Guild Wars 2

My go-to melee weapon for a Ranger is the greatsword due to it’s universal usefulness (my main weapon is always either a long bow or short bow depending on the “lore” of my specific Rangers). However, I keep wanting to use the one hand sword because of its ability to poison and cripple, but I dislike all of the off-hand weapons. Every time I do two 1h weapons with a Ranger, I use the off hand very little. I also don’t like the axe’s ability to bounce between targets since that results in aggroing enemies I never intended to target if they were too close.

How do the rest of you feel about the Ranger’s melee weapon choices?

For pvp and wvw, I love sword and axe. All melee weapons are pretty useful.

Torch gives a nice firefield in melee range. Warhorn is very good in dealing dmg and giving buffs, axe is decent but the last skill leaves you vulnerable. Dagger gives good evades but lacks in AoE.

For condi OH: Stick with torch
Power OH: Warhorn or Axe

Something is off if you’re not liking the offhands we have. They’re phenomenal. If you’re using axe or torch in PvE, use the 2 offhand skills on recharge because they all do tremendous damage. If you’re in WvW or PvP, dagger is a an extra evade and warhorn has a bunch of neat benefits… blast finisher, unblockable pet, and more.

For raids as you can go condi Torch.

For pve actually Axe\Axe for the tagging.

For WvW warhorn.

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense, the extra evade in place (you don’t move which means probably will still eat part of the burst because the evade is so short) is not an excuse for the extremely bad weapon that it is.

And this is just wishful thinking but If dagger 5 could be a 1200 ground target shadowstep that apply the condis in an small radius on landing and Dagger 4 would actually be a leap of 600 which applies the poison and 2 sec immobilise, that could make the weapon great to use it as close gap melee weapon in conjunction with sword.

Sword + Axe in PvE is your “tear all the mobs to shreds” option. It’s a lot of fun.

Thanks to the recent maul buff to GS 2 though, you can chain maul and get similar damage in an arc VS AoE.

Both are really good options for mobbing and general PvE. For WvW roaming, I love Sword + Torch.

GS has obvious utility and the potential to do some nice spike damage, but Sword + Axe or Torch really deliver consistent and predictable DPS you can rely on.

Sword + Dagger is evades for days, but that one takes practice VS GS. Fantastic in PvP/WvW though if you get it down.

If you have the poison trait paired with it, you can ruin sustain builds with it.

I don’t generally pair Sword + Warhorn as I see that more useful for Axe MH… but I guess you could use it to blast fields and maintain regen on yourself and friends with the warhorn train.

Of course, you can’t discount the supreme satisfaction of summoning a kettle of hawks to eat your enemies face regardless of the MH choice.

That’s just fun for the sake of it.

anduriell.6280:

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense

Oh good, more contrary nonsense from anduriell. Dagger hasn’t been the meta in PvP for, what, 2 years or something? But I’m sure you know more than the former pro league players and current top tier PvPers.

Been using Axe+Axe for the past 3 years, it’s just so much AOE, very useful in open world events.

Fluffball.8307:

anduriell.6280:

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense

Oh good, more contrary nonsense from anduriell. Dagger hasn’t been the meta in PvP for, what, 2 years or something? But I’m sure you know more than the former pro league players and current top tier PvPers.

For PvP it has its uses because every other weapon isnt very PvP oriented. Axe roots you. Torch is not good in pursuit and the fire field is easy evadable. Warhorn isnt bad for PvP because of the debuffing and buffing.
Dagger has a snare and an evade. Its PvP oriented from the start, thats why it is indeed the most useful weapon in this game mode.
Despite this it has not really mobility, strong CC, burst or AoE capabbilities. Something all other weapons can provide or at least one point of these (except the mobility).
Thats the reason why dagger underperforms every other OH in the major part of the game and some improvements would be nice.
More cleave and more mobility could be sweet for dagger and as anduriell said great with sword.

With the quickness ’’buff’’ to Sword trait and ’’buff’’ to Axe trait that can be used on offhand now, S/A is a good option. Dagger has a mini evade that can be used with Sword trait to triggers Evade/Quickness more often.

I still have hard time manoeuvring Sword with all the back and forth. I just wish Sword 2 was a single leap (Monarch Leap) and to move Hornet Sting (Backward evade leap) after Serpent’s Strike, but that’s just me…

So, at the end of the day I just end up using GS because it has an easy leap and a block.

anduriell.6280:

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense, the extra evade in place (you don’t move which means probably will still eat part of the burst because the evade is so short) is not an excuse for the extremely bad weapon that it is.

Uh it’s a 1.25 second evade. Sword is 3/4th second. Dodge is 3/4th second. If you can’t time dagger 4 because of “evade is so short” then you are doing it wrong. You press 4 at a certain time for evade frames, not to distance yourself a certain length away from an enemy.

Minor thing but if you are running condi, some enemies are immune to burning in PvE. Benchmark wise, A/D+SB is like 1-2k behind A/T+SB. Thing is, you could even optimize the gear for this build to be more bleed/poison focused if you really want to try but it’s not necessary. Torch is of course aoe while the dagger brings an amazing evade. It’s not a horrible idea to keep a backup dagger around.
——-
Since I’m fairly certain the OP is talking about open world PvE, I like Sword/Axe +GS and trait quickdraw when I power ranger because ranger power autos are weak. GS2/2/5/2 is a nice burst from quickdraw. Axe4/5/4 is also a great burst. Then I have a ton of mobility and evades. I really hope ranger gets a nice bursty power weapon with the new elite spec though.

Krispera.5087:

With the quickness ’’buff’’ to Sword trait and ’’buff’’ to Axe trait that can be used on offhand now, S/A is a good option. Dagger has a mini evade that can be used with Sword trait to triggers Evade/Quickness more often.

I still have hard time manoeuvring Sword with all the back and forth. I just wish Sword 2 was a single leap (Monarch Leap) and to move Hornet Sting (Backward evade leap) after Serpent’s Strike, but that’s just me…

So, at the end of the day I just end up using GS because it has an easy leap and a block.

I know the idea of shuffling skills arround. I would actually like to see that serpent strike and stalker strike drom dagger change place. Stalker strike could be changed to a power skill that does more dmg under a certain health threshhold or when the target is crippled etc.
The skills should be arranged like this:

1. monarchsleap-stalker strike chain
2. hornet sting standalone
   Dagger:
   Crippling talon (hits miltiple targets)
   And serpent strike (hits multiple targets)

CETheLucid.3964:

Sword + Dagger is evades for days, but that one takes practice VS GS. Fantastic in PvP/WvW though if you get it down.

I’ve never had that luck, but then again with sword I seem to fall on my face, or off a cliff What sort of sustain build for WvW would this be btw?

Crapgame.6519:

CETheLucid.3964:

Sword + Dagger is evades for days, but that one takes practice VS GS. Fantastic in PvP/WvW though if you get it down.

I’ve never had that luck, but then again with sword I seem to fall on my face, or off a cliff What sort of sustain build for WvW would this be btw?

S/d is great for a longbow swap, a double melee build, a tanky condi build, or a tanky as all get down staff swap. It’s just an amazing competitive weapon set.

Well Fluff, I shall seek out a sword and dagger and give it a go. Pre HoT I did run traps with a double melee sword/torch and axe/dagger but that was a while ago. No idea what condi builds are now for WvW but will give it a go.

I need something different anyway. Thanks

InsaneQR.7412:

Fluffball.8307:

anduriell.6280:

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense

Oh good, more contrary nonsense from anduriell. Dagger hasn’t been the meta in PvP for, what, 2 years or something? But I’m sure you know more than the former pro league players and current top tier PvPers.

For PvP it has its uses because every other weapon isnt very PvP oriented. Axe roots you. Torch is not good in pursuit and the fire field is easy evadable. Warhorn isnt bad for PvP because of the debuffing and buffing.
Dagger has a snare and an evade. Its PvP oriented from the start, thats why it is indeed the most useful weapon in this game mode.
Despite this it has not really mobility, strong CC, burst or AoE capabbilities. Something all other weapons can provide or at least one point of these (except the mobility).
Thats the reason why dagger underperforms every other OH in the major part of the game and some improvements would be nice.
More cleave and more mobility could be sweet for dagger and as anduriell said great with sword.

Yes thank you, sometimes i read some comments and i seriously think they are trolling like the one from fluuf which seems he didn’t play dagger from 3 years ago (when it was acceptable as pvp weapon) or at all. But hey, everybody is entitle to their opinion even if some sound kitten.

IMO Warhorn is right now the least bad weapon for pvp and is simply because is the only OH weapon that garantie ranged hits with no LoS with warhorn 3 which can be used to trigger AS with Caf#3 (yeh you’re welcome). And that’s the only real reason because the unblockable thing from 5 is noice on paper & completely unworkable in real situations (because you want a hard CC with that and the only pets has CC on demand are eletric dragon wich is a nono and wolf with 16k life instadie most of the times and 40 secs CD)

PS: fluuf please take a breath you seem easily triggered. Aand please go back playing pvp and wvw and stop expending so much time in raids…

anduriell.6280:

PS: fluuf please take a breath you seem easily triggered. Aand please go back playing pvp and wvw and stop expending so much time in raids…

Oh daaaaamn burn. Also https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Bunker_Druid and all the way back to like 4 out of 5 years ago cuz eura also used it before druid. I mean every ranger before you ever has been wrong but you’re the true seer. You know best!

Edit: Actually now that I think about it I think dagger has been meta non-stop since game launch. At every major anet hosted tourney since launch I think there has been a dagger wielding ranger. I really can’t remember what spirit rangers wore but i think it was SB s/d if if i remember that time correctly, it all blurs together.

Fluffball.8307:

anduriell.6280:

PS: fluuf please take a breath you seem easily triggered. Aand please go back playing pvp and wvw and stop expending so much time in raids…

Oh daaaaamn burn. Also https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Bunker_Druid and all the way back to like 4 out of 5 years ago cuz eura also used it before druid. I mean every ranger before you ever has been wrong but you’re the true seer. You know best!

Edit: Actually now that I think about it I think dagger has been meta non-stop since game launch. At every major anet hosted tourney since launch I think there has been a dagger wielding ranger. I really can’t remember what spirit rangers wore but i think it was SB s/d if if i remember that time correctly, it all blurs together.

As a none Raider PvE and WvW player i can say that i have no clue about PvP and the before mentioned raids.
But wouldnt you agree that a weapon that only performs well in one game mode need some design improvements?

InsaneQR.7412:

As a none Raider PvE and WvW player i can say that i have no clue about PvP and the before mentioned raids.
But wouldnt you agree that a weapon that only performs well in one game mode need some design improvements?

No. There are countless examples across every single profession of weapons being designed per game mode. Many excel across multile game modes. It’s ok if one doesn’t work in a single game mode though, like warrior CC weapons.

Fluffball.8307:

InsaneQR.7412:

As a none Raider PvE and WvW player i can say that i have no clue about PvP and the before mentioned raids.
But wouldnt you agree that a weapon that only performs well in one game mode need some design improvements?

No. There are countless examples across every single profession of weapons being designed per game mode. Many excel across multile game modes. It’s ok if one doesn’t work in a single game mode though, like warrior CC weapons.

As i said easily triggered, almost at the limit of a meltdown… Breath in and breath out fluuf you are beginning to show a little bit extremist and keep saying nosense.

i personally agree with you both in some point, it is possible to have a weapon that performs fairly better in one gamemode than on others, torch for example for raids and world bosses massive static hitboxes.

Problem with ranger is there is not OH weapons designed to work efficiently against other players, used an example the dagger: one evade for 1 sec wich doesn’t actually move you from place when any aoe last much longer than that, and usually the hardest hit comes the last. As i said from 3 years ago dagger is not being mostly used (there is always someone like out Fluuf that likes to hang to the past apparently) because is awful compared to the other OH weapon. And i’m not saying the other OH are much better.

Let’s put an example: Avatar#5 vs your pittiful dagger 4, result? you eat the 4k damage from last wave and pinned down with the black hole. 100 blades? same all same all.

Don’t get me wrong, i think dagger is the OH weapon with most potential to become our best OH PVP weapon. Right now is the worst by a big margin.

PS: Another idea could work is to change this skill to actually interrupt (stun or knockdown) and become unblockable, so you can use to interrupt the channeling even with aegis or blocking . That and dagger 5 becoming a 1200 shadow step of course would make dagger my weapon of choice.

Now Fluuf next comment you throw do please put some example in it because all your are saying: “is gud coz i saw it in a youtube video dah” and thats not constructive. And metabattle is not a good example, since the curators deleting comments, builds, changing status of the builds and doing the kitten they want in a wimp. That site is for many just kitten site.

anduriell.6280:

Fluffball.8307:

InsaneQR.7412:

As a none Raider PvE and WvW player i can say that i have no clue about PvP and the before mentioned raids.
But wouldnt you agree that a weapon that only performs well in one game mode need some design improvements?

No. There are countless examples across every single profession of weapons being designed per game mode. Many excel across multile game modes. It’s ok if one doesn’t work in a single game mode though, like warrior CC weapons.

As i said easily triggered, almost at the limit of a meltdown… Breath in and breath out fluuf you are beginning to show a little bit extremist and keep saying nosense.

??? I don’t know what is wrong with you. I reported this thread because you’re just flaming at this point. I’m not even responding to you in the quoted post.

InsaneQR.7412:

Fluffball.8307:

anduriell.6280:

PS: fluuf please take a breath you seem easily triggered. Aand please go back playing pvp and wvw and stop expending so much time in raids…

Oh daaaaamn burn. Also https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Bunker_Druid and all the way back to like 4 out of 5 years ago cuz eura also used it before druid. I mean every ranger before you ever has been wrong but you’re the true seer. You know best!

Edit: Actually now that I think about it I think dagger has been meta non-stop since game launch. At every major anet hosted tourney since launch I think there has been a dagger wielding ranger. I really can’t remember what spirit rangers wore but i think it was SB s/d if if i remember that time correctly, it all blurs together.

As a none Raider PvE and WvW player i can say that i have no clue about PvP and the before mentioned raids.
But wouldnt you agree that a weapon that only performs well in one game mode need some design improvements?

Going to repeat myself from right above.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

…
Minor thing but if you are running condi, some enemies are immune to burning in PvE. Benchmark wise, A/D+SB is like 1-2k behind A/T+SB. Thing is, you could even optimize the gear for this build to be more bleed/poison focused if you really want to try but it’s not necessary. Torch is of course aoe while the dagger brings an amazing evade. It’s not a horrible idea to keep a backup dagger around.

It’s not only good in 1 game mode. Having a defensive weapon that can have an amazing evade quickdraw is great when you are trying to solo/lowman harder stuff be it lupi or hero challenges champs etc. The fact that it’s only 1-2k lower DPS than max damage of the viper ranger isn’t a bad weapon.
http://qtfy.eu/build/ranger
Check condi druid. Even qt lists it as an option.

As for wvw, I think ranger has some greater problems with it’s viability there. Dagger isn’t to blame.

Fluffball.8307:

anduriell.6280:

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense

Oh good, more contrary nonsense from anduriell. Dagger hasn’t been the meta in PvP for, what, 2 years or something? But I’m sure you know more than the former pro league players and current top tier PvPers.

Pretty much the same thing I thought.

“Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense”
uh……………………….. u wot m8? lol roflcopterlolersk8s

Ok sure Anduriel. Sure, whatever you think.

For PvP, S/D. Easily the best offhand in PvP. Anybody who says otherwise plays at a level where skill level is so low that optimal builds don’t matter as much as simply being mentally competent.

For PvE, S/A on a power build. A/T on a condi build. These are the best setups with current balance in mind.

For WvW, builds are less set in stone because they’re highly dependent on what you’re trying to accomplish in WvW. For support/heal based builds for grouping, S/Wh is used for it’s support. For roaming, S/D with the same defensive swap set mentality as PvP.

GS is a fine option for WvW and most PvE though, and optimized builds tend to only matter for endgame PvE content (raids, fractals), strict WvW guild groups (I’m in one myself and use an arguably better verson of the frontline healer build listed on metabattle that also has roaming capability), and high tier PvP (even though the skill disparity is huge at this level still, gold 3 is where you see people really start to take the ladder climb seriously, and you want every edge you can get. You’ll start to only see optimal builds for the most part at this point, and once you hit plat, there’s only 2 Druid builds; Staff/S+D and Staff/LB, and you’ll only see Staff/S+D in the Jebro tourny and first automated tourny, at least on teams that can actually win).

I don’t find this a hard choice at all. Because it’s no choice at all.

Sword and dagger are just too weird and annoying. I’m guessing they’re meant for pvp with all their mad dancing and leaping around.

That only leaves greatsword. Which thankfully doesn’t suck.

Moyayuki.3619:

My go-to melee weapon for a Ranger is the greatsword due to it’s universal usefulness (my main weapon is always either a long bow or short bow depending on the “lore” of my specific Rangers). However, I keep wanting to use the one hand sword because of its ability to poison and cripple, but I dislike all of the off-hand weapons. Every time I do two 1h weapons with a Ranger, I use the off hand very little. I also don’t like the axe’s ability to bounce between targets since that results in aggroing enemies I never intended to target if they were too close.

How do the rest of you feel about the Ranger’s melee weapon choices?

You gotta remember while you may use a set for raid content open world on hot is another ballgame you will likely use different builds.