Guild Wars 2

Just asking some seasoned rangers how they feel about the GS in terms of PvE?

How does it compared to Sword or Axe?

Where?

Most are going to tell you gs has fallen so far behind sword/axe for dps that its pretty much a pvp only weapon now, and even there its starting to show its “age” from not receiving all the buffs everyother weapon set seems to be getting since HoT. Infact, it was nerfed just before HoT with its double leap dropped to 1, and then they gave scrapper hammer triple blasts instead lols.

Due to the new aftercasts attached to sword mainhand Greatsword caught up a bit in terms of damage. However the SIGNIFICANT damage buff to axe offhand cuts that back a bit putting it at about the same level as before.

In the end sword axe will still be the weapon of choice for pure damage. And greatsword will be a more defensive option in favor of more evades for content where you expect to be under high pressure.

Unfortunately it doesn’t matter as far as raiding goes. As druids only exist to provide grace of the land and frost spirit (if it wasn’t for those two effects rangers abysmall dps would cause us to simply NEVER be taken. Healing isn’t really necessary and other classes can provide the minimum heals required while providing more direct damage).

In other words. Your ability to activate two effects matters more than literally everything else you do (I am still hoping anet changes that one day). Welcome to being a buff kitten.

Now SALT and depression aside, as long as you can enter CA on cooldown your weapon choice doesn’t matter too much so youl want to pick the one that fits the role. Most people now mostly camp staff. As it is the easiest way to get into CA and it provides healing while your outside of it.

If you find you max out on AF early anyway. Then going Sword Axe will probably be your best bet for raw damage (make good use of the offhand axe skills). However if your entering an area with high pressure. Consider the greatsword as a defensive measure and roll the evades to get through danger and maul on cooldown for decent damage.

GS has great mobility and pairs nicely with staff when you are running around in open world. It seems like a fine choice for most things.

I would take it when I think I will need the block and evades, or the mobility. If that’s not an issue, Sw/A or even Sw/W.

What you find discussed here is true but no one really mentioned S/A + GS.
That build is actually kinda viable and safe to use if you just want to DPS.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXRnUqAVsglsAuCCctgh9gabiAY0/O4Iea+CC4RoEnnC-TxRBABPcKAoU9HAeCAmpE8p9HwTfwVK/AA-e
Since you haven’ specified which PvE content is your target, this works as well. If you are in a party – you can swap Zephyr for Frost Spirit.
Bristle’s 25 mighted Sick’Em F2 with proper positioning for Rain of Spikes melts dungeon bosses. The build also has smooth AoE bursts.

In dungeon speed runs my Spirit usually stayed behind even if I killed him right after spawning him, so I decided I’d take Zephyr instead. Worked well.

I appreciate all the help guys and the advice as well. Lol…I hope we can bring more into the raid eventually.

I’ll be sure yo check out that build Tragic. The PvE content in question is fractals/dungeons/open world. I don’t raid at all…..then again maybe I just haven’t found a dedicated guild for it yet.

xLiFToFF.5938:

I appreciate all the help guys and the advice as well. Lol…I hope we can bring more into the raid eventually.

I’ll be sure yo check out that build Tragic. The PvE content in question is fractals/dungeons/open world. I don’t raid at all…..then again maybe I just haven’t found a dedicated guild for it yet.

If you don’t aim for dedicated content (such as 90+ fractals or Raids) and you are a GS fan – that build is the closest thing to being viable.
Naturally, it isn’t peak efficiency but keeps results while attending to the fun part of the game for Melee / GS fans.