Questions about Ranger viability.
Well, our sword auto-attacks have two leaps, which means we’re constantly rooted in place making it harder to dodge. It requires some practice, and suggestively turning off your auto-attack.
Our pets are also pretty bad. They blindly run everywhere, and will usually get hit by all the AoEs.
As for ranged rangers being viably, if really depends. You’re always welcome to play your class the way you want, regardless of what other people tell you.
Speed-running is basically clearing the dungeon as quickly and efficiently as possible in the shortest amount of time. It’s basically just saying we want to get in and out of the dungeon fast.
Leaning back towards ranger rangers, or condition rangers, they can be used. Though, I’d be careful what parties you plan to join, and make sure they’re not asking for a speed-run.
A lot of people hate rangers even still due to the majority of them playing the infamous doublebearlongbow builds.
In PvE, condition builds aren’t really all that optimal. Open-world bosses will usually be bleed-capped at 25 in seconds, along with vuln. Other conditions like poison and burning just stack duration, not intensity. Dungeon-wise, the only condition that really matters for speed-running is having 25 stacks of vuln on the boss, which usually happens with a good comp regardless.
If you like playing WvW or PvP, then condition builds are a lot more optimal. You’re SB axe/horn would fair better in those scenarios, although I couldn’t tell you how well since I only play PvE.
I use to play doublebearlongbow, then I switched to doublebearshortbow. After some time I realized that I just wasn’t doing all that much damage, and I wanted to be a more reliable ranger (And I came off playing a Hunter in WoW, so I was looking forward to playing a ranged class) So I eventually self-discovered the 13K GS Maul build, where I also tried the sword/warhorn, but I couldn’t get into it.
A month or two ago, I finally cracked after realizing how weak the GS was, and finally made the transition to sword/warhorn.
So, you can play whatever you want, regardless of what others tell you. If you prefer SB axe/horn, then play that, it’s all up to you. Unfortunately rangers aren’t the most loved class, and people may occasionally kick you as well, or see what weapons you’re running first. We’re a lot better now with our sword/warhorn build, but the other rangers running bearbow and other builds continue to give us a bad name. It’s a bit of a double-blade I guess. You have the right to play whatever you want, it just unfortunately calls the rangers with meta builds doing their tops DPS into question further.
BREAK YOURSELVES UPON MY BODY
FEEL THE STRENGTH OF THE EARTH
Vicodium – Ranger (IX) Coldsnap
FEEL THE STRENGTH OF THE EARTH
Vicodium – Ranger (IX) Coldsnap
1. It really isn’t broken. Rangers currently have a meta speedrun build which provides significant and unique benefits. This is a good start.https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fen.gw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfMAQJAzXjEVR2dVWVsWCg1j9CsvuAOjDZ0VoUA-jwxAYrATWAoPwJvioxWcLiGruGT5SEVDA-e
Ranged anything is looked down on in most situations. Fortunately, our melee weapons are awesome.
2. A speed run is a dungeon run where everyone knows what they are doing and skips trash mobs. They are less class specific than you’d think.
3. Condition builds are out of meta for pve. Full berserker gear is where it’s at. SB is still very good as a Mobile power weapon.
4. The problem with pets and dungeons is that the first time you run them your pets are screwed. The next time through you’ll know when to swap, when you can melee pet and when you need to ranged pet.
My personal opinion:
Ranger is solid in pve, strong in PvP, and IFK about wvw!
Before I took a break I was enjoy a SB + Axe/WH Condition Build that I’m not seeing mentioned in more recent forum posts.
It’s still a good build. SB’s range got lowered from 1200 to 900. Axe and warhorn got buffed a bit (in particular, warhorn 5 is now a blast finisher).
What I am seeing is a lot of harsh criticism and claims that the class is broken. So far though my build is still working fine, if not great, in world PVE.
Don’t listen to them. Yes ranger has problems, but it’s hardly broken. Ranger’s main problem is that it’s possible to survive in PvE with a bad build (because the pet will pull you through). With the other classes, if you make a bad build it leads straight to dirt naps.
Consequently, a lot of people play a bad ranger build, don’t realize it’s a bad build because they’re not dying, and think “OMG ranger sucks!”
What I don’t want to happen is to get to max level and not be able to do anything. I like Ranger, its a class I’ve played in most games I’ve ever played. I see some forum posts supporting a sword-based melee build, but I prefer playing a ranged DPS class.
You’ll be able to do stuff just fine. But if you play the other classes, you’ll realize that ranger’s trait distribution and synergy isn’t as good as with other classes. You find yourself having to take several traits to try to do something other classes can do with one trait. Or traits are in lines which make no sense (e.g. trap traits in skirmishing, when condition damage is wilderness survival and condition duration is in power).
I am not a “bear/bow ranger” that apparently has become GW2’s “huntard”.
Bear/bow isn’t necessarily bad. You just need to know when to use it and when not to use it. You can almost solo Kol Skullsmasher (giant in Harathi Hinterlands) with bear/bow.
2. Please remember I am a relatively new player before I ask this: What exactly is a Speed Run? I mean outside of the context clues, is it an actual game mode or is it something that was created to simulate Hardcore Raiding for Hardcore Raiders?
3. Is my favored SB + Axe/WH condition build completely unviable, or just not optimal? Am I just better off sticking to my Mesmer or can I stick with my Ranger, playing him well enough to get by until ANet fixes the problems?
SB + Axe/WH pretty much calls for a condition build (you should try axe/torch to see how that works). The strength of condition builds is that you only need to invest equipment stats in condition damage for maximum offense. You’re free to pick two other stat lines. Most go for power and toughness or vit, but there are builds which spec into healing and toughness, or toughness and vit. Whichever you choose, you get offense and defense.
In contrast, if you look at the berserker build, that invests in power, precision, and crit damage. All offense. That leaves the character with weak defense. If you decide to pick one defensive stat (toughness or vit), you weaken the character’s offense.
The weakness of condition builds is that conditions take time to do damage. As it turns out, if all 5 members of a party go for a berserker build, they’re able to kill pretty much any dungeon boss in 5-15 seconds. That’s where the so called speed runs come from. 5-15 sec is not enough time for conditions to really do much damage, so berserker ends up being preferred for speed runs. (OTOH, if you get a party without as much DPS as all-berserker, the berserker builds will drop dead first.)
4. Concerning pet management: are we talking about situations where its one-shot-dead then swap then one-shot-dead then wait for the cooldown? Or is it a matter of dropping a heal to your pet at the occasional cost to yourself, and swapping before they get downed?
Rarely you do get into a swap-and-immediately dead situation. Most of the time I’m able to keep my pets alive. Outdoors it’s easy. In dungeons it requires the judicious use of the F3 key to stop your pet from blithely running through red circles, but can be done. The situation should get better on Oct 15. That patch is rumored to buff pet hp by 70%.
for the www the biggest problem for ranger currently has worst condition removal among all classes and only one stability skill with 2 minutes cd, as all other classes got wide range of conditions, not speaking about worst add to game anet ever made perplexity runes. condition build warrior engis necros or thiefs are certain dead for ranger