Guild Wars 2

I started a ranger and got him up to about level 10 or so and found I was surprised at how much I enjoyed playing it (I generally go for the flashier classes with big particle effects and explosions like Engineers and Elementalists).

Being a big WvWvW player, how does the Ranger fare? Do rangers have a place in WvW? Are they good snipers (I’ve been looking for a good sniper)? Can they take a hit and get away from a surprise zerg or thief attack?

Rangers can be good snipers but they need a lot of work, such as pets and easy to dodge LB with high cd’s on barrage.

It’s probably due to my build, but I find that any decent thief will beat me in a 1v1, especially if they’re stealth/bs spec. I don’t know if it’s because of the fact that I’m a norn, but I don’t usually get away from a zerg unless I start running far before they’re anywhere near in-range to hit me.

If the ranger’s LB auto’s weren’t so easy to dodge by simply strafing, I’d say they’re very good at sniping, but the simple fact that strafing left and right works almost as effectively as dodges and evades makes it rather hard to actually kill someone who’s paying attention to what’s happening around them.

btw, I’m anything BUT a pro ranger. I’m avg at best (imo).

Generally putting in a lot of effort for sub-par outcomes.

You can snipe if people aren’t moving at all. They cannot get away from zergs, or thieves. Or many other classes. They do ok but below average damage. Most of their weapons are bad, the traits are messed up, but hey they’re useful in outdoor PvE. Also useless in dungeons. Pets die when mobs sneeze at them. Pets die running into random AoE in WvW. Pets can’t attack moving targets. Their F2 skills have an agonisingly long cast time and almost never hits. Rangers have no burst which is the end all and be all of PvP, we don’t have a proper bunker spec. We don’t have a glass cannon spec that is worth it cos you’ll be left with 15k HP and die in 2-5 hits from random people (that’s an instant KO for a backstab or Kill Shot crit). Spirits are useless, signets need to be traited 30 points in to be useful. Arrows are easy to dodge, obstruced, invulnerable or miss. We were stealth nerfed to fix an animation bug that not a single person has seen before.

BUT! Apparently we will be fixed in the Nov 15th patch. I’m running a very specialised build with some Vit/Toughness gear and have about 18.8k HP unbuffed so it’s still ok. I enjoy playing the Ranger still, but we don’t do anything well enough that other classes don’t do better.

If your fighting a zerg with your zerg and you want to be sniping you will aoe with longbow and hit targets while keeping your distance, that said you won’t be dropping ppl left and right instead you will be assisting in killing. The Longbow is just to slow to kill ppl in zergs in good numbers in WvW, even when you use QZ most people should be able to quickly retreat (any good players) and be “out of range” or "obstructed..

As for can we take a hit? No not really. Its not impossible to run away and outsmart some stupid ppl. But if you think you’re going to be escaping a zerg or a thief MOST of the time, you’re wrong lol. Rangers don’t really have good escaping options.

Basically, (assuming you are using Longbow since you want to snipe)

-Keep your distance and don’t be in the front lines.
-Accept you are not a heavy damage dealer and use your Longbow AOE’s to control a zergs movement and snipe off any enemy separating from a zerg (don’t be dissapointed if they run away, it’s going to happen a lot, we don’t have many crowd control skills)

There are different builds of course, I play all of them during WvW to keep it interesting. I was just doing Longbow Glass Cannon and died only like twice and escaped many times only because I was never in the front to be first killed lol.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll wait for the patch and see what happens before investing any more into this character.

It’s not a matter of investing so much as learning the profession. You should take the time to do some PvE now (or pvp if you like)before the changes are made.

That way you can tell the differences and learn from it. Simple Trial and Error is what makes the best of a player.

Jay.3284:

Generally putting in a lot of effort for sub-par outcomes.

Sums it up.

I’ve been hooked on the profession for a while now and still do ok against most professions in sPvP. But in WvW I feel, for the most part, useless.

We have a lot of ways to keep mobs snared/chilled/CC’d in dungeons however, and this is probably the best role we can play since this would free up other classes to do the damage that we seriously can’t come close to doing.

I dunno, I’ve found Rangers to be reasonably respectable in point siege/defense. Throw traited traps at key locations while using your pet as the single longest range harass tool in the game. You can also split your damage between keep doors and enemy defenders by sending your pet at the door and the Barrage/Trap Throwing at the enemies.

If you’re nuts like me, you can also go 30 Marks for the Signet traits, then Swoop > Entangle + (Spike trap/SoS (invuln)/SoW (stability)/SoR (condition removal)) for zerg initiations. I’ve caught several people off guard with that combo before.

If you are not a pvp player then dont do ranger. Im not even max lvl and I pwn every class 1 on 1 in wvw and get alot of kill assists in team fights only die when im in bad position and overwhelmed or my god forbidden chat comes up and im typing instead of using my skills

wish we had preparation skills like in gw1

read the wind
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Read_the_Wind

or
Favorable Winds spirit
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Favorable_Winds

that would fix longbow soo much

well i wish we had old skills from gw1 :P

honestly i love my build for wvwvw

I’m tough enough to be at the front of the zerg to get my damage in, if i’m taking too much use a Lightning reflexes or shortbow 3, recast troll ungent and go back to picking out the the weakest person on the opposite zerg. also, like what Aldracity.9463 said, your pet has great harassment ranges.

I might not be in a top tier server (Fort Aspen), but i come out of WvWvW with more money then i had before entering. i stay away from zergs or act as a scout, and even solo camps. generally i’m roaming, but i got really good at running away.

tbh, Guild wars 2 roaming is much easier then Square Enix’s Fantasy Earth Zero.

You just gotta know how to position yourself in the zerg to survive long enough to do some damage. Sieges are ok with LB. However, traited traps still have too short range. 900 range you can’t even put traps at the door from the top the ramparts.

Yeah it would make a world of difference if you could drop traps from the ramparts. I guess you might have time to run out the door and drop them in the middle of the zerg, if you trait signet of the beastmaster and activate signet of stone. Seems risky though, and not sure how useful it would really be.

@OP: I wouldn’t expect to ever be much of a sniper as arrows are easily dodged and don’t do enough damage to be anything more than an inconvenience, but as an attacker you can keep defenders off the wall and take down defenses, while as a defender you can barrage the zerg for decent overall damage. In the open field, mass cripple on a bunch of opponents can really give your group an advantage, so overall I personally felt useful in WvW even at lower levels. sPVP is tougher, in a 1 on 1 situation you have to be considerably more skillful than your opponent to stand a chance.

Well if I need to pop Stone to run down and plant traps…then trap expertise has basically lost all it’s pros and is useless except attacking towers (you can aim at the walls and the traps overlap unto the ramparts). 1200 range traps? Hell yeah please, especially with the trait being so deep into the tree..

Trap expertise is pretty useless anyway, I was really excited about that trait while I was leveling and couldn’t wait to get it, only to discover that the range was so limited it just made it more complicated to drop traps in a pinch. I untraited it almost immediately, it was really disappointing. I never realized you could place traps on the ramparts from below though, I might give that a try. Thanks for the tip!

as far as my experience goes Ranger on WvW has 1 role, you are a walking arrow cart, therefore very useful to keep the enemy at distance and, last but not least, great for attacking the other raged class spamming from a keep.
The LB aoe paired with flame sigil can be very powerful if you are a glass cannon and a good placed rapid fire(with penetrating arrow) can really be painful.

Other than that i don’t know, i don’t see any reason to use any other build for WvW.

Samfisher.7942:

You can snipe if people aren’t moving at all. They cannot get away from zergs, or thieves. Or many other classes. They do ok but below average damage. Most of their weapons are bad, the traits are messed up, but hey they’re useful in outdoor PvE. Also useless in dungeons. Pets die when mobs sneeze at them. Pets die running into random AoE in WvW. Pets can’t attack moving targets. Their F2 skills have an agonisingly long cast time and almost never hits. Rangers have no burst which is the end all and be all of PvP, we don’t have a proper bunker spec. We don’t have a glass cannon spec that is worth it cos you’ll be left with 15k HP and die in 2-5 hits from random people (that’s an instant KO for a backstab or Kill Shot crit). Spirits are useless, signets need to be traited 30 points in to be useful. Arrows are easy to dodge, obstruced, invulnerable or miss. We were stealth nerfed to fix an animation bug that not a single person has seen before.

BUT! Apparently we will be fixed in the Nov 15th patch. I’m running a very specialised build with some Vit/Toughness gear and have about 18.8k HP unbuffed so it’s still ok. I enjoy playing the Ranger still, but we don’t do anything well enough that other classes don’t do better.

You should take this with a grain of salt – it is not as bad as this user implies. Yes, fixes need to be made and apparently will be made on the 15th, but they are still quite viable (it’s only our auto attack that gets annoyingly obstructed – barrage, rapid fire, our knockback, etc, are all very easy to land).

Samfisher.7942:

You can snipe if people aren’t moving at all.

Heh heh, yep. I own cannons like a boss.

It’s very annoying when you crit a softie for 4k and then have them simply walk out of your range or just strafe away from the second shot.

LB1 needs chance cripple very badly.

Good in Siege denial (defense) with our longbow and longbow AoE (would be better if standing on a castle wall didnt a) obstruct and b) allow a spread out siege force to focus fire many aoe’s on the wall).

Equally good in Siege offence where you can pick off opponents on the walls / aoe deny with Longbow.

In a zerg, I find we are best towards the back of the pack, picking off, trapping their players, at the front you will be cut down real fast. This is appropriate when in RANGED mode to me.

Our pets are all but useless unfortunately as you need to be a bit of a muppet to get hurt by them. Easily kiteable and struggle with terrain.

In one on one’s, barring a substantially skilled Ranger versus an average anything we dont fare well. We dont have that super burst damage that can know you down to 30% of health in a roll of the face. So unless you are trap spec’d you will be closed down and killed.

In two v two’s however we can make a very potent class if partnered with a melee oriented class. We can survive long enough to put enough constant damage up that you can turn it into a 2v1

Jeheil.2516:

In one on one’s, barring a substantially skilled Ranger versus an average anything we dont fare well. We dont have that super burst damage that can know you down to 30% of health in a roll of the face. So unless you are trap spec’d you will be closed down and killed.

In two v two’s however we can make a very potent class if partnered with a melee oriented class. We can survive long enough to put enough constant damage up that you can turn it into a 2v1

I agree with most of what you said short of the above quote – a substantially skilled player (no matter what profession) will always trump an average player. There’s also a ton of ways to mitigate damage as a ranger (see bear/wolf combo w/ protect me) that literally adds a good 7-8k HP + fear that allows you to survive glass cannons and also be one yourself. Not to mention bear + util = ez condi removal.

We do have super burst damage. I thought that was common knowledge? We’re the most under-rated class in the game and for WvW. You need to know how to setup your gear,traits and skills right + practise dogfighting in-game. I’m running longbow + shortb kittenittenhoroughly enjoying it in WvW.

Daemon.4295:

Trap expertise is pretty useless anyway, I was really excited about that trait while I was leveling and couldn’t wait to get it, only to discover that the range was so limited it just made it more complicated to drop traps in a pinch. I untraited it almost immediately, it was really disappointing. I never realized you could place traps on the ramparts from below though, I might give that a try. Thanks for the tip!

But to do this you basically have to be right in front of the walls, turn your cam up and aim your trap as far up as you can to the edge of the walls, so that the effect crosses into the ramparts. When I was playing trap spec, I ran in, Entangle, Flame Trap, Snake(?) Trap, roll back, Barrage. Then run out of skills to use for 20 secs xD

Roborovskii.7635:

We do have super burst damage. I thought that was common knowledge? We’re the most under-rated class in the game and for WvW. You need to know how to setup your gear,traits and skills right + practise dogfighting in-game. I’m running longbow + shortb kittenittenhoroughly enjoying it in WvW.

I think your definition of burst is different than others. Burst is a sudden spike in damage in a short time, usually followed by a longer cooldown. The point of burst in PvP is to counter HoT’s (heal over time) spells, as well as inducing a bit of panic into the opponent when they see their HP drop 75% etc etc Rangers don’t have anything remotely close to that. Rapid Fire shows the TOTAL damage of all the shots, it’s not the individual shot damage that you see on the screen being displayed.

Samfisher.7942:

I think your definition of burst is different than others. Burst is a sudden spike in damage in a short time, usually followed by a longer cooldown. The point of burst in PvP is to counter HoT’s (heal over time) spells, as well as inducing a bit of panic into the opponent when they see their HP drop 75% etc etc Rangers don’t have anything remotely close to that. Rapid Fire shows the TOTAL damage of all the shots, it’s not the individual shot damage that you see on the screen being displayed.

Yes. Of course it’s total damage, that common knowledge too. You need to combine rapid fire with QZ on a full power-crit exotic geared ranger. Drops most players hp by 75%. If you stick in a hunters shot just before that, it ups the damage too. QZ will also carry over for a few shots after you swap to shortbow to finish them off.

If you’re lucky you crit for 10-12k on a clothie. You won’t get anywhere near that on medium and heavy armour classes.

LB Rapid Fire + QZ cannot be considered a burst, to anyone but glass cannons. Max, if you are lucky and do not get any obstructed/missed/invulernable/outofrange, is about 1/4 of a guy’s HP. In which case, a smart player knows to either heal or run.

Issue with Rangers not having bursts is huge. Because by doing more or else constant damage, other players are smart enough to know when to dis-engage and run.

Our speed bursts either are buffs that should be used in combat (RaO) or a sigil that gives you 10% (but takes away a skill slot which really should be used for condition purging or another skill is brown bear is used).

So even if you chase, most classes will outrun you. Even if they cannot run faster then you, just by striving, they mitigate a huge percentage of your dps. Because pets cannot hit running targets and striving targets give obstructed/missed/invulernable/outofrange alot. So if they cannot out run you, they can lead you to their zergs.

My biggest annoyance in WvW or PvP.

Sad too see so much negativity over rangers. My own experience with ranger has been great. Would usually finish off most players of other classes 1on1 in WvW except perhaps for mesmer and guardian. You may not consider RF+QZ burst damage, but just tell that to the many people I’ve put down… they might think otherwise.

If you’re asura race, you could even throw in a technobabble right at the start of the burst and imagine the frustration of your target =P also don’t forget a pet wolf which knocks them down occasionally.

Rangers are definately able to contribute alot in WvW, but as of now, with so much negativity going around. It’s severely underrated. Perhaps people just need to know how to play it well.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Thoughts-on-my-World-vs-World-Ranger-Build-i-ve-been-running/first#post608398

This is my thoughts on it, as an Asura Ranger, you should have very little trouble in World vs World..

People need to quit thinking of a Ranger as a Bow User, because unless you’re running Longbow with Crit/Power Build and hugging Zergs, Bow absolutely blows pretty terribly.

It has been said time and time again, the biggest reason you see people hating on Rangers is because the way our abilities currently work, the best we can hope for in WvWvW is to work 3 times as hard as other classes to get the same results. That’s as good as it gets for us.

Our signets are mostly pretty bad.
Our shouts are mostly pretty bad.
Our spirits are terrible.
Our pets, which are half of our damage apparently, are buggy, slow to respond, and cannot attack on the run.
Our bow shots have trouble hitting our target, and are weak when they do.

It is not terrible, and it can/should/will be fixed. However, right now it is quite difficult. I find success, but it takes a lot of work.

Xsorus.2507:

People need to quit thinking of a Ranger as a Bow User, because unless you’re running Longbow with Crit/Power Build and hugging Zergs, Bow absolutely blows pretty terribly.

Yes Rangers are not bow users only. They can use melee and bow. The game allows for multiple play styles.

So yes, we can melee. For me, I prefer a bow. I do not demand that rangers must use a bow. Or that ranger = bow. I just would like both range and melee combat to be both viable.

Roborovskii.7635:

Sad too see so much negativity over rangers. My own experience with ranger has been great. Would usually finish off most players of other classes 1on1 in WvW except perhaps for mesmer and guardian. You may not consider RF+QZ burst damage, but just tell that to the many people I’ve put down… they might think otherwise.

If you’re asura race, you could even throw in a technobabble right at the start of the burst and imagine the frustration of your target =P also don’t forget a pet wolf which knocks them down occasionally.

Rangers are definately able to contribute alot in WvW, but as of now, with so much negativity going around. It’s severely underrated. Perhaps people just need to know how to play it well.

I play for SYN, formerly of TA on HoD. I’d say I know my class well enough to form my opinions ^^ That being said, there’s nothing rangers can do that another class can do better with less effort. That I think is the sticking point for many rangers. We don’t have anything that is feared in PvP, we do consistent damage when PvP by nature requires burst.

Claiming credibility via affiliation? =p Yes it true that rangers are not the best at any particular niche, but they are not kittened as most people’s opinions have expressed. It’s sad to see that whenever a new player comes to ask about the class, they get swamped with negative opinions. Perhaps all this bad press about rangers is the reason why my targets lay dead on the floor for so long wondering how they died to a kittened ranger.

Roborovskii.7635:

Claiming credibility via affiliation? =p Yes it true that rangers are not the best at any particular niche, but they are not kittened as most people’s opinions have expressed. It’s sad to see that whenever a new player comes to ask about the class, they get swamped with negative opinions. Perhaps all this bad press about rangers is the reason why my targets lay dead on the floor for so long wondering how they died to a kittened ranger.

They aren’t BAD, but they’re bad enough to be pretty low on the pecking order in WvW. I’ve killed my fair share of people on my ranger as well, but other classes have a much easier time doing what they do compared to what rangers must do to stay remotely competitive.

Either way, I’m looking forward to the Nov 15 patch and see what it brings for us rangers See you on the battlefield! (if we ever meet in WvW)

Yep! Looking forward to that. Hopefully that’ll change some opinions when they balance it out.

ski.4927:

It has been said time and time again, the biggest reason you see people hating on Rangers is because the way our abilities currently work, the best we can hope for in WvWvW is to work 3 times as hard as other classes to get the same results. That’s as good as it gets for us.

Our signets are mostly pretty bad.
Our shouts are mostly pretty bad.
Our spirits are terrible.
Our pets, which are half of our damage apparently, are buggy, slow to respond, and cannot attack on the run.
Our bow shots have trouble hitting our target, and are weak when they do.

It is not terrible, and it can/should/will be fixed. However, right now it is quite difficult. I find success, but it takes a lot of work.

1/2 our damage? Which pets are you running and where can I get them?

docMed.7692:

ski.4927:

It has been said time and time again, the biggest reason you see people hating on Rangers is because the way our abilities currently work, the best we can hope for in WvWvW is to work 3 times as hard as other classes to get the same results. That’s as good as it gets for us.

Our signets are mostly pretty bad.
Our shouts are mostly pretty bad.
Our spirits are terrible.
Our pets, which are half of our damage apparently, are buggy, slow to respond, and cannot attack on the run.
Our bow shots have trouble hitting our target, and are weak when they do.

It is not terrible, and it can/should/will be fixed. However, right now it is quite difficult. I find success, but it takes a lot of work.

1/2 our damage? Which pets are you running and where can I get them?

Wolves, felines and birds all did really respectable damage….. when they actually hit.

Nowhere close to 50%, sorry.

I would wager a good 25-30% of our sustained and about 50-60% of our burst.