Guild Wars 2

First I’d like to state that yes I do have experience with ranger pvp. I have pvp’d as ranger since launch, and now with full Mist walker set I think I am getting the hang of it.

Let me also quickly add that right now condition ranger is really the only viable path in pvp, whether it’s trap or not.

Much of my frustration is that ranger pvp is a lot like rock paper scissors. That is, we can absolutely destroy some classes while against others, we do not stand a chance.

We can very easily beat warriors, some necros, elementalists and other rangers. We CANNOT beat a good thief/ condition mesmer/ tanky guardian. It’s just not possible.

The problem comes from the fact that rangers suffer greatly from conditions or boons like retaliation and confusion. We attack extremely fast, and that means extreme damage from confusion and enemy’s retaliation for us. There’s no real benefit from attacking fast either. The arrows are also weak in that they cannot hit any enemies that are stealthed. This makes the fight almost ridiculous if the thief puts down an aoe stealth, or just dealing with mesmers very difficult.

Another problem is that our arrows do not penetrate. Of course usually with condition damage you’re also given an option for a lot of toughness. My ranger has 1860 toughness without even runing for toughness. However, this is a big problem when facing mesmers because you’re basically expected to eat all the shatters with your face.

There are two weaknesses to Thief’s stealth. It is still vulnerable to aoe and that your conditions stay with you in stealth. The strength is that you cannot be targeted when in stealthed. As rangers we depend almost purely on our ability to target an enemy and do single-target dps. I cannot say the same for trap rangers, of course, but if you are not, thieves can very easily take control of the fight very easily. This is made worse by the fact that the guild of thieves cd is shorter than our nature’s spirit cd.

In conclusion, this rock of paper scissors match up of ranger makes it somewhat less enjoyable to play ranger. This could be intended of course, like how good necros can eat up guardians oh so easily (corrupt boon on stability, anyone?). However, that is three classes out of six that rangers cannot even hope to win against (without elite) and that is sad.

Exactly how I feel. I basically give up when I see a thief because both of us know who will win that battle.

there are some strengths of the class too

for example, we’re extremely strong against blind because of fast attacks, and we can kite guardians all year round because we can use evasive shot even when immobilized

but again, we kill ourselves faster by attacking guardian. and sometimes kiting around isnt really an option…

Well thats why you should run trap rangers :P

You own thieves in 1v1 and and with mesmers they do have the advantage, but if your more skilled you should be able to win (traps do well vs illusions/clones and their stealth….if you get moa’ed then gg).

Single-target DPS is nice but 1v1’ing thieves is just way too common at the moment and having a build which gets owned vs it isn’t such a good idea.

The one class thats impossible to kill IF they are good is a bunker guardian though…

trap rangers have very poor survivability due to slot skills being traps rather than other survivabilities that non trap condition rangers can run like protect me or stone spirit.

against a decent thief it would be very messy.

If i have time to react and swap to greatsword on time i have chance to escape thief
first counterstrike for knockback and then charge away with swoop swap back to long bow knock back again if need + rapid fire combined with quickness if the thief is made for max dmg and doesnt rly care for the hp/armor they get melted rly fast

interesting. I personally never tried GS because of how much I love the warhorn + axe.

bird + sharpening stone then Axe’s 2 good hit (sigil of earth) usually puts 15~17 stacks of bleed within a few seconds. Excellent for condition. I’ll try GS with power build tomorrow.

I used to use sigil of energy on short bow as well as the horn but i found that i dont need that extra roll. I tried sigil of earth on bow for more bleed but this time i had a difficult time against condition mesmers/thieves

So now I use sigil of purity at all times.

The problem with Greatsword is that its damage is completely awful. As a secondary weapon, its role is basically ONLY as an escape measure using Swoop. It’s a nice measure to have, but I don’t think it’s a viable alternative to the utility you get from Axe/Warhorn. Warhorn 5 is incredibly important for mobility as a roamer and as a group buff in skirmishes.

Jae – I’m curious why you think condition damage is the only viable route. I played a condi build for awhile and then just switched to a straight up power build (still using SB + Axe/Warhorn.) I didn’t change my traits much, just swapped out amulet/sigils/runes. I find I do similar damage, without having to be reliant on positioning, and without getting wrecked by enemy condi removal.

Honestly, outside of a trap build, I think stacking condition damage is inferior to a straight power/crit build.