Guild Wars 2

Just came back and thinking about giving ranger a go. I am by no means hardcore, but do like to be effective. I like the concept behind short bow and I like greatsword a lot. Are there any viable builds that encorporate them? How do rangers stack up these days? Pet AI improved?

Thanks!

nothing changed for ranger. They are bad as always.
If i were in you I’ d play another profession since for now ranger is terribad.

Hi @ajrpkd1234!, Welcome back.

1) Dont listen to anything @Darkness.9732 have to say. He’s notoriously known for being a troll on the rangers forum, telling everyone how terrible ranger is and that they should change a profession. Ignore this guy completely.

2) I play GS/SB ranger, its very viable for solo que spvp/solo-small scale raoming and dueling.

3) Pet AI is about the same, but the easy access to BM trait line, making them very strong. most veteran rangers have learned how to play around pet AI limits.

4)Keep in mind the changes to condi made it so you wont do much bleed dmage on SB unless you build for condi damage.

If you want me to sahre my won personal build tell me and i’ll send it to you on private.

Good luck and enjoy.

For WvW, PvP or PvE?

Realities:

• Shortbow works well as both a power weapon or condi weapon. As a power weapon though, it is very heavily outclassed by Longbow.
• GS is strictly a power weapon.
• You cant have Quick Draw if you are Light on Your Feet.
• Certainly no builds using both are meta.

Your options, as I see it, would be to build around Moment of Clarity and Quick Draw (check out Xsorus (youtube) super old technobabble concept). This is rough because if you take MM/Skirmishing you have to pick between Survival (Condi management) and BM (having a pet that contributes). If you choose to take Empathic Bond without BM, condi classes will kill your pet and you will probably have a hard time.

Pet AI is not improved, but BM makes speed for pets baseline which helps a bit.

Something like this might work out strong (ignore the zerker armor, its just filler):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARVjMqQ/K2yCGsAVLGyDqNAKhT/Dhl455VogPhD2M7B-TlRRwAA2P4iyPc6CosgAV1fMpEEA-w

The idea is to keep Predators Onslaught up with good access to cripple from pets and both weapons. Remoreseless would be better for GS but Shortbow wouldnt gain anything from it. You get 3 condi clears with this but passively might be lacking during HS downtime.

You can trigger moment of clarity with this by:

• Pet swap (in melee range, canine leaps if cd is ready)
• F2 (beastly warden taunt will interrupt).
• Hilt bash
• Counter attack
• Cuncussion shot.

Signet of the hunt doesnt stack with Moment of Clarity, but triggering it will pop a Moment of Clarity. Its okay to pop this in the fight since you will have swiftness on weaponswap.

Basic rotation…

Open with shortbow, pew pew. Concussion shot. Weapon swap, maul. wait five seconds.
(Or from shortbow, you could swap directly into a quick-drawed hilt bash)
Hilt bash, maul. wait five seconds.
Pet f2, maul. 5sec..
Pet swap, maul…

If any of your interrupts miss, just proceed to the next one.
This build would benefit from some Healing Power as you have perma regen if you sit in healing spring for a few seconds (trappers expertise doubles regen duration). Dont forget to swoop and projectile combo (when in melee range) through HS for more heals and condi clears.

Ranger is not terrible, things have improved slightly but there’s still a lot of work to be done. run birds and horrible pet AI matters a bit less, they have the furthest melee range of all pets.

personally i’d probably run s/d+SB…..i think i may try that after work today lol

LughLongArm.5460:

Hi @ajrpkd1234!, Welcome back.

1) Dont listen to anything @Darkness.9732 have to say. He’s notoriously known for being a troll on the rangers forum, telling everyone how terrible ranger is and that they should change a profession. Ignore this guy completely.

2)I play GS/SB ranger, its very viable for solo que spvp/solo-small scale raoming and dueling.

3) Pet AI is about the same, but the easy access to BM trait line, making them very strong. most veteran rangers have learned how to play around pet AI limits.

4)Keep in mind the changes to condi made it so you wont do much bleed dmage on SB unless you build for condi damage.

If you want me to sahre my won personal build tell me and i’ll send it to you on private.

Good luck and enjoy.

Nah man don t listen to @LughLongArm.5460
He is known on the ranger forum for being a white knight and a fanboy. Test on your own man. You’’ll see how the other classes ( above all mesmer and thief ) will hit you hard. And maybe after that you’ ll remember my words.
Regards

Thank you for the great and detailed replies!
Forgot how great this community is. I am not sure how I want to build him but I am leveling him currently so PvE and WvW are my main focus at the moment. Effectivness aside, I just love the rapid pews of SB. With the new specialization system I will really need to look at all the viable lines and builds. So much has changed. Inused to main theif and alted a necro. Is it still true conditions are not great in general pve? Power builds are great and all but I like the concept of conditions more, just from a flavor perspective. Sword main hand instead of greatsword is also an option although I see a lot of people saying things like “if you can pull off the autonattack” which… Doesnt make sense to me, is there something tricky about sword I am missing or… Are there people that dont know how to face enemies?!

Again thank you so much to those who have posted valid info and explained themselves. Much appreciated!

Darkness.9732:

Nah man don t listen to @LughLongArm.5460
He is known on the ranger forum for being a white knight and a fanboy. Test on your own man. You’’ll see how the other classes ( above all mesmer and thief ) will hit you hard. And maybe after that you’ ll remember my words.
Regards

ranger vs thief matchup heavily favors the ranger… mesmers are OP. nerfs sure to come.

I mess around with this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNQQJARVnUqA9CiluBusActgh/gaf9MIA+04HGeefz3NogVJA-TlCEABLqmCBPCgEVtYLlgGcEAYSZWTKNSa/h20FAwFAgUARsAA-w from time to time while roaming. It’s hilarious in 1v1’s and decent in small groups but the effectiveness drops off pretty badly when fighting larger groups. In those situations I swap to longbow and adjust traits if I need to.

But basically 2 low cooldown shouts do a decent job of keeping condi’s off of you and your pet. Pet taunt gives you the perfect opportunity to strafe and stun. Quickdraw keeps your stuns on a low cooldown. Strength of the Pack +remorseless= multiple opening strikes for some nice damage.

Depending on your group comp you might consider running entangle over strength of the pack for less damage but more cc.