Guild Wars 2

I purchased the game on February 28, but haven’t been able to play as of yet (stupid PCI-E slot burning out). My intentions are to make a Ranger.

So I am curious to find out how the Ranger is at dual-wielding? I have never been a fan of 2-handed swords in the least and if I am unable to dual-wield will always sword and board instead…lol.

Also, how are they at soloing?

the only weapon u can dual wield (2 of the same) are axes.

as for solo’ing they are great imo. let the pet tank everything and u could just shoot with your bow.

MyGWAccount.7325:

the only weapon u can dual wield (2 of the same) are axes.

as for solo’ing they are great imo. let the pet tank everything and u could just shoot with your bow.

Just to clarify, can I wield a sword and dagger?

Yes.

You can hold an Axe or a Sword in your Main Hand, and a Warhorn or a Dagger or another Axe in your Off Hand. Right now Axe and Warhorn is a popular weapon combo, but the other ones are still viable and used.

Ranger is very strong soloing in Open-world PvE levelling content. There’s some difficulties with pet management in Dungeons and WvW, but soloing in the open world Ranger does spectacularly.

Vox Hollow.2736:

Yes.

You can hold an Axe or a Sword in your Main Hand, and a Warhorn or a Dagger or another Axe in your Off Hand. Right now Axe and Warhorn is a popular weapon combo, but the other ones are still viable and used.

Ranger is very strong soloing in Open-world PvE levelling content. There’s some difficulties with pet management in Dungeons and WvW, but soloing in the open world Ranger does spectacularly.

I’m thinking open world will be all my computer can handle as I am finding out through others.

Since my motherboard went out I have been scrambling to rebuild my computer. Thankfully the motherboard that I have has a lifetime warranty that EVGA is honoring, but they have to send me a newer board since mine is a socket 775 and over 5 years old. SO that means that I need a new CPU, Ram and DVD Burner since they are sending me a P67 SLI board in exchange for my 680i board.

Since my wife and I live off of her disability pay(I am her full-time caregiver due to her multiple sclerosis), plus we have a 4 month old daughter, our money is tight and I can only spend $150 max. So I picked up a Intel G860 Sandy-bridge 3.0GHZ dual core, 8Gbs of G.Skill 1333 DDR3 Ram, and a SATA DvD burner to go with my 9800 GTX+ 512MB video card.

I have had some tell me that my set-up is fine and yet others say that my computer will struggle with this game. I just want to be able to play…lol.

Guess I will see by the end of this week when I have it built.

Overall, I think your setup is “ok.”

You can look at upgrading the GPU (video card) at some point and would probably be very satisfied with that setup. Just have to make sure your power supply is decent (that that rings true for all computers).

As for dual wielding, I use sword/dagger and a greatsword. I like feeling like some ninja flying all over the place. It has taken a lot of practice to make it effective though, and you have to get used to not targetting anything.. I prefer the sword/dagger overall, but the greatsword seems to be the only other weapon that can be used semi-effectively with no target.

With the sword/dagger combo though, it opens up into a much different playstyle than I have found with any other class. Very, very effective once you start to get it down in WvW and PvE (I dont do spvp/tpvp, so might be different there). Expect to be flying around ALL over the place until you get used to it though. And even then…

I can’t say for sure how your system will pan out.

But, I’m on 4GB ram, Intel Dual Core P8600 @2.40GHz, NVIDIA GEForce 9400, and I can wander into any dungeon and manage to dodge things that need to be dodged, even with my crappy old lady reflexes.

Granted all my settings are on Low in order to avoid a framerate drop, but in general this game is optimized pretty well and designed in such a way that microsecond mistakes aren’t punished too heavily.

Thank you both for your replies!

Makes me feel a bit better about my new set-up.

For reference, I have a 650Watt OCZ Power Supply. It to is over 5 years old, but I have yet to see any voltage drops from it and it’s a solid power supply.

If it is an 80 plus certified PSU, you can learn more about it here:

http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80PlusPowerSuppliesDetail.aspx?id=55&type=2

Pretty useful site, honestly. It allows you to learn who designed/manufactured the PSU, since many companies do not make their own. It has netted me some great deals! That 650 should be fine for a single card like the 7850, or one of similar performance.

Good luck if you choose to learn the ways of the Sword! It felt clunky and unintuitive at first, mainly until I stopped targeting altogether and turned off auto attack (important! you will essentially self-root otherwise). But, the amount of depth is so much fun to me. Still practicing landing sword 3 reliably on my target. Just want to make it clear though, there is a learning curve with it. A bigger one than I have run into on any other class, with any weaponset, by a pretty large margin.

Just wanted to add: To increase my survivability I focus on the strengths of the weapon set, and that is basically avoiding damage by movement and evades (and, very importantly, with no active target). So, I also use traits and utilities that give me either vigor, or faster movement. Things like lightning reflexes are phenomenal in this regard. And something like quickening zephyr allows you to hit your evade skills more in a shorter time span. Most fun I have had playing this game, and that is with 4 classes at 80, and another at 60. I deleted my 80 thief to make this ranger, and couldnt be happier. Still working on how best to integrate my pet into the playstyle, as it doesnt seem to fit. Currently, I just target from a distance, and get them attacking. Then, deselect my active target and do it to it.

Just want to add that when you use something that gives you quickness, it reduces the animation times in half.

How this translates to skills like monarchs leap is that you essentially only move half the distance. Important to remember! It has gotten me a couple times. I assume its a bug, but havent looked into it much.

Tuluum.9638:

Just want to add that when you use something that gives you quickness, it reduces the animation times in half.

How this translates to skills like monarchs leap is that you essentially only move half the distance. Important to remember! It has gotten me a couple times. I assume its a bug, but havent looked into it much.

Important to note that this can also be desirable if you’re tanking a point, throw down HS and want to leap through it for extra heals without leaving the point and hence letting it be uncapped.

But yeah also don’t do it if you’re using block on GS 4 vs projectiles i’d presume? Same for OH axe 5 if reflecting is your goal.