Guild Wars 2

Introduction

hey guys, for those of you that don’t know me my in game name is The Godbow aka Bad Elementalist. I am going to give you all little background knowledge about myself so people will know I am not a complete scrub lord. I’ve played the game for 2 years and have mained as an ele for most of that duration. I started playing longbow ranger more seriously when it was buffed and have since then played mainly only my ranger. I am rank 80 and tend to play solo a lot.

So, I made this guide for 2 reasons; rangers are underutilized and under-appreciated. I wanted to give people a more broad knowledge of how to play a longbow ranger properly in pvp.

In order to achieve this, I am going to talk about the role of the ranger on the team and then I am going to talk about how that role is best utilized through the team and general best practices to make the most use out of a ranger.

A Longbow Rangers Role

Okay, so in pvp there are 4 types of roles that are used.

You have a roamer; they roam between the different points to turn 1v1s into 2v1s.

You have a far point attacker which goes for the decaps/distractions at far point.

A near point defender who defends the home node.

And then you typically have bunkers/brawlers in the mid fights.

First off, I wanna say if you are a ranger and you push far by yourself you are wrong. Rangers are probably one of the worst classes to push far and here is why. Positioning is key. The enemies respawn point relative to where you are is not optimal because of the potential to be hit from behind or suddenly 2v1ed. Another reason is longbow rangers are not designed to fight on point. You are at a handicap if you want to fight on the point as a zerker spec. Far point assaulters need to be able to contest points as long as they can and not die. Which dives right into my 3rd reason; rangers are slow. Imagine this, you wipe 3 of them at mid. There home is undefended and your team tells you to go far. You listen and you manage to decap, but then the enemies you just killed at mid have spawned and are coming for you. And you will die because you are slow.

So if rangers aren’t far point assaulters then they must be roamers right? Yes, but no. Roamers are there to turn the tides of a battle at all of the points, which a ranger does rather well, but they have terrible response times. Roamers need to be first responders and rangers just don’t have the mobility for it that a thief or an ele would have.

They are definitely not bunker, so that leaves only one role left; a home defender.
Again, yes, but no. When I say home defender, I don’t mean someone who sits at the point and waits for people to show up. That is an obsolete way to play in my opinion.

Rather, rangers have the advantage of being able to fight off point while maintaining a good view of home point. Rangers are almost like a hybrid between a roamer and a home point defender. They are, in my opinion the deadliest spike damage class in mid fights. However, in order to be effective at ranger, you need to always have eyes on someone wanting to try and sneak a decap. Rangers should be first to notice, but not the first to respond and I will talk about that in a moment when I discuss best ways to utilize rangers in the team comp.

Team Composition

I don’t care what anyone says, longbow rangers are not designed to fight on the points. If you are a warrior and you get downed at mid and rally 2 of their downed, don’t blame it on a ranger with 1000 toughness for not coming to res you. I can’t tell you how many times I have been called bad for my team wiping at mid. It just means your bad bro.

That being said, the point of the game is to get the most points by controlling the nodes. So a large part of having a successful team with a ranger is having the bunkers/brawlers being able to keep the nodes contested to the point where going after the ranger would put them at a disadvantage. Who fits that role in the current meta? D/D ele is mandatory. The passive heal/condi cleanse boon sharing is too good and they can still dish out a decent amount of damage.

Cele engi is also good for this roll. Nades put really good on point pressure and they can survive a long time with an ele that shares his heals well. You also have your cele warrior, bunker warrior and bunker guardians.

I prefer brawlers to bunkers because what will ultimately win the game is killing the enemy team and bunkers don’t provide enough damage. I would recommend 1 bunker and 2 brawlers who hold down mid for the entire fight. The last slot should be reserved for a roamer. Ideally a sw/d thief but alternatively a d/d ele.

The roamer is going to be the first responder for home point. If your in teamspeak and the ranger says 1 going home, go home. Let the ranger help finish up the mid fight and then the ranger will come to support you.

Another role of the roamer with a ranger in the team is babysitting duty. You make sure that if the ranger is being focused you go help them. If your ranger is getting 2v1ed and your at mid trying to down 1 person in a 4v2 and your ranger dies you are a terrible friend and when you lay your head down at night I hope it keeps you awake because I know it keeps me awake getting called bad for dieing to a thief and mesmer while my team kitten s at mid. You go help your ranger, because after they kill him more then likely they are going for home and you will be the only one to defend it.

So rangers, if you are soloing pvp and you keep getting killed you say this. “I neeed an adult”. This will be the new way of telling someone you need help. Someone needs put on their kittening big boy pants come baby sit you, because they aren’t utilizing you correctly.

Long story short, 2 brawlers 1 bunker 1 roamer 1 ranger where the bunker and roamer can be swapped out for brawlers.

Best Practices
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I want to discuss best practices as a ranger. These are more of guidelines on how to best utilize yourself as a ranger. I will go over primarily positioning and priority targets.

What do you think the best spot for a ranger is? Is it on top of the ledge where enemies have to go out of their way to get to you? Is it closer to home node? or maybe its on point? If you think its on point please do us all a favor and hit that big red button on the top right of the screen. If you think its the first choice you are right to an extent. A good position wants to accomplish 3 things; you wan’t to be off point and in a spot that is at a good distance from the node. However, you don’t want to be in such a spot where it is too inconvienent for your allies to come help you. Last, you want to be able to see home and possibly be in a position to snipe people on their way to home. Below I attached a picture of my favorite spot on khylo because of the sniping potential on enemies on their way to home. A good spot in forest would be halfway between home and mid below the stairs so you can get a good view of home.

Now I want to discuss priority targets. Too many times have I seen another ranger pew pewing the enemies bunker while the rest of his team gets killed by things that actually hurt. Your top targets are thief, mesmer and necro. They all run zerker and they are a free kill. I like to run sic em. I think its invaluable vs thieves and mesmers, but it is really up to you. 2nd priority targets are rangers (sometimes they are a pain to get to) engies and eles. Celestial has pretty low toughness and enough pressure will kill an engie and an ele almost as quickly as a zerker. Low priority are the ones you focus last. That is your bunker guardians and warriors. They do no damage and they just sit there.

That being said, call targets. If nothing else call targets. If you are a ranger and you don’t let your team know who you are focusing you have halved your potential to kill a target. Rangers make great team leaders because they are required to look at the map and call targets.

That is all I have for now. I will probably make more in depth guides for rangers at a later date. Feel free to contact me in game if you have any questions. Let’s all work hard to include longbow rangers in the meta!

Difficult to take someone seriously when their pet is called “kitten Lube”

solrik.6028:

Difficult to take someone seriously when their pet is called “kitten Lube”

not everyone can appreciate my artistic qualities.

Pretty good guide. Just some stuff.

- Order of targeting is not that rigid. Don’t to be quick on your first Rapid Fire and try to probe which enemies is the easiest to burst down. That squishy thief could be good enough with its mobility that you gonna waste burst on him and everytime he gonna just get the hell out and do something else, that Guardian could be a medi guardian, or that Elementalist could be a fresh air with a dangerous burst. Make a list in your head during the first few fight, you are in the best position for doing that and sharing it with your team in TS.
- Your mobility is highly dependent of your exact build. I myself like to use signet of the hunt and using the GS leap at the right moment can give you enough mobility to roam efficiently. But you can’t compete with Thief and Ele so don’t make far one of your priority. Focusing on mid/home is the best situation for a pew pew ranger.
- You shouldn’t fight on point, but don’t be afraid of doing it if your team need you to. With GS #4 and signet of stone you can give those few important second to your teamate to come back on point. Training yourself in melee range is also really important because you won’t be able to always be able to free cast from a distance. Improve your skill at melee, but know your limit. If someone is turning around you in close range get the hell out, you won’t win that fight unless they are just bad.

FrownyClown.8402:

solrik.6028:

Difficult to take someone seriously when their pet is called “kitten Lube”

not everyone can appreciate my artistic qualities.

Tears of laughter here…

Nice guide, hope to see rangers get used in tourneys like this.

Thaddeus.4891:

Pretty good guide. Just some stuff.

- Order of targeting is not that rigid. Don’t to be quick on your first Rapid Fire and try to probe which enemies is the easiest to burst down. That squishy thief could be good enough with its mobility that you gonna waste burst on him and everytime he gonna just get the hell out and do something else, that Guardian could be a medi guardian, or that Elementalist could be a fresh air with a dangerous burst. Make a list in your head during the first few fight, you are in the best position for doing that and sharing it with your team in TS.
- Your mobility is highly dependent of your exact build. I myself like to use signet of the hunt and using the GS leap at the right moment can give you enough mobility to roam efficiently. But you can’t compete with Thief and Ele so don’t make far one of your priority. Focusing on mid/home is the best situation for a pew pew ranger.
- You shouldn’t fight on point, but don’t be afraid of doing it if your team need you to. With GS #4 and signet of stone you can give those few important second to your teamate to come back on point. Training yourself in melee range is also really important because you won’t be able to always be able to free cast from a distance. Improve your skill at melee, but know your limit. If someone is turning around you in close range get the hell out, you won’t win that fight unless they are just bad.

agreed. always be flexible with your targets and be ready to switch targets on the fly. Sometimes Rangers can 1v1 on point vs certain classes. Engies are usually easy to fight on point for me for example.