Guild Wars 2

Title says it all.
Edit: The specs giving me trouble are GS/LB for warrior. And D/P / S/P Thief.
Any way to use S/D on Power by the way?

the topic seems really specific…
1v1 where, 1v1 how? What’s your build? Why do you lose?
From the listed thief spec, I’d assume, you are talking about dueling?

I am playing SoF Power Ranger, but Im used to condi traps but that works so well nowadays obviously. For the sake of a scenario lets assume its a duel (it usually isn’t, I hate dueling servers) because its just in general on any map.

Assuming, With power ranger, you mean glassbow.
Yeah, SotF glassbow sucks in 1v1. Maybe try some melee ranger spec. They tend to do good in 1v1 and still have the greatsword mobility.

I’ve been busy floating turrets in pvp for too long, so I currently don’t know, how to build a good melee ranger though.

I dont know any melee specs, if you can point me in the direction of one I’d be more then willing to try.

My issue with GS/LB is for Thieves they either teleport behind me or blind me. And warriors just do so much damage I can try and kite GS all day but in the end Pin Down and Arcing Arrow are my bane.

Guyz…
… If you play GlassCannon, don’t be surprised if you break.

It’s like saying that you don’t understand why you lost as a samurai when your enemy is an armed soldier.

Specifically against Warriors and Thieves… Condition survival might be what you are looking for. Probably even full regen Ranger. Those are pretty powerful dueling builds.

If you like LB/GS, stick to it, you will get better. Try using this for a bit, so you survive the initial bursts, then as you get better, you can change to zerk amulet and different runes for more damage. Once you learn what you need to do to survive them, then you can worry about killing them.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If you like LB/GS, stick to it, you will get better. Try using this for a bit, so you survive the initial bursts, then as you get better, you can change to zerk amulet and different runes for more damage. Once you learn what you need to do to survive them, then you can worry about killing them.

Why would I make a Power Build that is made for soaking up the damage?
… I can’t seem to find the reason.

If I wanted a build that will sustain – I’d definitely go Condi. Not only I’ll live longer, I’d even deal more damage. Period.
If I wanted to burst people – I’d go full zerk and learn my mechanics, positioning and do my job which is bring people from 100 to 0 in the least time possible. You already are a bother for your team since your damage and utility is lover than the one of a Mesmer and you can’t stand on a point… Now you’d even cut the only thing you bring in half – which is Damage.

Any lesson is meaningless without pain. If you really want to get better, play the standard Zerk, and pay for your mistakes. Just like you should capitalize on mistakes of your enemy. That’s how Zerks do. Playing a soldiers version will only distance yourself of your initial goal.

I can beat most thieves in WvW as power ranger if they’re not dire perplex condition thief. Just change one of your utility to sick-em, time it right, and there’s your kill.

For pet, it’s best to have a wolf around. Time your fear and kd/ kb right, use sick-em at the right moment, and usually you’ll kill most thieves that’s not dire perplex.

I’m talking about WvW btw XD…

Tragic Positive.9356:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If you like LB/GS, stick to it, you will get better. Try using this for a bit, so you survive the initial bursts, then as you get better, you can change to zerk amulet and different runes for more damage. Once you learn what you need to do to survive them, then you can worry about killing them.

Why would I make a Power Build that is made for soaking up the damage?
… I can’t seem to find the reason.

If I wanted a build that will sustain – I’d definitely go Condi. Not only I’ll live longer, I’d even deal more damage. Period.
If I wanted to burst people – I’d go full zerk and learn my mechanics, positioning and do my job which is bring people from 100 to 0 in the least time possible. You already are a bother for your team since your damage and utility is lover than the one of a Mesmer and you can’t stand on a point… Now you’d even cut the only thing you bring in half – which is Damage.

Any lesson is meaningless without pain. If you really want to get better, play the standard Zerk, and pay for your mistakes. Just like you should capitalize on mistakes of your enemy. That’s how Zerks do. Playing a soldiers version will only distance yourself of your initial goal.

I’ve been playing Zerk Ranger long enough to be better then I am. I played Mesmer for quite a while, and I understand 90% of all the skills and classes, can usually tell what they are going to do based on weapons. But I still lose.

I dont kill myself on reflects like a lot of other rangers do on my bunker Guard. But there are times in combat I get “stuck” its no a glitch or a condi I just cant get to where I want to be in the fight, by the time I’ve positioned myself the enemy has moved, either on my kitten with a ten foot pole or where they make it really hard for me to do anything. I have no way around this and Im really starting to think that and medicore reaction time is related to my mental disability and then comes another depressive episode. (like now)

Tragic Positive.9356:

…Any lesson is meaningless without pain. If you really want to get better, play the standard Zerk, and pay for your mistakes. Just like you should capitalize on mistakes of your enemy. That’s how Zerks do. Playing a soldiers version will only distance yourself of your initial goal.

I disagree, if you cannot stay alive long enough to see the mechanics, you won’t learn anything, you’ll just get frustrated. And you will be contributing a lot less to your team if you are always in the respawn Q because you keep getting one-shot by thieves. Much better off doing 30% less crit damage having 300 less power so you can stay alive and contribute something, and learn at the same time.

I suggested the KNIGHTS/Melandru version so he can see those mechanics before being nuked. Once you learn what to do and get better, you can swap to Zerk amulet, once better again, swap the runes to Pack.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Tragic Positive.9356:

…Any lesson is meaningless without pain. If you really want to get better, play the standard Zerk, and pay for your mistakes. Just like you should capitalize on mistakes of your enemy. That’s how Zerks do. Playing a soldiers version will only distance yourself of your initial goal.

I disagree, if you cannot stay alive long enough to see the mechanics, you won’t learn anything, you’ll just get frustrated. And you will be contributing a lot less to your team if you are always in the respawn Q because you keep getting one-shot by thieves. Much better off doing 30% less crit damage having 300 less power so you can stay alive and contribute something, and learn at the same time.

I suggested the KNIGHTS/Melandru version so he can see those mechanics before being nuked. Once you learn what to do and get better, you can swap to Zerk amulet, once better again, swap the runes to Pack.

I’ll give this a go until things get better, Hopefully find out why thevies kill me if its more then high AA damage and blinds.

Based on your opponents builds it sounds like you’re talking about WvW roaming?

If you’re talking about PvP the answer is to stop 1v1ing thieves and warriors. Warriors are way too durable and certain thieves hard counter LB.

For WvW, warriors can be extremely tough depending on what build they’re running. Full glass isn’t that bad, but a durable-yet-not-tank roaming warrior with dogged march is going to be one of the worst possible fights for a LB roamer. You’re going to need to simply outplay him, so I suggest dueling over and over.

Thieves in WvW are a mixed bag. Some will be unkillable and/or hard counter you. Backstab thieves you can usually spike down in a few seconds. Hurt them then very quickly RF or CC them as they’re about to stealth. Again, dueling one over and over isn’t a bad idea so you get used to the duration of stealth, the steal range and some of their typical moves.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Tragic Positive.9356:

…Any lesson is meaningless without pain. If you really want to get better, play the standard Zerk, and pay for your mistakes. Just like you should capitalize on mistakes of your enemy. That’s how Zerks do. Playing a soldiers version will only distance yourself of your initial goal.

I disagree, if you cannot stay alive long enough to see the mechanics, you won’t learn anything, you’ll just get frustrated. And you will be contributing a lot less to your team if you are always in the respawn Q because you keep getting one-shot by thieves. Much better off doing 30% less crit damage having 300 less power so you can stay alive and contribute something, and learn at the same time.

I suggested the KNIGHTS/Melandru version so he can see those mechanics before being nuked. Once you learn what to do and get better, you can swap to Zerk amulet, once better again, swap the runes to Pack.

Do you really think it’s educative to tell a player that has trained for several days with a tanky no-DPS build without any burst whatsoever to put on a Zerk suit?

No, I don’t believe so. It’s better to ask some PvP players to duel and train with him for a while. You need to know WHEN TO STRIKE. That’s the whole point of the GlassBow ranger and Glass classes in particular. With a tanky constant DPS build you get your mind into a “comfortable state” where you think you’ll survive the burst anyways and you don’t need to search for opening… They’ll show up after a while, right?.

It’s much better to play non-ranked games for a couple of days, knowing you’ll lose beforehand. Than reflect back what happened and what could you do better. If you can record the games, even better.

But with all due respect, taking a Power Ranger that already has the lowest DPS output into a Soldiers armor to lower it further – that’s wrong.
If the player is new to the PvP environment as such, I already proposed condition builds. GlassBow ranger is one of the hardest classes to master.

“Training wheels will let you learn the basics faster at a cost of learning to ride a bike twice.”

I assumed OP was talking sPvP as he mentioned servers…

@ Tragic – It is Knights ammy, not soldiers. At least knights has precision.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I assumed OP was talking sPvP as he mentioned servers…

@ Tragic – It is Knights ammy, not soldiers. At least knights has precision.

My bad, point taken … But the damage still cannot compare to the role you try to achieve as a Zerk. It’s still quite off the track.

I understand that, it’s not like I’m advocating using knights/melandru for 6 months and then swapping, it would take a dozen matches to figure it out and then swap to zerk ammy, half a dozen more, then swap the runes. It is just a little more time to learn the tells etc. You still play like zerk, trying not to take the damage in the 1st place.

If it is WvW that is the question, I would be starting with the zerk gear with maybe earth runes (cheap). Because you don’t want to have to buy new gear just to test/learn. Swap the runes to something else you like after. The Defender runes are very good with a GS but you lose some damage for sustain.

Power Ranger is going to have trouble against the sustain of a Warrior and the Zerker-meta dominating Thief in 1v1s.

If you want to win those fights you’ll have to simply be better than those classes as they have the initial advantage against you (imo).

That being said, I believe the current role of a Zerker Ranger is to +1 fights. You can start +1ing from quite a long distance which can be especially nice on the more open maps. It’s an issue on the more closed off ones though.

If you’re wanting to 1v1, I don’t recommend zerker stats. I can mess up and eat your full burst in my tanky condi build and heal back to full very quickly while my conditions and pet eat through your much less substantial defenses/sustain.

Fo’ starters, yes you can use S/D on a power set-up. You lose the ability to cleave, but you get loads of poison and better in-combat mobility. I think it’s better for fighting off point and kiting, but GS is gonna let you stand your ground better.

If you’re trying to fight on point against the warrior, it’s going to be next to impossible if they’re any good. Our strength in that match (particularly against GS,) is our ability to kite. You’re the matador and he’s the bull. Treat the match-up like that. You need to avoid his movement impairing conditions (Pin Down, Blade Trail, maybe Bull Rush) to win this. S/D poison will help with dealing with Warrior sustain. A Jungle Spider or Forest Spider is great too.

A fight against a good thief is going to boil down to who gets a good hit in first, usually. If you’re running Sic’em you can ruin their day because a Black Powder leap is super easy to counter with that. Alternatively, save your Point Blank Shot for that, then squeeze off an auto attack and Rapid Fire. If they get into stealth stay as mobile as possible — S/D is nice for this, but GS should do pretty well too.

Zerk is fine for 1v1 the trick with zerker is not killing its staying alive strong offense and cc are your friend I run 1h sword /axe lb. Pbs in rapid fire (pop sos to survie the first burst) if hes confident he will stealth and do for a hidden strike before healing in this case you have him wolf fear about a second after his stealth you normally can catch him right as he attacks he be unable to steal for 4 second if he hit you if not he may sr then just use barrage at his las known location.

The biggest thing is don’t run but be aware of your postion so you don’t stand in a smoke field. If you see him coming you can stealth first with lb 3 rapid fire or path of scar from stealth.

Keep your foe cc as much as possible but keep in mind sometimes they are just better than you or they got the opening move. You would win them all.

At first go for a down state fight against thieve you will have the advantage. Warriors have the advantage but with good use of your pets you can survive vengeance expecially if they try to dps you down.

Take it one phase at a time. First survive the opening a lot of players try to end it quick. Once you learn to do that everything becomes easier. Develop your opening learn to kill in under 6 second when you catch them off guard.

Things are changing look at what other classes are getting don’t just be rangercentric.
It will be possible to build tankier and not give up as much power dps and have some condi removal.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Zerk is fine for 1v1 the trick with zerker is not killing its staying alive strong offense and cc …

…

This and this exactly.

If one wants to play Zerker, he has to learn to rely on mechanics, not stats.
Stealth/CC/mobility…

Never the stats, since all of them are going to be blown into offense (that is going to be evaded or mitigated anyways).

lb/gs zerk can definitely hold its own in a 1v1, just keep practicing. Don’t swap to GS too early, don’t move unless you have to in LB, play aggressively when you pop stone. I know dueling rooms are toxic but if you wanna get better it’s a good option, better yet, find thieves/warriors to duel over and over again. I honestly don’t think wvw is a good place to learn, in the time it takes to find a 1v1 you could have dueled someone like 10 times plus actually talked to them and learned what they’re doing. Not to mention in wvw you’ll fight SA thieves who have a completely different play-style than the far more aggressive trickery thieves in pvp

there’s no way to effective use s/d with a power build right now; and sword should only really be equipped on condi bunkers.

you should either get the hang of LB/GS zerker builds but theyre not for 1v1’s and thieves will crush you. condi bunker would be for holding points and doing 1v1’s. check out metabattle for those builds.

Sword is a liability against a Warrior/Thief because they can take advantage of you being animation locked in order to hit you with some solid burst … else you are not using your auto-attack … so why use Sword as a Zerk .. unless the only point of using it is for the mobility/evades … which I don’t think are sufficient versus taking a Greatsword instead for PvP.

If you don’t engage from range, be trigger happy with SoS so that you can regroup as they blow through cooldowns or they have to reset the fight themselves (Warriors with mobility/Thief with stealth).

You are likely on the losing end more than not because you are not seeing them counter-playing your range. You should be in melee weapon (evades/block) / pet positioning for CC more often than you are probably realizing.

I went from celestial condi healing shout warrior to zerker ranger. It was horrible!

I’m not going to write essays that you likely won’t read, examples above, so I just say:
Warriors opening with a rush like skill, dodgeroll through them, not backwards.

The reason you use 1h sword is for the dps. The sword animation isn’t an issue if your learn to use the tools you have. Sword comes with two evades ,so you can have 4 to 5 total evades (to avoid the big attatcks)

For sword you really need your cc’. We are talking 2 dogs for the best result so that is 2 kd’ where there are not attacking back. A third if you go with hyena’s (lower dps but the kd is more valuable than say immobilize from the drake hound at least with the 1h sword) If you equip axe off-hand that is another kd. All this plus sos coupled with quickening zypher, you have all you need to make a quick end.

You can start your attack with pb and rapid fire insuring the either have taken a good amount of damage or blown a dodge or two. Once you go into melee you should be set if not use your evades to buy yourself like another 5 seconds an swap back to bow pb, barrage and stealth (hold of on the sleath a bit you don’t what the barrage to reveal you :learn the timing).

If you man up and stand your ground. They expect you to run or play defensively. Unlike condi build power builds really suffer each time you have to evade. On your back isn’t where you want to be so stability when your up against certain kinda of warriors thieves not so much. Keeping them on their back is how you win start winning these match-ups.

Stability can be a problem for you.

This play style many not work for you, yet for others its perfect. It real comes down to the aggression factor the more the better.

The Sword is a liability because the tools you have don’t matter during the animation for the 2nd and 3rd attack in the AA chain as you can’t interrupt them. A smart opponent knows this and will try to take advantage of it by timing their burst attack to hit during that animation. Thieves are especially good at this due to how quickly some of their burst can hit thereby making the proper timing easier for them to achieve.

The sword is a great weapon, but this one flaw makes it a liability against any good opponent.

Don’t be afraid to ask people to duel you who are playing the builds you are having a bad time with. If they are nice enough they might give you some tips.

Against Greatsword/Longbow warriors, you have to keep in mind that you have to dodge their Whirlwind Attack and Rush as these skills do quite a good amount of damage if you decide to face tank it all. Also be careful to not get hit by Arcing Arrow and Pin Down(use your Lightning Reflexes if you get caught).

Against thieves you have to be pretty good at your power spec once they get close to you. When I am on point, I always put a barrage on the point to give myself a sort of protection from thieves. Keep your wolf fear for when they are going to use their Shadow Refuge, you can get a lot of thieves from this trick.

I play zerker ranger since a pretty long time now and I feel like it is a really rewarding spec once you know how to deal with builds that are supposed to counter you.

What Skullface said … helps to be on Teamspeak/Ventrilo/Mumble/etc. … some VOIP so you can discuss the fight before/during/after for good feedback.

You won’t get a better chance to learn how to fight a class than by fighting it over and over again with the person talking to you about the fights.

A couple of the people I play with have been taking some of the people newer to PvP into empty Arenas and dueling them in this manner. Many of them have reported doing much better in PvP ever since.

Mesmer and Ranger are two in high-demand right now for “how do I fight this” … so I’m often quite happy to oblige with two of my mains.

We even had a nice 2v2 where Durzlla teamed up with Leif (she’s an awesome Ranger too) against Twiggz on his Ele (very new to it) and I on my Ranger. I think we PvP’d for a good 2 hours straight. By the end of it, Leif and I were discussing it and she mentioned how it was obvious to her and Durzlla how much Twiggz improved over the course of the fighting. Few things as effective as two Ranger’s on your clothie butt to get you to improve :-p

The next day when we were just playing around … Twiggz said basically the same thing; how he could tell he was getting better from it.

A lot of skill against various classes comes down to muscle memory. When you’ve fought a given class enough times, you begin to quickly identify what their build is and from there you’ll start countering various things instictually because you know that when they do X you want to do Y or Z and that you want to apply your own A or B and they might counter it with C or D.

It seems like a lot but it eventually becomes second nature to you.

Talk to “the pros” and they’ll largely tell you the same thing … though some of them did more than just duel but also drew up some spreadsheets, etc. that they analyzed optimal decisions from and then practiced applying those in-game.

Even cooler is when they stretch that to encompass 2v2, 3v3, and so on.

There is quite a bit of depth and that is what makes it all so much fun.

So get in there, get your butt handed to you, learn from it, and enjoy every minute of it.

My issue with that Serbert is finding people who will duel me on friendly terms, much less a thief willing to tolerate “ez mode rangr”.

I’d duel my guild, but nearly all of them are PvE’ers bar three, two of which dont really play anymore. So they are out of the question.

Dueling servers are a joke. Not only are they regularly trolled but a lot of the players there some of the most petty and toxic the community has to offer. I’ve gone there for duels many times. I lose or in the event I win by catching someone off guard they demand a rematch with a different spec made to counter mine. Accept and get a response such as “gg ez” decline and prepare for profanity. I also panic on these servers, people are watching and judging at all times.

Im not disregarding your advice, Im going to try and find someone but Im not sure where to look.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of you, it is how you see yourself that matters. Just put yourself on offline mode when you go to the duel server and ignore the egotistical little kittens. Then learn, adapt and win with grace.

Aylpse.6280:

My issue with that Serbert is finding people who will duel me on friendly terms, much less a thief willing to tolerate “ez mode rangr”.

I’d duel my guild, but nearly all of them are PvE’ers bar three, two of which dont really play anymore. So they are out of the question.

Dueling servers are a joke. Not only are they regularly trolled but a lot of the players there some of the most petty and toxic the community has to offer. I’ve gone there for duels many times. I lose or in the event I win by catching someone off guard they demand a rematch with a different spec made to counter mine. Accept and get a response such as “gg ez” decline and prepare for profanity. I also panic on these servers, people are watching and judging at all times.

Im not disregarding your advice, Im going to try and find someone but Im not sure where to look.

Ikr. They’d ask for a duel, then I opened my main, and they told me join first, then they watched my spec and then log out and open a hard counter class, and respec according to my build, then they’re willing to duel…

They even refuse to duel in a more realistic situation, such as on node.

You could try the obsidian sanctum for duels. The server I play on (and those I play against) don’t seem to make much use of it and I can never find anyone there.. but I know people on other servers who do.

As others have said, there really is no replacement for dueling with someone over and over again and discussing it with them.

If you really can’t do that though, the next best is to record your fights and watch them back. You’d be amazed how many stupid / strange / unessesary things you suddenly notice yourself doing when you watch it back, and being aware of those things the next time does help you stop doing them.

Cufufalating.8479:

If you really can’t do that though, the next best is to record your fights and watch them back. You’d be amazed how many stupid / strange / unessesary things you suddenly notice yourself doing when you watch it back, and being aware of those things the next time does help you stop doing them.

+1
Personal experience ;-)

I would say the #1 mistake all players make is wasting their evades and dodge rolls by being anxious and incorrectly trying to predict the opponent’s commitment. If you watch yourself play, I guarantee you’ll see most of your dodge rolls being completely wasted due to your anxiety.

Sebrent.3625:

The Sword is a liability because the tools you have don’t matter during the animation for the 2nd and 3rd attack in the AA chain as you can’t interrupt them. A smart opponent knows this and will try to take advantage of it by timing their burst attack to hit during that animation. Thieves are especially good at this due to how quickly some of their burst can hit thereby making the proper timing easier for them to achieve.

The sword is a great weapon, but this one flaw makes it a liability against any good opponent.

Attack animation is 1 1/2 seconds with quickness you cut it down more. How is one going to use the animation against you when they themselves are locked into the fear or kd animation. You cover your vulnerabilities by making them vulnerable.

Them thinking that you’re vulnerable is exactly why you will come out on top.

There is no such thing as the perfect attack or defense. One needs to cover their strengths and weaknesses.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Sebrent.3625:

The Sword is a liability because the tools you have don’t matter during the animation for the 2nd and 3rd attack in the AA chain as you can’t interrupt them. A smart opponent knows this and will try to take advantage of it by timing their burst attack to hit during that animation. Thieves are especially good at this due to how quickly some of their burst can hit thereby making the proper timing easier for them to achieve.

The sword is a great weapon, but this one flaw makes it a liability against any good opponent.

Attack animation is 1 1/2 seconds with quickness you cut it down more. How is one going to use the animation against you when they themselves are locked into the fear or kd animation. You cover your vulnerabilities by making them vulnerable.

Them thinking that you’re vulnerable is exactly why you will come out on top.

There is no such thing as the perfect attack or defense. One needs to cover their strengths and weaknesses.

Sword animation killed me in PvP countless times.

With Quickness, it’s basically a death sentence for you. Unless your target is not an Engie and is CCed at the same time.

sword really doesn’t belong on zerker builds. ive tested a variety of power melee builds and spamming sword autoattack is suicide due to the animations. it’s not bad when finishing off a target, and it might be interesting on a tanky cleric build with Remorseless.

mistsim.2748:

sword really doesn’t belong on zerker builds. ive tested a variety of power melee builds and spamming sword autoattack is suicide due to the animations. it’s not bad when finishing off a target, and it might be interesting on a tanky cleric build with Remorseless.

Then don’t spam the autoattack. I’ve been using sword on berserker builds for 3 years. Especially in WvW where you’re often outnumbered, it’s objectively better than GS because of the movement. For 1v1 where you have more control and have to worry about less, obviously it’s going to be better than GS.

GS is still a solid choice for berserker LB builds of course, and in PvP I could see an argument for it. But this has been done to death.

Fluffball.8307:

mistsim.2748:

sword really doesn’t belong on zerker builds. ive tested a variety of power melee builds and spamming sword autoattack is suicide due to the animations. it’s not bad when finishing off a target, and it might be interesting on a tanky cleric build with Remorseless.

Then don’t spam the autoattack. I’ve been using sword on berserker builds for 3 years. Especially in WvW where you’re often outnumbered, it’s objectively better than GS because of the movement. For 1v1 where you have more control and have to worry about less, obviously it’s going to be better than GS.

GS is still a solid choice for berserker LB builds of course, and in PvP I could see an argument for it. But this has been done to death.

I was wondering… Isn’t 80% of this topic made around PvP? While the rest is offtopic statements or possible speculations?

Anyways, just one more question:
If you are not supposed to autoattack with the sword (which is the highest DPS we can currently get), while Zerk’s job is mostly to deal damage… What are you supposed to do with that thing? Roam? GS is better for that one. Mitigate damage? GS is better for that one. Disrupt? GS wins again… So tell me, What the snap are you supposed to do with that double edged sword?

Tragic Positive.9356:

Fluffball.8307:

mistsim.2748:

sword really doesn’t belong on zerker builds. ive tested a variety of power melee builds and spamming sword autoattack is suicide due to the animations. it’s not bad when finishing off a target, and it might be interesting on a tanky cleric build with Remorseless.

Then don’t spam the autoattack. I’ve been using sword on berserker builds for 3 years. Especially in WvW where you’re often outnumbered, it’s objectively better than GS because of the movement. For 1v1 where you have more control and have to worry about less, obviously it’s going to be better than GS.

GS is still a solid choice for berserker LB builds of course, and in PvP I could see an argument for it. But this has been done to death.

I was wondering… Isn’t 80% of this topic made around PvP? While the rest is offtopic statements or possible speculations?

Anyways, just one more question:
If you are not supposed to autoattack with the sword (which is the highest DPS we can currently get), while Zerk’s job is mostly to deal damage… What are you supposed to do with that thing? Roam? GS is better for that one. Mitigate damage? GS is better for that one. Disrupt? GS wins again… So tell me, What the snap are you supposed to do with that double edged sword?

Keep on rolling rolling evading and go on point everyone knows gs has Near Rng evade on auto and if your not using the auto after using counter attack (which does not block more than 1 Melee attack it can be baited by a sub attack somthing you don’t really need at the time) then it is easly countered because the gs has no long term active defence on the weapon vs sword which does and is still able to deal enough damage.

gs= offensive pressure , the defense is a sub skill for gap closing.
Sword+ NA = Dps pressure in short bursts , active evades for on point defence more of a hybrid combat style of offense+defence though lacks the stun of gs5 ect is made up by the off-hands for that extra damage or more evade time.

just because somthing has the highest dps does not mean its built for constant Dps.

in my experience in gw2 a poison+pet bleed (if your running glass a pets bleed is better than yours) and is enough to topple the regen of a warroir but you Must have Mobility CC which glass rangers lack unless they are Sotf rangers or survival which don’t use glass builds.

if you wish to get better at fighting warroirs and thiefs in their current state you really need to learn to use pet strenghts to your advantage to compensate or support your build .

e.g don’t rush in with gs if you know , the spider you have its on cooldown so you can’t escape easy this comes with timing practice to get that Maul+poison cloud off at the right time just when you stun them because after that swoop away kite and cleave/block or LB pbs them untill 15-20secs have passed then the immobilse shot from the spider will nearly be ready.

pbs from afar though you’ll need to gauge the distance from the spiders poison cloud to the KB distance vs how close you are to make sure they get pushed into the cloud >interrupt there gap closer or heal >swoop in hilt bash > spider uses poison cloud> maul > block on the spot > he attacks you under pressure to try and stop you damaging him and them if he chooses to kite out of the Cleave range / out of the poison cloud , thats where LB gives you the advantage to create more space and repeat , though just remember against these two classes raw dps is not enough.

If you can’t find good people to duel … keep looking.

Recording your fights is, of course, a nice alternative, but the discussion with your peers cannot be underestimated. They will notice things that you might otherwise not notice. They might have ideas that you wouldn’t think of but are a great match for you.

Serraphin Storm.2369:
Of course, if you have the target CC’d, any attack is going to be great … and few better than the DPS of our Sword.

It’s the rest of the fight that aggravates me with the sword.

As I’ve said before in other threads on this weapon … it is useful when you’re easily on the offensive (AA chain) or on the defensive (evades) … but when striking a balance I find it lacking compared to other weapons.

X/bow warriors are weak to poison because they rely (usually) on healing signet. Some form of bunkering poison master beastmastery GS/SW-T Kinda build. Keep fire aura up and try to get him to wander around in your fire field.

The same build will work on thieves. GS and torch work well on thieves in general.

Archon.6480:

X/bow warriors are weak to poison because they rely (usually) on healing signet. Some form of bunkering poison master beastmastery GS/SW-T Kinda build. Keep fire aura up and try to get him to wander around in your fire field.

The same build will work on thieves. GS and torch work well on thieves in general.

If only Warrior doesn’t has like 4 separate cleanses on very short CD..
(Cleansing Ira clear 3 per 7~10 secs, shouts cleanse 3)
Post patch Warrior will even get Brawler Defense on master trait (Clear 1 more every 5 seconds..)

If you want to duel certain class and you don’t like pvp duelling arenas, go to wvw and ask if they know some enemy that plays that particular class and who they think would give you advice.

Especially on lower tier servers, many people know each other and if you are lucky, you will find someone right away.

If you have troubles vs particual build in pvp, ask the person, experienced player will be able to switch builds to practise with you, even if it’s not their usual/fav build.

IMO, Ranger Condi Bunker is our strongest small-scale fighting spec as the Conditions provide solid damage, you’re tough as nails, and your pet is still applying direct damage pressure (and likely CCs too) independent of your non-power stats.

My only issue with it is that it is often slower mobility-wise than available power variants. I could see this changing using the perma-swiftness from shouts … though I’m still loathe to waste a major trait and a utility slot for this … but perma regen and perma swiftness when you’ve invested in healing power is nice.

git gud.

and lets be honest, you are not going to accomplish that by running around with a group of people in wvw with your zerker meta bursting down actual solo roamers with a single rapid fire contribution.

You get really good by being that Ranger that picks off the zerg’s stragglers and then gets the heck out of dodge … or lures a few off and kills them quickly before the zerg comes and rolls you … or running into other people doing the same and giving them their due :-p

Even when you’re good though … still going to die sometimes. Nature of the game. Rounded a corner last night and was met by a lovely group of red names. They didn’t so much want to chat as throw me down and rough me up.

Aylpse.6280:

Title says it all.
Edit: The specs giving me trouble are GS/LB for warrior. And D/P / S/P Thief.
Any way to use S/D on Power by the way?

I can’t dent some warriors.

Even in protracted, long fights, some of them don’t take damage at all – I can’t believe this is skill – since zero damage just keeps going and going and going.