Hey guy
Well, meanwhile I have a fight inside my head to choose a main between Elementalist and Thief I decided to do my next lvl 80 character (I want to have 5, 1 of each race), the Ranger.
The thing is, and Idk how it is now, but like 3-2 months ago, when I asked about Ranger people said that it isn’t all that great and that it was the weakest class in the game. How it is right now? I really don’t care much about that, I like a good chalenge sometimes so I will try Ranger anyway.
Now the fun part, Idk anything about the class, so I would like to know first if it is possible for Ranger to do WvW Roaming? And if so, is there any build that I can guide now at the beggining for Ranger?
I hope someone here can help, and who knows maybe the Ranger is the class I am looking for in this game
Chopps had a thread on a Condition build I still run using Apoth gear, well Chopps uses gear from the Karka Queen event in qw2 which is a non existent fight on all but one server.
Ranger is an odd class to roam with, but it is effective. Most strong roamers are bursty in nature. The Ranger really only works as a bunker/condi build, but there is a lot of build diveristy for achieving this.
Currently I run mostly celestial gear with a shortbow/greatsword with a signet build and I do quite well. If I duel, it would be with a more traditional condi build running torch though.
Now all that said, a lot of the complaints about this class are still quite true. But for roaming, the Ranger is fine. Issues start to crop up when you try to do more organized groups (GvG) or zerging as the class just doesn’t provide much of anything to a group. Gameplay also isn’t very engaging for this class because so much time is spent auto-attacking and kind of just using your skills whenever they’re up. Sword and Axe tend to be more engaging weapons, but they’re still very reactive and passive in nature.
If your only focus is the 5 players or less type roaming and you’re fine with playing like a condi/bunker, the Ranger will do fine.
Did I make a thread on apothecary? I don’t think I did. Check jubskie’s sticky for apothecary guides…they’re probably slightly outdated so keep that in mind and read up on patch notes that happened afterwards.
Tin Foil Hat Hearer »—> Ranger Extraordinaire »—> “Be like water…”
Just to point this out, you don’t need full apothecary gear or full settlers gear. The cheapest route to get the best mix used to be to go Apothecary armor and Settlers trinkets.
You can also run the build in multiple ways, though typically it’s a pet focal build. I say typically because you can also branch out and go for spirits or traps or anything else really that you choose.
One of these days I’m going to get around to making an Apothecary/Dire mix for crazy survivability.
Did I make a thread on apothecary? I don’t think I did. Check jubskie’s sticky for apothecary guides…they’re probably slightly outdated so keep that in mind and read up on patch notes that happened afterwards.
I made a build thats great for roaming & support in wvw. The build is a little complicated, but please check it out. A week ago, I would’ve told you that rangers aren’t good right now, but I am having a lot of fun with this build.
You sure like expensive stuff, Apothecary isn’t one of the most expensive stats?
I was thinking in plaing the Ranger with Shortbow and S/W, isn’t this a good weapon set for roaming? (Since most of the build here are A/W and S/T)
condi rangers cant roam. no target drops, no real escapes. more than 3 competent players get on you and ure done. cant really “roam” without GS and a bunch of stun breakers. best roaming build is probably LB/GS themed because u have spammable target drop and a disengage.
i think u guys are confusing roaming with dueling. rangers are great at dueling.
Well [Swoop], [Muddy Terrain], and [Frost Trap]\[Spike Trap] are independent of stats and provide escapability. Soften the Fall is a good escape skill off a ledge since it activates Muddy Terrain.
Tin Foil Hat Hearer »—> Ranger Extraordinaire »—> “Be like water…”
I also want to add that dire, rabid, and carrion are all arguably good stats for rangers. Sure, apothecary/settlers is the most popular but then you got rabid (shortbow/bleeds/traps) being popular too, along with rampager (perplexity or bleeds) and valkryie (seeing a lot of power rangers these days, they must like the taste of DPS).
Then you got dire (zerg armor for ranger?) and then carrion (longbow/sun spirit build, not popular but effective).
A lot of ranger criticism comes due to the pet. You’ll see 90% of the complaints regard the pet. So hopefully, if we take a step back, we can appreciate the variety of builds rangers have in wvw right now. Some are more effective than others in various situations but, really, there’s a decent amount of variety.
There isn’t just one answer. The flip side is that there aren’t many ways you can go wrong.
Tin Foil Hat Hearer »—> Ranger Extraordinaire »—> “Be like water…”
condi rangers cant roam. no target drops, no real escapes. more than 3 competent players get on you and ure done. cant really “roam” without GS and a bunch of stun breakers. best roaming build is probably LB/GS themed because u have spammable target drop and a disengage.
i think u guys are confusing roaming with dueling. rangers are great at dueling.
wtf are you talking about!?
sword disengage is much stronger than gs, its not so easy but if you know how to deal with it a far better option
In my experience most ranger builds can be converted to excellent/uncatchable roaming builds by as long as you incorporate 4 things:
- 25% movement speed from SoH or Travelers runes
- A sword or a great sword (I prefer the sword)
- A stun break (Lightning reflexes adds extra mobility)
- Decent sustain (most easily from ~600 healing power + traited regen)
i have had reasonable success with a verity of different setups, condition/bunker, power/bunker, rabid/companions might, zerker, PTV.
I use PTV/LB/GS a lot as i run with my guild for a raid and go roam/duel for a bit and im to lazy to go to a bank to get different gear, just re-trait and away we go.
I love using rabid gear with sigil of generosity, to send those confusion stacks back to them
i think that Demus hit the nail on the head, lots of things work as long as you have a few key things, (he forgot condition removal)
What would you guys consider to be minimum crit chance for a power oriented roaming ranger?
I’d say that really depends on what overall stat distribution is being aimed at. Is it Power/Toughness/Precision/Crit Chance? Is there some vitality or healing power in there?
In general, I’d say minimum I aim for is 30%, and that depends largely on how many stats I’m mixing in, or else I’d be going for at least 40%. That’s all personal preference though, so people prefer higher, some probably lower.
condi rangers cant roam. no target drops, no real escapes. more than 3 competent players get on you and ure done. cant really “roam” without GS and a bunch of stun breakers. best roaming build is probably LB/GS themed because u have spammable target drop and a disengage.
i think u guys are confusing roaming with dueling. rangers are great at dueling.
wtf are you talking about!?
sword disengage is much stronger than gs, its not so easy but if you know how to deal with it a far better option
and ty for the next free kill gs/lb ranger
current meta > you.
me hitting 2.5-4k dps from 1500 is more than anything a condi ranger can contribute to a small gang scenario in the current meta. i played condi bunker and made guides about it before it was cool. all i see is these guys getting gang banged by engies, warriors and thieves. as i said, good spec for dueling, one of the top. but you cant bunker 3 good players with S/D for longer than 10 seconds. that’s a fact. in small gangs, ure the the only one with one leg and no target drops. any experienced ranger who spent a lot of time with condi/regen bunkering will tell you this.
What would you guys consider to be minimum crit chance for a power oriented roaming ranger?
45-50% without fury, 80-100% crit damage, 2200 power without food or stacks. rest doesnt really matter. just stay at 1500 and pick your targets, keep range. LB/GS is a high mobility high risk setup that has a pretty high skill ceiling. imo, it’s the best the ranger can offer in current stun/condi/mobility heavy meta.
for roaming I like a condi-bunker-trapper build with entangle. Dire/rabid/carrion kinda stats. healing spring. x/30/20 or 30/x/x skirmishing trait line speaks for itself what traits —> trapper traits. Wilderness survival to add in condi dmg.
Weapons… I use axe/warhorn and sword/torch, but there are other good weaps too, shortbow for example. Used to run axe/warhorn shortbow before.
your not the only guy that play it longer than the meta..
with the build that i play (not so good for solo, but nice for group suppert)
its hard if you got 2 stun warris on you but the condi spammer not the problem.
for small scale it is still much better than a power build and same for solo roaming
The two builds I’ve been running lately are pvt/knight lb/gs, and full rabid undead runes a/d, s/t, I’d say they are both good for roaming, but unless you go super bunker 3 competent players focusing you should mean certain death anyways.
I run either of two updated versions of the Evasion Tank.
An Offensive version and Offensive version of this build. They use LB and S/D and rely on Nature’s Voice to keep near perma-regen up.
It is highly survivable, has good mobility, and does very good sustained damage. It is NOT the best duelist build for the ranger, but it is very fun and very effective to play. You can 1vX effectively, solo roam and contribute to small groups with this build. I can post more info, including a video of the build in action, if there’s interest.
I run either of two updated versions of the Evasion Tank.
An Offensive version and Offensive version of this build. They use LB and S/D and rely on Nature’s Voice to keep near perma-regen up.
It is highly survivable, has good mobility, and does very good sustained damage. It is NOT the best duelist build for the ranger, but it is very fun and very effective to play. You can 1vX effectively, solo roam and contribute to small groups with this build. I can post more info, including a video of the build in action, if there’s interest.
Yes I am
A Longbow Roaming build is kinda what I want to try first before Shortbow. Beside all Shortbow Builds posted here, sounds pretty good but they have really expensive Items. It will get me more than a month to farm for all those items, so for first build I think it wouldn’t be great
I run either of two updated versions of the Evasion Tank.
An Offensive version and Offensive version of this build. They use LB and S/D and rely on Nature’s Voice to keep near perma-regen up.
It is highly survivable, has good mobility, and does very good sustained damage. It is NOT the best duelist build for the ranger, but it is very fun and very effective to play. You can 1vX effectively, solo roam and contribute to small groups with this build. I can post more info, including a video of the build in action, if there’s interest.
Yes I am
A Longbow Roaming build is kinda what I want to try first before Shortbow. Beside all Shortbow Builds posted here, sounds pretty good but they have really expensive Items. It will get me more than a month to farm for all those items, so for first build I think it wouldn’t be great
OK, will do. By the way, the second build should have been labeled “Defensive” and it is the one I’m currently using. You can do this with all exotics and have it be nearly as effective as with ascended. Here is a cheaper version with only exotics.
I’ll PM you with a link to the video demonstrating this build. I might do a guide at some point the Evasion Tank 2.0.
