I can't make up my mind on build... (PvE)
PvE is mostly boring, it doesn’t matter what class you choose.
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What do you want out of Ranger? Do you want a marksman? Do you like melee? Do you want a pet that is a pocket tank? What weapons do you like to use? What type of content do you want to do?
Not that I am phenomenal by any stretch of the imagination, but I like condition damage and doing open world questing/events and some dungeons so I’ve partially completed a non-ascended Viper’s set (working on the rest slowly) with Superior Runes of the Krait to help with my bleeds. Currently, I use shortbow with Axe/Torch on the swap although I often use the Longbow instead of SB because it’s good for controlling a target despite not being optimal for condition damage outside of bleeds. You can semi-get around the weakness of the longbow as a condition damage dealer by combo-ing it off of your pet skills such as the Murellow or Carrion Devourer’s poison cloud. I also tend to use Beastly Warden (Beastmastery line, final column, trait 1) to taunt enemies around my pet and gather them in close so I can AOE with longbow 5.
Since I love pets and want them to be strong Beastmastery is always traited into and I alternate between 2 and 3 on the first column, 3 in the second, and 1 and 2 in the third depending on if I am in a group. Skirmishing almost never leaves my setup as it does an amazing job of helping with bleeds and I run 1, 3, and 1 there.
The third specialization is the one I swap out most regularly. Wilderness Survival helps with poison from you and your pet and Marksman is good if you want better direct DPS. “We Heal as One” is one of the best heals we have with the boon copying it does and “Rampage as One” is good as well.
My utility slots change depending on the fight (if doing world bosses, sharpening stone, and one or two condition removal/stun break skills). Outside of bosses, I’ve taken to setting traps in open world PVE (our traps really, really hurt, have relatively short cooldowns and provide a form of AOE), sic-ing my pet on a mob, taunting them with F2 then calling the pet back to me and letting it lead them into my trap before having the pet attack again and DPSing myself. It gets the job done and gives me that warm fuzzy Hannibal Smith “I love it when a plan comes together” feeling.
The beauty of Guild Wars is that, unless you are super competitive, there are a great many varieties to approaching a situation and there is no one right way to play. There are sites like Metabattle which are very useful resources but they aren’t the only way to play either and you’ll go broke trying to follow every “best” build and be disappointed if your goal is to simply enjoy yourself.
Anyways, sorry for the long post and I hope I was at least semi-helpful. =)
I recently broke away from the meta to learn my way around staff and greatsword, and I’m having a ton of fun wisping and swooping across maps with those, and sprinting the rest of the time with Natural Stride. Freeing yourself to experiment with your build instead of adhering to the meta is really rewarding, IMO.
The other thing that can really perk up open world: switch pets all the time. Try all the pets. The hybrid Destroyers in Ember Bay are weak to chill, so take some of your white pets from the norn areas and use their F2s to put the hurt on. Every mob has knockdown or a freakin’ breakbar like a boss? Sounds like a job for Flappy and Zappy, my adorable pair of clumsy wyverns, both of whom spam double knockdown on summon. Did you know that tamed smokescales retain that rapid pinball skill that makes the wild ones so stressful to fight? Or that the treasures dug up by pigs are actually useful? Or that elegant little birds are the burstiest DPSers of them all and may even outshine cats for mowing down trash, and also sing while they fight? Explore your pet collection. Learn your pets. Love your pets. We’re the pet class; own it.
I recently broke away from the meta to learn my way around staff and greatsword, and I’m having a ton of fun wisping and swooping across maps with those, and sprinting the rest of the time with Natural Stride. Freeing yourself to experiment with your build instead of adhering to the meta is really rewarding, IMO.
The other thing that can really perk up open world: switch pets all the time. Try all the pets. The hybrid Destroyers in Ember Bay are weak to chill, so take some of your white pets from the norn areas and use their F2s to put the hurt on. Every mob has knockdown or a freakin’ breakbar like a boss? Sounds like a job for Flappy and Zappy, my adorable pair of clumsy wyverns, both of whom spam double knockdown on summon. Did you know that tamed smokescales retain that rapid pinball skill that makes the wild ones so stressful to fight? Or that the treasures dug up by pigs are actually useful? Or that elegant little birds are the burstiest DPSers of them all and may even outshine cats for mowing down trash, and also sing while they fight? Explore your pet collection. Learn your pets. Love your pets. We’re the pet class; own it.
Good advice. I’m also currently breaking out of the meta and trying new things with my ranger. Best suggestion: Don’t throw away or salvage old gear, you may want to come back to it.
I’m currently looking at some of the lesser used HoT stat sets to think of interesting ways they can help me have fun with some of my characters again. Just an idea.
I recently broke away from the meta to learn my way around staff and greatsword, and I’m having a ton of fun wisping and swooping across maps with those, and sprinting the rest of the time with Natural Stride. Freeing yourself to experiment with your build instead of adhering to the meta is really rewarding, IMO.
The other thing that can really perk up open world: switch pets all the time. Try all the pets. The hybrid Destroyers in Ember Bay are weak to chill, so take some of your white pets from the norn areas and use their F2s to put the hurt on. Every mob has knockdown or a freakin’ breakbar like a boss? Sounds like a job for Flappy and Zappy, my adorable pair of clumsy wyverns, both of whom spam double knockdown on summon. Did you know that tamed smokescales retain that rapid pinball skill that makes the wild ones so stressful to fight? Or that the treasures dug up by pigs are actually useful? Or that elegant little birds are the burstiest DPSers of them all and may even outshine cats for mowing down trash, and also sing while they fight? Explore your pet collection. Learn your pets. Love your pets. We’re the pet class; own it.
:Sniff: That was beautiful and so true, work with your pets. For all that they aren’t perfect, they can still be amazing. Learning new strategies to work with your different pets and their differing abilities keeps things fresh.
Some great advice so far.
What didn’t you like about your last 3 gear choices out of curiosity?
The way I play my ranger is by constantly switching things around and trying things out, so for me stats are kind of a secondary concern.
I’d suggest start with what weapons you enjoy using and work from there.
When I started I loved mainhand axe and shortbow, and just couldn’t get into using longbow however much I tried. Then I found that greatsword was very much to my liking, and the trait changes to longbow meant it was a more fun accompaniment for me. I decided early on that I didn’t like mainhand sword due to constantly falling off cliffs with it, I can use it better now but it still doesn’t really click for me, and staff doesn’t really do it for me either right now.
Swap around utilities and pets depending on what you’re doing, with traits to complement your choices. (The hybrid destroyers is a great example). I’ve gone from having shouts be my favourite things ever to preferring a mix of traps and spirits in pve.
Take a break and play other professions if it turns out that nothing works for you right now. Future elite specs or simply a change in personal tastes or mood means you might enjoy coming back to your character later.
When you’re changing your builds what gear are you replacing? Just to say you don’t have to replace it all, keeping your berserker armour (or whatever) and trying trinkets and weapons that have power and condi stats (rampager/carrion/sinister/viper) is more than ok, you don’t have to go all viper (unless what you don’t like about ranger is a lack of big numbers?)
Maybe you just don’t like ranger, i started off on ranger but then went to ele although im back on ranger for the sweet sweet perma-swift and regen. Try the other professions like ele or engineer if you haven’t already