Guild Wars 2

Why do so many people say Rangers are better off using melee, but when pressed for which melee weapons to use they recommend Axe/Axe, Axe/Dagger, Axe/Torch or Axe/Warhorn over Sword or Greatsword.

Sword and Greatsword are the only two primarily melee weapons available.

With the exception of Warhorn which does one ranged attack and a skill that is not an attack but casts multiple boons on close by allies, the other weapons choices provide 4 ranged attacks and one melee attack each.

So technically they are recommending going from one ranged type weapon set (SB and LB) to another ranged type (Axe, Dagger, Torch, Warhorn).

No wonder some new Rangers get confused.

Note: Please do not interpret this to mean those choices are not good ones. I am just pointing out the language typically thrown around in build discussions can be very confusing and misleading to new players.

I think the reason they are described as such is that they are “melee” weapons while some of them may have a smidge more range. they are hand held weps.

if you started talking about range in terms of point blank, short , med and long…the new folks would really be confused. IMHO of course.

They mean melee in the sense that it isn’t a bow. Melee can still be thrown/ranged to a certain extent though, as is the case here with axe.

Axe is a ranged weapon for rangers. In fact for my ranger – that is her ranged option.

I use axe/axe for range, and sword/torch for melee.

My axe has the same range as my warrior’s longbow… So if anyone’s calling 900 a melee option, I have an eyebrow to raise in their general direction.

Unless your Axe-hero is just spamming 5 as their auto-attack and refusing to ever hit 1 through 4 – that’s a ranged weapon. Though if this is the case, maybe that explains why some people think rangers have such poor DPS. =^O.o^=