Guild Wars 2

Zerging and roaming, is it effective?

I would focus on damage, either power/crit or condition. i had a set of pvt on my ranger wayyy back close to start of game, its sh-et

Just run condis through Apothecary/Settlers/Dire with traps, Rangers in WvW have an extremely niche and limited role of aoe immob/freeze. Traps and such.

But I doubt you’d tag alot of players. Getting less loot sucks.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0ya/KGsw1ag9AZdgCJaP82OXbLYVD-TVSBwA02fwoyPcq/05CAkSXgElgLOEAsN/B4JAQKABVGB-w

very solid, constant damage, nothing spectacular, but you can wear down people over time

I always go full Pvt melee in zerging as the most impotent thing is to survive the first few hits which is what pvt is for. Axe main hand is a bag farming machine.

Pvt Melee

I’ve never had a lot of luck with it roaming tried a lot of different builds, i roam with celestial.

Great for zergs, trash for roaming. Same with any profession. You can do a mix of soldiers and zerker for roaming though

for roaming you are better off going for toughness/healing power, and either power or conditions depending on your build, so Apothecary or clerics. Healing power scales really well and we have a few supportive traits that benefit greatly from healing power. Bang for buck I would say Apothecary/conditions. More effective than power. There are a few great roaming bunker/bm builds that are very effective that use apothecary. Power is still viable but less optimal.

Zerging I would have to disagree with most people so far and say you are better off either going full zerker, full knights or a mix. If you are a ranger in a zerg, generally you shouldn’t be frontline, you should be back line or flanking using longbow, so getting hit shouldn’t be an issue, and if the enemy zerg is somehow destroying the backline, it most likely means that your frontline was wiped and you have lost the fight anyway, or you were successfully flanked, at which point you have probably also lost the battle.

Unless you want to be a frontline melee only tank, but at that point you should most likely use another class for this role as warriors and guardians are much better at this than rangers.

Only use of full pvt is to learn positionning in zergs. Once you do, you can get rid of PvT items to go for more damage.

As others said, Full PvT is useless for roaming. it will not stop other classes from bursting you down, but you will not be able to.

Following is an OK build for someone starting – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhODbkRlOWbZxkFqWD8HUrPg8NAatDuni/tsB-TlhFgAAKB30BcpZ4U9n59HwV+BA-w
the runes I’ve put are just an indication – Melandru, Force or orbs would also do, along with a few others, depending on your general survivability. With Force runes, better go for force sigils on weapons too.
If you feel like you lack stability, you can swap Quickening zephyr with signet of the wild, and swap Remorseless (Marksmanship XII) for Signet of the beastmaster (Marksmaship XI).

What’s great about this kind of build is the group play options (while a long bow build is more often personnal).
You add 150 precision (7% chance of crit) to up to 15 allies at the same time; you’re in range for healing spring, and can put a blast in it yourself, you’re in range for entangle also, and even if lasting only a second in zergs, roots keeps foes where melee can hit them, which allows to down them, thus help; muddy terrain is also a good control, though you want to put it under foe’s caster’s feet, not in melee. Well placed lightening reflexes is a life-saver – the “break out of jail” card – break stun, break immob and clear two alterations, topped with some vigor…

For pets, either bears, that you can direct through foes AoE’s taking some damage off your melee, or buffing pets or wolf (wolf kept on swap, for quick interrupt if needed).

full pvt is even bad for zerk..a mix of pvt / zerker is nice but with full pvt, you take buffs, deal no dmg and you can not rly support the group like other classes

You might try dire armor set with settler’s or apoth trickets if you are into roaming.

For learning the WvW full pvt is good. After you get the hang of it you can start mixing stuff in and out. Knights, Zerkers, etc… I started with full Invader armour and trinkets and after a week or so I swapped out the rings/earrings… then the weapon for zerk. You know…

Full PVT will lack dmg my friend, after approx. 600 hours and after trying all types of builds, I’m very comfortable playing this :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNIQNBjYDbkQlGWrYxgFuWDEIUrPgAoAaGD5LzG4CKwnH-T1DBwAROABC3fIn6PaVKY5AC04gBA5CAI5BAgVZSalgAOCAeVC55AIkVJRedPBAQAu5Ozm1ZgduzbO0hezyAUsAA-w

Now with the updates it seems CC lockdown and condies are the meta, that’s why I run that food, + it complements itself pretty nicely with Melandru runes (if you can, please buy lemongrass). NOTE: this build is the result of MY playstyle. The sword is incredible, 2 on demand evades, leap, poison, chain. You can use it defensively and offensively. To get out of trouble the combo is Hunter’s shot, for stealth, and sword 3 & 2. Warhorn provides distraction(4) and utility (5).

LB is your main source of DPS, ranger is all about positioning. We simply can’t play as we’re warriors or guardians, we are better when we’re at RANGE. I’ve been able to take pretty much all classes in 1v1 and some 1v2s. The worst matchups are condition HEAVY builds and thieves in general. Please feel free to use this build as a guide, and tweak it as you please. The important thing is to know what you want to do in WvW, support, roam, DPS, zerg, etc.

TIP: never stop moving standing ranger = dead ranger.