Guild Wars 2

My first class was a Mesmer and enjoy playing the class. Next came my guardian which I’ve enjoyed along with ele and war. Lately I’ve mostly been sticking to the heavy classes but I feel the need for a change and want to experience playing a ranger.

I’ve tried looking for a guide to level one up efficiently. Now this does not mean crafting one to 80 or even using an instant level 20 scroll, these won’t help me to learn the class much. So since I have not found a guide it would be nice to get a few tips on leveling and some basic questions.

1. What is a good weapon set to use? When I reach 7 I plan to have a x/warhorn on me to speed things along but what would you recommend as a good main weapon to start with? I do plan on learning all the weapons along the way but I know there are usually some weapons that are far more effective leveling with than others can be.

2. When I reach level 11 which trait/s should I start investing into and should these be changed down the road, what level/s if so?

3. Which runes and sigils should I invest in and should these be changed later down the road, what level/s if so?

4. What pet/s are good to use? What weapons compliment certain pets?

5. I believe I’d like to run gs/sb in the end. Since my toon isn’t an asura that’ll be one less daze I would get in the technobabble build I’ve seen. What other good guides are out there? I’ve seen vid of a ranger using gs, s/wh that looked promising also, is this still viable? I plan on sticking with one ranged one melee in pve and most likely wvw.

Well, these are the questions I have so far. If there’s something vital I am missing those tips would be appreciated (accept if the “tip” is, don’t play ranger or similar such “tips”).

6. What stats should I invest in while leveling? Should these be changed down the road if I should use a different set of weapons to level with as well?

Thanks a bunch, in advance, for your help in guiding me in this new venture.

Really? Nothing? Ouch….

Well, you don’t have that much response because you choose probably the easiest class to level up. Signet of the hunt (run 25% faster) and the pet speed the all process.

I’ll try to help you for each point :

1. Try every weapons and stick to what suit you best. Short and long bows are good choice if you feel lasy, but knowing to use them well is not that simple. Short bow come with good evasive skills and add a nice bleeding if you shoot from the side or the back. Long bow is a good source of damage if you stay far from your target, the second skill is good to apply some vulnerability and barrage is just awesome in leveling.
Axe is another good weapon to get ride of trash mobs in pve with bounce, and I find it pair well with torch or dagger.
Great sword is probably good, it comes with good mobility, maul do decent damage with a short coolddown and the autochain has an evade, but I never like it.
Sword is our most powerful weapon, but the learning curve is high. The autochain kind of root you but when your target move, you are glue to it, and you give might to your pet. #2 and #3 give you free evade. Very good with all of our off-hands (torch or axe for more dps, dagger for an extra evade, war horn for buffs). Search a little and you’ll find some good guide for sword usage.

2. For trait, everything work, but I find investing in beastmastery is a good start. Each point will boost your pet’s stat. With 15 point in Nature Magic, every boon you have will be transfer to your pet, with WH5, that’s mean double might and fury (1 for him, 1 from you). With Skirmishing I, your pet crits very hard. The rest is kinda up to you and your playstyle.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMUQBYAgV4w/Ba9HQF-e

3.Don’t bother with rune and sigil until 80, you have a pet

4. The most important part. You need to kind of pet, a DPS one, and a tanky one. The most damaging pet is jaguar (and feline in general). Use his f2 skill and use sick’em after and watch your target melt. But feline or birds don’t hold aggro, that’s why they synergise much when you use a melee weapon. Sword + jaguar + quickening zephir is a very good burst.
Bears are good tanky pet and the longbow + bear combo is the lasiest way to play ranger. I personnaly prefer devourer for my tank option, they come with more armor, ranged, and I find them funnier to play with bow.
Another good option are drakes and dogs. The fern hound has a very good heal, and every dogs come with a knock back that is quite usefull (but it’s much a pvp pet than a pve pet).
Try to catch them all though, because different situations means different pets, it’s our core mechanic and you have to learn to play with them.

5. It’ll vary a lot with what you plan to do. There is a very good post by jubskie which is stickied. It have a lot of guide and good builds.

6. Stats wise, go with power / precision / %crit on leveling. It’s the fastest way to kill things.

And don’t forget one thing, ranger doesn’t mean ranged class. The core of our class is our pet, knowing when to use one pet, when to call it back etc. is the way to mastering the class.

1. The only bad weapon for leveling is longbow. Its not terrible, but its the lowest damage for the typical range you will be engaging mobs from. 1h sword has the highest single target, GS has the best cleave / good travel speed, shortbow is strong for a ranged option. Whatever you are using, figure out how to make it combo off your combo fields, and make combos a habit.

2. Always keep beast mastery maxed out while trying to level up. It increases pets stats by ~10 per point, so by level 20 up until about the late 50s this tactic will make your dps pets tankier than you and able to solo most veterans without much help from you. Rest is up to you. Skirmishing is nice for traps, Wilderness is nice for sword cooldown reduction and ultimately condition clearing.

3. Stick to sigils of speed at lower levels just to help with your travel time. Try to only take 1 different rune for each piece of armor (the static +10/15 bonus of the first rune is better than the subsequent bonuses on non-exotic runes, unless you are using low-level divinity runes). Focus on the stats that help the most (power, vit, precision, toughness).

4. Birds and cats will do the most dps, dogs/spiders do control, and (brown)bears let everyone know that you have no idea whats going on. A common setup is 1 dps / 1 tougher pet (eg a cat/bird and a dog/lizard). Birds are nice at lower levels because you can tell them to attack a passing mob, and the first thing they will do is cast swiftness. Cancel their attack and keep moving for free swiftness. There really isnt pet synergy as far as weapons go, with the exception of maybe control pets and ranged weapons.

5. Xsorus is great, but the technobabble build is a bit of a gimmick. the problem with omen of clarity is that it lasts only 1 hit, and really only great sword has a 1-shot burst skill to benefit from that (or in rare cases, a super-buffed longbow autoattack). The stun bonus is worthless at the moment unless you are asuran with technobabble, though next patch the stun bonus is getting buffed. His Nature’s Tank vids demonstrate a much more viable(and popular) condi-regen playstyle. Personally i prefer Exploits dual-melee playstyle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEWpvAlu68&feature=c4-overview&list=UUusZTm3ghTzw5NlotflM2Ew), but i run it with 0/0/30/30/10 with boon runes for a variety of reasons (35+sec stability, fury, tons of might, perma swiftness, perma regen, and near perma protection). 1v1/roaming, condi specs tend to out perform power specs at the moment, though they are much less useful in large fights (harder to get credit for kills, lots of cleansing, etc).

6. (power, vit, precision, toughness).

1. What is a good weapon set to use? When I reach 7 I plan to have a x/warhorn on me to speed things along but what would you recommend as a good main weapon to start with? I do plan on learning all the weapons along the way but I know there are usually some weapons that are far more effective leveling with than others can be.

Ans:Nothing good or bad in every situation ranger class must know yourself first then know enemy sometime SB/LB very good to killing stuff but when you fight monster can reflex it real hurt,Then try to use anythig and know how to cook enemy with it.
Ok how start weapon I prefer shotbow or longbow.

About mainweapon…
"Shotbow"is overall going weapon can do shot/mid/long fight.
(crap it nerf range to 900 but can still useful)
“Longbow” is stage of range weapon this weapon can teach you how to stay position about you and your pet and enemy.(On PvE)
X/warhorn is good runing and swap 1Hsword or Axe as main hand for do both melee and semi range useful on combo with pet.
1Hsword skill 1 give might to your pet / Axe3 combo pet to add weakness to enemy.

2. When I reach level 11 which trait/s should I start investing into and should these be changed down the road, what level/s if so?

Ans:Hmmm…My style said start with…
Wilderness Survival or Nature Magic is good.
Not kill past but self takecare very good.

3. Which runes and sigils should I invest in and should these be changed later down the road, what level/s if so?

Ans: My exp never use rune/sigile untill LV70+ and start use/looking when80
on PvE our pet is bestfriend.I just patch up random rune/sigil from salvage.
But most of them I use “crest of rabit/soilder/magi/etc…”(Crest type or jewel)

4. What pet/s are good to use? What weapons compliment certain pets?

Ans:Our pet can combot with weapon it realy long story if you need to know deep.
Dam…our forum pet master is flood alway I can’t dig this time…
Cat : VERY High dmg Very die easy.
Bird : high dmg die easy can swiffness and multi hit x3.
Dog : best friend smart handsome tough have some Dmg and can interrup.
Lizard : Tough can AoE blast have DMG can fight land and water cambat.
Moa : Buff turret not use much about 1year ago…Passive mode and push buff.
Pig : you know it not look like danger but pig can AoE knockdown and dig dirty toy to use.Tough and high HP.
Spider : Tough low DMG but have a lot of condition and immobite.
Devourer : Super tough and can add condition can knockback.
Ground range combat and water type range combat.Can use as sandbag.
(Player can stand behind this pet and let range bullet struck on Devo.)
Bear : year…beer it just a bear if you no idea what I pick pet to use…beer is good…
Shark : High dmg High vit but wet noodle.
Armor Fish : Sandbag low DMG.
Jellyfish : Jelly fortress DMG is good can regen can eat a lot of DMG.

5. I believe I’d like to run gs/sb in the end. Since my toon isn’t an asura that’ll be one less daze I would get in the technobabble build I’ve seen. What other good guides are out there? I’ve seen vid of a ranger using gs, s/wh that looked promising also, is this still viable? I plan on sticking with one ranged one melee in pve and most likely wvw.

Ans : this is very talkable but can’t answer in shot.
Weapon set is killing type some set good with melee some set good with range
Some set goot to anti stealth some set is good to melt regen.
It’s up to Set and traits. to bad we not have “oh kitten button to reset fight” or
“1push safe da kitten escape.”

Well, these are the questions I have so far. If there’s something vital I am missing those tips would be appreciated (accept if the “tip” is, don’t play ranger or similar such “tips”).

6. What stats should I invest in while leveling? Should these be changed down the road if I should use a different set of weapons to level with as well?

Ans : Status what your type of player look what you love most…
I use shaman/Rampage/Apo status on WWW and PvE.