Guild Wars 2

Hi all.

As the title said I have just started to level a ranger and I have seen/heard they can use melee weapons and to be honest I just don’t like the idea of a ranger/hunter class using melee weapons so would I be able to play with the LB/SB combo or is it just not good enough?

Longbow/Shortbow works perfectly, I use it all the time..

You said it yourself: it’s the playstyle that suits you best that eventually will become your best style. If you wanna keep ranged, do so..
You’ll learn to use the bow-skills in every situation and learn the strengths and weaknesses..

Thanks for the answer

As said above use what you want to, but don’t get into the mindset that the Ranger is a “hunter” class. They kept the name from GW1 for the sake of it, we’re more or less “Rangers” in the real world sense, kinda like warriors that are one with nature. Our melee weapons are some of our best weapons, but of course if you don’t have 2 bows you can’t adapt

For leveling, double bow will work just fine.

I’d invest points into Beastmastery first and run Troll Unguent because pets tend to shred things at lower levels. If there’s a pet you like a lot in particular, pick up the Master’s Bond trait and don’t swap pets, it’ll make them pretty beefy. Just don’t jump in water, apparently Rangers forget about how much they love their companions when they take a quick dip.

I’d recommend a damage pet, by the way. Cat, Bird, Drake, maybe Canine. They’re good.

If you are planning on using double bows, what I found is that traps will help a lot too. Invest skill points into them and practice how to use them along with your pet, they will become quite invaluable. Pro tip? Do not use them all at once, unless you really need it.

I found longbows really useful at lower levels. The short cooldown stealth makes it really easy to stay alive. I’ve used it to ping-pong Champions between me and my pet and taken them down solo. Damage might not be as strong as strong as some other weapons, but it does offer nice survivability.

I’m in the process of lvling one now and I found that having sw/wh is really helpful for running around while doing heart quests. That and like someone already said, putting points into BM is really good at early levels. My kitten does some massive damage.

Choose any weapon you like and axe/whatever for a secondary set, the axe is good for chewing through groups I found