Guild Wars 2

I find it really hard to WvW because thieves also 2 shot me (well not 2 shot). It find it hard to have sustained damage and I feel my damage is lackluster and can easily be avoided. Also my mobility is low which makes it really hard for me to escape when enemy is running at me. Any tips on how to WvW as ranger?

Roaming or zerging? Either is going to require at least 1600 toughness to do well and keep you from getting 2 shotted by thieves.

The most effective, or at least easiest to play, zerg build is full PVT gear on a signet build. Some use a more clerics focused build but I haven’t found the healing to really be necessary to often and our pets die almost immediately in a zerg so you don’t want to sac too much damage or you won’t really be of any help.

The best roaming is either a regen bunker or a BM bunker. I haven’t tried the BM build personally but some folks have posted some impressive vids of it’s performance.

Are you lvl 80 yet? If not dont even try yet

First: level up to 80 ASAP
Second: gear: get a full set of Dire or Invader armour set (Dire for condition, invader or soldier for power builds). Rares may do, but you can farm EotM for badges, a weekend’s play gives you the full armour set. Get rare accessories too. For mobility: you can slot a signet of the hunt or get six superior runes of speed (from TP 2-3 gold each). If you are condition based you can even hunt with yellow weapons.

Second: traits: put 30 points in Wilderness Survival for the Condition Remove. After this:
30 into Beastmaster if you wanna play a BM (obviously)
30 into Skirmishing for Trapper builds
30 into Nature’s Magic for ShoutRegen builds
30 into Marksman for Power builds
(note: this is not an optimal build but as a beginner you cannot really play without 30 in WS. You can optimize your build later).

Third: you need some “oh-sh..” button. Signet of Stone if you have 30 in Marksman.
Lightning Reflex or Signet of Renewal if not.

Fourth: weapons: always consider sloting a Greatsword. Great mobility and evades. Thiefs LOVE it. After a GS as a SECONDARY weapon time to choose your main set.
Axe+offhand for mid-range fights, good hybrid.
Sword+offhand for close combat. Lots of evades. Hard to play.
Longbow for max. range power builds.
Shortbow for long range combat. Hard to play.

Fifth: pets: pets are NOT your main damage source unless you play a BM. Use them for utility. Wolf for Fear, Drakehound for AoE immob, spider for ranged immob, Moas for buffing, etc…

Everything Aggrostemma.1703 said is a good start, but if you prefer condition do not take greatsword.

Invader armor + GS and LB is always good for zerging (or even GS and S/A for zerg surfing)

Dire/Apothecary/Settler’s for roaming

Tonszo.9654:

I find it really hard to WvW because thieves also 2 shot me (well not 2 shot). It find it hard to have sustained damage and I feel my damage is lackluster and can easily be avoided. Also my mobility is low which makes it really hard for me to escape when enemy is running at me. Any tips on how to WvW as ranger?

If you talk about thives, I guess you are roaming in WvW?
Heal/shout build (with 30 in NM) or condi/trapper build (30 in skirmish) are ususally pretty good. I personally find trapper to be easier against thieves (Lay AoE and just avoid attacks, attacking when you have the chance VS try to run after the thief, trace it)

But main point about fighting thief is to know their builds / timings.
When I’m not sure, I’m always trying to nit turn my back to where I think it should be. I use GS #4 when I expect an attack (the blocking will turn you in the thief’s direction). I lay my traps at my feet while they are invisible.
So the fight goes like, thief attacks, I get hit bad, I set pet in attack mode, I heal, set traps at my feet, turn in awckward directions, GS#4 when I feel timing for an attack comes (which tell me which side thif is on) gs #3 when it appears, then 5+2 (with torment sigil on GS). swtch, WH #4 (birds damage thief in stealth, if the chanel was started before it enters stealth put traps where thief likely is… most of the time they run away at that point.

Didn’t fight thief as heal build, but sometimes I use Sick’em when sweeping a keep, or I slot it when I expect to meet a thief. The revealed buff might help you land your damage, and it goes well with the heal build.

Protect me can also be worth taking, since it’ll negate their damages without needing further traits…

If you play with LB, #2 tracks thief in stealth, if the channel began before the thief entered stealth.

Check this video of mine out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrrZ_GJrTuA
If that can help you not to become a bearbow kitten bows leave this for the grannies

Six: Consumables: Foods, oils, stones and crystals are the most powerful boosters you can have in a WvW fight. The best are not cheap but you can go with the second expensive one. Check out the Wiki:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food
They can give you utility (magic find, healing power, boon duration) defence (vitality, toughness, minus condition duration on you, etc..) and offence (power, condi damage, condi duration, precision, etc…). They are VERY important.
Sharpening Stone gives you Power
Tuning Crystal gives Condition Damage
Maintenance Oil gives Precision
Important: they ARE NOT lost on death! One hour buff can cost you around 10-30 silvers and they cant give you about 15-20 percent boost to your main stat, so…

Note, if you wear full exotic gear and you have food and other consumables your stats are better than a guy wearing full ascended but not having consumable buffs!

I hope I could help!

P.S.:
@sminkiottone: GS can be an effective secondary weapon in condi builds too. Not optimal, hands down, but very useful. Sword is better but I don’t like it (I have L2P issues I know :P).

Aggrostemma.1703:

Sword is better but I don’t like it (I have L2P issues I know :P).

I’m in the same boat, I know that sword is awesome, I just can’t handle it.

I find Axe in main hand a very useful weapon in zerg surfing, specially with fire sigil (tag a lot of people) or blood sigil (bit more damage and survivability).
Combine Signet of Beastmaster + (Signet of the Wild + Signet of Stone) + Axe 5 + Healing Spring in the middle of a zerg = immortal + stability + project reflection + retaliation + AoE vulnerability + regen + AoE healing bolts. But be sure to have enough HP to dodge away after that.

Unfortunately, I only have a zerg set on my ranger though I can still do something in smaller groups. Someday I’ll fit a rabid set on her for condition, but that will have to wait as Anet hopefully makes this class more interesting. Or maybe when account bound wxp comes along.

I use this crap:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNBlYDbkRlKWbYxfFuWDErHEa/Dq9gSmHTuCoqkR1E-zkyAYLBZyCA9BmKAl9ESTgSjlxioxqXwUlpW5KERGgltA-w

I rely heavily on sword/shortbow mobility skills to get away from trouble. The shortbow is just for utility and harassment so don’t spend too much time pew pewing in it. Spider pets stay at ranged which means they’re less likely to run in and get destroyed plus poison fields are cool.

Damage is sorta poor but I can outlast a number of people. Sometimes I use longbow when lazy. Either bow has a sigil of fire so I can tag enemies for loot tag enemies so it’s easier to get rallied if I should fall. Sword is pretty good for tagging people as you fly all over the place.

As a side note, I actually leveled mostly in wvw. People will see you as an uplevel ranger and will automatically mob you like bees over honey. You will learn to survive, or else…

Also, sword isn’t very hard to use. Yes, I screw up and send myself off a cliff once in a while, but that’s a reason why you shouldn’t bearbow to 80 and learn nothing about other weapons. Turn off autoattack and sidestep per slash. You will find yourself beating the crap out of most targets instead of flailing around hitting nothing. One thing about gw2 is that smashing the button does not make you go any faster, though I suppose rangers are one of the few classes to have to learn this. Well, you could use GS too but if you get sword halfway right, you may never go back.

Small suggestion Archon, take Vigorous Renewal instead of Expertise Training. Every pulse of Healing Spring triggers the vigor so that water field is a “fix everything” pit stop for your zerg: healing blasts, condi removal, regen, and more dodges.

Fluffball.8307:

Small suggestion Archon, take Vigorous Renewal instead of Expertise Training. Every pulse of Healing Spring triggers the vigor so that water field is a “fix everything” pit stop for your zerg: healing blasts, condi removal, regen, and more dodges.

Healing spring doesn’t grant vigor on each pulse for a couple months now

Yea, that’s a really effective group support skill. I’ve been trying to see what happens without it, and looks like I’ll be going back soon.

I was thinking vigor wasn’t too necessary with warhorn and the endurance trait, but it might help people around me a bit more.

Carpboy.7145:

Healing spring doesn’t grant vigor on each pulse for a couple months now

I was completely sure you were wrong, went in to game to check and realized I haven’t been using that trait anymore. Huh. I have zero memory of that changing. Regardless, it’s better than pet condi damage.

They changed the way Vigorous Renewal worked awhile back, so it works the same across all three heals.