Guild Wars 2

Ok so I’ve been here since early access. My first character I made was a ranger based on GW1 play time. Love the way it seems to switch from melee to tank so easy and the pets are a huge distraction. However while I’m a freaking monster in pve and dominate areas solo with ease. With my trusty pet of course. In WvW I might as well be a 6 year old girl in a pink dress.
I have tried every build combination I can think of to date. I don’t back down from fights and if its 1v1 win 50% of the time. But if its more then 1 forget it I might as well lay down for them.
I’m not wanting to be a WvW god or anything, I just want to be able to escape a Zerg. Or at least be able to put up a decent fight against two defenders. They stack conditions or immobilize I’m history no chance.
I currently use power/toughness/condition armor. My runes are runes of the undead for the toughness and condition. All my accessories are power/toughness/ vitality I use all elite gear.

My HP is around 18,000 my toughness (armor)is 2800+, power 2400 and condition around 1400 or so.
I keep a short bow greats word on me and have long bow for keeps. I also carry an axe and a war horn.

I just want to be able to fight my way out of a paper bag! My other characters level 80 ele I can take in 2-3 no issues. Heck my level 48 Mesmer survives longer then my ranger and I have all crap on him.
Any help I would be grateful to receive I understand ranger is not meant to be a warrior. But I would lie to survive or at least be able to escape if necessary. Thanks

If you want to hold up against two players in a fight, you need to go for a bunker type build. The Ranger has plenty of regeneration, evasion, vigor, and chill to make it possible.

As for escaping a zerg, you already have plenty of swiftness (warhorn, bird, Rampage as One, or the Tail Wind trait) and movement skills (sword’s Hornet Sting or greatsword’s Swoop) to make you fast. The ‘Shared Anguish’ and ‘Hide in Plain Sight’ trait combo, is great when running away, as it removes the first disable (stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, launch) on you, and makes you invisible for 3 seconds. After that you still got Healing Spring or Signet of Renewal that removes a condition. Next to all that, Frost/Spike Trap or Entangle can slow your opponents down even further, but if you’re using Hornet Sting or Swoop, you will have all the speed you need to get away.

Kasama.8941:

If you want to hold up against two players in a fight, you need to go for a bunker type build. The Ranger has plenty of regeneration, evasion, vigor, and chill to make it possible.

As for escaping a zerg, you already have plenty of swiftness (warhorn, bird, Rampage as One, or the Tail Wind trait) and movement skills (sword’s Hornet Sting or greatsword’s Swoop) to make you fast. The ‘Shared Anguish’ and ‘Hide in Plain Sight’ trait combo, is great when running away, as it removes the first disable (stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, launch) on you, and makes you invisible for 3 seconds. After that you still got Healing Spring or Signet of Renewal that removes a condition. Next to all that, Frost/Spike Trap or Entangle can slow your opponents down even further, but if you’re using Hornet Sting or Swoop, you will have all the speed you need to get away.

Thanks for the response I believe I tried that build but ill try again. It just seems my ranger is the least evasive of all my characters. The other. Professions seem to have a panic button. Rangers seem to be more of a piñata then anything. Maybe I’m just playing it wrong or its not the class for me.

Mortalitas.9710:

Thanks for the response I believe I tried that build but ill try again. It just seems my ranger is the least evasive of all my characters. The other. Professions seem to have a panic button. Rangers seem to be more of a piñata then anything. Maybe I’m just playing it wrong or its not the class for me.

You really need to use greatsword or sword to get the most damage evasion out of the Ranger. Sword+dagger is the most evasive weapon set you can have, but the greatsword is also good, as it has an evade on the #1 skill plus a block and an interrupt, not to mention Swoop. I believe the sword is also an AoE weapon? I know the greatsword is. Next to that, you can get vigor from Lightning Reflexes and the traits Primal Reflexes and Vigorous Renewal, plus 50% endurance increase from Natural Vigor.

For regeneration you have the Fern Hound pet, Signet of the Wild, and the traits Rejuvenation and Oakheart Salve. The trait Nature’s Bounty makes your regeneration last 33% longer, while chill effects from pets and Frost Trap gives your regeneration more time to heal you, and slows down your opponents dps.

And on top of that you still got utility skills like Signet of Renewal, "Guard"+"Protect Me!" (combo), and various traps to slow down your opponent. And if you manage to get downed, you can still rally yourself with Spirit of Nature.

It just comes down to mixing and matching between all of the above, so you get some good survivability, without losing too much damage output.

Ill work on it tonight maybe I have all my trait skills messed up. Or maybe I’m just used to rolling people with my ele that getting back into ranger mode is gonna take an adjustment. Just frustrating when you get downed by people in 30 seconds when normally your doing the downing.