Guild Wars 2

I’ve leveled up a warrior, an elementalist, and a thief. All builds are glass cannon-esqe; the warrior & ele emphasize crit damage while the thief is more power & condition damage.

I love playing the thief & warrior, but I find the ele frustrating, I guess just too hard. Mobs kill me while I’m trying to cycle thru air/fire/earth, etc.

If the ele feels too squishy (and it’s me, I know that some people kick butt with this profession), think the ranger would be too hard for me?

(I’ve submitted a nearly identical post to the necro list; it will be interesting to compare the answers.)

It really depends on what you play primarily (PVE, WvW, PvP.)

For open world PVE (outside dungeons) I honestly believe that Ranger is the best class in the game. My Ranger in PVE is almost unkillable, it’s borderline ridiculous how good you can get. In Dungeons, people say they suck, but that’s not entirely true. Ranger is ‘good’ in Dungeons, not great.. but you have a learning curve and it takes skill and good pet management. Rangers are deadly in PvP and can be good in WvW but again requires some skill level.

Necro can be good at anything, but it has one fatal flaw compared to Ranger and that’s the fact that it only has 1 viable build. Necro is excellent if you’re a condition build, anything else and you’re pretty much a waste. Necro’s are good in Dungeons provided there is only 1 in the party as having 2 of them stacking conditions is a waste. They can be deadly in open world PVE due to the fact that they have strong AOE and can stack conditions on groups very quickly. Same with PvP/WvW as long as you’re using the 1 viable build.

Right now I’m playing a Ranger as my main and I play my Necro quite a bit as well. Between the 2, I prefer the Ranger. The biggest advantage Ranger has is variety, Necro is fun but you’ll be pretty much the same as every other Necro you see. You’re a condition build, or you’re terrible. Ranger has several viable options from straight zerker, to Beast Master, to Regen/Healing build and combinations of them all. Rangers have a good variety of viable options.

ele hard class

use d/d

Ranger is currently weak and the ANet does not want to pick it up

Ranger is actually very powerful in general PvE (this is barring dungeons, where we’re decent). Necromancer seems to have some problems in PvE early on, but then gets better as you get further in level (like most classes).

Both are a ton of fun! And pretty similar I’d say (traps and wells/marks, pets and minions, both do strong cond damage, etc.). IMO necro does more damage while ranger is harder to kill.

Obed.7629:

I’ve leveled up a warrior, an elementalist, and a thief. All builds are glass cannon-esqe; the warrior & ele emphasize crit damage while the thief is more power & condition damage.

I love playing the thief & warrior, but I find the ele frustrating, I guess just too hard. Mobs kill me while I’m trying to cycle thru air/fire/earth, etc.

If the ele feels too squishy (and it’s me, I know that some people kick butt with this profession), think the ranger would be too hard for me?

(I’ve submitted a nearly identical post to the necro list; it will be interesting to compare the answers.)

I love my Thief because of the mobility. After playing a Ranger, I really don’t enjoy any other class except that and the Thief.

While the Ranger needs some retuning, I feel every class does, and in light of the ever changing nature of MMO and class balance, I say roll with a Ranger if the concept of the class appeals to you. The melee weapons are great fun, and the pet is decent as long as you get used to swapping them and changing your stable. I’m fully aware that a Berzerker build doesn’t hit as hard as a Warrior in PvE, but I also know from the Warrior forums that they think our grass is greener in some parts of the lawn.

You will not be squishy, but pet maintenance can be as intensive as element changing, in my play style.

If you like playing in groups I would go with necro. If you like playing solo and maybe small groups go ranger.

krantoss.3590:

Ranger is currently weak and the ANet does not want to pick it up

Troll? You realize ranger is about to be nerfed because of how powerful it is… right?

Both are crap in PvE dungeons and decent in pvp. Ranger’s better in pvp though than necro.

The necro is probably the worst off class in game in general, but ranger is worse in dungeons while necro is worse in pvp.

Eurantien.4632:

krantoss.3590:

Ranger is currently weak and the ANet does not want to pick it up

Troll? You realize ranger is about to be nerfed because of how powerful it is… right?

I did not. What nerfs now?

So many excellent and informative responses! Thanks.