar MMR and are then matched vs a team with the same pip range. This means that if you end up on a losing streak your MMR will drop and you will end up with other lower MMR players. Meanwhile you could be matched against a team of all high MMR players who have been on a win streak simply because you are in the same pip tier as them (ruby for example). This then repeats over and over leaving players stuck in a “MMR pit” they can’t climb out of. Still there are arguments as to whether this MMR hell means the players stuck there aren’t good enough to carry. I believe this is the case, however, these good players loath the current system because they feel they should be at a tier where they are the ones who make the big mistakes, instead it is usually their teammates who are constantly making mistakes, leading to a very frustrating time in PvP.

The general consensus was that since I was on a pretty fresh alt account my MMR was volatile and once I started winning I was matched with other higher MMR people and we just sailed right through all the tiers. It is also believed that this phenomenon will occur until I reach the point where I meet other high MMR players, which would be legendary.

@OP notice all the shouts have been reworked and many of them are just the best options for utility slots. When playing as a core ranger I recommend using beast mastery, nature magic, and then whatever else you want. With we heal as one you then get a ridiculous amount of boons because of the synergy between these lines. Then since you can trait for shout can reduction, the new protect me shout can be a stunbreak on a 24 second cd. So as a core ranger when I wanted a stunbreak besides signet of renewal that’s what I would take.

could you please link your current build?

This is what I was running as core ranger.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjUqQ/K2wC+sAXLG+DKefz3N4TjfY43iIDCgCsWB-TpBEwAEuAAAOCAROEAIeAAZLDwc/BA

Though I would more readily recommend something like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjUqQ/K2wC+sAXLG+DqPN+hh3z9tN43iIDCgCWtA-TpBEABI8AAI4CAkz+DRcIAA4IAYeZAA

Eurantien.4632:

This is what I was running as core ranger.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjUqQ/K2wC+sAXLG+DKefz3N4TjfY43iIDCgCsWB-TpBEwAEuAAAOCAROEAIeAAZLDwc/BA

Though I would more readily recommend something like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjUqQ/K2wC+sAXLG+DqPN+hh3z9tN43iIDCgCWtA-TpBEABI8AAI4CAkz+DRcIAA4IAYeZAA

why the white raven?

Because I don’t like the black one.

You could do owl, I just like the CD time on the F2 of Raven when traited in beastmastery + it is somewhat of a throwback to the times I played double raven lb/gs beast master when beast master builds were the meta. I prefer the utility of the blind over the chill from the owl, personally. I think it could be easily argued that the chill can be more beneficial than the blind though.

i have just the build for you..
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8YnUqAVsi1CCWsActglOB7pFEqWYO/tAQhDelGT3pA-TZBBABlVGAgnAg+XAgNOIAVt/AA

if you want more info check my guide on the ranger forums