Guild Wars 2

Hi all. I’m a noob, looking for a little help with my Ranger.

I’d like to create a build with a balance of defense and lethality, perhaps favoring offense somewhat.

I’m feeling like my guy could be doing more damage and dispatching enemies quicker if I just understood how to set him up better.

After playing for a few weeks, I’m finding prefer the greatsword and longbow. I don’t know if those are considered the “best” ranger weapons, but they’re the most fun to use for me so I’ll probably stick with them for now.

(I love the “fly to target” option on the greatsword and I’ve made good use of the “barrage” attack and #4 knockback on the long bow" — I’ve saved allies’ butts a few times with that knockback.)

For skills, as it stands I’ve got Healing Spring, Frost Spirit, Muddy Terrain, Signet of the Hunt, and Rampage as One. I tried to include at least a few that would help out other players.

For pets I tend to go with the Drakehound and a Wolf for their howl skills that tie up enemies briefly, which helps out others in my party.

I’d love to get some help figuring out which armor and upgrades, trinkets to get. I’m willing to farm up some gold & buy them on Black Lion, I’m just not sure what to look for as there are so many options.

Also, are there any particular consumables I should stock up on?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

(BTW, my gf & I are looking for a friendly, social guild. We’re on Ehmry Bay but we could migrate if necessary.)

Hey there.. :-)

Well, since those are the two weapons that you favour (although I strongly suggest to give the others a good try), you’ll have to make sure to stock up on something life-increasing or damage-reducing (because a greatsword means that you want to get in melee from time to time): Vitality and/or Thoughness..
Should you take both, then you only have one “aggressive” option on your armor remaining (Power/Precision/Condition damage/Critical damage). And because of the two weapons (lack of conditions) I would go here to increase your Power, so that the overall damage output increases..

Of course you can mix all kinds of stats, or even go celestial (armor that gives a (lesser) increase to ALL stats), it all depends a bit there..

Also, your playstyle can/will change a bit during the level up progress (and especially once you hit the magic 80), so my advice here is to not invest that much yet in your armor (crafting it yourself is handy and gives you every 5 levels a new set, so you can freely experiment with some stats – craft a Power armor set at 40 and a Precision armor set at 45 and see/feel the difference).

For consumables, I can’t quite help you with that (I don’t use them that often tbh)..

Also, this post is my opinion, I’m sure fellow rangers will have their knowledge to share.. :-)

Thanks for the help. I’m definitely open to trying other weapons — so far I’ve put at least a few hours of playing most of the available ones.

I’ve used the axe with the torch a fair amount. That’s probably a more practical choice, but the greatsword just feels more “epic” somehow

Which armor/upgrades/trinkets would provide that vitality/toughness that you mentioned? (I’m just not sure what to search for.)

Well, Power/Vitality/Thoughness is the Soldier’s prefix..
You can check out a list here:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats

As far as gear goes, just pick up green masterwork gear every 6 levels. The exception would be the blue trinkets at lvl 55 (not sure).

GS and LB are power/prec/crit weapons, so pick up power/precision gear armor. Trinkets – depends on what you are doing. Get hardiness ones for WvW (toughness/vitality).

Try sword/warhorn for a while as well. Warhorn gives nice support and sword is a fun weapon (I recommend you disable autoattack on sword1.)

Once you hit the lvl where you gear gets 3 stats – try a condition build using sword/torch and axe/dagger or shortbow. Rabid or apothecary armor works well with a condition build.

I’d recommend vit/power gear. The more power you can have without dying the better. GS has nice defence through the evade and the block. Just don’t try to facetank groups with it. Both GS and LB are power based weapons. If you have a bit of an experience with the mobs, and don’t die to them often, just go full power.