Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, been about 2 months since I left this game since rangers were going no where fast. I did see the recent patch where our pet DPS was nerfed. I was sitting on my laptop with my pet cat Samson when I saw the patch notes. When I scrolled down the list to the rangers notes and saw our pet DPS was nerfed, I could have swore I saw a tear roll down Samson’s eyes. He has not watched me play GW2 on my computer since…

Considering all I played since Beta was largely Beast Master builds with some Trap Master builds thrown in for fun I was sad to see BM go. Especially since most of the ranger builds are terribad and BM/Trap Master seemed to be the only things that could kill people.

I have heard rumors that GS and LB are now viable in WvW if so what builds work?

I don’t think power specs are bad tbh, contrary to the popular belief. The problem is conditions are totally out of control atm. Bm specs are still good, the pet dps got nerfed but not that much, we mostly lost burst dmg like raven f2.
The main issue ranger has atm is the lack of a real viable condi removal except for eb. Yea we have hs and sor, but there are so many condis atm and they are soooo easy to spam and reapply that’s simply not enough.
In wvw i suppose everything is viable if you hide behind 100 other players…i mean lb has 1500 range and can hit quite hard, plus it has now a stealth as well; the gs has awesome burst and a good escape/block. So yea i think is viable, but without eb conditions are going to destroy you if you are solo.

I’m on the opposite side of Fjandi. Power builds for Rangers are awful. They still have no group utility. They still have no ranged burst. Melee is still reliant on evade spam in order to function as well as it does.

The ranger continues to be a condition class, but the worst condition class in the game.

Both bows continue to be the worst weapon options for the class.

If you left on June, yes that would be the pet DPS nerf. July patch didn’t really do much to pet DPS, but it did do a LOT of changes to the ranger himself.

Power build guides have been popping up lately, like the 10k crit build, the 23k crit build (which is still waiting for the Precise Strikes Fix), the Critically Powerful Build and so on. If you want to read my humongous wall of text on Power Builds, read this guide.

As for weapons, GS power build has been buffed by quite a lot because of the Maul buff about 3 or so patches back. The longbow has been buffed this patch with the addition of stealth to give it some survivability when the opponent closes in on you. Arrow speed was also buffed back in June to help a tiny bit with hitting more consistently at 1000+ range.

Axe offhand saw some really good changes as well with Axe#4 is now an interrupt and got some really big damage buffs (I saw a screenshot of it hitting 12k on CoF1 final boss on the return flight :O It was fully buffed of course), and Axe#5 now has retaliation.

Things are looking good for the ranger if you’re not focused on just 1 thing, and maximizing the many small improvements that makes the ranger as a whole.

Atherakhia.4086:

I’m on the opposite side of Fjandi. Power builds for Rangers are awful. They still have no group utility. They still have no ranged burst. Melee is still reliant on evade spam in order to function as well as it does.

The ranger continues to be a condition class, but the worst condition class in the game.

Both bows continue to be the worst weapon options for the class.

So, spotter, spirits, and healing spring don’t count as group utility? Outside of warriors and HGH engineers, I can’t think of that many classes that have a really solid ranged burst. Going melee shouldn’t require you to spam evades to be effective? Someone should go tell thieves and mesmers they’re doing it wrong.

As for the worst condition class, they’re certainly behind necros, maybe slightly behind engineers, but hitting the bleeding cap in less than 4 seconds is an awesome sight.

Quarktastic.1027:

Atherakhia.4086:

I’m on the opposite side of Fjandi. Power builds for Rangers are awful. They still have no group utility. They still have no ranged burst. Melee is still reliant on evade spam in order to function as well as it does.

The ranger continues to be a condition class, but the worst condition class in the game.

Both bows continue to be the worst weapon options for the class.

So, spotter, spirits, and healing spring don’t count as group utility? Outside of warriors and HGH engineers, I can’t think of that many classes that have a really solid ranged burst. Going melee shouldn’t require you to spam evades to be effective? Someone should go tell thieves and mesmers they’re doing it wrong.

As for the worst condition class, they’re certainly behind necros, maybe slightly behind engineers, but hitting the bleeding cap in less than 4 seconds is an awesome sight.

I dont think we’re bad, however i dont think we’re good at conditions. We have one condition, basically. Just saying. :p

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nnnnnnnnnrakhia.4086:

I’m on the opposite side of Fjandi. Power builds for Rangers are awful. They still have no group utility. They still have no ranged burst. Melee is still reliant on evade spam in order to function as well as it does.

The ranger continues to be a condition class, but the worst condition class in the game.

Both bows continue to be the worst weapon options for the class.

Bm bunkers used to be considered op, and had no group utility. We have no ranged burst, that’s kinda true, but we have amazing burst with pet, longbow and greatsword. Power builds are not “awful”, they are simply much harder to play than condi builds, plus a zerker ranger is squishy compared to a condi rabid ranger with 30 points in ws.
Ranger is definitely not the worst condition class in the game, a ranger can spam conditions like a baws, and the shortbow is a good weapon in condi builds.
Power specs for rangers definitely need some work and little buffs, but are not so bad as most ppl think. The problem is conditions are simply too strong atm and out of control, so condi specs are ofc “better” and easier to play, plus again a ranger without eb is not going to last long in spvp, and we have to spend 30 points in ws to get that trait.

I enjoy my berserker ranger in s/tpvp, much more fun than spirits or traps. Probably not as effective, but I guess that’s the price I’ll pay.

In large WvW, rangers are still meh.