Guild Wars 2

and I dunno what build to give him, how to equip him, which stats ,orbs etc…

my intention is wvw and dungeons, some pvp

so…any advice? I thought about going precision,toughness, condition dmg with a shortbow and an axe+torch, and a strong pet build, kinda like 10,0,30,0,30

For WvW condi prec tough build, you’ll probably want traps, so 30 into marksmanship is pretty much required for shorter trap CD, and the ability to chuck them at 900 range.

Personally I don’t play traps because I don’t like condi builds. If the group you are facing is good, they can clear those conditions in a second or two. Also, they apparently only hit three people, which would probably bother me.

I’m a fan of the 30/10/30/0/0 build with traited signets (mainly for the stability, but the increased damage and take no damage is also nice) with a mix of knights(or berserkers) and soldier gear. In theory, this build should be a pretty hard hitter, and depending on your weapon choices, it has the ability to give group utility.

Axe offhand: projectile reflect
Warhorn: blast finisher
But longbow/Greatsword are the weapons I use because I like the feel of them. Sword/axe is probably pretty useful though.

Also, don forget to run spiders/drakes/bears. Anything else will melt to a half decent guild group, especially with the necro stacking going on currently. You can probably run moas or something else that gives boons if you opt for a backline build, but the build I use is pretty much frontline/midline.

Oh, and if you’re running with a organized group, you’ll want to try and run with healing spring for a blastable water field.

Shpongle.6025:

so…any advice?

Yup …
Start leveling a guardian …

^
Don’t waste hundreds of gold on a ranger when you could be putting that money into another class that actually benefits your team. I remember laughing when I finally made a zerker warrior in WvW (that wasn’t fully geared) and how much dmg I was doing compared to a zerker ranger (that was fully geared).

Don’t listen to those guys but if your looking to play 10/0/30/0/30 go sword + torch & shortbow. Maybe a greatsword instead of sword + torch. Use birds, canines, felines, drakes as your pets. Your gonna be running a power/condition damage build. Look at the CoF or SE dungeon armor with Power, Vita, Condition damage. Same with your accessories. Make sure power and condition damage are boosted. They way your specced prec doesn’t seem like a good fit. And conditions work in wvwvw as your torch + any traps you run hit hard. Your runes depend on if your doing dungeons or wvwvw/pvp. In dungeons focus on power/condition damage in pvp toughness serves better.

I agree with bri. I invested so much time and money on my ranger, and… nothing. Everything feels so lackluster. Just reroll another class; it’s hopeless cause.

Snack.9315:

I agree with bri. I invested so much time and money on my ranger, and… nothing. Everything feels so lackluster. Just reroll another class; it’s hopeless cause.

I will tell you and the peeps above you right away that this is not true. Just because other professions offer different things that ranger does not, it does not mean that ranger does not provide any help that cannot be replaced. Just because you feel that you cannot accomplish with your ranger what you can with other profession, does not justify you telling other people otherwise. It only speaks to the great lack of your ability to emphasize and capitalize on your ranger skills. If you quit your ranger because of that you and anyone here should not be giving any advice at all regarding the ranger profession, all that a new ranger needs is feedback regarding what they can accomplish. If you wish to tell them that they can’t accomplish something as a ranger begin telling them why you cannot do so, be bloody responsible. I can tell you this as a ranger who has accomplished to bring out best of the ranger abilities, to properly help my team, to be able to provide reliable support, and so on. I am also fond of expressing all new rangers about the ranger’s limitations, rangers are super complex to get them to work perfectly. You must learn to work around the imperfections if you wish to achieve a higher standard of ranger play.

Now for the advice:

WvW – either zerg support or 5 man team/roamer, you need to choose your role. For a back liner zerg support use a Berserker-ish build. 30/30/5/0/5 should give you a head start, but read more about it here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/A-Ranger-Guide-Power-Build

For a roamer/5-man team, use any variant of beast master you prefer the most. Something that would help you survive those intense encounters while giving your party what you need to support them.
Read here for a ‘sentinel build’: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Sentinel-Frontliner-Next-Level-WvW-Ranger/first#post2705270
Read here for a beast master build: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Help-with-my-ranger/first#post2633468

PvE – honestly you can do whatever you want here, the most basic of builds can get you far here, this is the place where you should experiment with your build the most. I enjoy condition beast master in pve: 20/0/25/0/25, its my style.

Dungeons – good question, you certainly need to know if you are doing dungeons with your guild constantly and you know who you are working with, or you are joining random groups. I like to use condition beast master here because it means i wont die and i will provide a ton of condition damage support. Depending on the dungeon I like to go pet-strong (20/5/20/25), which requires you to micro manage your pet very well, or support-strong, which can be done via spirits OR a nature magic enhanced build around healing springs. You can also go very berserker, 30/30/0/10/0, but that’s very squishy mind you.

The above represents a very small piece of the puzzle, ranger can easily be the most complex profession out there due to its imperfections; but once you get the hang of it ranger can be extremely useful. I recommend you to try it all out one day at a time and figure out what works best for you. Good luck!

People have a point when they compare Rangers to other classes. I have both a berserker Ranger and warrior and while my Warrior’s Axe auto attack regularly hits for 4-5k. I can’t seem to get even a basic Ranger sword attack above 2.5k.

Ryan.9387:

People have a point when they compare Rangers to other classes. I have both a berserker Ranger and warrior and while my Warrior’s Axe auto attack regularly hits for 4-5k. I can’t seem to get even a basic Ranger sword attack above 2.5k.

Thats because you are comparing a warrior to a ranger, who is inherently stronger in order to counter balance the range and mobility and pet of the ranger. When comparing you need to be unbiased by the fact that one class does not compare to another 1 to 1. You need to take into account what many confuse as ‘the loss of DPS’ to what is given to the pet. The point that the pet takes away from the ranger is a point of discussion, when comparing rangers and warriors, not when comparing the ranger alone with a warrior. On top of that, many rangers are known not to be able to use their pet properly, even though there has been improvement in the ranger community over the past year, it is mostly true for those who do not put the time into mastering the complexity that the ranger truly can be. Note how rangers have taken such a long time coming up with new builds and new tactics to counterbalance with the other professions. Nowadays there are a solid but very few builds that work in combat successfully, but in no way do they compare with the other professions. By compare I don’t mean that they are better or equal or less, I mean in numbers or strategy, which for a ranger that will always involve a pet. Taking that into account, a warrior does not have a pet and does have the seemingly ‘added DPS’, well mate if you have been paying attention you should understand why. I would play a warrior if I didn’t want to deal with a pet, or any other profession, but I like the pet game play and I stick with it, knowing the strengths and limitations is important. That is why in an honest 1 vs 1 battle against a warrior I have honestly very very few times, because I know how to compare a warrior and a ranger, I know their advantages and limitations and as a good -jack of all trades- profession, I know how to use my jacks and not be biased to compare to completely different professions and combat approaches.

Reroll entirely if you wanted a ranged class. If sword or greatsword are your thing, then have fun.

I run a 100% glass cannon LB + SB ranger build in WvW with passive pets that give me fury and might for F2 abilities. This is not a 1v1 build, although decent play will ensure you win 1v1 vs pretty much anything except for super tanky guards and warriors, or extremely skilled thieves. Contrary to belief, it’s actually quite fun, and takes some of the most skill in terms of positioning, when to fire and when to run, and knowing how to kite efficiently, as well as now knowing how to combo your LB 3 and 4 and optimize your LB skill 2 shots.

I hit squishies with one longbow shot for about a little over 4000. Currently working on ascended, so we’ll see how high that can get.

When I meet a new ranger without gobs of gold, I like to give one piece of advice. Go to Orr and pick yourself up some Dwayna karma armor (only 240k karma). It will give you a good array of base stats and a lot of survivability for whatever build you chose to make. If you spec 10 points into nature magic for nature’s bounty, you’ll have +64% regen duration which helps with survivability a lot while you learn the class at lvl 80. Because rangers are good, but not easy to play.

Ranger also has less mobility than a greatsword warrior.

The two things I’ve found that Rangers can do better than other classes is evade spam and provide consistent pressure. It is really a testament to the weakness of the class when any build without sword and dagger underperforms.

so many different builds, now i don’t know which one to choose ;_;

If you are good at positioning and want to cap camps in seconds and also provide good damage against a zerg, then roll a full zerk lb/sb ranger. It’s not easy to play as you end up very squishy, but it can be great fun melting thiefs while they are stealthed (long bow 2, start it before they stealth, it tracks them).

Don’t expect a pet to be much use in wvw in larger battles, against doors, whilst defending- practically 75% of the time in other words, 40% of your damage can’t do any damage. Maybe one day they might remove the stupid cool down when both pets died so you could have a pet out all the time, until then they are more of a nuisance than a help in larger fights, but very useful in camp capping.

Best advice- roll something else if you don’t like the feeling of playing a character with one hand tied behind your back.