Guild Wars 2

Learn to use GS effectively with the rest of the build. I mean this in a matter of fact way not as a mean QQ way. The biggest issue I notice with people playing LB ranger is they get too attatched to their longbow and even when someone closes the gap they sit there and try to RF and AA in melee range which inevitably gets them killed. So anyone trying to play LB ranger effectively in wvw your best friend is your GS, it has built in evades, blocks, and cc with a really strong burst skill on a super low CD. Plus most people assume that someone playing LB ranger has no idea what they’re doing so a well placed weapon swap or playing super well on GS will throw off most opponents you face and they’ll screw up allowing you to get kills

Have fun in wvw and pvp friends!

If you play well you dont realy need to swap. And if you swap, no turn back. 10 secs on a weapon what you not traitef.
Btw a nice invisibility-maul combo screw the most opponents

I agree about most rangers not knowing how to properly use the Greatsword or when to use it.

Here is a short explanation about how I usually execute my weapon skill rotations using LB/GS on point to help some:

With Longbow I start with auto attacks until I can get an immob with my spider or pull off a successful Point Black Shot so I can execute the most of my Rapid Fire on the target. I wait until he wastes a dodge after that and use Hunter’s Shot(make sure the guy isn’t blocking or gets a blind on you) to re-position and then use your Barrage(you always want to execute this skill safely), which will put considerable on point pressure. After that, you can follow that up with a Wolf knockdown or even use your Entangle to execute another deadly RF.

If I see the opponent is getting really close to me after trying to do my usual rotation on LB, now is a perfect time to pop my Greatsword.

Use the block when you know you will need to play defensively. Throwing your sword can help a lot to execute a successful Maul thanks to the cripple (most good players will know about the Counterattack skill and won’t get caught). Swoop is an amazing skill which you can either use to gain distance, or to dodge while striking the target. You can cancel the third hit on the AA to make that 2 dodges, which not many know but can be quite useful. I don’t use my Hilt Bash right off the bat, because I prefer to chain my stun with Maul, then PBS followed by a RF, which is quite deadly if you can pull all of that off (I beat d/d eles a lot easier using this technique).

Here are some of the most common mistakes I see with new LB rangers:

1) They tend to forget that you can often finish off low HP running foes using Crippling Throw when you’re on GS and weapon swap is on cd.
2) They tend not to use their pet swaps well for CC when going into downed state.
3) Kind of along side point 2, they often use the wolf pet too much during heavy fights and are left either without a wolf swap or without the wolf F2 when they get downed.
4) Hunters Shot gets used when an enemy is blocking/evading/invulnerable. I often see this when a ranger uses hunter shot on an enemy just going in downed state before their invulnerability wears off.
5) Rangers revealing themselves after using Hunter’s Shot since they just used Barrage and the damage is still ticking.

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Power Ranger for tPvP is a very unique style of play and requires a special kind of player style. If it’s not working for you, you’re not in that style.

Personally I use Regen Ranger in PvP, full Settlers, 6 Nature magic and 6 Beastmastery, gains over 700hp a second, 3300 armor and plenty of protection up time.

For WvW I use Stealth Trapper with full dire and trapper runes (duh)

And I keep my Zerker gear for Dungeons or WvW zergs/defence.

Imo using a Longbow is taking yourself out of the “Skirmishing” style, also noone has to use the Longbow, full zerk Melee Rangers are also really effective skirmishers, GS and S/H or S/A.

Timing is key.

DancinPuppeh.8421:

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Huh? Power Ranger is generally best played with a zerker amulet. Maybe you’re talking WvW though. I agree it’s not a playstyle for everyone…but it generally isn’t as reliant on gear for defense as a lot of other professions/builds.

Dahkeus.8243:

3) Kind of along side point 2, they often use the wolf pet too much during heavy fights and are left either without a wolf swap or without the wolf F2 when they get downed

Better use pet cc during the fight to prevent getting downed instead of waiting for it.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Dahkeus.8243:

3) Kind of along side point 2, they often use the wolf pet too much during heavy fights and are left either without a wolf swap or without the wolf F2 when they get downed

Better use pet cc during the fight to prevent getting downed instead of waiting for it.

It can at times, but often a pet CC during downed state will keep you alive longer than a random fear due to the time invested in a stomp cast time.

Problem is that we need to get our burst to do it on good player you need some kind of CC (wolfs fear is strongest). It is also group fear so better use it when there is more then one person around you.
I do not agree that you should swap to Gs as last resort I feel quit opposite you are suppose to rotate to it finish target, put pressure as long you have advantage or you go signet of stone. There is not many things more devastating then maul on few people trying to stomp you teammate.
Also if you want to take someone from point you do not need to use only point blank shot. Use cc, Rapid, LB stealth, swap ,Gs3, Maul,stun, GS1 you most likely will bait from melee attack which will knock him far. Then either fear, root or point blank and Rapid.
I love Gs and without it you have only rapid + auto attack so you got squishy class without burst. That is not much.
Of course in WvW you can kite till end of world but in sPVP you want to win and to get that you need those kitten points.

DancinPuppeh.8421:

Personally I use Regen Ranger in PvP, full Settlers, 6 Nature magic and 6 Beastmastery, gains over 700hp a second, 3300 armor and plenty of protection up time.

Can you post that build? Because even with rune of the dolyak I’m only seeing 432 health per second with natural healing and compassion training giving another 177 every 3 seconds.

Dahkeus.8243:

DancinPuppeh.8421:

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Huh? Power Ranger is generally best played with a zerker amulet. Maybe you’re talking WvW though. I agree it’s not a playstyle for everyone…but it generally isn’t as reliant on gear for defense as a lot of other professions/builds.

not all true , you can use bezerker amulet in pvp just dont use all power traits , like 6,5,0,3 or 4,6,0,3 + scholar runes.

these suck are bad for rangers, Trust me you may think you are safe at range trying to keep that 90%+ hp but only new rangers think this.

later on you’ll learn rangers are better at active combat prevention it looks like we are avoiding combat but the class is not it is just preventing the target from engaging in combat effectivily , soon enough when you’ve learned to use combat prevention in this way, the Beserker amulet on a Ranger becomes much more powerful than a sit at range power LB full glass kitten set up.

also don’t only use damage buff traits like RTW ect and steady focus , flanking strikes all in the same build its not worth it , in the long run it Piegon holes you into using Signet of stone , where you don’t need the extra toughness because the extra toughness on a full kitten build is pointless and 6secs immune to damage wont save you.

you need a form of condi removal and a decent amount of damage prevention Not just SoS or protect me , i’ve even used a 6,2,0,6 sotf build with muddy terrain and 1 spike trap + krait runes with LB + S/D to prevent theifs from jumping me by preplanting the trap to trigger when the thief walks on it, before the thief gets to the backstab stage giving me more time to react with muddy terrain or pbs.

the trap may seem pointless with a low condi damage but it is more for the cripple combined with predators onslaught and the base bleeds is enough to counter low regen of other classes that also use Zerker amulets (basicly having unbuffed regen)

it can be used for Pressure redirecting drop it while you kite against even a low hp target the mobility cripple and the base bleeds will give you a breathing window to finish off nearly any Melee user (if they have already used up most of their cooldowns)

" sure use a Zerker amulet just don’t go the full glass hog or you’ll have a bad time when you start fighting those with a higher MMR. "

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Dahkeus.8243:

DancinPuppeh.8421:

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Huh? Power Ranger is generally best played with a zerker amulet. Maybe you’re talking WvW though. I agree it’s not a playstyle for everyone…but it generally isn’t as reliant on gear for defense as a lot of other professions/builds.

not all true , you can use bezerker amulet in pvp just dont use all power traits , like 6,5,0,3 or 4,6,0,3 + scholar runes.

these suck are bad for rangers, Trust me you may think you are safe at range trying to keep that 90%+ hp but only new rangers think this.

later on you’ll learn rangers are better at active combat prevention it looks like we are avoiding combat but the class is not it is just preventing the target from engaging in combat effectivily , soon enough when you’ve learned to use combat prevention in this way, the Beserker amulet on a Ranger becomes much more powerful than a sit at range power LB full glass kitten set up.

also don’t only use damage buff traits like RTW ect and steady focus , flanking strikes all in the same build its not worth it , in the long run it Piegon holes you into using Signet of stone , where you don’t need the extra toughness because the extra toughness on a full kitten build is pointless and 6secs immune to damage wont save you.

you need a form of condi removal and a decent amount of damage prevention Not just SoS or protect me , i’ve even used a 6,2,0,6 sotf build with muddy terrain and 1 spike trap + krait runes with LB + S/D to prevent theifs from jumping me by preplanting the trap to trigger when the thief walks on it, before the thief gets to the backstab stage giving me more time to react with muddy terrain or pbs.

the trap may seem pointless with a low condi damage but it is more for the cripple combined with predators onslaught and the base bleeds is enough to counter low regen of other classes that also use Zerker amulets (basicly having unbuffed regen)

it can be used for Pressure redirecting drop it while you kite against even a low hp target the mobility cripple and the base bleeds will give you a breathing window to finish off nearly any Melee user (if they have already used up most of their cooldowns)

" sure use a Zerker amulet just don’t go the full glass hog or you’ll have a bad time when you start fighting those with a higher MMR. "

MetaBattle would disagree with that, but personally I run the SotF variant and won’t speak to the effectiveness of a deep skirmishing investment.

Dahkeus.8243:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Dahkeus.8243:

DancinPuppeh.8421:

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Huh? Power Ranger is generally best played with a zerker amulet. Maybe you’re talking WvW though. I agree it’s not a playstyle for everyone…but it generally isn’t as reliant on gear for defense as a lot of other professions/builds.

not all true , you can use bezerker amulet in pvp just dont use all power traits , like 6,5,0,3 or 4,6,0,3 + scholar runes.

these suck are bad for rangers, Trust me you may think you are safe at range trying to keep that 90%+ hp but only new rangers think this.

later on you’ll learn rangers are better at active combat prevention it looks like we are avoiding combat but the class is not it is just preventing the target from engaging in combat effectivily , soon enough when you’ve learned to use combat prevention in this way, the Beserker amulet on a Ranger becomes much more powerful than a sit at range power LB full glass kitten set up.

also don’t only use damage buff traits like RTW ect and steady focus , flanking strikes all in the same build its not worth it , in the long run it Piegon holes you into using Signet of stone , where you don’t need the extra toughness because the extra toughness on a full kitten build is pointless and 6secs immune to damage wont save you.

you need a form of condi removal and a decent amount of damage prevention Not just SoS or protect me , i’ve even used a 6,2,0,6 sotf build with muddy terrain and 1 spike trap + krait runes with LB + S/D to prevent theifs from jumping me by preplanting the trap to trigger when the thief walks on it, before the thief gets to the backstab stage giving me more time to react with muddy terrain or pbs.

the trap may seem pointless with a low condi damage but it is more for the cripple combined with predators onslaught and the base bleeds is enough to counter low regen of other classes that also use Zerker amulets (basicly having unbuffed regen)

it can be used for Pressure redirecting drop it while you kite against even a low hp target the mobility cripple and the base bleeds will give you a breathing window to finish off nearly any Melee user (if they have already used up most of their cooldowns)

" sure use a Zerker amulet just don’t go the full glass hog or you’ll have a bad time when you start fighting those with a higher MMR. "

MetaBattle would disagree with that, but personally I run the SotF variant and won’t speak to the effectiveness of a deep skirmishing investment.

thats meta battle , its proberly been made by the census of the average player by many players as the most simple yet effective . that is all . i don’t take guides for their word and copy them as they are guides.

I run full zerk, ranger runes 6/6/2 etc however I stopped using GS a while ago and have switched to sword/axe or sword/warhorn. The sword allows me to get range between me and whoever i’m fighting much faster than with the GS by using s2. It’s trickier but I prefer having 2 leaps in 1 and another evade on top of s2 and the sword itself lets me burn people down extremely quickly if i need to engage in melee. The warhorn I generally reserve for when I am in a group for the buffs and axe off hand is more for solo. Path of scars hits for around 10k if it hits and whirling defense does a fair bit in melee while destroying most ranged opponents because most will not notice whats happening until they’ve brought down half their own health. Spider and Wolf are nice as well, wolf for melee obviously thanks to fear and knockdowns and spider for the ranged imob. I also use healing spring for the condi cleanse and hot, QZ and LR for the stun and imob break and then signet of the wild for the health regen and damage boost and then RaO. I win 90% of my fights with this in both WvW and SPvP.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Dahkeus.8243:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Dahkeus.8243:

DancinPuppeh.8421:

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Huh? Power Ranger is generally best played with a zerker amulet. Maybe you’re talking WvW though. I agree it’s not a playstyle for everyone…but it generally isn’t as reliant on gear for defense as a lot of other professions/builds.

not all true , you can use bezerker amulet in pvp just dont use all power traits , like 6,5,0,3 or 4,6,0,3 + scholar runes.

these suck are bad for rangers, Trust me you may think you are safe at range trying to keep that 90%+ hp but only new rangers think this.

later on you’ll learn rangers are better at active combat prevention it looks like we are avoiding combat but the class is not it is just preventing the target from engaging in combat effectivily , soon enough when you’ve learned to use combat prevention in this way, the Beserker amulet on a Ranger becomes much more powerful than a sit at range power LB full glass kitten set up.

also don’t only use damage buff traits like RTW ect and steady focus , flanking strikes all in the same build its not worth it , in the long run it Piegon holes you into using Signet of stone , where you don’t need the extra toughness because the extra toughness on a full kitten build is pointless and 6secs immune to damage wont save you.

you need a form of condi removal and a decent amount of damage prevention Not just SoS or protect me , i’ve even used a 6,2,0,6 sotf build with muddy terrain and 1 spike trap + krait runes with LB + S/D to prevent theifs from jumping me by preplanting the trap to trigger when the thief walks on it, before the thief gets to the backstab stage giving me more time to react with muddy terrain or pbs.

the trap may seem pointless with a low condi damage but it is more for the cripple combined with predators onslaught and the base bleeds is enough to counter low regen of other classes that also use Zerker amulets (basicly having unbuffed regen)

it can be used for Pressure redirecting drop it while you kite against even a low hp target the mobility cripple and the base bleeds will give you a breathing window to finish off nearly any Melee user (if they have already used up most of their cooldowns)

" sure use a Zerker amulet just don’t go the full glass hog or you’ll have a bad time when you start fighting those with a higher MMR. "

MetaBattle would disagree with that, but personally I run the SotF variant and won’t speak to the effectiveness of a deep skirmishing investment.

thats meta battle , its proberly been made by the census of the average player by many players as the most simple yet effective . that is all . i don’t take guides for their word and copy them as they are guides.

Oh, you don’t have to take their word for it. Don’t take mine either. Look at the names on the guides. One in particular should stick out to you since they were in the latest WTS series and also since they post the skirmishing variant on their Twitch stream as their power build.

Dahkeus.8243:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Dahkeus.8243:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Dahkeus.8243:

DancinPuppeh.8421:

You can also not go full zerker, or don’t go Power Ranger in PvP.

Huh? Power Ranger is generally best played with a zerker amulet. Maybe you’re talking WvW though. I agree it’s not a playstyle for everyone…but it generally isn’t as reliant on gear for defense as a lot of other professions/builds.

not all true , you can use bezerker amulet in pvp just dont use all power traits , like 6,5,0,3 or 4,6,0,3 + scholar runes.

these suck are bad for rangers, Trust me you may think you are safe at range trying to keep that 90%+ hp but only new rangers think this.

later on you’ll learn rangers are better at active combat prevention it looks like we are avoiding combat but the class is not it is just preventing the target from engaging in combat effectivily , soon enough when you’ve learned to use combat prevention in this way, the Beserker amulet on a Ranger becomes much more powerful than a sit at range power LB full glass kitten set up.

also don’t only use damage buff traits like RTW ect and steady focus , flanking strikes all in the same build its not worth it , in the long run it Piegon holes you into using Signet of stone , where you don’t need the extra toughness because the extra toughness on a full kitten build is pointless and 6secs immune to damage wont save you.

you need a form of condi removal and a decent amount of damage prevention Not just SoS or protect me , i’ve even used a 6,2,0,6 sotf build with muddy terrain and 1 spike trap + krait runes with LB + S/D to prevent theifs from jumping me by preplanting the trap to trigger when the thief walks on it, before the thief gets to the backstab stage giving me more time to react with muddy terrain or pbs.

the trap may seem pointless with a low condi damage but it is more for the cripple combined with predators onslaught and the base bleeds is enough to counter low regen of other classes that also use Zerker amulets (basicly having unbuffed regen)

it can be used for Pressure redirecting drop it while you kite against even a low hp target the mobility cripple and the base bleeds will give you a breathing window to finish off nearly any Melee user (if they have already used up most of their cooldowns)

" sure use a Zerker amulet just don’t go the full glass hog or you’ll have a bad time when you start fighting those with a higher MMR. "

MetaBattle would disagree with that, but personally I run the SotF variant and won’t speak to the effectiveness of a deep skirmishing investment.

thats meta battle , its proberly been made by the census of the average player by many players as the most simple yet effective . that is all . i don’t take guides for their word and copy them as they are guides.

Oh, you don’t have to take their word for it. Don’t take mine either. Look at the names on the guides. One in particular should stick out to you since they were in the latest WTS series and also since they post the skirmishing variant on their Twitch stream as their power build.

just because they used the meta does not mean you should use it because its on there, and because a wts player used it , what i gave was advise on how to improve your game play copying a Skill level of a WTS player is a lot harder than copying a build and there so called variants are no different from what i suggested , i do not care if they are named there skills are what make them famous not the build.

it’s like with the thief…what separates the pro thief from the rest is their shortbow game, hands down. for power ranger, it’s knowing the high ground, and GS game.

Just feel like tossing out some basic stuff.

-Stay back, you are not a warrior.
-Do not spam your attacks, do not waste Rapid fire. Bait cooldowns and pressure from far away. Rapid fire should be used in be following situations.

• Picking off a low hp enemy.
• Tracking Stealth.
• In mid range, it keeps pressure, stacks vuln. Perfect for Melee burst.

-If you are being reflected, you can dodge, weapon-swap or use any other attack skill to stop Rapid fire.
-Support your team! Call targets~ and use your 5(Barrage). Thief on your squishy? 4 (Point blank) -> 2 (Rapid Fire).
- Neglecting your pet not only angers PETA but will hurt you. *Your pet is more then a CC bot. Throwing it a bone in your spec, or by using Signet of the Wild, Sic ’Em or Rampage as one can increase overall damage.
-Take into consideration all of the pets abilities when using a build.
-Do not use Rapid fire and Quickening Zephyr at the same time! This is a noob mistake. Rapid Fire becomes easier to avoid, Retaliation/Fire Aura will rip you apart and you just blew a stunbreak/dps increase on a long cooldown! Quickening Zephyr is best used at max range with your Auto Attack. Or a a stunbreak on the GS for a fast Mual.

Hope that was decent?

Aylpse.6280:

Just feel like tossing out some basic stuff.

-Stay back, you are not a warrior.
-Do not spam your attacks, do not waste Rapid fire. Bait cooldowns and pressure from far away. Rapid fire should be used in be following situations.

• Picking off a low hp enemy.
• Tracking Stealth.
• In mid range, it keeps pressure, stacks vuln. Perfect for Melee burst.

-If you are being reflected, you can dodge, weapon-swap or use any other attack skill to stop Rapid fire.
-Support your team! Call targets~ and use your 5(Barrage). Thief on your squishy? 4 (Point blank) -> 2 (Rapid Fire).
- Neglecting your pet not only angers PETA but will hurt you. *Your pet is more then a CC bot. Throwing it a bone in your spec, or by using Signet of the Wild, Sic ’Em or Rampage as one can increase overall damage.
-Take into consideration all of the pets abilities when using a build.
-Do not use Rapid fire and Quickening Zephyr at the same time! This is a noob mistake. Rapid Fire becomes easier to avoid, Retaliation/Fire Aura will rip you apart and you just blew a stunbreak/dps increase on a long cooldown! Quickening Zephyr is best used at max range with your Auto Attack. Or a a stunbreak on the GS for a fast Mual.

Hope that was decent?

+ use Quicken when you have GS out for fast stomps > into Auto chain evades> swoop away you can escape from large chained Aoes this way.

Aylpse.6280:

-If you are being reflected, you can *dodge, weapon-swap or use any other attack skill to stop Rapid fire.

Or you could also stow your weapon instead of wasting a dodge or a weapon swap you don’t really want. Key binding stow weapon is so so good!

1. be aggressive
2. know your cooldowns and use them liberally
3. know your high ground and LOS spots
4. have the right build

1. Do NOT use LB#4 because it is off cool down. Use it to create space, interrupt a heal, knock off a stomp.
2. LB is just one of two weapons. Learn them both.
3. I think this was said; Zephyr+Maul GS is a nasty combo.
4. Use terrain to your advantage.
5. You have to be aware if your surroundings.

Skullface.7293:

Aylpse.6280:

-If you are being reflected, you can *dodge, weapon-swap or use any other attack skill to stop Rapid fire.

Or you could also stow your weapon instead of wasting a dodge or a weapon swap you don’t really want. Key binding stow weapon is so so good!

Yeah, recently trying to set stow on hotkey, and oh boy, it is really useful.
It is not just rapid fire, it is useful on sword too! It’ll actually stop the sword auto chain and allow me to dodge!

Aomine.5012:

Skullface.7293:

Aylpse.6280:

-If you are being reflected, you can *dodge, weapon-swap or use any other attack skill to stop Rapid fire.

Or you could also stow your weapon instead of wasting a dodge or a weapon swap you don’t really want. Key binding stow weapon is so so good!

Yeah, recently trying to set stow on hotkey, and oh boy, it is really useful.
It is not just rapid fire, it is useful on sword too! It’ll actually stop the sword auto chain and allow me to dodge!

Key binding stow is probably the best advice, especially for lb ranger.

Personnally, GS is way too predictable to be useful against any decent opponent. All the ability are really obvious. The only way they can pass is with CC. When i face a LB ranger that swap to GS its 9 second of breathing room. I just need to leave melee and range dps him down without fear of any retaliation (except dodging the swoop + follow-up). The mobility is not good enough on GS. That weapon is only good on immediate melee pressure. It seems useless for ranged pressure (except the block).

That being said, the true reason why ranger has difficulties in pvp is how bad ranged weapon translate into melee fight and melee weapon into ranged fight. Its all about timing the swap at the right time.

That’s why i prefer S/D as it has tool to create distance/buy time to swap to LB and continue to DPS. GS can only follow up 1 time with swoop and after this you get kited until weapon swap. I would see GS viable only for double melee spec as with the other set you have the tools to catch up and swap to GS to inflict your burst and quickly followup if he use a defensive cool down.