Guild Wars 2

Hi all, I have almost 2k hours into the game and have never played ranger until recently. I started to play one only for key farming, as I found the pet very helpful in that situation. Anyway, I have tried all the weapons available to them and totally love the way it plays. So, I also have a thief that I haven’t played a lot but have made ascended armor for.

PLAN: Delete the thief but make a ranger so that hopefully I can use the ascended armor I made.

QUESTIONS: I mainly PvE and WvW. In PvE I like to do events, LS, some world bosses, mostly roam Cursed Shore and so on. In WvW I’m on a mid-tier server, so we don’t have huge zergs. I don’t solo roam, so need a build that would really contribute to small-medium size group fights, usually where we are severely outnumbered. I don’t do a lot of dungeons, but I would like to have the option. The ascended armor I made is half zerker and half soldiers. I also have a zerker ascended back piece, but all other trinkets are exotics. I have a full set of zerker and a full set of dire exotic weapons, armor and trinkets. So, what can I build with all that? Anything? Nothing? Do I need to start over to change to ranger?

I hope you fine rangers can help me! I really want to play this class

Uuhhhhh… hmmmm.

OK, was I not specific enough?

I’m looking for a group play WvW build. Should I use power/zerk or condi?

I’m also looking for a good power/dungeon PvE build that I can roam Tyria with as well as take on a few dungeons and/or world bosses.

Is it possible to work in some or all of the ascended/exotic gear that I have already?

I’m new to ranger so can use lots of advice/tips/pointers/help.

Please.

Can’t really help you for medium scale www, as rangers aren’t really powerful there. With the latest changes a backline single target burster to take down eles could be a thing, not in optimal gameplay though. For dungeons, your best bet is a spotter sword build with frost spirit, found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=via57Pzvm58
Most people recommand using a tanky pet and a longbow in open world pve but i find the ranged playstyle boring and just love greatsword+sword/x. Up to you i guess.
Condi specs on ranger are mostly duel specs and tpvp/spvp related.
So yeah, i’d say stick with zerker at least for the pve part, for www zerging i don’t really know the viability of such a spec, i always found berserker lb rangers not that great because of the lack of aoe. Spirit will just insta die just as your pet, and condi isn’t that useful in zergs, so..

Well I wouldn’t mind stepping into the spvp ring with a ranger if that’s where they shine. I suppose I could continue to use my necro in group wvw fights and use my ranger for smaller group roaming.

I’ve been leveling with SB and using sword/dagger. I’ve used the GS some and I like that too. I find that the sword auto is a bit irksome, as a lot of times I find it hard to disengage.

Thanks for the advice and info oxtred.

I’ve been running this mostly full Zerk and in exotics in PvE:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsXTjMq0ua5KWsw1iABhaZAMvtiB2LQFsBuGiUeSKULF-e

and this when i fancy a dungeon:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBMhNakRl2VLXxiFuWDIIULDg5ldCUBbgzjYJS5JpQtUA-e

They play very similar just the dungeon one is a little more party buffing and blasts fields nicely.

For really small scale roaming ( basically solo or duo) a regen shout condi ranger is powerful, and it’s also really fun to play, i think koroshi had a guide on his youtube channel it should be up to date. For tpvp/spvp, spirit rangers are powerful but in the current meta i don’t see them put to use much. Tbh, i don’t see much rangers at all. Your options are tankish close holder with shout regen, spirit ranger for deadly condi spammer, could also defend a point like a mm necro, or zerker burst like a staff ele, but meh. I’m not aware of any other builds suited for high level pvp, since i’m not bringing my ranger here. Sword aa is indeed clunky, it has its use for chasing though. There’s some small tips for sword aa: if you need to dodge quickly, cancel the animation by either weaponswapping, using a high priority skill, or sword 3/dagger 5.

When it comes to dungeons you don’t have much build diversity as a Ranger.

You’ll use mostly Sword/Warhorn and Greatsword, and your build will be 4/5/0/5/0; after the next balance patch 6/5/0/3/0 might become an alternative.
Your job is to buff your allies with Spotter (Marksmanship VII) and Frost Spirit while attacking with melee weapons.

More details:
http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12497757-dnt-ranger-build-415-patch

For open world stuff, use the build DesertRose posted and probably just ditch the spirit. If you were with a small farming group you could also make the spirit follow you around. Anything else for dungeons is completely subpar, and it’s pretty close to the best option for open world as well.

For WvW, there are tons of popular builds. PVT signet greatsword/LB for bigger to medium sized fights, glass LB for semi-risky sniping with the zerg, dual melee for solo roaming, condi regen for solo roaming (off the charts boring IMO, but very hard to be killed) For small group WvW, you can take anything you want as long as it fits in with the group comp.

Thanks for all the advice

I’ll have a look at the recommended vids etc.

I was a bit worried that ranger wouldn’t be too great for wvw groups but then i’m ok with sticking with my necro for that. I’m far far far from a good pvp’er but i think ranger might be fun to try out there.

I really appreciate the help.

Don’t worry about ranger not being good in WvW. There is a learning curve, but it does just fine. It even does perfectly fine in zergs, it just doesn’t offer teammates as much as something like a guardian does, which is where the supposedly bad reputation comes from.

If you want to try ranger in WvW, as much as I think it’s a kitten awful stupid boring build, I might recommend roaming on a regen condi ranger. At leas by doing that you’ll get used to using the semi-awkward movement skills and evades. Once you get those two things down you’ll be totally good to go with any build you want.

Fluffball.8307:

Don’t worry about ranger not being good in WvW. There is a learning curve, but it does just fine. It even does perfectly fine in zergs, it just doesn’t offer teammates as much as something like a guardian does, which is where the supposedly bad reputation comes from.

If you want to try ranger in WvW, as much as I think it’s a kitten awful stupid boring build, I might recommend roaming on a regen condi ranger. At leas by doing that you’ll get used to using the semi-awkward movement skills and evades. Once you get those two things down you’ll be totally good to go with any build you want.

Thanks fluffball. I’ll try to find one of those “regen condi ranger” builds and check it out.

If you have a mouse with back/forward nav buttons. I highly recommend binding a dodge to one and a skill slot to another. I bound Mouse 3 as dodge and Mouse 4 to slot 7. With my ranger, I slot lightning reflexes there and my reaction time is fast enough that that has saved me so many times. I do the same with Shake it off for my warr and that’s saved me from being knocked off cliffs and platforms many a time.