Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,

I have played thief, necro and ele so far. I mostly like ranged classes, thief seemed too much of a work for me, too squishy even though good damage but I really didnt have so much fun with it.

So my question is, is Ranger considered viable in WvW, sPvP and PvE?

What are some armor types and builds that are called meta and proven to be succesful? I would really appreciate any tips and advice. Thanks in advance.

I would really appreciate some answers guys.

PvP and PvE Yes. WvW meh.

Benjamin.8237:

PvP and PvE Yes. WvW meh.

?
Ranger is awesome in WvW roaming, if you can carry supply and aren’t rally bait than you are useful in a zerg.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Benjamin.8237:

PvP and PvE Yes. WvW meh.

?
Ranger is awesome in WvW roaming, if you can carry supply and aren’t rally bait than you are useful in a zerg.

Even then there are several classes topping it in roaming.

Sarision.6347:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Benjamin.8237:

PvP and PvE Yes. WvW meh.

?
Ranger is awesome in WvW roaming, if you can carry supply and aren’t rally bait than you are useful in a zerg.

Even then there are several classes topping it in roaming.

there is several classes that can match it in efficiency with less effort, but not really surpass it in any noticeable way. Warriors run faster with the right build, but in return will forfeit their chance to beat the ranger. Thieves deal a lot of damage and or become very slippery, at the cost of either sustain, support or flexibility. Ele suffers from some of the issues rangers used to have – too much versatility, too little focus. Mesmers – just a question of perception. They rarely possess the ability to one or two shot you, therefore you can easily take the time you need to slowly grind them down. It will take time though.

Mobility, we can compete (not win) with warriors and thieves, they will move further but slightly slower, but in shorter bursts we have the ever so slight edge.

Sustain and support can be built for, even without sacrificing a single shred of damage, such is the brilliance of the pet + master system. We can have massive raw damage, alongside terrifying condition pressure.

The ranger can perform and compete with any other profession in any mode, HOWEVER, it will require more time, more effort and more practice then any other profession. Once you reach high enough to play the ranger to it’s strengths regardless of build, you will find all other classes short of engineers, utterly boring, slow, unresponsive and easy. I know this, because i too play several classes, and none of them can match the in-combat movement of rangers. They all have slower, less responsive attacks and utilities that while powerful and terrifying in their own right, is easily evaded.

Check out the guide in my sig for PvE meta. Alternatively, you can also look at Brazil’s ranger guide.

Rangers are viable in PvE, but I would consider them a low priority pick. Main issue with rangers is that it’s relatively hard to find players that run the right build and have sufficient skill/experience to play it without dying or being a hindrance to the team.

You also shouldn’t be labelling classes as “ranged” or “melee”, every class has the ability to melee and range.

Rangers – pretty crappy in PvE. Just brutally honest here. Theres easily much better and more effecient classes for PvE than ranger, just a fact. Is rangers viable ? absolutely but if you aren’t bringing frostspirit/spotter, please kindly leave. You are literally worthless to the party without those 2 things.

Roaming WvW/sPvP – viable although limited in builds. Especially for sPvP…full power ranger in spvp or roaming wvw is doable but your damage is still pretty awful when compared to more bursty classes that offer REAL damage…. power rangers are awfully weak, which is why condi is the go to focus if you want to succeed at a much higher rate.
Power ranger is fine if you want to hop on the zerg train and spam 1/2 on LB+ full zerk/ 6/6/x/x/x .. you’ll get plenty of kills lol. You do pump some nice damage on squishy targets with LB and you are pretty much safe as long as you stay back of the zerg.

spvp – mostly spirit builds here, some regen bunker builds here and there and ofc your terrible bearbows who do nothing but stay away from the fray and fight like a girl from a safe distance.

Overall – they are viable in all aspects of this game, but not as effective as other classes…

not as great in pvp if you want to become serious.
ele, warrior, thief just overshine it so hard at the moment.

bad in pve since not much aoe and the pet.

and also not great in wvw compared to the rest.

at least it’s still the most funny to play profession for me, because of dodge mechanic in this game.
but if i’m tired after working, i just go hambow warrior and have much more easy gameplay then with any kind of ranger atm.

so it’s really good for me to have professions like warrior in this game.
they are created for peoples to play after a long working day and be still successful.

Ranger is decent in PvE

Ranger is sub-par in WvW because alot of classes are just much better now at roaming/zerg fighting. Yes, ranger roaming works , but it’s sub par.

Ranger in PvP is being slowly pushed out of the meta at the moment and swapped with classes like elementalist for team scenarios and bunker warriors for node control. It’s not uncommon to see 2 warriors on a team now whether it be hambow or celestial s/s longbow. These 2 classes with strength runes have been pushed over the top. The meta is shifting from a condition meta (has been for a bit also) to a hybrid/direct dmg meta in which ranger simply cannot handle. I mean even look at Engineer , rifle celestial 6 0 0 4 4 with strength runes is pretty much shaping into the meta now. Thief with 2 0 0 6 6 and strength runes and air/fire sigil is shaping into the meta. Ranger can’t compete with the dmg + sustain that is being currently dished out by these classes now. Yes, you’ll be able to beat these in hotjoins and solo que probably but against top tier players it simply doesn’t slide as a ranger anymore. Is main reason why Tany quit and most other veteran rangers quit and the rangers that are still in top tier are holding on for dear life trying to find a solid build. One example is Eurantien who is running power variants lately to simply try stuff out and it works for a little bit until they know where you need to be in order to be effective in each map. But once you get focused you’re effectively out of every fight because you have less sustain than a necro with those trait setups and you’re leaving your team with constant 4v5’s to deal with for the majority of the fight. Power ranger def needs a buff in the sustain department and traps need to be overhauled and buffed as well.

rangers are pretty bad in WVW large-scale, you’re far better off with a GWEN class. They are fine for everything else.

MrSimpleMan.6194:

Hello guys,

I have played thief, necro and ele so far. I mostly like ranged classes, thief seemed too much of a work for me, too squishy even though good damage but I really didnt have so much fun with it.

So my question is, is Ranger considered viable in WvW, sPvP and PvE?

What are some armor types and builds that are called meta and proven to be succesful? I would really appreciate any tips and advice. Thanks in advance.

I have no idea why some are saying Rangers are not good in PvE, we are BEAST in PvE if traited correctly. With a condition Ranger I can stand with the heavies and get them back up when they fall down – and I am still doing damage with my pet while doing that… It’s a HOOT to be better suited to go melee than a melee character

Will you get chosen for dungeons? Not unless you can prove yourself and not use your “Point Blank Shot” to tick off some really sensitive players but hey, dungeons are for your other 80s toons unless you are like me and refuse to change out.

Power or Condi/Regen – those are the choices

Condi/Regen is what I have been running but have started a switch over to Power for WvW – and finding builds for Rangers who are strong on Power isn’t easy – Zerker gear and food/tool buffs still won’t let you kill a zerg, but a decent Ranger can down almost any character.

I don’t PvP any longer, Spirit Rangers still seem to do pretty darn well but sPvP was boring compared to WvW to me.

6-6-0-2-0 – group-havoc-zerg – Power stands at 2346 with food/tools and without stacks of bloodlust (so even more with full stacks).

Weapons LB traited to pierce and go distance…

Axe/Warhorn Axe/Torch Axe/ Dagger – situational.

I don’t use Troll Unguent unless I am completely alone, the healing is much too important and the blast finisher for warhorn is pretty good when around others.

We have the longest healing field in the game – why not use to help others as well? Some don’t.

Mostly Berserker but a mix on trinkets – I just kept switching them out from what I had (ascended trinkets) to make the best power structure and not too little life.

Pets – I prefer Moas and Drakes depending on the situation – I find wolf fear to be iffy but the buffs and conditions (fury-slowing) helps when in groups.

I am still looking for a roaming solo build… can’t find a single one that works for me yet.

Condition is a really bad thing in PvE dungeon. In group, you will max several condition even with direct damage player only, if you add a condition player, then it will drop the global dps of the group, not by much, but it there. And if you get in a group that already have a condition player, then one of the two will be screwed. Condition are really good for solo, and would be also good if there is only 1 in a group, but for pugs you can’t really police that, so most ppl don’t use condition build because direct damage always work at their maximum.

For PvE, ranger can be ok, but they are never the best option. They are still better than a Necromancer, but most other profession come before them after that.

Why? Ranger have one of the worst dps (Fully buffed, they reak 9k DPS, compare to warrior 12k, Guardian 11k or Elementalist 14-15k). They have a good offensive buff with spotter + frostspirit, but at best it only make thing even compare to the lost in dps of a ranger compare to another profession. So even if brining a ranger won’t probably hurt your team, it won’t help it much. One other point to consider is that for a ranger, its harder to get to their max dps.

- About 10-15% of your DPS come from your pet. If you don’t manage it right or if the AI kitten up (its an AI, of course it will kitten up), then you dps can decrease drastically even if you’re the best at this.
- To get full DPS, you will need to master the art of the sword. Trap in the sword animation, it can be hard to dodge, which can be dangerous in melee range. A lot of ppl give up the sword for Greatsword only, which is not that bad, but decrease even more the already limited amount of the Ranger’s DPS.
- You have limited support capability. You have some reflect, and fury which is really good, but other than that, you mainly have stuff like water field and stuff that help you after the damage is done and not to prevent it. You have access to vulnerability but mainly with a bow, which is not a good option.

Don’t get me wrong. A good ranger can be awesome, and the skill of someone will be far superior than the capacity of his profession. But a equal level of skills by the player, most other profession will bring more than a ranger. Its bad, but its the truth and ranger need more love for a long time now. Anyway, it can be a challenging and interesting profession to play, but it come with some disadvantage and plague with a bad reputation that could get you kick from parties.

blitzkrieg.2451:

Ranger is decent in PvE

Ranger is sub-par in WvW because alot of classes are just much better now at roaming/zerg fighting. Yes, ranger roaming works , but it’s sub par.

Ranger in PvP is being slowly pushed out of the meta at the moment and swapped with classes like elementalist for team scenarios and bunker warriors for node control. It’s not uncommon to see 2 warriors on a team now whether it be hambow or celestial s/s longbow. These 2 classes with strength runes have been pushed over the top. The meta is shifting from a condition meta (has been for a bit also) to a hybrid/direct dmg meta in which ranger simply cannot handle. I mean even look at Engineer , rifle celestial 6 0 0 4 4 with strength runes is pretty much shaping into the meta now. Thief with 2 0 0 6 6 and strength runes and air/fire sigil is shaping into the meta. Ranger can’t compete with the dmg + sustain that is being currently dished out by these classes now. Yes, you’ll be able to beat these in hotjoins and solo que probably but against top tier players it simply doesn’t slide as a ranger anymore. Is main reason why Tany quit and most other veteran rangers quit and the rangers that are still in top tier are holding on for dear life trying to find a solid build. One example is Eurantien who is running power variants lately to simply try stuff out and it works for a little bit until they know where you need to be in order to be effective in each map. But once you get focused you’re effectively out of every fight because you have less sustain than a necro with those trait setups and you’re leaving your team with constant 4v5’s to deal with for the majority of the fight. Power ranger def needs a buff in the sustain department and traps need to be overhauled and buffed as well.

This, I have tried countless builds since patch, and nothing really reclaims ranger’s former role pre-April 15th as a team supporter or 1 v 1 home pointer. The ranger can’t even handle it’s best position (far point assaulter) anymore because against certain classes you literally cannot kill them with sb.

Atm, I have found power ranger to be our best viable option. That being said, I have to work harder than any other class. I have to stand in places where thief teleports don’t work, I have to be hyper aware so someone doesn’t sneak up on top of me, I have to be able to recognize people focusing on me before they even do it so I can negate the damage either through stealth or utilities because If I don’t, I will die in seconds. In the current meta, when I see a ranger on the other team I often think it is a free win.

Ranger was once amazing in PvP, it no longer is for newer players. Is it good in PvE, open world ya, dungeons? not so much, we have a bad reputation. WvW, we can roam quite well, open world fights is where rangers are quite strong imo.

Eurantien.4632:

I have to work harder than any other class.

This has more or less always been the case for rangers, for many reasons, but perhaps the biggest issue is the same as it always been – how easy you avoid pet attacks if you know the flaws in pet ai.
With such a big drawback, you’re always starting out at a disadvantage vs any opponent, considering equally skilled players.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Eurantien.4632:

I have to work harder than any other class.

This has more or less always been the case for rangers, for many reasons, but perhaps the biggest issue is the same as it always been – how easy you avoid pet attacks if you know the flaws in pet ai.
With such a big drawback, you’re always starting out at a disadvantage vs any opponent, considering equally skilled players.

The only nice thing about the pet is how late you can cancel their animations in order to bait dodges while still maintaining the skills.