Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

I’m pretty new to GW2 (I’ve played GW1 for a small time) and I would appreciate if I could get some guidance regarding the Ranger class.

If you feel like you need to make a comment on me being a noob, don’t.

I’m looking for DPS. A longbow or short bow? What stats shoulkittenep up (Power, precision etc) ?

Any input is appreciated.

A few places to look
http://www.guildwars2ranger.net/

http://guildwars2grandmaster.com/guild-wars-2-builds/ranger-builds/

http://ca.ign.com/wikis/guild-wars-2/Ranger

My recommendation is to try all of the skills/weapons, find a skillset/weaponset that has a flow you like, look at the skill stats/buffs/conditons, etc, and then pick your traits to strengthen it.

My only recommendation is not to get locked into thinking you need to be using bows to be a ranger. I really enjoy sword/torch and axe/warhorn with my primary focus being on condition damage, power, and toughness, in that order.

And yes, I do a lot of face-melting using condition damage in conjunction with traps, axe, torch, and warhorn. The sword I love because I get to leap around and poison.

Yea when I am making a build I first decide what my playstyle is going to be (for my ranger it is decent damage and good survivability with a focus on mobility). Then I look at the weapons to figure out which will work best for that style( for me it is longbow shortbow. because I like the skills on both weapons). Then I look at the traits. Lastly, the stats.

I just made a pure sword/torch greatsword melee ranger right now and am having terrific fun clearing out tough mobs/swarms in PvE and traveling with it, jumping around xD

I go back to bows when it’s a champ or bosses in dungeons. You’ll find your play style by experimenting and trying new things. Rangers seem to have a lot of versatility and you end up realizing you can do so much.

For DPS i hear people say shortbow because of its rapid rate of fire and similar amount of damage but longbow isn’t weak. I go with longbow for serious situations, because I want to keep as far away as possible, with the skills it has, while focusing on positioning and tactics, steadily putting damage in rather than rush things for dps.

I went for the same build as you, here is my lvl 80 Ranger specs, including weapons
http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/ranger#2.0.3.3-2.12.4.3.1-30.30.5.0.5-7.11.12.3.4.6

The quickening zephyr traits turns your bow into an automatic DPS machine! With this build, my SB is doing 500-600 damage per shot with criticals anywhere from 850-1100. The Axe in conjunction with the warhorn is hitting for 650-800 per hit with criticals around 1100-1200. In addition, all my runes, sigils and amulets are geared towards increased my power, precision and critical damage, something you dont want to overlook if you are going for a DPS build. Hope this helps.

Edit: With this build, I also feel like the frequency of critical hits is close to 50% of my hits(including pet damage.)

Should – I – Keep is censored. Awesome.