Guild Wars 2

Starting to love the Ranger profession. I was wondering if there are more tips that I should know about that I don’t.

Put your pet on passive and tell it what to attack instead of leaving it on active. Also, learn to dodge as well as you possibly can. You’ll need that skill to stay alive.

I spend 90% of my time in dungeons or fractals with a good group and have my ranger set up to compliment the group. I run full power/precision gear, have pet on passive all the time and swap it out for the 2 second quickness buff. I also run QZ, battle roar, frost spirit and RaO to boost damage.

This is in no way a WvW build, but works great in dungeons when you have a tank build player in the group.

As the second poster said, YOU tell your pet what and when to attack, if -you- wouldn’t fight in a mob in melee (due to high dmg, dangerous AoE etc) don’t make your pet do it unless it’ll save someone, or you have a 30pt BM bear + fortifying bond and port on dodge rolls, that thing can take apartment complexes to the face and not feel a thing…

Pretty much understand without your pet you’re nothing, so keep him up! But also don’t be afraid to sac the pet if it means survival of a group mate.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you have to put your pet on passive and manually direct it all the time, but you definitely need to keybind your pet command skills since there will be times to pull your pet back or set them against a specific target that may not be the same as what you are attacking.

Dahkeus.8243:

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you have to put your pet on passive and manually direct it all the time, but you definitely need to keybind your pet command skills since there will be times to pull your pet back or set them against a specific target that may not be the same as what you are attacking.

I keep mine on passive in dungeons because otherwise he goes LULZ lets run into this big AoE my master just told me not to stand in! Oh wait! It hurts!

Change pets depending on the situation. Some bosses/mobs will deal a lot of melee AoE damage, which will just kill your melee pet, so in those cases you’ll want to use a ranged pet. Ranged pets are also easier to dodge with (using F3-F1), as they stand still while in range of the target. When it comes to melee pets, you really only want to be using bears, simply because they stay alive longer then other pets. And as long as your pet stays alive, it takes pressure off your allies.

Healing Spring, Search and Rescue, and Spirit of Nature, can be real life savers in dungeons. Equipping a greatsword or sword as your second weapon set is a good idea, as they will give you a quick way to escape through Swoop or Hornet Sting. If you have 20 points in Marksmanship, then get Spotter for the extra 70 precision for allies.

Other then that there’s the situational things, like using Signet of Renewal and Signet of the Wild if there’s a lot of condition damage, using traps to slow down fast moving bosses, using spirits on stationary bosses for extra damage, using Entangle for situations where there’s a lot of mobs, and Rampage as One when you need stability.

I don’t set my pets to passive, but I use F3, F1, and Stow a lot. I find it annoying that I have to press F1 at each new target I want my pet to attack.

Do not spam Point Blank Shot.

PBS is the single reason I sigh whenever I see a LB ranger in my PUGs, because half of them will knock monsters out of AoE, and half of those will keep doing it even after being told not to.
Use PBS only:
1) to remove defiant stacks (!)
2) if a monster keeps chasing you and you have already given the melee enough time to grab it again by dodging/walking away from it.
3) possibly to knock a solitary monster so that it ends up next to other(s) for better AoE.

Never use PBS because you want to increase the distance between yourself and a monster for more damage from Long Range Shot. Whatever damage you might gain is lost several times over because the rest of your party misses their attacks.

Also, bring Healing Spring.

Please refer to the Ranger tips thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Little-Ranger-Tips/page/2#post1479547

I honestly don’t know how this hasn’t been stickied… anyways I hope you find it useful.

I tend to play support when in dungeons, especially since I am traited to keep protection up on my pet but I find it works well in most groups and we have a lot of versatility in boons thru our pets.

Leave the longbow behind, use shortbow and warhorn + whatever (I like sword), bring healing spring and use pets that will work with your build best to support the group. QZ is very, very good not just for increasing you and your pet’s DPS but for getting up downed allies. You and your pet can rez an ally in no time together with QZ and the pet rez skill. A support ranger can hold a crap team together much longer than it should be allowed to continue.

I also use untraited spirits regularly in dungeons, there are often plenty of spots you can jump to that cannot be accessed by mobs (all of the old cheap spots on bosses work perfect for this) and place spirits without fear of them dying.