Guild Wars 2

How Do i play a Ranger in PvP and WvW??:

How Do i beat a Guardian, Warrior, Thief, Mesmer 1v1?
What is the rangers role in WvW/PvP?
What weapons?

I’m happy For all the Information i can get!

That’s… a lot to answer, because of all the different builds that your opponents may have and all their approaches to combat. You really need to first start watching youtube videos of how guardian/warrior/thief/mesmer fight 1 vs 1 online. That will give you a great understanding to how they fight and all their approaches. Then when you play your ranger, go into pvp, not wvw, and join in 5 man team and solo arena fights. Use your new knowledge to beat the odds. If you start to lose a lot, it could be due to your build. Once you feel your combat mechanics are good enough, take them to WvW and give it your best try.

One thing I personally did was ask (or join) my guild for 1 vs 1 fights so that I could improve my mechanics. Once I thought I was decent enough, I began to watch ranger videos and see how the pro’s did it. You will find out that, unless you kill everyone easily, what you are doing isn’t entirely wrong, it’s just not the best approach for the situation.

Things to look for that enemies do: bursts and how to avoid them, how to avoid stun/root/confusion skills, how to time your dodges, how to use a good burst, how not to waste all your skills (your opponent can be bluffing into forcing you to waste your dodges before they use their burst), how to interrupt their healing skills, how to change skills and traits on the go, how to predict what a thief might do, how to use your pet the right way… so and so and so on.

Ranger can have really nice defense which comes from protection and/or dodging/evading. However, in case of rangers, unless you go for the condi regen bunker route investing in defensive abilities will drastically reduce your damage output. Especially against better players who know how to avoid your pet hitting them.

As for their role, rangers are great for clearing camps and yakslappin’ if you know what you’re doing. They can be great 1v1, outnumbered only if they run bunker builds (my experience anyway).

Beating bunkers sword/dagger will be your best friend, evades and poison will be very useful for fighting melee classes.

Thief and mesmer…. practice, practice, practice. Go to the mists and do hotjoins for pvp, or get into the Obsidian sanctum for some duels in wvw. Thieves and mesmers can make life for a ranger really hard untill you learn to fight them.

Weapons – Conditions axe/torch + sword/dagger, Power builds GS, longbow, sword/warhorn or sword/torch work.

awge.3852:

That’s… a lot to answer, because of all the different builds that your opponents may have and all their approaches to combat. You really need to first start watching youtube videos of how guardian/warrior/thief/mesmer fight 1 vs 1 online. That will give you a great understanding to how they fight and all their approaches. Then when you play your ranger, go into pvp, not wvw, and join in 5 man team and solo arena fights. Use your new knowledge to beat the odds. If you start to lose a lot, it could be due to your build. Once you feel your combat mechanics are good enough, take them to WvW and give it your best try.

One thing I personally did was ask (or join) my guild for 1 vs 1 fights so that I could improve my mechanics. Once I thought I was decent enough, I began to watch ranger videos and see how the pro’s did it. You will find out that, unless you kill everyone easily, what you are doing isn’t entirely wrong, it’s just not the best approach for the situation.

Things to look for that enemies do: bursts and how to avoid them, how to avoid stun/root/confusion skills, how to time your dodges, how to use a good burst, how not to waste all your skills (your opponent can be bluffing into forcing you to waste your dodges before they use their burst), how to interrupt their healing skills, how to change skills and traits on the go, how to predict what a thief might do, how to use your pet the right way… so and so and so on.

I think the point of the post was to get a few builds, not to get an explanation that isn’t going to help anyone to play better or find the traits needed.

One needs two builds for WvW as a Ranger,

1. Zerg

2. Roaming/Solo

If you are going to run a zerg, you need power, without it you won’t be putting in the damage needed to get the badges, ask me, I don’t get badges half as much as other players in a zerg because I am not powerful enough to register in the computer’s calaulation table – snucks bigtime.

Solo, it’s all about surviving on your own, without any water fields, or empowering, and this build has to have an escape button or two for thieves and others who have stun locks.

So, all of you out there who think you have a build that would fit those two criteria, I think that’s what the person was asking. What build, what mechanic and what skills are best to use for what situations.

We need some WvW experts who also happen to be Rangers to give us of their experience and knowledge so we can learn too.

My builds have been all over the place and the one that “sorta” worked is just a mishmash of skills that I chose over others. It’s not a build, it’s a mess – so have at it Rangers, give us your vids and your builds.

lesson 1: don’t close yourself to only 1 build, ranger needs very specific builds for every type of role that you could have on wvw.

I carry 5 sets with me all the time, zerker with scholar for pve, for wvw I carry soldier with scholar, soldier with dolyak, soldier with melandru and apothecary with undead.

for 1vs1 you want high regeneration and condition damage. (apothecary set)

for up to 10vs10 you have room for high damage sniping. (soldier/scholar set)

for 15vs15+ you want to have lots of armor. (soldier/melandru or soldier/dolyak if your party has a tons of condition cleansing)

for weapons, in 1vs1 sword mainhand is the choice, for offhand choose dagger, axe or warhorn, other set that is good is axe/torch or axe/axe, maybe use a shortbow or greatsword depending on what you are built.

for small teams I like longbow and sword/warhorn, longbow has barrage which is good as a soft cc and with rapid fire you can help sniping a low life target, sword is great for mobility (don’t use auto target) and warhorn has a blast finisher for regroups.

for big scale fighting, longbow and greatsword, longbow has same purpose as above and greatsword is awesome to push in the zerg because of the 3rd autoattack evade, also has a leap in (or out) skill for mobility, a block to survive a couple more seconds and a high damage hit on skill #2.

The more I play PvP the more different it seems to become from WvW roaming… builds like condition warriors and blind thieves which I dont even consider a real opponent in WvW are a big issue in PvP, and builds like the backstab thieves you see non-stop in WvW are nearly non-existant in PvP. Even rangers usually play complete different builds (spirits anyone?) in PvP.

So yeah.. not sure I consider them in the same way, making it awkward to answer the question.

My main advice is practice.. I know its a bit of a non-answer.. but go on YT, watch ranger videos, pick a build you like the look of and then play it. No amount of theory or advice will better your play without just getting out there

Shinya.2598:

How Do i play a Ranger in PvP and WvW??:

How Do i beat a Guardian, Warrior, Thief, Mesmer 1v1?
What is the rangers role in WvW/PvP?
What weapons?

I’m happy For all the Information i can get!

Granted my video is 4 months old, but even after all the patches this build has been working pretty solidly for me. If anything it’s become even stronger with the more recent GS buffs. The only change I can tell you I made recently is that I use both River Drake and Marsh Drake for my pets now since their F2 skills are not only one of the more reliable ones in terms of connecting the attack, that amount of might stacks you can get from RaO is intense. The build breakdown is in the description:

Well you picked arguably the hardest one on one pvp class to play, I’m not very good with mine one vs one, so I can’t get good advice there.
For WvW if you want an easy to use build for running with a group just power, crit, toughness, and use your long bow, you can burn down one target pretty quickly with #2, and the aoe cripple is handy, but again for solo it isn’t the best because it is hard to keep a distance. Longbow is basically a good sniper weapon, but that’s it.

Canguro.5768:

lesson 1: don’t close yourself to only 1 build, ranger needs very specific builds for every type of role that you could have on wvw.

I carry 5 sets with me all the time, zerker with scholar for pve, for wvw I carry soldier with scholar, soldier with dolyak, soldier with melandru and apothecary with undead.

for 1vs1 you want high regeneration and condition damage. (apothecary set)

for up to 10vs10 you have room for high damage sniping. (soldier/scholar set)

for 15vs15+ you want to have lots of armor. (soldier/melandru or soldier/dolyak if your party has a tons of condition cleansing)

for weapons, in 1vs1 sword mainhand is the choice, for offhand choose dagger, axe or warhorn, other set that is good is axe/torch or axe/axe, maybe use a shortbow or greatsword depending on what you are built.

for small teams I like longbow and sword/warhorn, longbow has barrage which is good as a soft cc and with rapid fire you can help sniping a low life target, sword is great for mobility (don’t use auto target) and warhorn has a blast finisher for regroups.

for big scale fighting, longbow and greatsword, longbow has same purpose as above and greatsword is awesome to push in the zerg because of the 3rd autoattack evade, also has a leap in (or out) skill for mobility, a block to survive a couple more seconds and a high damage hit on skill #2.

that’s great to hear. I’m intressted in seeing someone’s trapper build? anyone got this?

Setun.4368:

Shinya.2598:

How Do i play a Ranger in PvP and WvW??:

How Do i beat a Guardian, Warrior, Thief, Mesmer 1v1?
What is the rangers role in WvW/PvP?
What weapons?

I’m happy For all the Information i can get!

Granted my video is 4 months old, but even after all the patches this build has been working pretty solidly for me. If anything it’s become even stronger with the more recent GS buffs. The only change I can tell you I made recently is that I use both River Drake and Marsh Drake for my pets now since their F2 skills are not only one of the more reliable ones in terms of connecting the attack, that amount of might stacks you can get from RaO is intense. The build breakdown is in the description:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EANsg0s_MAc

Excellent video. Very good job with your defense timing your evades and GS blocks. At first glance I thought it was more of a bunker build the way you lasted.

A new player would have a hard time pulling that off imo.

Ranger skill cap is prob the highest in the game.
I say this because all I see are rangers getting instant downed because ranger escapes are terribad.
Basically you need obscene amounts of skill to not get wtf pwned by everything.
There is no real ez build that you can win with.
Only way to win as a ranger is to predict what people are going to do and be ready for it as rangers have tons of really bad 1/2 second evades.
Advice from a top 10 solo que ranger :<
I also hate hate hate having another ranger on my team as all I can think at that point is its someone that will need carrying ;/

Cufufalating.8479:

The more I play PvP the more different it seems to become from WvW roaming… builds like condition warriors and blind thieves which I dont even consider a real opponent in WvW are a big issue in PvP, and builds like the backstab thieves you see non-stop in WvW are nearly non-existant in PvP. Even rangers usually play complete different builds (spirits anyone?) in PvP.

So yeah.. not sure I consider them in the same way, making it awkward to answer the question.

My main advice is practice.. I know its a bit of a non-answer.. but go on YT, watch ranger videos, pick a build you like the look of and then play it. No amount of theory or advice will better your play without just getting out there

When you find any good Ranger videos for WvW, you let me know. HA!

I really like using a trapper ranger. They are really strong against thieves, because the traps give their position away. A thief the other day actually remarked on how he’s never been kited like that before.
This will destroy guardians, since they have such a small amount of soft CC.

The biggest advantage to the build is that people don’t know how to fight against it, because it isn’t the “meta”.

I use SB and Axe/Dagger (maximum kiting ability) with Spike, Flame, and Frost traps

Canguro.5768:

lesson 1: don’t close yourself to only 1 build, ranger needs very specific builds for every type of role that you could have on wvw.

I carry 5 sets with me all the time, zerker with scholar for pve, for wvw I carry soldier with scholar, soldier with dolyak, soldier with melandru and apothecary with undead.

for 1vs1 you want high regeneration and condition damage. (apothecary set)

for up to 10vs10 you have room for high damage sniping. (soldier/scholar set)

for 15vs15+ you want to have lots of armor. (soldier/melandru or soldier/dolyak if your party has a tons of condition cleansing)

for weapons, in 1vs1 sword mainhand is the choice, for offhand choose dagger, axe or warhorn, other set that is good is axe/torch or axe/axe, maybe use a shortbow or greatsword depending on what you are built.

for small teams I like longbow and sword/warhorn, longbow has barrage which is good as a soft cc and with rapid fire you can help sniping a low life target, sword is great for mobility (don’t use auto target) and warhorn has a blast finisher for regroups.

for big scale fighting, longbow and greatsword, longbow has same purpose as above and greatsword is awesome to push in the zerg because of the 3rd autoattack evade, also has a leap in (or out) skill for mobility, a block to survive a couple more seconds and a high damage hit on skill #2.

Thank you for taking the time to write that out. Your post helps.

Now to find a build I can work with and makes sense… What are you running?

I run PVT armor with Melandru runes – I can occasionally kill 1v1 but not often. I certainly can’t turn a camp alone – which is actually one of the criteria for a “good” build for me.

are these replies for real? lol

have you guys ever played as a spirit ranger? you gotta try it. as a spirit ranger u should only lose to a really good warrior or necro.

Get 10 rangers together and you’ll get 10 different builds. To each his own.
Some will say you need to do spirits and power ranger is weak. The you’ll see a well played power ranger and think “that’s weak?”.
Check out the builds, try them out, watch vids and practice. Stay away from crowd’s, thats almost always a recipe for a dirt nap.

Unfortunately you will find you need to pick niche build for whatever it is you like to do. I mostly flip camps and yaks, I’m feel confident when I have to fight someone. I’ll fight any straight up, when some lose some. You need to learn what the others characters can do. What weapons they carry is usually a huge tip off.

The build I run, 30, 30, 10, 0, 0, while not optimal for what I’m doing allows me to switch some talents and weapons and I can be spec’d for zerg running with out a whole trait respec and armor switch.

I like to think the Ranger gives you the most options to play as you want. It’s gets rough sometimes but for the most part you can have fun. Nothing like taking down the warrior who charges in thinking your easy or the theif.

Now if I could get my pet to be a little more like a mesmer’s I would be happy, but pet mechanics and AI are a whole other discussion.

Canguro.5768:

lesson 1: don’t close yourself to only 1 build, ranger needs very specific builds for every type of role that you could have on wvw.

I carry 5 sets with me all the time, zerker with scholar for pve, for wvw I carry soldier with scholar, soldier with dolyak, soldier with melandru and apothecary with undead.

for 1vs1 you want high regeneration and condition damage. (apothecary set)

for up to 10vs10 you have room for high damage sniping. (soldier/scholar set)

for 15vs15+ you want to have lots of armor. (soldier/melandru or soldier/dolyak if your party has a tons of condition cleansing)

for weapons, in 1vs1 sword mainhand is the choice, for offhand choose dagger, axe or warhorn, other set that is good is axe/torch or axe/axe, maybe use a shortbow or greatsword depending on what you are built.

for small teams I like longbow and sword/warhorn, longbow has barrage which is good as a soft cc and with rapid fire you can help sniping a low life target, sword is great for mobility (don’t use auto target) and warhorn has a blast finisher for regroups.

for big scale fighting, longbow and greatsword, longbow has same purpose as above and greatsword is awesome to push in the zerg because of the 3rd autoattack evade, also has a leap in (or out) skill for mobility, a block to survive a couple more seconds and a high damage hit on skill #2.

What build do you run? I am a PVT/Melandru runes in WvW but the build is eluding me.

I enjoy SB + S/WH (bleed crit build) for small skirmishing in WvW/sPvP- up to 10 enemies: 20/10/30/10.

my 2 cents for short bow + sword & dagger

the advice that helped me the most is to not be overly aggressive, kite with the bow, let them get close and evade. If they get close and you run out of evades by dodging and bow, switch to sword/dagger and use those. Also there is a trait you can get that replenishes 100% of endurance when using a healing spell which has helped me a lot.

It’s surprising how much damage you can do kiting with a ranger’s poison effects because 33% reduction of healing spells really hurts more than one would think against warriors and guardians.

o o! and just because you are immobilized doesn’t mean you cant use the evading attacks of sword/dagger. Countless times I have been immobilized and the opponent decides to nuke me, but I just use the sword/dagger evading skills and come out mostly untouched. [if only lightning reflexes could have helped instead.]

In sPvP (tPvP) I’m currently running a celestial build, using axe/dagger for the “condi” set and longbow for the “power” set and pairing it with LR MT and FT, with HS as heal and Entangle as my elite, has been going extremely well so far….

But as for how -I- play ranger, I am almost always a roamer, my job is to flank your squishies, cap any undefended/1 man defended points, harass people off points, snag objectives, and help out pretty much wherever I’m needed.

Rangers excell at 1v1s and 2v2s so I’d suggest you play to your strengths.

Valentin.2073:

are these replies for real? lol

have you guys ever played as a spirit ranger? you gotta try it. as a spirit ranger u should only lose to a really good warrior or necro.

I have used everything but a Spirit Build. Not even sure if I have seen a spirit build (for WvW Roaming)