Guild Wars 2

Howdy Rangers!

I recently started a Ranger alt (currently lvl 20), and have been enjoying the new play-style and additional micromanagement of the pet quite a bit so far. My current 80s are Necro and Mesmer, and I am trying to figure out how the Ranger plays / performs in my preferred activities at 80.

Dungeons: In dungeons, I prefer efficient groups. Not necessarily speed clears, but groups with dungeon focused builds that are working together to ensure a smooth run (including stacking, might stacking, etc.). Currently, I use my Mesmer with a full melee zerker setup (phantasm / reflect meta build), so I expect I should be able to run whatever melee build is optimal for Rangers too.

I’ve heard Rangers can be a good group DPS boost with a Spotter & Frost Spirit build. Based on my current experience to 20, I would assume this is a zerker setup with sword / offhand / offhand. How are Rangers performing in dungeons these days?

WvW Roaming: Again, my Mes. I understand Rangers can roam well with condition / regen builds. What are the strengths and weaknesses compared to other classes? Is this a relatively active and engaging build?

WvW Zerging: Ok, so I hear Rangers are bad at zerging. I currently use my Necro in a power wells setup, so I have a boatload of AoE for tagging in zergs. However, I would think a 1500 range piercing LB setup would be fairly effective when spamming arrows into an opposing zerg, especially when a zerg is tightly stacked. Does this work decently for tagging? Are piercing arrows capped at 5 targets, and does this hinder the ability to get kills?

Leveling: Yeah, this isn’t my favorite aspect of GW, but any advice on the best utilities and/or traits for leveling? Right now I am running a sword / offhand (whichever feels most fun at the moment) with SB switch for when I need to kite. I’ll probably switch SB back to Axe/Warhorn until I can get piercing arrows though. Which trait lines are best? Which majors are really useful but easily overlooked?

This is a link i made for my ranger that i started a few days ago:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-F;4wEFu-c2oDV-0;9k8;2TO-E-06B04;23;34NF05;9n-FvVHg2SVYLdOVTWYXcYi3o_930C-2iV8;3F;03c00P;9;9;9-kkkkkk;2kkV0;3VR77h

The build was put together by a guy called Brazil and as far as im aware he is a very good ranger. As you mentioned it has all the traits/utilities that support not only your own but the parties DPS (spotter, frost spirit, frost spirit buff etc).

I havent played much outside of PvE but i’ve seen a couple of good shortbow, sword/x or axe/x condi build youtube videos so you might wanna consider that for roaming. As for zerging longbow and greatsword with piercing arrows and 1500 range seems to be popular.

In s/tPvP for quite some time now the ranger has been competative with the spirit build. If you play spvp you’ve probably faced several of these. It has always been very popular so you should be able to find the build(s) easily.

On the zerg vs. zerg, you need stability. I’ve smashed right through enemy zergs, found myself all alone on the other side, then smashed right back through the enemy zerg into my own unit.

When most people don’t realize for rangers is, when it comes to zerg, you don’t just stop and fight in a toe to toe combat. You keep moving, you make yourself a harder target, all the while still firing your bow, IF your using a bow while smashing into a zerg. Just keep moving and firing and a ranger does fine. Lot of times a ranger hits an enemy zerg and STOPS dead in his tracks, and that’s when a ranger will die. Fire, move, fire, move, fire, move. Just keep moving while firing, and you’ll be fine.

For any situation in which you find yourself in (pve/dungeon/fractals/wvw/spvp) there are currently two builds you want to develop: power build based and condition build based, develop both and learn how to use them.

Dungeons: A well played ranger is usually the last man standing in most dungeon runs, this is my personal experience. I prefer a tanky build with heavy condition damage i ndungeons, I find it more reliable than a power build since you can fight around the big damage that you encounter in dungeons and let your conditions do the dirty work, thanks to the elusive ranger mechanics. If you want to be the one delivering the big numbers however, a power build is more suitable and by no means lags behind the condition build. The trick for any dungeon run is knowing what you will face so that you know which build will suit you better. What about a beast master you said? If you learn to use your pet the right way, you will find it very useful to run conditions and a strong pet in a dungeon. It is amazing how many times a tanky and high damaging pet can save you and your companions in a difficult dungeon run.

WvW: a word of warning, ranger is the #1 hardest profession to excel at in wvw, that is because the skill level required to master your ranger to the point where you stand on your own feet over a bunch of enemy corpses is… frankly quite high. Simply because wvw is full of never ending gotcha’s.

WvW Roaming: I personally enjoy the diversity that a ranger can have here. I run a condition/regen build here, apothecary gear for the win, and experiment with all the little tweaks you can use. From running power/condition and pet support, or beast master, or spirits, or axe/dagger + sword/torch, trapper hybrid, there are actually very interesting setups that work as long as you make them work for you and for the situation at hand. I personally switch around a lot during roaming, my trait points stay the same but my trait choices change on the fly. Also note that if you are roaming in a 5 man team, a beefy power build is not out of the question, it just depends on how you go about it.

WvW Zerging: word of advice, run with a 5 man team. This is how you will not fail everytime single you try to zerg in wvw (unless your world sucks, that’s out of your hands), you need that extra party support as much as they need your damage as a ranger. I personally like the sentinel frontliner ranger (yeah you can google it just like that), which uses long bow, sword/axe to devastating effectiveness. There are a few tweaks depending on what you need on the go, but basically Knight’s gear all around, sneaking in vitality via trinkets (you want as close to 20k HP as you can get, I have around 19500, anything above 20k is great but might take away from your damage/toughness). 30/0/30/0/10 is one of the setups, using signet traits for might stacking, for having active signets work on you like immunity from signet of stone, and on the wilderness survival for… survival! Strategy in a nutshell? Do not be part of the group that rushes into the enemy zerg’s face unless your signets are ready to be used. Jump into their face, drop muddy terrain on them, if heavy damage is happening pop signet of stone, axe 5 for whirling defense will reflect everything back to them (except necro wells, wouldn’t that be nice) once that’s done heal with healing spring and get the hell out. Go in range and draw your longbow, apply pressure to all of them. Your pet needs to stay close to you (gain might when swapping pets + activate a signet + any might you stack with your friendlies) use barrage, repeat and repeat: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Sentinel-Frontliner-Next-Level-WvW-Ranger/first#post3371104

Leveling: ranger the one profession I enjoyed leveling with the most. Very versatile, dual damage sources, easy to stay alive but not without having to think on your feet. Keep every weapon set at your disposal available while you level and force yourself to use them all. #1 thing? a ranged weapon, #2 thing? a pet you can combo with, #3 thing? whatever secondary weapon set you want. Axe main hand, greatsword or torch off hand = good for many enemies, everything else is for focusing fire on one enemy at a time or a hybrid depending on the occasion (like axe offhand). Go 30 on marksmanship, develop a trapper-ish build since its just makes life that much easier in pve, and master pet micro management until your fingers bleed (not literally).

awge.3852:

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WvW: a word of warning, ranger is the #1 hardest profession to excel at in wvw, that is because the skill level required to master your ranger to the point where you stand on your own feet over a bunch of enemy corpses is… frankly quite high. Simply because wvw is full of never ending gotcha’s.

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Snipped some of the quote to save space. I just wanted to say that oftentimes people will say rangers have a “high skill cap” in WvW, or in PvX. Truth of the matter is, the ranger class itself has some inherent design flaws that create this “skill cap” when in reality it is just having to overcome these flaws and not difficult mechanics in and of themselves.

What I am trying to say to the OP is, are rangers a sweet class that has a lot of potential? Do I love the ranger GS more than any other GS in the game? (idk why but I do) Can rangers be “good”? Can you change the minds of people spamming “LFG no rangers”? The answer to all of these questions is yes, but the effort required to do so on a ranger is far higher than other classes.

This is further compounded by the fact that rangers are by far the easiest class to level and solo with due to having a pet, which gives you an inflated sense of how good the class is. My 80 ranger has soloed almost everything I have ever come up against (champs included). Rangers can be beast mode at soloing PVE-wise in WvW such as supply camps. No class better at soloing supply camps and random stuff like that in wvw than rangers imo.

tl;dr rangers aren’t that hard, the class has daddy issues, if you want it keep after it