Guild Wars 2

If you are not interested in my background story, jump to the last 2 paragraphs.

Hello guys,

I’ve been a hunter in WoW for more than 6 years, so when I began playing GW2; ranger was my choice ofc… She’s 61 now. I stopped leveling her when the ‘cold shower’ came (meaning: I got to find out, how hard rangers suck in dungeons). I did not want my main to be incompetent in any field of the game. The invested effort / success ratio would have been frustrating. Or well, at least I felt so…

So I leveled a thief to 80, and then got a guard, a warr and an elementalist to their mid 20’s; but the urge to ‘pew pew’ took over me again. Those classes are fun, and I will sooner or later level them to 80; but hell I’m a hunter from the heart, I want a nice bow and pierce stuff with it. (I dont like dual pistols for my thief, and they do crap dmg anyway.)

So with the 1H sword revelations (that it is the most viable PvE weapon for a ranger), and the recent longbow buffs; I thought the time has come to give my ranger a shot again (does this work as a pun? not native, sry guys…).

And yep, we finally get to the point… How far behind is the longbow dmg compared to other professions (LH eles, warriors, thieves)? I thought that ANET’s idea behind making ranged attacks hit for less dmg was that melee professions dont get that much TOT (time on target). I have completed 9-10 dungeon paths so far (types not runs, I had like 40-50 runs up until now), and the usual ‘stack in the corner’ stuff is going on everywhere. Will this change as I reach higher fractals? Are there boss mechanics that can not be negated enough to just stand on one spot for the whole fight? And most importantly, is the longbow powerful enough that in case melee does not have full TOT during a fight, it would even out the disadvantage that I have?

I know that many bosses can be soloed, 2-manned, etc. so just being able to complete a run is possible with any class even if you bite the dirt every other minute. But I’m an elitist, I want to be dominant, useful, and the gameplay to be rewarding. So if there is no hope for my ranger to be viable I think I’ll just simply accept it and go do PvP with her exclusively. But before I make that decision I want to be 100% sure, that all I can do with a ranger in a dungeon is hindering my group.

Ty for the answers

Nimrud.5642:

But I’m an elitist, I want to be dominant, useful, and the gameplay to be rewarding. So if there is no hope for my ranger to be viable I think I’ll just simply accept it and go do PvP with her exclusively. But before I make that decision I want to be 100% sure, that all I can do with a ranger in a dungeon is hindering my group.

Ty for the answers

If you’re an elitist and want to bring the best to the group, then don’t bring the ranger. Sad but true. And I love my ranger btw, but I don’t take her to dungeons..

I wouldn’t say that. It depends. In general don’t bring any class 2 times in a group, except the guard MAYBE. I allways hated on rangers until I’ve met one using Sword/Axe and Axe/Horn. He was pretty a beast.

• If you are an elitist ranger, just keep all the weapons with you.
• If you have to kill something from afar like sometimes the flame and frost endboss in fotm, or the fire ele at the grawl fractale, you may use the longbow.
• If you have to kite and are completly unable to face an enemy, like maybe mossman, use the shortbow.
• Everything else: Sword+Axe for ultra sexy pull + dmg + vulnerability + reflection. And use Axe+Horn for buffing, short range combat (still in buff range) and some safety to recover.
• Make sure you use the TRAITED frost spirit so you increase the damage of everyone by 7%.
• Also trait for spotter to grant everyone 150 Precision.

Rangers aren’t useless, in fact they are kitten strong. However, 99% of the rangers I’ve met / exist are just bear+bow rangers with 0 utility aswell damage and get kicked nearly immediately and hated etc. Don’t become a bearbow ranger, become an efficient, useful, elitist ranger.

Xyonon.3987:

I wouldn’t say that. It depends. In general don’t bring any class 2 times in a group, except the guard MAYBE. I allways hated on rangers until I’ve met one using Sword/Axe and Axe/Horn. He was pretty a beast.

• If you are an elitist ranger, just keep all the weapons with you.
• If you have to kill something from afar like sometimes the flame and frost endboss in fotm, or the fire ele at the grawl fractale, you may use the longbow.
• If you have to kite and are completly unable to face an enemy, like maybe mossman, use the shortbow.
• Everything else: Sword+Axe for ultra sexy pull + dmg + vulnerability + reflection. And use Axe+Horn for buffing, short range combat (still in buff range) and some safety to recover.
• Make sure you use the TRAITED frost spirit so you increase the damage of everyone by 7%.
• Also trait for spotter to grant everyone 150 Precision.

Rangers aren’t useless, in fact they are kitten strong. However, 99% of the rangers I’ve met / exist are just bear+bow rangers with 0 utility aswell damage and get kicked nearly immediately and hated etc. Don’t become a bearbow ranger, become an efficient, useful, elitist ranger.

I get that, and ty. So longbow and elitism does not go together. For beeing a melee class there are many many better options, I just hoped that there is a way a RANGEr can be played well. Now I have to realize that, there isnt (except for some special situations as you mentioned).

Probably the closest thing to what I hoped from my ranger is an elementalist. (Sry, but I have to have an obscene amout of free time to go for an engineer. 13 levels of it was enough pain.)

Well the word “Ranger” has nothing to do with “range” in terms of “distance”. More in terms of a landscape, forest, park, estate, nature reserve, etc. He has more a connection to the pets than to the bow. However btt: :P

To use the bows isn’t that rare. In fact you can do it quite good in a weapon swap. Go for sword + axe + sb for example. This is pretty useful against single targets and if there is a combo field spammer around, like the ele or engi. Use their fire fields to probably outdamage the sword in single target dps. Or at least it’s not wasted dps.

I allways say: Play what fits you the most aslong as it isn’t totally unnecessary. Shortbow + Cave Spider fits already better than a stupid bear Good for bosses due the vulnerability of the arachnid. Just play a little with your ranger again. If you are a ranger in deep soul like I am a Mesmer, everything will fit and you’ll find your way … gosh that sounded gay

And btw: don’t throw away the engi, he requires probably the most skill to be useful of all classes in PvE, but he’s pretty underrated due the same reason as the ranger: Ranger bear +bow = engi flamethrower / rifle / dual pistol. Most seen, pretty useless. If you wish to know more about engi pm me. It’s not my main, but I’ve spent the 2nd most of my time with him.

greez

If you want to be doing dungeons you arent going to be pew pew’ing (at leats not most of the time).

To do dungeons properly you need to stack for buffs, and LB requires you to stand far away.

Now if you’re doing PvP or WvW you can go pew pew people and it can be effective.. but since you seem more interested in dungeons.. No.

Cufufalating.8479:

If you want to be doing dungeons you arent going to be pew pew’ing (at leats not most of the time).

To do dungeons properly you need to stack for buffs, and LB requires you to stand far away.

Now if you’re doing PvP or WvW you can go pew pew people and it can be effective.. but since you seem more interested in dungeons.. No.

Yep thats what I was talking about with that ‘time on target’ thing. Namely, that this disadvantage is compensated or not. But what I can get from what you are saying, even high level fracs are the same. Stack and unload… quite lame tbh. So all GW2 PvE is about how many boss mechanics can you ignore? From Ascalon story mode to lvl 40+ fracs its all just stack, pop CDs, move on, skip trash, repeat? This kind of makes me question if I want to do PvE at all… or am I drawing a too dark picture? Or maybe too much WoW playing got me obsessed with complicated boss mechaincs? I actually do enjoy having to set up and practice a strategy… maybe thats just me.

Anyway, I’m getting too far away from my oroginal questions… So, all in all:

1. Forget bows as a ranger, except for a few special occasions.
2. Forget doing damage from range with any class, except for a few special occasions.

Would these 2 points sum up the essence of things? If they would than probably thins game has the lamest PvE content compared to the work, that has been invested into it. I get that if you dont have warrior banners, guardian or any other kind of heal/dmg reduction support then you cant play that stacking game. I also get that fights have actually more interesting mechanics if you dont ignore them, and ANET wanted those bosses to be killed with some tactical gameplay. But still, who cares if you can corner-zerg pretty much everything?

Yes, again WoW… in that game these kind of exploits were prevented by stronger boss moves. I dont want this game to be WoW, but ANET still could learn a few things from Blizz. If ANET does not want you to corner zerg the entire PvE content, then make corner zerging impossible. Hell, they even could add some extra, super-duper abilities to bosses. (Again WoW: I do not remember exactly which boss, but he was given an ability by the Blizz dev gods; that he could 1-shot anyone through invulnerability shields too. Because otherwise that encounter would have been expoitable. Simple as that…)

In the end this turned into a rant rather than asking for advice… Actually I was hoping that this corner-zerging was only going on in lower difficulty content. Now you got me disappointed. Why the hell are there ranged abilities then at all? Or am I not getting something?

The issue is that when we’re talking DPS, the Ranger is middle of the road at best. Well below Thief, Ele, Mesmer, and Warrior. And that’s with the sword mainhand. The bows actually do about half to 2/3rd the damage of the sword, so that should give you a general idea of where the Ranger stands.

And that’s just raw DPS. You then have to factor in things like you not getting the boons your group is getting because you’re not standing in the pack. Or boons you provide aren’t being shared because you aren’t near people.

It’s a lost cause in general if you want to actually play a ranged Ranger.

Ok, guys I’m back on my thief-ele-guard-warr quartet. Forget this ranger thing…

But from today, I have the highest lvl trading post character on my server.))

Thx for the answers.

Nimrud.5642:

1. Forget bows as a ranger, except for a few special occasions.
2. Forget doing damage from range with any class, except for a few special occasions.

Yeah, this is pretty much the case in GW2. You should never want to range unfortunately. Look into Ele and Engineer if you want a class with viable (good) ranged builds (that are still played in melee range)

Xyonon.3987:

Well the word “Ranger” has nothing to do with “range” in terms of “distance”. More in terms of a landscape, forest, park, estate, nature reserve, etc. He has more a connection to the pets than to the bow. However btt: :P

To use the bows isn’t that rare. In fact you can do it quite good in a weapon swap. Go for sword + axe + sb for example. This is pretty useful against single targets and if there is a combo field spammer around, like the ele or engi. Use their fire fields to probably outdamage the sword in single target dps. Or at least it’s not wasted dps.

I allways say: Play what fits you the most aslong as it isn’t totally unnecessary. Shortbow + Cave Spider fits already better than a stupid bear Good for bosses due the vulnerability of the arachnid. Just play a little with your ranger again. If you are a ranger in deep soul like I am a Mesmer, everything will fit and you’ll find your way … gosh that sounded gay

And btw: don’t throw away the engi, he requires probably the most skill to be useful of all classes in PvE, but he’s pretty underrated due the same reason as the ranger: Ranger bear +bow = engi flamethrower / rifle / dual pistol. Most seen, pretty useless. If you wish to know more about engi pm me. It’s not my main, but I’ve spent the 2nd most of my time with him.

greez

Anet defines rangers differently

“Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.”

Our “range” sucks.

kiwituatara.6053:

Anet defines rangers differently

“Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.”

Our “range” sucks.

Yep these two lines fooled me, wont happen again…

Nimrud.5642:

But I’m an elitist, I want to be dominant

Elitist dominants go for high risk and high reward paths. Go ele.

Fext.3614:

Nimrud.5642:

But I’m an elitist, I want to be dominant

Elitist dominants go for high risk and high reward paths. Go ele.

Yep a thief and an elementalist are gonna be a walk on a blade’s edge in PvE. I like that challange. Ok it’s not superhard or anything but we are still talking about the two squishiest classes… sad thing is, we started from rangers.

p.s.: I get your sarcasm, and its funny. I did not use the proper wording for discribing my motivations, and you implied that quite well.

My main is a ranger. I think I know lb ranger well enough. IMO rangers are extremely easy in solo PVE, and not very usefull in teamwork, which makes a bad combination. Also people playing rangers do the typical bearbow tactics by instinct, which might be a problem in a teamwork.

Nimrud.5642:

Fext.3614:

Nimrud.5642:

But I’m an elitist, I want to be dominant

Elitist dominants go for high risk and high reward paths. Go ele.

Yep a thief and an elementalist are gonna be a walk on a blade’s edge in PvE. I like that challange. Ok it’s not superhard or anything but we are still talking about the two squishiest classes… sad thing is, we started from rangers.

p.s.: I get your sarcasm, and its funny. I did not use the proper wording for discribing my motivations, and you implied that quite well.

thief sword + pistol allows a thief to face tank albiet slowly. I kinda wish ANET allowed rangers to do at range what thieves can do close up (after the “ranged tax” saps some dps)