Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to understand how it is that in WvW I seem to hit for about 200-400 and frequently get hit for 1000+. This isn’t some sort of whine thread, but I want to figure out what it is that is making the difference. Quite often if I’m in a fight my opponent seems to have almost all of their health left when I go down and I’m really not sure why.

I’m a new level 80, in berserker gear. Not the best gear in the game admittedly, but not awful either. I know that by not stacking vitality or toughness then I’ll be taking hits, but why am I not dishing it out too?

Any suggestions about how the mechanics of the game are working to prevent me from doing what I consider even reasonable damage would be appreciated.

We are supposed to be hitting in tandem with our pets to equal the damage of other classes. Since pets are worth didly kitten in WvW you will be hitting for much less than pretty much every other comparably equipped class.

The only thing that comes close is a max range longbow shot on a power/crit build.

I will agree that it’s sad to see tanked up guardians hit for more than an offensive ranger but that’s just how it is and will be.

The other problem is people in WvW run very, very toughness focused builds that don’t sacrifice much in the power department so you wont hit them for a lot but they will steamroll a zerk build.

I run a mixture of berserker and rampager gear. By using Longbow and Warhorn you have two chanaled skill, that deal much dmg. With the right traits you can even stack much bleeding. Of course you have to look out for mesmer feedbakc or other reflection skill (guardian) using Longbow #2.

But generally with glass cannon berseker (and I guess that is true for any other profession too) you have to know, what the other professions can do to avoid their attacks. You will allways eat much dmg with glass cannon builds. Meaning you need dodges at the right time and, if you have, other utilities, that you can use to defend. Sword #2 and #3 also are evades or GS #1 has an evade in auto attack chain.

Over all, if you are new, I can only say: keep at it. Keep trying and experiment with your build. It is not necessery to change armor, although some will tell you that zerker is not good for ranger. From my experience zerker is fine. Use high frequent attacks, to increase the chance to trigger critical dmg. Also skills to stack up vulnerability are helpfull in order to increase dmg.

hammerofthegods.3569:

I’m trying to understand how it is that in WvW I seem to hit for about 200-400 and frequently get hit for 1000+. This isn’t some sort of whine thread, but I want to figure out what it is that is making the difference. Quite often if I’m in a fight my opponent seems to have almost all of their health left when I go down and I’m really not sure why.

I’m a new level 80, in berserker gear. Not the best gear in the game admittedly, but not awful either. I know that by not stacking vitality or toughness then I’ll be taking hits, but why am I not dishing it out too?

Any suggestions about how the mechanics of the game are working to prevent me from doing what I consider even reasonable damage would be appreciated.

I don’t see how you hit for only 200-400 with berserker gear. Even autoattack with zerk gear on ranger is far greater.

It would help if you could post your traits. Most likely your base damage is just kinda low, and your crit % and crit damage boost arnt that high either.

Assuming you are using a longbow, the best investment you can make right now is an exotic level 80 longbow. Ideally a Berserkers, or at least one with power and precision.

Another good way to stretch your budget is to get rare Berserker Nobles armor, using Ruby Orbs instead of runes. Neither should break the bank too much and will provide a big improvement over greens or blues. if you still have some.

A fully-traited, fully-geared berserker longbow ranger with bloodlust stacks can hit 4k crits on long range shot on a soft target. The damage against most wvw warriors worth their salt, however, is laughably low. Even with pet active, I’ve seen one warrior who had so much passive regen that he could outheal any berserker’s damage if allowed to dodge roll.

Ranger does need some more build versatility in terms of shifting more damage output to the ranger instead of the pet. However, the bigger problem you are likely facing is heavy armor, protection buffs, and nonstop healing from builds designed to survive the brunt of the WvW zerg. Even a glass thief will have trouble taking a chunk out of someone like that.

The counter to these kinds of builds is stacking conditions. If you want to kill everyone in WvW but not as fast as berserker against soft targets, use a condition build. If you can get poison, bleed and burning to stay on your target with high condition damage, they’ll die right quick. Just keep in mind that you’ll have to re-apply frequently as these tank builds drop conditions too.