Ranger in tPVP
Never liked the spirit build in the first place. I love my greatsword/longbow build. I have huge control in combat and can win any 1 v 1. I make the perfect roamer and can defend any node or take any node.
Mesmer
Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts (MMAC)
Any chance you wanna share your build Fateless, would be fun to test
Never liked the spirit build in the first place. I love my greatsword/longbow build. I have huge control in combat and can win any 1 v 1. I make the perfect roamer and can defend any node or take any node.
I find it hard to belive since Longbow is really horrible. Its only useful for pushback. Longbow is great for WvW though
Is it me or rangers do lack in sPVP, espically tPVP.
Since nerf of Spirit build, only roamer works. Other classes fill the role of roamer better
Yeah… spirits weren’t nerfed… and i’ve been rocking support ranger without taking a single spirit, i will say that Quickening Zephyr is AMAZING in tPVP though.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
Longbow is awful outside of WvW and Greatsword’s damage was nerfed in half about a month before release. You can make just about anything work in hotjoin 8v8, but (no offense) that’s not really competitive PvP.
In tPvP, OP is correct, Ranger is one of the weakest classes in the game right now. Very few teams run one in competitive 5v5.
The Ranger’s primary role is mostly roamer, but Thieves do that job better because they have higher mobility, better 1v1 capability, higher burst damage output, and in certain builds, better group buffs.
Rangers can also play point defense, but a defense specced Guardian is better at that job because it has better defensive capabilities, more ways to control opponents and knock them off control points, and far better group buffs.
Part of this is that Thieves, Guardians, and Mesmers are unquestionably the strongest classes in the game for tPvP right now. There aren’t any dedicated 5v5 teams that I know of that don’t run at least one of each right now. This is a balance issue, and over the coming months, I’m sure ANet will work to tone these classes down a bit, and/or bring the other classes up a bit to match.
With regards to Rangers specifically, they’re relatively weak and could probably use improvement in the following areas:
1. Condition removal. Aside from their Healing Spring heal, which removes a single condition on a 30 second CD, Rangers have zero group condition removal.
Their personal condition removal is relatively inconsistent or unreliable. Empathic Bond (laughably a Tier 3 trait) removes a single condition every 10 seconds and puts it on your pet. Suggest making this a Tier 1 or 2 trait.
Signet of Renewal removes a condition every 10 seconds as well. It can also remove all conditions on a 60 second CD, which would be amazing, except a) you have to have a live pet active for it to work, b) your pet has to be in range, and c) it seems to fail completely about 50% of the time even when a and b are true. If this ability were fixed to be more reliable it would be a huge improvement.
2. Group Utility. Rangers just don’t have much. Warhorn 5 is an great group buff, and Healing Spring is a nice group heal, but outside of that, the vast majority of Ranger abilities are selfish in nature. Don’t have specific suggestions on how to improve this, but I hope the devs will give it consideration.
3. Control. Again, Rangers don’t have much. They have 1 knockback on Longbow, which is awful for tPvP. The majority of their cc comes from their pets, which are unfortunately very unreliable.
The fact that pets’ abilities cause them to be rooted while they cast, and that they have a long cast time, and that F2 abilities don’t cast if the pet is already casting a different ability makes Rangers’ cc exceedingly unreliable. Recommend removing the self-root on pet casting, possibly a slight reduction in F2 cast times, and making F2 abilities override any other abilities being cast by the pet when used.
4. Pet AI. It’s pretty bad. When a huge chunk of a class’ damage is attached to an NPC, that NPC needs to be able to reliably stay on a moving target, unless it’s being CCed. Right now, pets will occasionaly just not attack, or sit completely still, or run just inches behind a moving opponent without ever connecting.
Currently, a pet focused build is completely unviable for PvP because of poor Pet AI. AI needs improvement, and again, pet abilities need not to root the pet when cast.
5. Other Issues. This is kind of a personal nitpick, but Ranger Greatsword is my favorite weapon in the game. Unfortunately, its damage was nerfed so hard that it’s outdamaged by Shortbow’s autoattack (not even including bleeds), and Shortbow is a 1200 range weapon. Suggest buffing Greatsword damage some to compensate for the fact that it’s a melee weapon. Right now there’s no reason to use it outside of cool factor.
Sounds like a lot, but it’s really not as bad as it sounds. Ranger needs a bit more group utility, cc removal, and reliability from their pets. If these issues are addressed, they’ll be on par with the better classes in tPvP.
Yeah… spirits weren’t nerfed… and i’ve been rocking support ranger without taking a single spirit, i will say that Quickening Zephyr is AMAZING in tPVP though.
Spirits were nerfed about 2 weeks before release. They had their health cut in half. If you see a Spirit specced Ranger in sPvP, kill his Spirits and enjoy your free kill.
Also, spirit procs now have a 3.5 second internal cooldown…
Anyone has an effective tpvp build?
I see longbow is useful in foefire due to sitting on cliff shooting down at graveyard but..
Mouse has it right. GS was nerfed so bad Sword AA does more damage, and attacks faster, with a built in cripple and short gap-closer to boot! No reason at all to use a greatsword.
I’ve been complaining about Signet of Renewal a little here and there. It just flat out sucks. The fact that most of our utilities revolve around our pet would be fine if the pet were reliable in the least. They are not, likely will never be (they are AI,kitten, so rework our utility skills.
Signet builds require a 30 point investment to be viable, too. That’s just a huge, glaring issue. Every other class can use a signet build, and just trait to make them better while we have to trait to make them work at all. Kind of lame.
Most tPvP Rangers are using a shortbow condition build ATM. I run sword/horn, sometimes sword/torch just because I like the playstyle (and greatsword sucks) and do reasonably well with it. I do fine in 1v1s provided I play correctly.
Is it me or rangers do lack in sPVP, espically tPVP.
Since nerf of Spirit build, only roamer works. Other classes fill the role of roamer better
It’s you.
Yeah… spirits weren’t nerfed… and i’ve been rocking support ranger without taking a single spirit, i will say that Quickening Zephyr is AMAZING in tPVP though.
Spirits were nerfed about 2 weeks before release. They had their health cut in half. If you see a Spirit specced Ranger in sPvP, kill his Spirits and enjoy your free kill.
Anyone who puts all their eggs in one basket is a free kill to begin with… especially since most spirit rangers wont even use their active abilities nor have natures vengeance..
And as for saying they haven’t been nerfed i was talking about further, i know they’re squishy that’s why i don’t have them follow me around when i use them.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
Put all of your points in the bottom 3 -toughness, healing, beastmaster!
I’m fine with a 73% win rate, and almost always the highest or second highest score with a greatsword/longbow ranger. Maybe you guys are doing it wrong. 20/15/20/0/15 build, Quickening Zephyr, Sharpening Stone, Rampage as One. Wolf and Krytan Drakehound pets. Start combat by sending the pet in, then longbow. As soon as the wolf knocks down, use it’s fear skill, pop Quickening Zephyr, and Sharpening Stone, use Hunter’s Shot followed by Rapid Fire. Keep shooting them down, you’ll be suprised at what you can do in terms of damage from range. If they try to close the gap, pet swap and weapon swap and use Rampage as One. The Drakehound will knockdown right out of the gate with quickness, and you can run around the enemy and stun them with Hilt Bash.
If you can’t win a fight with two knockbacks, two knockdowns, a fear, an imobilize, a stun, 5-15 stacks of might, fury, stability, and 8 seconds of quickness, you should probably find a profession or build that more suits your playstyle.
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- William Shakespear
(edited by Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025)
And how often does that all go exactly as planned, Nels? You never fight anyone who dodges? What about classes that turn your boons into afflictions? People you fight don’t use stun breakers? Blocks? Invulnerability?
It sounds nice on paper, but no strat like that works every time. Lets see some video footage of you pulling this off regularly in sPVP or tPVP. Uncut footage, not some highlight reel.