Guild Wars 2

So I am currently rank 17 and nearly all of that has been spent playing ranger and guardian. In fact I have been having a hard time deciding on which to “main” and so some PvE with….

One thing that I am curious is how is ranger damage output when compared to other professions?

I ran some very basic stop watch tests in the mists and I found that ranger using QZ and what I would consider my full damage rotation of skills with jaguar coming from stealth I managed to down the practice golems around 1.5 – 2 seconds faster then I could with my guardian running his rotation, though results were slightly skewed towards the Rangers benefit since some of the guardian skills I use are reactionary. So that said I would feel safe saying the difference was 1.5 seconds.

That seems well and good but that is also with using QZ, without that the results become much different. The golem is also a stationary target making is very very easy to have my pet working 100% which is often not the case in actual pvp.

The other issue is really that even when factoring in QZ and the pet working perfectly a difference of 1.5 seconds is good yes….but the guardian in a real world environment is also bringing a lot of team support even when built more towards DPS, is harder to kill, has more AoE, more healing, and his damage is not dependent on any key skills, I find it to be consistent without needing steroid skills to boost it way up.

I have also played a fair bit of warrior and thief, neither one of them I enjoy but their damage output I feel is well known and no need to discuss that further.

I really like the ranger, I find myself rooting to make the ranger my main…but when I look at the lack of group support and question their damage I find Im at a loss on what exactly my ranger does that is special.

For reference I was using Shortbow / Axe – Warhorn. QZ – Spike Trap – Last utility varies from LR, Frost Trap, Protect Me. Rest is all fairly standard stuff. I also run 1sword/ torch – Axe / Dagger heavy condition trap build.

Guardian I use 2h Sword with 1h Sword and Focus with a focus on meditations, sometimes Ill change it up and run 2h Sword with Hammer or 1h Sword with focus and Scepter with Shield / Torch.

I guess what I am asking is what everyone else who has played multiple professions in PvP ( of a decent rank) feels the ranger damage is at? Where does it fall with regards to other professions? As I said with QZ and say jaguar coming from stealth the damage is fantastic but it drops a lot otherwise and pets are always a gamble factor.

Shortbow/Axe+Warhorn Ranger here.
Traited everything for bleeds and condition damage with 20points in power.
First enemy you see will get the QZ combo to the face and nearly instantly has 15stacks of bleed on him. Keep auto attacking to stack more bleeds + critical damage. Light armor classes can be down right now.
Shortbow 2 in clase range also does a lot of damage.

For support i sometimes (in dungeons) use the AoE revive, but the greatest contribution to the team will always be your spring (water combo field).

You also have a lot of CC to deal with warriors and or elementalists channeling their skills. Thiefs on the other hand….. their burst damage is just too much if I’m not prepared (didn’t see them etc).

For pets I use Wolf/drakehound because of their AoE effects. Playing WvWvW and sending my wolf into the enemy zerg to use his fear is just too funny.

Conclusion: I play a glass cannon. (never ever tried melee though)

The ranger is a very strong PvE class.

As you are responsible for your own survival in GW2, even when playing in group scenarios, pure DPS is not nearly as valuable a metric as it is in other MMORPG’s. You should probably consider more than just how quickly you can burn down a golem when picking your main for PvE content (especially since it will also presumeably be your main for WvW.)

PvE environments are generally more controlled than PvP, which plays to the strength of our pets. You can more easily position them to be useful and take advantage of their abilities. This gives us very good survivability, even when stacking offensive stats on our gear.

Our group support skills are a bit lacking, mainly because spirits were nerfed late in beta and really aren’t very good now. I’m personally of the opinion they will eventually be boosted back up. At least we still have our warhorn buff and the rare and valuable ability to create a water field.

The shortbow is excellent single-target DPS for burning down high-health targets in dungeons or events. The axe is great for AE where you want to tag multiple targets. The sword and torch can also produce very impressive AE damage when it’s safe to be in melee range.

When farming, I can solo kill 5 mobs at the same time without burning any cooldown longer than 30 seconds. It’s so easy on my ranger I thought anyone could do it, then I tried it on a couple other characters…nope. I have no fear whatsoever of veteran mobs and can solo some champions too, though it takes forever due to their HP.

It’s also a solid WvW class. The Barrage skill on the longbow alone sees to that.

Basically, I’d say go for the ranger as your PvE/WvW main. It’s a good choice. You can always enjoy everything else in sPvP at the push of a button.

Edit: One caveat, though, is that we do wear medium armor. Arenanet’s artists clearly expended all their best armor art ideas on the light and heavy gear. Since end-game PvE in GW2 is basically grinding fancy weapon and armor skins for yourself, that’s a bit disappointing. There just isn’t much really great looking medium armor.

The damage output of a flanking Shortbow Ranger is huge, I think only the Warrior, Guardian and Thief can top his damage (basically, all melee professions); if you have a damage pet I assume even those classes have a hard time keeping up with a Ranger. However it’s only single-target damage but it can be turned into a line AoE by choosing the trait Piercing Arrows; I haven’t used this trait yet and cannot say if it has much of an impact, though.
Regarding group support the most obvious asset a Ranger can bring is its water combo field which is active for 15 out of 30 seconds; because of its long duration it’s very good for more uncoordinated groups but it can be argued that the more frequently useable Geyser of a Staff Ele is better in a coordinated group. In addition to an additional body foes can hit at the pet can bring AoE buffs or debuffs like Might or Chill, poison combo fields or simply good damage or sturdiness. If you go for traps your can bring AoE Cripple, Chill, a decent fire combo field and/or (if I’m informed correctly) the fastest recharging frost combo field.

I use Piercing Arrows and think it is a must have for Rangers using shortbows because:

1. Fire into group of enemies -> watch all the numbers -> everything dies
(2. I use it for hitting all enemies in events so i can get a high chance for loot and to always get Gold Achievement. This in connection with a lot of magic find make it “easier” to find rare items)

Rangers are a pve powerhouse, you can kite mobs easily and pets are insanely strong and tanky. For SPvP for lack of a nice way to say it rangers suck compared to most other professions. Pets fall off badly against moving players and same with bows, you will lose a lot of attacks to people running around walls ect. Quickness is strong across all professions but it is easily counterable if the other player knows what he is doing. They can simply roll a few times, run around a corner or use any block/reflect skill to prevent most of it. Rangers don’t have a lot of CC to pair with quickness to make it a really good combo like pistol whip/devourer venom or bullcharge/hundred blades which usually force a stun break from your opponent. All that being said, you will not be disappointed with rangers in PvE they are very strong, able to tackle multiple mobs and veterans with ease. Also in WvW longbow shines with 1500 range and barrage being prettykittengood combined with nice damage.

Rangers are fine if you like having a single viable build I guess. The only way to play a ranger competitively though, is by going full condition/bleed shortbow.

The greatsword has the most solid and fun to use weapon skills in the game, but the damage is so incredibly low that it is unplayable in any kind of PvP.

The sword is a little better, but its auto attack locks you in place and prohibits you from moving or dodging at all, though still far too low damage. The axe is just a utility off hand weapon for lack of better, its damage is no better than that of elementalist water auto attacks, even lower than that of the greatsword.

So yeah, if you want to play a ranger and PvP, your only option is the shortbow. The longbow is very cool, and has fun skills, but its damage is barely better than that of the greatsword.

I would play with the shortbow, but I really don’t have any fun using the shortbow weapon skills, and I just don’t like ranged that much. I play the ranger because of the lore, the roleplay of a forest warrior, so I use a greatsword and axe/horn. I have a lot of fun with the awesome skills, as long as I ignore how little damage I do, as long as I ignore the warriors and thieves that kill a monster five times faster than me.

But sadly I cannot PvP, the greatsword melee build is simply not anywhere near viable for that, its damage even on a glass cannon build is simply too low to beat the worst of PvP players.

I only have a 23 Ranger, so I’m still learning the ropes, but I do have a level 80 Guardian and can tell you that Guardian DPS dramatically changes based on spec, gear and playstyle.

So far the best mix of survivability + DPS that I’ve found with the guardian has been Sword+Torch, and at higher levels (or in dungeons) survivability starts to become significantly more important. Just going for the highest DPS as a glass cannon isn’t necessarily the wisest move even in PvE.

Probably the biggest weakness I’ve seen for the Guardian has been the lack of really competent ranged DPS. That hurts in some boss fights and in WvWvW (unless you are rolling as support for a team, in which case you are golden, just might not get credit for kills as often as you would like). That isn’t near as much of a problem in sPvP since that has a lot more confined areas and shorter ranged fighting.

Figured I’d give you some perspective about high level Guardians. Personally I’m playing around with a Ranger since I want to see what it’s like playing with competent ranged attacks. (Also just an alt-a-hollic, so I’ll be busy a long time…)