Guild Wars 2

Hey there, im a regular player who possibly lacks hardcore gametime, but have perhaps too much time reading, theorycrafting and gaining knowledge in other manners.
You know, being a father and working at a desk allows me to read ALOT, but lack gametime when home (that was not a complaint).

I play everything except Ranger and Guardian, and i struggle against the former (Ranger) when facing an experienced player. Both power (not the 100% glass builds) and condi builds.

What do you have trouble with, with your power and/or your condi builds?
I know power usually lacks condiclear. So does condi

What situations, builds and “typical” examples do you find hard?

Help a fellow player improve ^^

As a condi player:

Two Shoutbows or One Shoutbow and One d/d ele.
This much aoe spam condi clear makes condi ranger useless. It shuts me down so badly ai will off class if I see it now.

Fast +1s on side nodes to outnumber me 1v1 serve as the playstyle counter (vs buildwars above) way to handle condi builds.

I don’t play power so I can’t help you much on that.

I think this largely depends on the Ranger build.

If I’m running a glassy build, sustain builds will wear me down … if they are more mobile this becomes a problem. There are multiple glassbow builds. The two primary ones differ a bit. One doesn’t have much condi cleanse while the other has plenty via SotF.

If I’m running conditions, they need to have several cleanses and outplay me. This probably has the fewest counters. Unfortunately, this is less mobile and has less range than some of our other builds so opponents can more often escape if they need to. Most condition builds have SotF so aren’t really bothered much by other conditions … unless being outplayed.

If I’m running a tanky build, anyone that keeps poison on me is making me a sad panda. Poison cuts down on the healing that is sustaining part of my tankiness. If you’re reducing that, I’m not happy. If you’re coupling that with several of your own conditions (bypassing my armor) then it’s quite aggravating. That being said, you still need to get through all of my cleanses. Some tanky Ranger builds have several while others don’t have many.

If I’m using a shortbow and my opponent has retaliation … I’m very unhappy and want to get on my Mesmer to strip that boon.

From the perspective of a person who runs condi and also hybrid…

With all the CCs flying around, we cannot always just depend on stun breakers. Side stepping, evading, dodging are parts of PvP which largely rely on how we evaluate the situation. Lets say I see warriors, I’ll try always be just inside/outside of their stuns/hammers, and when I see the animation, I will attempt to just side step/strafe. That distance to side step CC is what condi rangers always have in mind when they kite. It’s not possible to side step everything, but minimizing is key here.

When faced with anti-kite setups, it’s a different ball game… we can’t just sidestep things/try soak up hits here and there without acknowledging that we’ll get hit more often than usual. Hydromancy sigil which procs at every swaps (kittening annoying!!!) just leaves us vulnerable to stuns, try keep immob/cripple us. I have 3 evades, 2 natural dodges/more from energy sigil, and stunbreaker, sometimes depending on the person I’m going with it just doesn’t feel enough! So just hampering their movements which enables them to kite makes a big difference and can force most to blow all their cooldowns.

Noha.3749:

I know power usually lacks condiclear. So does condi

Condi rangers don’t usually lack condi removal, they usually have enormous amounts of it. Depending on how anti-condi the player with the build is, they can make themselves effectively immune to conditions.

The weakness of a condi ranger isn’t that the ranger is vulnerable to much of anything, it’s that other players might not be vulnerable to the condi ranger (see Ryan’s post.)

Don’t let power rangers fight you in open field and at range. That’s where they shine. Close gaps fast and line of sight them. The moment you get close if they can’t create a distance they are dead.
Condi rangers are harder to deal with. Many run empathic bond and survival of the fittest meaning they got plenty of condition removal. But they lose to shoutbows, cele eles because most of their dps is 10+ stacks of bleeds that are easy to cleanse.
Both of those builds usually run1 stunbreak in the form of lightning reflexes because it’s just the best utility. If you force them to burn that then they are very weak to cc.

Also don’t let Power Rangers control the higher Ground that is there Safe haven , if you have a form of range get up there before they take up the spot to prevent them from being as effective .

it deters the Power ranger from +1ing mid or a cap doing so also gives you a short run to a side cap point plus can keep the ranger on its toes since a power ranger that is forced to go into a mid fight will only loose Damage also increase his risk of dying greatly.

Pro-tip learn the Areas these type of Rangers use to gain a Advantage , not just any ledge but those that are hard to access without a port or a mobility skills , there are a few spots that are even hard for thiefs and mesmer to get up to .

they port but still have a few steps before they can engage the Power ranger but by taking his spot before he gets there Drasticly lowers his Performace when it comes to team fights.

thanks for all the answers fellas, i really appreciate it
Keep it going if you got anything more to share!

I primarily solo roam in WvW as a full Rabid melee trapper Ranger. I rely on rapid attacks, evasion, kiting and juking much like a Thief. Also much like a Thief I have a low health pool, am highly vulnerable to CC and immobilize and do not have access to instant condition cleanses.

Empathetic Bond can be a huge help if it proc’s at the right time but it is a passive effect that doesn’t always proc when needed.

As a trapper, 3 traps in your utility bar is almost mandatory. You can replace one with something else but you will lose a rather significant amount of damage pressure which means at least 70% of trappers have no stunbreakers and a lot of the time not even stability.

If the Ranger is using a wolf, drakehound, spider or drake, watch for their F2 tells as they can really hurt you if they connect.

My build is in the most pain when my pet is dead and I’m immobilized. I’ve found that unless I’m versus a berserker Warrior with a hammer CC is generally not as bad as being immobilized. CC is still painful and may possibly still kill me but being immobilized seems to have a higher fatality rate than CC. I can’t evade, kite or even use some of my primary damaging attacks so if I’m immobilized long enough, or frequently enough, it’s usually game over. The trick with immobilizing a good trapper is finding the right time between their stealths and evasions to land the immobilize in the first place however (; So it’s easier said than done for the attacker.

If you’re against a Survival Ranger, well… You’re going to need a lot of practice. Survival Ranger is potentially the best 1 versus 1 build in the entire game. It is not nearly as good in larger groups but it is so well rounded for 1v1’s that you’ll really need to practice with it or against it. Fortunately not many people run Survival Ranger’s so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about facing them. Just be aware when you’re facing a good one because they have lots of mobility, soft CC, condition management, damage mitigation and enough poison uptime to bring down even the bunker-iest of bunkers.

Look at a Ranger’s weapons and you’ll know the threat(s) that weapon pose:

Longbow
Always have a counter ready for rapid fire. This means you may have to rotate 2+ counters due to the low cooldown. You can also use good positioning for this … or just rotate behind the Ranger. This screws up Longbow pretty badly. It really does hate people in its face.

Don’t stand in Barrage.

If you handle these two abilities and don’t let the Ranger auto you from max range the whole fight (i.e. you get in their face), you should tear them up as you mitigated the power of this weapon.

Greatsword
This can be a bit trickier than it looks, but also depends on how glassy you are.
You want to look out for Maul all day every day. It hurts and is on a short cooldown, but it is highly telegraphed … unless the Ranger is smart and used stealth to try to land it … in which case you may want to treat this like a Thief trying to backstab you.

You also need to watch out for the damage from Swoop.

Don’t waste good attacks while the Ranger is blocking (or worse, waste in melee and get kicked in the face).

Be careful of the Daze … especially with the pet right there as it makes the pet give you an extra hard love-bit.

The auto-attack does less than most other power weapons, so it’s really the Ranger’s use of 2 through 5 you need to largely focus on … but don’t just eat autos all day. That’s not smart :-p

Shortbow
This weapon is the opposite of the Longbow and Greatsword … it wants to auto-attack you all day until the end of time so that you die to a thousand cuts. Aside from that it wants to keep poison on you with Poison Volley. #3, #4, and #5 are all used for it to avoid your burst damage.

The solution is to burst the Ranger. If you can’t, you’re going to lose and die a horrible death.

It can be beneficial to have some condition clear here as the shortbow’s fast attack speed caters well to on-crit bleeds and the flanking isn’t that hard (just enough to be annoying to Ranger) to achieve in order to apply bleeds per hitflanking … so dumb … just don’t waste your cleanse on the first few bleeds. Save it for when the bleeds stack a decent amount and/or they’ve landed some poison and/or other conditions on you.

Shortbow is good at reapplication of conditions, so that cleanse is mainly there to buy you time by mitigating when the conditions get stacked too high for comfort … unless you’re like a friggin warrior with cleansing shouts, cleansing ire, quick breathing, etc. cleansing like crazy.

Sword
If you’re on the defensive, you need to get far enough away that the auto-attack leap doesn’t keep them on you.

If you’re on the offensive, bait out the #2 and #3 dodges and then lay into them.

If it’s an even fight and they are using the AA chain, look for the 2nd and 3rd attacks in that chain. They can’t interrupt them with a dodge roll so you are guaranteed to hit them.

Be mindful that the auto-attack chain’s cripple is going to make their pet hit you more reliably … and the chain gives their pet might.

MH Axe

Unless you have AI around that makes the Axe double-tap you (hits: you, AI, you) you are really needing to worry about the bleeding Splitblade shotgun when the Ranger is close as that is several decent bleeds in on ability on a low cooldown.

That aside, the Axe provides some nice soft CC with chill to make you slow, reduce your cooldowns, and have the pet give you weakness. The chill will also make the pet stick their autos on you better.

Depending on their build, the Axe’s Might can turn the pet into a monster as the fight goes on. If getting bouncing hits, this gets bad for you quickly … you will not want to be hit by a Ranger pet with 25 stacks of Might. It does hurt. Beware the double-bird combo with this. They’ll use bird F2, swap pet, bird F2.

Torch
Avoid the throw and don’t stand in the bonfire … or simply be ready to cleanse burning. Its direct damage is poor so the burning is the biggest threat. It can be more deadly if they throw Axes or swap to a Bow to shoot projectiles through the bonfire for a 20% at Projectile Fire Finishers that apply burning.

Handle the burning and you’re fine.

Dagger
Just be aware that this provides another evasion that will poison you if you’re within melee range … as well as a ranged projectile that bleeds and cripples. It has fairly low cooldowns to boot. One of my favorites.

OH Axe
Don’t shoot projectiles into Whirling Defense and don’t stand in it … though everything but a non-double-tapping axe does more DPS with its auto-attacks than Whirling Defense does. Other than that, really only the odd use for Whirl finishers are of any concern.

The primary concern is getting hit by Path of Scars. It’s the highest power DPS Ranger ability and that’s with it hitting you only once. It can hit you twice which can be devastating and it has a pull effect. If the Ranger has an Offhand Axe, this is the main reason why.

Warhorn
The Ranger will have more access to Fury/Might/Swiftness with #5 … better for them and their pet who loves swiftness as it helps it stay on you.

Warhorn #4 is multiple hits that coupled with the Fury and on-crit bleeds can leave you a bloody mess on top of its decent direct damage. If you have retaliation, pop it when you see this as you’ll likely wreck the Ranger.

Sebrent.3625:

OH Axe
Don’t shoot projectiles into Whirling Defense and don’t stand in it … though everything but a non-double-tapping axe does more DPS with its auto-attacks than Whirling Defense does. Other than that, really only the odd use for Whirl finishers are of any concern.

The primary concern is getting hit by Path of Scars. It’s the highest power DPS Ranger ability and that’s with it hitting you only once. It can hit you twice which can be devastating and it has a pull effect. If the Ranger has an Offhand Axe, this is the main reason why.

On the note of offhand axe, as Sebrent has mentioned Whirling Defense isn’t much of anything to worry about. If you’re using a rifle obviously don’t shoot in to it but otherwise honestly it rarely see’s use and it doesn’t hurt too badly to be hit by it either.

Path Of Scars on the other hand is an extremely painful skill. Landing a Path Of Scars, swapping to longbow, using Point Blank Shot → Rapid Fire is the combo of doom. It takes a bit of planning for it all to come together but watch out for a Ranger who knows how to do this because it will eat through your health bar like there’s no tomorrow. I have no trouble one rounding people with this rotation in most scenario’s including high armor targets.

Good point SpellOfInitquity.

Making use of Hunter’s Shot giving stealth to setup some burst from OH Axe and/or Sword is another favorite for others to look out for.

Example: Longbow Hunter’s Shot (Stealth) → Swap Greatsword with Sigil of Intelligence → Maul from stealth.

If their stunbreakers are on cooldown, Hilt Bash into Maul is even meaner. I’ve actually never done a Path of Scars from stealth … will have to try now that I think about it :-)

I like hitting Thieves with the Path Of Scars → Point Blank Shot → “Sic ’Em!” → Rapid Fire combo. Never fails to make me giggle watching them get pulled, pushed then melted like a stick of butter on hot pavement and having no way to hide :P.

Hunter’s Shot → Serpent’s Strike to roll around to their back while in stealth → Path Of Scars from behind them → Hornet’s Sting to get some range → Rapid Fire is also a fun combo. A big part of the reason I enjoy Ranger so much is little combo’s like that that require a good eye and good footing to get some really heavy damage in all while leaving your target with their head spinning.

Sebrent.3625:

Good point SpellOfInitquity.

Making use of Hunter’s Shot giving stealth to setup some burst from OH Axe and/or Sword is another favorite for others to look out for.

Example: Longbow Hunter’s Shot (Stealth) -> Swap Greatsword with Sigil of Intelligence -> Maul from stealth.

If their stunbreakers are on cooldown, Hilt Bash into Maul is even meaner. I’ve actually never done a Path of Scars from stealth … will have to try now that I think about it :-)

see now ya got me thinking, what does more dmg?

path of scars from stealth + whatever weapon you choose to combine that with

or greatsword bash, maul and auto attack (if I can I am throwing my whole bar at them, especially if they are very mobile, 4 and snare them)