Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

I’ve somehow managed to convince my girlfriend to try playing a mmo with me and we’ve chosen gw2. This is her first mmo so im trying to help her out a bit.

She is set on playing a ranger as she likes having the pet and being ranged. I have played in the past prior to HOT and currently playing a mesmer with her and I’ll probably end up being sword/focus & GS.

Is there a basic build/guide someone could recommend for her? she will most likely try to never engage in melee atleast not for now so something that is bow heavy would be nice.

Also I know open world is pretty easy stuff and you can pretty much steamroll it without much guidance but I’d like to try to steer her in the right direction for when we hit end game.

Thanks guys!

Longbow and power-based armor is all she needs. If she really wants to go more in depth:

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_S/A_LB_Spotter

That’s for group play, so you could change utilities for more quality of life.

You may get her interested but encourage her to experiment. Seriously.

A LOT of rangers just take the simplest build they can find. Or just copy the metabattle build. But they learn some habits doing this that can be really hard to unlearn.

Being longbow heavy is fine. If yall are largely gonna be doing openword with dungeons here and there instead of focusing on the meta build consider looking at a more balanced build. Meta builds are based on certain assumptions that may not be realistic for the content your doing.

Beast Mastery for example will improve her pet. And make it easier to use some power skills. Like getting reduced cooldown on shouts like heal as one guard and protect me. Which can really help when leveling and learning.

It also gives access to a GS based trait. Reducing cooldowns and improving hte damage of the greatsword. Which is a powerful defensive weapon with strong burst in the form of maul. GS synergises well with beast mastery as maul also improves pet damage significantly.

The evade on the auto attack, gs 3 and the block/knockback on gs 4 combined with the daze/stun on gs 5 can offer ALOT of tools to get out of dangerous situations.

Nature Magic can offer some significant boosts for your friends survivability. In the form of protective ward and evasive purity. It also has strong synergy with beast mastery as every boon you generate through shouts/skills will go to your pet as well. Offering some significant damage boosts in the right situations.

If she is going to be focused on the longbow at the start then marksmanship for the third line sounds like a good idea starting out. Offering her Another source of offensive boons. More upfront damage. As well as the longbow grand-master trait which will give her piercing and reduce the cool downs on her longbow skills.

As she gets more experienced and you both start leaning towards GROUP content. You may encourage her at that point to lean more towards the meta battles. But for learning its best that she experiment and try to develop her own playstyle. Pidgeon holing her into a specific playstyle right as she is starting isn’t the best introduction to a game.

Edit: If yall like I can sit down with you and your friend and help her set up build that fits her needs. Just let me know and we can set up a time to get into ts and chat. I can (If the two of you are on the NA servers) also show her some of the combinations that may give her an edge on the learning curve.

My suggestion would be to have fun leveling up and trying different things. Ranger is perfect for her as it is very PvE friendly.

Really you want to make sure she enjoys the experience, so go hunting for new pets, explore, etc.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Cheers

Would a build thrown together cheaply for Open World (HoT metas), with WvW survivability, based on the PvP meta build work?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglZBD+fmQXoPBg603ypqNnyalI9zA-TRCEABGcIASRXgWK7yZ/haU/hgrAgVKFA4BAIoSQA-e

Weapons:
Longbow – your go-to skills will be 2, then shoot 1 on CD. 5 for AoE.
Staff – 2, then 1 on CD. Other skills are defensive.
Sword – good auto attack, rest are evades. Don’t mind the leap at first.
Dagger – 5 on CD, and 4 is an evade.
Warhorn – some nice offensive boons and can be traited for regen. 4 calls in birds!
GS – a fairly defensive weapon but has the most AoE cleave if you are fighting a group – but remember to back off a bit if it gets intense. Turn away, use your block and dash.

While there are other weapons, like the Short Bow and the Axe, they are more of a condi weapon and I would stay away from them the first time I play.

Armor:
Cleric Armor with Pack Runes
Assassin Longbow + Staff (I also recommend Sword/Dagger/Warhorn)
Magi backpack with Cleric jewel
Celestial for: 1 ring, 2 earrings, amulet
Cleric ring

If you can’t get celestial:
Soldier stat earrings
Knight amulet + zerker rings

You want roughly 30% crit rate
1400+ toughness
Some vitality
~600 healing power
1900+ power

Traits:
Nature Magic 3 2 2
Beast Mastery 3 3 2
Druid 1 3 1

Switch NM to 3 3 2 if she likes Warhorn.
Switch Druid to 1 1 3 in WvW for the survivability and control.

Take any pet she likes but the Tiger/Bristleback/Smokescale have the most powerful actives, though that is not to say others are useless – tank pets like bears and drakes are great for solo play, for example.

Utilities & Elite:
For utilities we are trained into Shouts so “We heal as one!” and “Protect me!” are nice picks. You can then take Signet of Stone for the passive toughness and physical immunity in a pinch. The last slot can be Signet of the Hunt for early levels, Signet of Renewal for facing condition heavy foes, or Signet of the Wild for some passive health regen otherwise.

Elite is the shout “Strength of the Pack!” which allows you to stack might. Pop this and keep shooting, then share your pet’s boons with your heal skill to get 25 might for a significant damage bonus.

Remember to keep swapping pets for the quickness and the use of their pet skills. You can double up on the quickness with your healing ability.

Celestial Avatar will allow you to heal other players in open world content, and make sure you recover if you got hit by a powerful skill from a champion.

I would recommend a build loaded with survivability first, so that you get comfortable with the class and can rely less on toughness and vitality when you play. Or maybe play it safe the whole way and enjoy life in Tyria – there’s no rush.

Meta PvE builds are played a very specific way with rotations so it’s very much removed from the relaxed open world and can be trained up separately, when you guys feel ready for it.

Playstyle:
Rangers have pets, which do decent damage on their own, and are the reason Ranger’s weapon skills have lower Power damage to compensate. Put emphasis on managing your pet to deal damage and tank for you.
Rangers with Beast Mastery have on-demand access to their signature boon, Quickness. It allows your pet and you to put out a burst of damage, or use your heal skill faster. You can extend the Quickness on pet swap if you cast “We Heal as One!” and swap before the heal ends.
Use “Protect me!” when you are controlled, it is a short stun-break with protection, and a powerful taunt (at least for Veteran enemies).

Leveling:
Regardless if you’re going to use a 80-boost.
Pick Beast Mastery, max it out, then Nature Magic, and any other tree that has traits you like (Wilderness Survival has condition transfer to pet).
Finally, work on getting HoT hero points for Druid, and get a staff.
Some tanky pets for soloing are the River Drake, and the Brown Bear.