Guild Wars 2

-que entrance with a blast of smoke-

Hello rangers. I’m a thief, and an avid WvW roamer. I… -dodges arrow- Oi. Before you sic your pets on me, just hear me out.

The other thieves and I kinda miss fighting the rangers of old. I’m talking about the ones that carried a sword/x and danced around almost as good as us thieves. Almost. But! -dodges an axe- I’m deviating from the topic.

We miss the rangers from the time before the ‘full zerk rapid fire’ meta. We get it – that’s here to stay, and we’re learning to adapt and counter ‘em. We’ve discovered that such rangers flop like a fish out of water, once focused out in the open. And I’ve never seen them willingly leave their group.

I mean, I’m all for dirty fighting (I’m a thief…) but we do miss the melee rangers. Honest. Good fights. It was rare to come across such rangers, but it was always welcomed. And, it was this display of prowess that convinced me that rangers could be quite deadly when played right.

…

You guys are still out there, right?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjMq0yaHLWsQ1ag8gadAUwnerjw9CvEx9B7q5A-TFUBABJqDgPNBR8AAwSJRZKTWUJ4CXAAMVh4p9FM+QAgj6AeqSyVKFuRFhuUCBwRAIAACwNvZ28mBSohbezbezbezSBkyyI-w

it doesn’t focus on one set up, since i generaly are ether with guildies or roaming with guildies or guild allies.

this is my current build, Some times i Swap my LB for Axe+dagger / gs maybe just change two-hanned training for Natures bounty for that little more Regen.

sometimes i run S+W , A+d with the same Traits , just chaning Two-hanned training again for somthing else.

we are still here , just needles in a haystack though.

Free loot for you then

I think there are still just as many “old” rangers in wvw as before, but much more new zerkbow rangers which make it seem like there are no “old” rangers.

Edit: just as zenos said, needles in a haystack, where the haystack is all the zerkbows

And here I am, the sole soul that sees thieves running away from zerk rangers O.o .

I always roam with my s/d – s/t, love to dance fight you thiefs pouf where did he go ? ohh here comes the BS !

I imagine when many of the old players get bored of the LB again melee rangers will become more prevalent. As for me I’m having too much fun with LB update, but do plan on returning for those less than eight second fights with a skilled thief.

S/T- A/D are still best for 1v1 dules, S/T- A/D builds actually got insanelyi buffedd with the changes to entangle, active sigents and might on axe. Thouse builds are so stong, they not much appreciated anymore by the ranger community(although they do require high skill and deep understaning of the ranger class). I rarly c them, but when i do, they own me like no other build in the game(and i’m talking from every profession).

LughLongArm.5460:

S/T- A/D are still best for 1v1 dules, S/T- A/D builds actually got insanelyi buffedd with the changes to entangle, active sigents and might on axe. Thouse builds are so stong, they not much appreciated anymore by the ranger community(although they do require high skill and deep understaning of the ranger class). I rarly c them, but when i do, they own me like no other build in the game(and i’m talking from every profession).

Buildpls

solrik.6028:

LughLongArm.5460:

S/T- A/D are still best for 1v1 dules, S/T- A/D builds actually got insanelyi buffedd with the changes to entangle, active sigents and might on axe. Thouse builds are so stong, they not much appreciated anymore by the ranger community(although they do require high skill and deep understaning of the ranger class). I rarly c them, but when i do, they own me like no other build in the game(and i’m talking from every profession).

Buildpls

ill bet with 99% certainty that he talks about the 02606, 02660 ot 00662 setups that uses a mix of apothercary and dire with maxed out -condi duration, regen, and pet burst.
i still run one of those builds. Their absolutely devastating 1v1 if you are adept at dueling. Even if you ain’t adept at it, the evade spam carries you a long way when combined with condition spam.

The thing is, the vast majority of the rangers that used to run melee build as a WvW roamer still run it after the update, but an even bigger amount of players that never used ranger before in WvW now run the LB “meta” build.

I’m zerker lb/gs. Nothing gives me more pleasure taking down a thief than hiltbash/maul with MoC trait.

Yeah, I remember this one fight with a thief a long time ago…

We were both carrying sword/dagger. each of us expecting to open with something important, I used Serpent’s Strike and the thief used Flanking Strike. We circled around each-other, both missing our targets. The thief rolled to stab me (maybe with Cloak and Dagger?), but I ducked away with Hornet Sting. The thief then used Infiltrator’s strike to teleport to me, use Larcenous Strike to remove some regen I had, then Infiltrator’s Return to get out of melee distance. But I still had Monark’s Leap available from Hornet Sting, and lept to him. He dodged back twice, and I once, at which point we proceeded to throw a daggers at each-other (Crippling Talon with me, and Dancing Dagger for him). While my dagger bled him, his dagger bounced off my confused pet and hit me a second time. Both crippled, we limped toward one another and he tried to use Cloak and Dagger a second time. Thankfully I dogged and struck back with Stalker’s Strike, poisoning him. Some enemy invaders interrupted our fight at that point (killing us both), but it will be one I will always remember.

Remembered something similar it was quite fun.Well there is alway the option of arranged duals.

Arikyali.5804:

-que entrance with a blast of smoke-

Hello rangers. I’m a thief, and an avid WvW roamer. I… -dodges arrow- Oi. Before you sic your pets on me, just hear me out.

The other thieves and I kinda miss fighting the rangers of old. I’m talking about the ones that carried a sword/x and danced around almost as good as us thieves. Almost. But! -dodges an axe- I’m deviating from the topic.

We miss the rangers from the time before the ‘full zerk rapid fire’ meta. We get it – that’s here to stay, and we’re learning to adapt and counter ‘em. We’ve discovered that such rangers flop like a fish out of water, once focused out in the open. And I’ve never seen them willingly leave their group.

I mean, I’m all for dirty fighting (I’m a thief…) but we do miss the melee rangers. Honest. Good fights. It was rare to come across such rangers, but it was always welcomed. And, it was this display of prowess that convinced me that rangers could be quite deadly when played right.

…

You guys are still out there, right?

Yeah I do miss the old fights, where revealed on sic’em was not present. I do miss thieves making it impossible for you to run zerker, because they could just abuse the stealth mechanic and massacre you either in 3 seconds, or in 12 once both your invul. buffs ran off. (If you even had both of them, just to survive some secs longer)

Great times eeh? Running all day long in the most glass cannon build possible, because they could not even target you to damage you. Running all day long with 25 stacks of bloodlust, because you could chose if you want to die or not.

Must have been great! Almost as great as it is for us now to see these n00bs pop every stealth skill they got on their possession, because the first didn’t work as they had revealed from sic ’em on them. Almost!

@solrik.6028,

What @Prysin.8542 wrote.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Yeah I do miss the old fights, where revealed on sic’em was not present. I do miss thieves making it impossible for you to run zerker, because they could just abuse the stealth mechanic and massacre you either in 3 seconds, or in 12 once both your invul. buffs ran off. (If you even had both of them, just to survive some secs longer)

Great times eeh? Running all day long in the most glass cannon build possible, because they could not even target you to damage you. Running all day long with 25 stacks of bloodlust, because you could chose if you want to die or not.

Must have been great! Almost as great as it is for us now to see these n00bs pop every stealth skill they got on their possession, because the first didn’t work as they had revealed from sic ’em on them. Almost!

Oh, please. An ill-timed backstab could be the death of you. It required delicate positioning, grace, and finesse. I don’t see the same applied to rapid fire.

All rivalry aside, let’s not open that can of worm on stealth mechanics.

I’ll tell you from an alt ranger perspective (created at launch but only reached 80 about 2 months back – my main is a Guardian) – melee takes some skill to master. Regardless of sword/torch/axe/dagger or any combination there-of, it just flat out takes some learning compared to say LB/any other.

PvE I don’t think it matters and any of our grandmothers could play this game. However, s/tPvP or solo/tac WvW – melee isn’t easy compared to LB or other classes. That is just my personal opinion. Sword – that whole skill one concept is odd. Oh, and #2 Hornet Sting? WTF over, I can’t say how many times I ended up falling to my death because of my stupidity…

It is fun but just saying you may not see as many because:

A. the LB change
B. Higher learning curve

So those that use it either know it, are used to it, above average skill, determined, stubborn, or who knows. Just good.

I actually find it extremely interesting that this topic is suggesting what it is suggesting given that a ton of people I know in the game consider the tanky condi/hybrid/etc builds to be cheese builds that rely on passive mechanics to win, where as the “zerk LB/GS” build is being considered “man mode,” or being skill intensive comparatively to play since it relies almost 100% on managing skills and positioning and reacting (as opposed to passively “sponging”) to opponents efforts.

Very interesting.

Anyhow, the game is right around where you would expect to see in WvW, with more players in general choosing to run power options since power scales better for large group play than condi does (given foods and AoE cleanses and etc).

So it is only natural that Rangers take their place doing ranged power damage alongside Mesmers, Eles, and Wells Necros (though necros are arguably more midline than backline).

ANYHOW, yeah. Most people that would otherwise be playing the melee stylized builds are probably still enjoying the change of pace of playing the buffed to viability playstyle as opposed to the same old build they’ve been running forever now.

In the meantime, it’s basically a game of footsies between glass vs glass fights of rangers and thieves. Just remember to play to the rangers weaknesses in the meantime (aka dodge the rapid fire, close the gap, blind/dodge the hilt bash + maul combo, and tear down the ranger, right through the defensive cooldowns. Both LB and GS are one trick pony sets).

Prysin.8542:

solrik.6028:

LughLongArm.5460:

S/T- A/D are still best for 1v1 dules, S/T- A/D builds actually got insanelyi buffedd with the changes to entangle, active sigents and might on axe. Thouse builds are so stong, they not much appreciated anymore by the ranger community(although they do require high skill and deep understaning of the ranger class). I rarly c them, but when i do, they own me like no other build in the game(and i’m talking from every profession).

Buildpls

ill bet with 99% certainty that he talks about the 02606, 02660 ot 00662 setups that uses a mix of apothercary and dire with maxed out -condi duration, regen, and pet burst.
i still run one of those builds. Their absolutely devastating 1v1 if you are adept at dueling. Even if you ain’t adept at it, the evade spam carries you a long way when combined with condition spam.

funnily enough ive only just started playing these type of build because of the recent buffs in the patch, particularly the Entangle cooldown and might on axe + fortifying bond.

here is my take on it.

Arikyali.5804:

Oh, please. An ill-timed backstab could be the death of you.

No it couldn’t. You still have the “stealth and leg it” option.

Arikyali.5804:

It required delicate positioning, grace, and finesse. I don’t see the same applied to rapid fire.

Yet again, RF requires you to be facing the target for the whole duration of the cast, and having him in some sort of CC if you want to have decent chances of doing some considerable damage. If you are not CC’ed and get the whole RF in the face, then I’m afraid you need to wake up and pay atention to the game.

So yeah, I’m gonna laugh when every thief compares that to a backstab that can reach 20k hits. Stacks of might —> stealth --> behind target —> 20k boom --> restealth —> finish.

..Skills !

Arikyali.5804:

All rivalry aside, let’s not open that can of worm on stealth mechanics.

Whoever is defending the stealth system in GW2, is either trolling, or didn’t like the various nerfs that took him some steps away from total god-mode. The stealth system that is still far away from being fixed.

I ran the 0/0/6/6/2 sword/torch axe/dagger condi-regen shout ranger build for a long time. It is a lot of fun to play. It was great for flipping camps, and you could hold off thieves though you could never catch them.

It worked on great on camps because enemy AI is pretty dumb so would sit in entangle, torch field and let you weapon swap to drop geomancy bleeds on them.

Against players, I found it getting weaker over time and I’m not sure why. One problem with the build is that the sword and axe autoattacks are really weak in a condition build so even with the weapon swapping, I found the damage relatively low even with condi food, full corruption stacks and dual geomancy sigils.

No doubt the new entangle, axe buff and improved Signet of the Wild improved things, but with the power creep all the cheesie builds (P/U mesmer, P/D thief and some would say add the LB ranger), the melee ranger lacks the killing power of the other classes. And now the longbow ranger can start firing at you from 1500 with faster arrows, a knockback and the added stealth.

I am an average player (saw a melee ranger on Blackgate who was really good) so no doubt others have better results.

But if you’re in a small group, the longbow ranger can help kill stuff fast so in my opinion is simpler and better. The regen/swiftness from the shout build are pretty weak buffs even with full apothecary.

What is this, a thief? A thief of all the things!? OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

KILL IT!!! KILL IT!!! Oh. It stealthed and ran away.

Thieves are like spiders. I know the majority of them can’t hurt me, but every time I fail to kill one and it gets away I still want to burn the house down.

-hiding in stealth- I come in peace, and a mob of bloodthirsty rangers start carrying torches and pitchforks? No duh, I’m not staying in your sight!

-throws blinding powder and flees-

sword/dagger and short bow ftw

I hate that skill less zerk build

@ManIsBlack.4597
Its actually one of the more skilled base builds for thives.

i am rdy to dance whenever you want man i am on fsp. pm me whenever i never liked the zerker bs anyway played it made a build for it even a vid for it. but it does suit me mellee ranger for life. its true you can’t catch thief with condi regen it never bothered me why you ask there is nothing so nicer then have fight ling period of time one mistake on condi regen your done against a thief. samething ele can take very long but those are the fight enjoy the most.

Arikyali.5804:

-throws blinding powder and flees-

Too late.. You had Sic ’em on !

Lb+s/d ftw
Just change shortbow to longbow in old builds

jcbroe.4329:

I actually find it extremely interesting that this topic is suggesting what it is suggesting given that a ton of people I know in the game consider the tanky condi/hybrid/etc builds to be cheese builds that rely on passive mechanics to win, where as the “zerk LB/GS” build is being considered “man mode,” or being skill intensive comparatively to play since it relies almost 100% on managing skills and positioning and reacting (as opposed to passively “sponging”) to opponents efforts.

Very interesting.

Anyhow, the game is right around where you would expect to see in WvW, with more players in general choosing to run power options since power scales better for large group play than condi does (given foods and AoE cleanses and etc).

So it is only natural that Rangers take their place doing ranged power damage alongside Mesmers, Eles, and Wells Necros (though necros are arguably more midline than backline).

ANYHOW, yeah. Most people that would otherwise be playing the melee stylized builds are probably still enjoying the change of pace of playing the buffed to viability playstyle as opposed to the same old build they’ve been running forever now.

In the meantime, it’s basically a game of footsies between glass vs glass fights of rangers and thieves. Just remember to play to the rangers weaknesses in the meantime (aka dodge the rapid fire, close the gap, blind/dodge the hilt bash + maul combo, and tear down the ranger, right through the defensive cooldowns. Both LB and GS are one trick pony sets).

Running glass zerker is still considered man mode though LB zerker are not. A skilled zerker ranger used to be respected if played well. Now they are joke’s of gw2.

vincecontix.1264:

Running glass zerker is still considered man mode though LB zerker are not. A skilled zerker ranger used to be respected if played well. Now they are joke’s of gw2.

Axe mainhand are insane zerker weapons, right? If yes, I’d love to fight against a zerker axe ranger…that’d be interesting.

vincecontix.1264:

Running glass zerker is still considered man mode though LB zerker are not. A skilled zerker ranger used to be respected if played well. Now they are joke’s of gw2.

Um. What forum have you been on all this time? Almost no one gives thieves any real respect for playing a zerker build. In fact, most people call them trolls because of how many escape options they have to do their hit and run style of combat with. Mess up your burst? Disappear and reset the fight, then come back and try again!

The Kill Shot warrior is ONLY used to troll people in WvWvW. One Hundred Blades warriors were wildly hated back in the game’s early history because of how much damage they could do against immobilized opponents. Shatter mesmers were complained about constantly for how hard they hit. When scepter elementalists got Fresh Air there was a huge amount of hate coming at them from the PVP crowd.

Truth is, no one likes zerker builds because no one likes seeing their health drop from 100% to 0 in a matter of seconds. Every time a profession gets a new burst option they get flooded with overwhelming hate for a while before people adapt. Right now, longbow rangers are enduring their “most hated profession” phase, just like everyone else has.

Me pew pew, you activate my trapz, me stealth again and again, youre : wtf? D/p LB ranger condi powah?

Me stomp, you ded.

#trapz#swag

All I can say… In order to be a good pew pew ranger with LB you need to master the melee offhand you chose to run with… (and of course be somewhat decent at landing #3-#4 on LB).