Guild Wars 2

Its all undead….Ignores my pet, runs straight at me.

Dont remember having half this trouble when I did it with my warrior.

I must have died 15 times doing the invasion of LA….

most of my gear is zerkers, using sigil of fire on my short bow (/map said it was the best) was running stacks per kill of perc. But going in and out of zones made it useless. I’ve got the best gear I can get at level 80. All Exotic, all power, prec, and crit dmg. I use heal on crit food, and still I’m getting rocked way to much.
Was it this much trouble when you did it?

I think you just had a bad day. Most PvE content outside of dungeons is a joke.

Longbow greatsword.

Try pvt if zerker’s won’t work.

Depending on how glitchy the LA story missions is feeling they can be really easy or really really hard. Everything from mob spawn, friendly npc ai not responding, to glitched objectives taking ages or even never showing up can happen… so it’s always hard to tell if it’s one’s setup or the actual mission that is making it hard for the class one is on there. A lot going on scriptwise I bet so it’s no big wonder – once i really had to restart the mission just to get anywhere tho.

Listening to map chat was your first mistake. Sigil of Fire is crap. Also drop the shortbow. This isn’t really the appropriate thread to preach about how bad bows are but in all seriousness, even if bows were amazing, if you are having trouble with Risen mobs swarming you in melee, a single-target ranged weapon is typically not the best choice. Greatsword and 1H sword should clear the Risen easily, as should swapping out your bear pet (I know you’re using one, everyone runs bearbow) for a more DPS-oriented pet like a feline or bird. Having a tanky pet is pointless when the glassiest pet still has a billion HP and armor and mobs don’t aggro it in the first place.

GS + axe/axe and you’re golden.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Listening to map chat was your first mistake. Sigil of Fire is crap. Also drop the shortbow. This isn’t really the appropriate thread to preach about how bad bows are but in all seriousness, even if bows were amazing, if you are having trouble with Risen mobs swarming you in melee, a single-target ranged weapon is typically not the best choice. Greatsword and 1H sword should clear the Risen easily, as should swapping out your bear pet (I know you’re using one, everyone runs bearbow) for a more DPS-oriented pet like a feline or bird. Having a tanky pet is pointless when the glassiest pet still has a billion HP and armor and mobs don’t aggro it in the first place.

I did most of my story with SV/LB + sometimes axe, no problems at all. Especially when I had piercing arrows

I second what Guanglai said. While shortbow (or longbow in my case) is good for drawing the attention of or even sniping lone risen, once you get them up close and personal, you’re better off with a sword in hand (or 1h sword and ax in my case), with a cat or bird (hawk/lynx here) to help you cut them down

see Guanglai? not everyone runs bearbow :P

I suppose bearbow is a bad joke~~

while i suggest get an off hand axe, the whirlwind defense is quite a good skill vs multiple npc foes. Most rangers complain ranger a bad class due to pvp or wvw aspec, pve ranger is one of the cookie cutter class already, maybe not necessary LTP issue, just try different skill, weapon and pet and you will be alright.

Those story missions from LA and claw island are terrible. Whenever I go there with my personal story I stop. And from then on it’s not much better, risen, risen and well some more risen. It’s like they where out of enemies when creating the game.

Fricken LA and Claw Island can go sit and rotate. mutters I just recently started falling back in love with GS and S/D combo although for fun I go shortbow and dual axe with feline and canine pets. Definitely move from the bows if you are getting mobbed or are really good at getting away from damage.

Idk what some of these guys are talking about, I cleared like every story mission with a LB and. Sword/warhorn and had little to no issue , just kite them, I know I ran a fern hound and a river drake when I did this mission along with an ice trap and MT to keep those kittens at bay.

Remember, it’s all fun and games until you hear, “Everyone, COME!”

I remember doing this with traps and axe/warhorn? Was pretty easy and mobs just melted. AoE control is probably what you’re missing if you’re getting mobbed by risen.

Bows are fun in situations appropriate to them but really when soloing in story dungeons as people have recommended things like great sword and axe/axe are really what you probably should be using. The bows are mostly single target weapons and things like the claw island fight is just way to many swarming attacks that you cannot use the range of a bow to your advantage so its best to stick with your melee weapons. GS is really an excellent weapon for rangers and while most people mock main hand axe it actually is not bad in those swarmy fights where you are pretty much guaranteed to get the maximum number of bounces every time.

On claw island I also had fun with axe/torch lots and lots of burning undead.

I actually did Claw Island with LB/SB. Completed it on my first try so it is doable. However, I completed Claw island faster with my other toons then I did on my ranger. Not sure if it’s because my ranger was the first one to do claw island or if the other toons (warrior and thief) just DPSed through the mobs a lot faster. Lately I have been using LB/GS, I would love to give that setup a try in that scenario and see how it works out.

Never had a problem in Claw Island. Then again, I dealt with that mission like I deal with live players. Find the nearest NPC that’s in trouble, free him by concentrating on that enemy and killing. Move onto the next NPC needing help. Pretty soon you have a core of NPC’s and a clear field area to retreat to in case things get dicey.

Know your surroundings. Know what you have, and where immediate assistance is located. Lure enemy to NPC’s which are free to attack. Do you do better in water than on land, lure the enemy into nearby water. Does height give you a better advantage, and does your location funnel numerous enemy into a small corridor.

Tactic: How will you deal with the enemy. Weaponry and skills, plan of attack.

Strategy: overall goal to achieve an ends. Location, location, location.

My tactic was to free up as many NPC’s as possible, in order to turn them into my Hero/Mercenary’s which were then more free to deal with anything I lured to them. This allowed me to have more flexibility on the field of battle, and I was able to have more choices on how to proceed to the next objective.

Forces which are free to maneuver are the forces that can achieve greater gains.

Changed up my build. Decided to try the sword/horn and SB

Dunno where this build has been all my life!

I LOVE!!! Sword/Horn! Wrecking face with it. With pet call, and gear, and 5 on horn I can get 110% crit and 90% crit dmg. With healing spring, and life on crit food I only die if I do something stupid.

If you havent tried sword/horn youre really missing out.

Though I do find the 2 mostly unusable. Jumping that far from a mob just tends to throw me off cliffs, or pull additional stuff.

Also when fighting something with a stun, or aoe I’d like to avoid I seem to get stuck in what I call a “melee lock” where until I land my 3rd hit I’m “locked” in place.

minor details to a huge boost from bearbow builds that just suck.