Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone, just got my DVD (back orders are so annoying) and patching (yay for it stopping multiple times) and wanted to ask what you guys think about the viability for melee for rangers.

I have played a White Lion in WAR quite a bit and loved it. Regardless of how ‘effective’ it was i just loved having a massive axe and me lion buddy wade into the baddies.

I enjoy pet classes in general (WAR – White Lion main, Aion – Spirit Master main, WoW Hunter – primary alt). From scanning these forums it seems there are quite a few problems with the pet. Is this PvP centric? Some people are saying they die too quickly in dungeons also. I mainly PvE and like to PvP for fun.

Any insight would be great. I’ll be able to find out for myself when the game finally stops patching.

Greatsword seems to be pretty viable, and I’ve noticed a trait or two that could be used for sword/dagger. Not tried it much myself. The sword skills like to throw you all over the place though, so that’s something to be aware of. I accidentally sent myself flying off a cliff using the wrong skill.

lol. Yeah i’d still be using some ranged stuff. You can hot swap right? Now to decide on race.

Lol as Wolfgang Hype mentioned, using a 1h Sword will throw you all over, so you need to know what’s behind you when using it. However, using a 1h Sword is all about evasion. Time it right and you can dodge roll out of the way of an attack and poison your foe in the butt

You can have two sets of weapons at one time, so I have a Sword + Warhorn (For the pecking birds and swiftness buffs) or a Sword + Dagger combo for melee and then a Longbow for ranged. I don’t use my longbow all that often, so I just stick to melee.

The pets are kinda rubbish. They take a lot of damage, but like weapons, you can switch out your current pet for another one with full health. Pets also gets passive buffs in the form of Signets and they also have their own Trait Line (‘Talent trees’ in ‘other’ games >_>) that increase their stats, so they are useful but could use some love.

I run a primarily melee ranger, and it’s ridiculously fun.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMMQJARTjAV11FWKWs2Bi1DBFoB1eoJLd+XB0nyNuyaNA

There’s my current build, and while I don’t proclaim it to be the best it makes soloing a cakewalk. You’re going to want to spam the fire trap whenever it’s available for access to the fire combo field and combo that with your leap for a near constant fire aura.

Subbing wolf for bear works brilliantly if you don’t care for bear tanking, as the wolf will leap and combo with the fire trap as well.

Longbow/Whiptail are mainly for running with parties or dynamic events. Shortbow/Whiptail is actually a much better build dps wise, but I miss the AOE on longbow too much if I use shortbow.

I run a melee build for PVE giggles as well – I normally run Greatsword and Axe/Axe – usually gather a few mobs, drop a fire trap – use my charge ability for the Fire Aura – switch to Axe/Axe and use the Axe whirl ability (5) to throw fire everywhere. It’s a lot of fun!

For traits and what not, I focused a lot on Wilderness Survival and Skirmishing to get upgraded traps.

Melee is viable but generally subpar for both PvE and PvP. Obviously, being in melee means taking more damage from enemies. In most games, this is incentivized by doing more damage than ranged options. In this game, Shortbow does more damage than any melee option available to Ranger.

So in short, yes, you can melee and you’ll do alright, and Greatsword is a lot of fun to use. It’s just not optimal.

mouse.1689:

Melee is viable but generally subpar for both PvE and PvP. Obviously, being in melee means taking more damage from enemies. In most games, this is incentivized by doing more damage than ranged options. In this game, Shortbow does more damage than any melee option available to Ranger.

So in short, yes, you can melee and you’ll do alright, and Greatsword is a lot of fun to use. It’s just not optimal.

I think you’re oversimplifying it just a little bit. Shortbow kills single targets faster, but when you’re fighting clusters (IE Dredge, Grawl, Svanir, etc) GS has the benefit of killing them all at once.

Melee Ranger is very effective. Tanks and deals dmg in a very nice pace. Bring a Bear Pet for some extra tanking. I was able to handle 5 ettins at the same time with a greatsword build. My Ranger friend who does all bow literally ran from a mob because he couldnt handle it but as a Melee Ranger the mob was an easy kill.

Build-wise, im using Quickening Zephyr to provide some heavy dps. For traits i say invest in Wilderness Survival and Skirmishing. If you want you can add 5 on BeastMastery, that 2sec Quickness can make a world of difference when clearing out mobs.

It would be more viable if you could control your character while using a sword. It’s not like I’m bitter about it or anything. Great sword is pretty good, lacks a little damage but I assume it’s because they expect your pet to be attacking with you and not dead due to aoe.

I run a 30 beastmastery tanky build and my pet rarely dies in PvE and can tank lower tier bosses in Dungeons.

I posted this elsewhere I’ll paste it here…

Close-combat Ranger

Weapon Set 1 : Sword/Axe
Weapon Set 2 : Axe/Warhorn

Preferred pets : Wolf/Cave Spider

Traits : 0/5/20/15/30
PvE Skills : Troll Unguent, Sic’ Em (optional), Quickening of Zephyr (optional), Signet of Renewal, Rampage as One
Dungeon Skills : Healing Spring, 2x Spirits, Search and Rescue, Spirit of Nature

Armor and Accessories : Cleric’s and 6/6 Superior Runes of Lyssa
Weapons : Knight’s

My build is rather tanky and my dps unbuffed is rather low, but I’ve seen my Wolf crit for 3500 on a level 80 group event boss with 25 stacks of Might on it and 12x Vulnerability on the Boss, which is kinda funny.

This build revolves around supporting and buffing my pet while being somewhat tanky. I rarely take more than 700 damage from levle 80 mobs and common group event bosses rarely hit me for more than 1800, which is good enough when I have 15k hp. I deal consistent but average damage.

I’m having mighty fun with Fortifying Bound, as it is AWESOME with might stacking from Rampage as One and Protection one dodge roll. Whirling Defense and Hunter’s Call are awesome for stacking Might, because every hit counts towards Rampage as One, so it takes ~3 seconds for my pet to reach and maintain 25 Might. you want to know how this trait works go to the GW2 wiki I’ve updated this trait page and have even added a table with condition durations.

I take Wolf and Cave Spider along with the Trait that makes their F2 Cripple.

I love the Wolf, it’s F2 is the best disengage ever and is awesome in dungeons. 30 points in Beastmastery make it hit like a truck even if slow. I like the Fear + Cripple rather than only Fear, because it gives you more control and makes chasing mobs less annoying.

The Cave Spider is ranged which is very good for event boss battles. I take Cave spider over any other spider because it has a very short recharge on it’s F2 and inflicts weakness which makes me and my pet more tanky and coupled with Protection on Dodge and Troll Unguent is rather insane. I’m usually tanking champions in PvE and lesser bosses. Well not exactly tanking, but once me and my pet take aggro its very hard for the mob to kill me with so much toughness and protection. Rune of Lyssa is awesome here, getting random boons on heal is a no brainer when you already have so many boons in your kit. Fortifying Bound makes this even better, as it transfers the buffs to your pet.

I am stacking about 1200 healing power which most people think is a waste but I really like as when you DPS is low, but you are tanky it more than makes up for itself in the long run.
I’m taking Troll Unguent for the same reason, as it has 25% longer cooldown than Heal as One, but heals roughly 33% more and when you are tanky that snowballs really well.

I know my build isn’t really good, but I find it really fun to play and this build is one reason I’ve bought and play GW2.

My English might be bad, but hey we are not all that perfect.

Cheers and have fun, gotta’ tame em all !

Use a 1h sword and a 1h axe as offhand and then have a long bow as the other setup.
1h sword makes you jump all over the place and the axe offhand gets you some ranged and a awesome ability on hotkey “5” (awesome! melee aoe)

Melee ranger is perfectly viable, but you have to be willing to give up some emphasis on power and precision for toughness and vitality if you want to live long enough to down a boss. If you pick the right pet that compliments your stats and play style, a pet can do as much or more damage than your character. I haven’t had to many problems with the pets, but most of the pathing problems seem to be in dungeons and I am rushing to 80 and not worrying about dungeons in the early game.

I primarily run with greatsword and then swap to axe/warhorn. Axe is great for easy aoe with with bouncing primary attack and aoe cone bleed. The warhorn provides a great swiftness/fury buff with a mediocre might buff for pumping up the party to do some quick burst.

I played melee ranger a good bit in PvP but never in PvE. My build for PvP was Sword/Dagger and Axe/Torch, with heavy emphasis on condition damage. It was pretty powerful but I didn’t really feel like a Ranger with the playstyle of the spec.

Here is my build, which was amazing in 1v1 vs pretty much everything except for a good Guardian. Completely shut Thieves and Warriors down.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMEQRAnf8YnEVEXZdFaBhaZgo9gSm/8MF83ROFjy/VMVF;TwAAzCpo+y8l4L7XuvkftWYswOgpAA

Consider that spec a first draft, I tweaked it a bit from there.

When i have healing spring out i am very survivable in melee + with birds and the buff from warhorn + the poison from the evade attack( serpents strike?) and if that is not enough quickening zephyr i have burned down skill point challenge mobs easy and fast this way.