Guild Wars 2

I love the durability of tank Necromancers, between the healing from lifesteals, the rampant condition removal, and the entire second health bar. However, I really, really, REALLY love the cosmetic aspects of Rangers, from medium armor to pet-naming to being the only class with access to Greatsword, Sword, and Dagger all together.

Is there any way at all to be similarly-durable, or am I outta luck on eating my cake and having it, too?

On a sword/dagger set you have 3 evades. Do i need to say more?

Dalanor.5387:

On a sword/dagger set you have 3 evades. Do i need to say more?

and if you run shortbow in addition you got another evade and a stun, be smart and take lightning reflexes and you got 5 evades, vigor, 4x dodges and a healing skill (which can also be made to apply vigor).

If one still dies after all this, then all hope is lost.

Yes, go 30, 0, 20, 0, 20. Mix apothecary carrion and soldiers. Keep pre/crit damage at 0. Really fun build. Use cats and GS, sword torch. Keep all 3 conditions up. Signets.

Yeah, as guys before said, shortbow + sword/dagger. Add 2 bears with 55k HP each, Protect Me, traited Signet of Stone, Signet of the Wild (or Lighting Reflexes for additional evade and vigor), Rampage as One and you can stand everything. Knight armor with zerker/soldier trinkets and valkyrie weapons works fine.

No one can “tank” in PvE. U can be max useless by maximizing personal defense, but u can´t tank.

It would be a terrible idea for the current dungeon meta, but rangers can be absurdly bunkerish. There is a reason they are considered the best home bunkers in PvP right now.

Rangers have massive regen uptime (even permanent regen really easily), good protection uptime and tons of evades.

Thanks for the answers so far, y’all.

Norjena, I suppose a better way to put it would be that I’d just like to be able to use Greatsword + Sword/Dagger in PvE/dungeon content. I figure that a focus on survivability is the only way to make that work given that you’re always in melee range, but if there’s a different approach, I’d be grateful for info.

Norjena.5172:

No one can “tank” in PvE. U can be max useless by maximizing personal defense, but u can´t tank.

Pretty much this ^

Even with how tanky necros can be without trying, they are still even less desirable than Rangers on paper when making a dungeon team (in realty most just auto kick when they see the paw print though)

Toolbox.9375:

Thanks for the answers so far, y’all.

Norjena, I suppose a better way to put it would be that I’d just like to be able to use Greatsword + Sword/Dagger in PvE/dungeon content. I figure that a focus on survivability is the only way to make that work given that you’re always in melee range, but if there’s a different approach, I’d be grateful for info.

In PvE/Dungeaon, the most important thing is to know when big attacks are coming and dodge them… The better one is at it, the more one can lean towards being zerk.

Both sword and GS have evades. Though mastering sword is challenging, after one did that, it’s a great weapon.
The point with melee, is not about tanking, but about timing the evades (and invuls, if applicable)… at least in PvE.

In my experience, I always use Greatsword when ‘tanking.’ Why? Because the auto attack #3 is an automatic evade. Every 3rd attack misses you automatically. Would you take a trait that gave you 33% damage resist? Because that’s basically what it does.

I pull out the GS, put down a healing spring and have a drake who’s tail strike is a blast finisher and I can hold against almost anything in overworld PVE. GS Damage outside of Maul is pretty pathetic, but it’s a good weapon for survivability.

Substance E.4852:

(in realty most just auto kick when they see the paw print though)

Because I feel the need to correct this myth so new rangers don’t get the wrong idea:

I have never been kicked from any dungeon or fractal group because I was a ranger, which I play pretty much exclusively and almost every day.

If you’re running a build that is clearly bad, i.e. you show up with a bunch of signets next to your name and are wielding a shortbow, I can understand why you would be kicked immediately.