Guild Wars 2

I played the original GW but I’m new to GW2. I rolled a Ranger as I tend to enjoy pet classes and ranged combat. I looked at some guides to get me started and nearly all of them seemed to suggest Rangers were better off using swords than bows.

Is this true? Not sure I want to bother levelling what’s going to feel (to me anyway) like a Thief with a pet.

That’s for efficient 5 man dungeon groups. For open world or competitive (PvP and WvW) there are plenty of ranged options.

And don’t quote me on this, as I never play PvE, but I believe that ranger PvE rotations often start with longbow, blowing the rapid fire for vulnerability before switching to your sword/axe. Not sure if this is the case, but it means you get to carry your longbow all the time, even if you are only sometimes fighting at range!

It’s not that you don’t ever use longbow or range in PvE, the problem people have is with players who stay in longbow when it’s suboptimal.

Naah. Ranger are the longest range fighters with ranged weapons.
In dungeons you must keep close to the rest of the team to get might’s and boons from them. Also sword has better overall dps than Longbow.
It would be bad if melee would be worse than ranged, there would be no point to not stick ranged combat all the time.

But in open world PvE, leveling, PvP and WvW scenario your longbow is absolute monster.
If you build yourself into burst spec, you can spike targets/another players in 2 seconds. (see atachment)

tldr;
In dungeons stick to sword, in other use what you like

Ranger, remove the second r !
Anyway other then the name, ranger is specialized in long range combat, none of the class will ever be equal to it on long range, in the same way that ranger`s melee damage will never be better then Warriors/Thiefs melee damage for example.

Kaybosh.5183:

Ranger, remove the second r !
Anyway other then the name, ranger is specialized in long range combat, none of the class will ever be equal to it on long range, in the same way that ranger`s melee damage will never be better then Warriors/Thiefs melee damage for example.

Ranger’s do more damage in melee than warriors though, and multiple professions can compete with ranger at range, particularly ele which can out damage rangers.

And the name is not related to that type of “range”, although I’m guessing you were joking.

Fluffball.8307:

Kaybosh.5183:

Ranger, remove the second r !
Anyway other then the name, ranger is specialized in long range combat, none of the class will ever be equal to it on long range, in the same way that ranger`s melee damage will never be better then Warriors/Thiefs melee damage for example.

Ranger’s do more damage in melee than warriors though, and multiple professions can compete with ranger at range, particularly ele which can out damage rangers.

And the name is not related to that type of “range”, although I’m guessing you were joking.

Ofc i was joking with the name, but you missed a word there “LONG” put all the classes at 1200 range and invite them to shoot some thargets, tell me who will deal the most damage, futhermore traited it will add 300 more range so it will be far superior at long range damage.
And i still believe that if you put full berz 6/6/2 on ranger and warrior and invite them to fight the same target with melee the warrior will end up dealing more damage .

Well according to Nike, rangers were 4th in damage and warriors were … 6th or something?, with both running the max damage PvE berserker meta builds. I haven’t been PvE at all for a few months, so I’m not sure how everything has updated since. Pretty sure nothing has changed that would affect the meta rotations (don’t think arcing slice was used at all?) I also don’t know how much rapid fire at the start of a fight factors in to the sustained DPS.

Eles outdamage rangers in just about every way. If you’re counting AoE, eles out damage rangers at long range by a factor of like… 10 or something massive. If you want single target or piercing burst damage, warrior kill shot I think can outdamage a rapid fire. Engi grenades are another contender for huge AoE damage. Engi and ele can reach 1500 range and warriors have to settle for 1200.

Disclaimer: I’m not good at math and not that interesting in this subject.

That might be about dyngeons, they’re a niche part of PvE, and from what I hear people there prefer melee on more or less all classes.

In general PvE, the strongest builds combine one ranged weapon with one melee weapon. In simple terms: if the ranged is a bow, it’s your primary (meaning eqipped >50% of the time) weapon and you use the melee weapon mostly for tough targets you need more defense against and for AoE. With axe as ranged it’s the other way around, use it for AoE, frontloading and to avoid enemy AoE, but use melee as primary. sPvP works much the same.

I’m not 100% convinced of Fluffballs ele numbers.

Neither am I. But eles obviously have way more damage than the other professions, and staff eles are one of the higher DPS weapon sets. Each meteor in a meteor shower has its own 5 target AoE cap, so the potential damage from that is massive.

Sort of on topic, the all or nothing bursts of eles are just completely ludicrous. It’s not 1500 range, but you can scepter burst a heavy target from 100% health to zero in like .5 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wW2m4VeY4k

In my opinion, ranged and melee weapons are supposed to be used in synergy.

I think it depends on what game mode you are playing, pigeon holing your self in to only playing the same weapon set across various game modes is more or less hamstring your self both in efficiency and more impotently enjoyment.

I play all game modes, tending more towards PvP and WvW but over the last season i have made the conscious effort to do more of the living story content. here are some of weapon combinations that I use:
Fractals/dungeons: S-WH(or Axe)/GS or S-WH(or Axe)/LB
Open world/map completion/event farming: LB/GS change as needed
Living story: LB/GS change as needed
WvW following a commander: GS/Axe-WH
WvW roaming: Various different combinations
Spvp: Various different combinations

@ OP Rangers are (concept wise) supposed to take the best tool for the job. But when it comes to gameplay in dungeons specifically. Meh your group will only care about overall damage because the encounters simply arent risky if you melee. Downed state alone takes alot of the risk out of the dungeon content.

In dungeons that often involves the stack and dodge into a wall method. Because its simply the safest option that provides the highest damage possible (two things that shouldnt be together) since thanks to dodging, boon sharing, and the downed state most of the risk in what would otherwise be part of a high risk high reward play style disapears in an experienced group turning it into a faceroll easy dungeon run.

So in dungeons melee is your best bet. It sucks because it means that the dungeons are way easier than they need to be. But there it is.

In the newer open world content its slowly starting to be a different story.

The mordrem have done a pretty good job of increasing build diversity through necessity. And I hope to see more of it in HOT.

What that means is in OPEN world its better to find a build that matches your playstyle. As someone whos playing a build that doesn’t match there play style tends to occasionaly have rough time (the thief that is used to easy dungeon runs gets immobilized by a husk and caught between three teragriff charges back to back, the warrior that eats a slingers 10k damage rock throw because he thought hed be as relatively strong as he was in COF P2 and didnt realize that red was bad, The guardian that didnt take stability and gets fear chained by a enfeebler while mordrem wolves hit him with continuous crits in the back.)

Find what works best for you that you enjoy and use it. Im using a 02066 zealot/assassins ranger build to VERY good success in both WvW and open world PvE.

Just make sure you have something in your bag for dungeons. Not that its that big of a deal. Dungeons aren’t and have never been difficult in this game with the possible exception of aetherpath(and even that was just that it had a learning curve involved) so anyone that really gets onto you in a dungeon for not using the right weapons is probably someone more worried with gold farming than actually playing the game.

GW2 is generally balanced around melee weapons doing more damage than ranged, because ranged players tend to face less risk than melee. But playing ranged is definitely still an option for us.

Tacit Ronin.2097:

I rolled a Ranger as I tend to enjoy pet classes and ranged combat.

There is no “ranged” class in this game, the game is balanced around all the classes having both ranged and melee options. Rangers as an archetype aren’t supposed to be stuck with bows anyways. Even in the first game you had several viable weapon options as a ranger if you played around with secondary professions.

For what it’s worth, you’re not gonna feel like a thief with a pet.

Kaybosh.5183:

Ranger, remove the second r !

But if we remove the first R! It’ll describe most of the forum threads about the class. =o

Lazze.9870:

Tacit Ronin.2097:

I rolled a Ranger as I tend to enjoy pet classes and ranged combat.

There is no “ranged” class in this game, the game is balanced around all the classes having both ranged and melee options. Rangers as an archetype aren’t supposed to be stuck with bows anyways. Even in the first game you had several viable weapon options as a ranger if you played around with secondary professions.

For what it’s worth, you’re not gonna feel like a thief with a pet.

This reminds me, I want my Ranger/Dervish back. Had an awesome hound of balthazar pet and a scythe that I used to murder groups of enemies. Even grinded for Dhuum’s Sycthe and a black widow for a while but didn’t actually ever get either of them before GW2 launched.

Ranger’s highest dps right now is a lonbgow barrage + rapid fire + one handed sword + axe offhand. You can use longbow most of the time in general pve. Just don’t use longbow skill 4 when there is people around.

The game is designed to make sure ranged weapon will have inferior dps to melee weapon at all times.

In practise, you want a longbow and either a sword or gs as your weapons.

Lévis.5489:

Just don’t use longbow skill 4 when there is people around.

Have fun getting that one to sink in.

hey OP, dont bother leveling.

Ranger is not an archer, it will never be. While great at ranged combat, they are not the only ones, and you only are great at ranged combat when running full zerker. Other builds will have less DPS then mesmer (third highest ranged DPS, ranger is second, ele is first).

Oh and, please do play thieves, they’re always getting some sneaky buffs, and when you fail (which you prolly will for a while) you can just let that cheesy stealth carry you.

Fluffball.8307:

Eles outdamage rangers in just about every way. If you’re counting AoE, eles out damage rangers at long range by a factor of like… 10 or something massive. If you want single target or piercing burst damage, warrior kill shot I think can outdamage a rapid fire. Engi grenades are another contender for huge AoE damage. Engi and ele can reach 1500 range and warriors have to settle for 1200.

Disclaimer: I’m not good at math and not that interesting in this subject.

Just pointing out that Eles do not have 1500 range, they get close with blasting staff but the range is between 1300-1400 in splash due to the F#1 being AoE.
OT: Longbows are used to open fights to stack 15 stacks of vulnerability in dungeons (opening strike), but longbow AA deals reduced damage in close range and staying 1500 units away from the mob is counterproductive and frowned upon. As a result swords are the the weapon of choice for dungeons and in some cases greatswords are accepted. In open world PVE, WvW and PvP longbow is more than viable.

Prysin.8542:

hey OP, dont bother leveling.

Ranger is not an archer, it will never be. While great at ranged combat, they are not the only ones, and you only are great at ranged combat when running full zerker. Other builds will have less DPS then mesmer (third highest ranged DPS, ranger is second, ele is first).

Ranger is the most archerish class there is in GW2. If you want to play archer, ranger is the best bet. There is chance it will get better when we get more specializations.

Full zerk? I’ve never used it and I play LB builds since headstart (ranger was my first character and is still main) with around 2,5k hours only on him. Idk how’d you want to fight more than 1 enemy when roaming in full zerk, unless you swap to S/X as soon as you see them, but then again, it’s hard to call it ranged combat then :p

Lévis.5489:

Ranger’s highest dps right now is a lonbgow barrage + rapid fire + one handed sword + axe offhand. You can use longbow most of the time in general pve. Just don’t use longbow skill 4 when there is people around.

Yup. That’s pretty much it. Sometimes I swap weapons around but it really depends on the particular fight…

Confession: I use LB#4 to troll in open world pve… It’s just fun to see ’em rage in map chat.

Razor.9872:

In my opinion, ranged and melee weapons are supposed to be used in synergy.

This. I love the mentality that has broken out (largely due to WoW) about how entire classes are for some reason supposed to be pigeon-holed into either 100% melee or 100% ranged.

Prysin.8542:

hey OP, dont bother leveling.

Ranger is not an archer, it will never be. While great at ranged combat, they are not the only ones, and you only are great at ranged combat when running full zerker. Other builds will have less DPS then mesmer (third highest ranged DPS, ranger is second, ele is first).

Oh and, please do play thieves, they’re always getting some sneaky buffs, and when you fail (which you prolly will for a while) you can just let that cheesy stealth carry you.

I lol’d. Rangers are about 100 times easier to play than Thieves are.

No, but they are good at it. They are not supposed to be either ranged or melee only. They do both well. Want to play mostly ranged? There are builds for that. How about all melle? Yep, we have those too.

My Personal Recommendation is that you always have a Melee weapon equipped, whatever you decide to do. That’s all. And don’t be afraid to use ranged weapons in near melee range to pick up allies’ boons.

Archon.6480:

My Personal Recommendation is that you always have a Melee weapon equipped, whatever you decide to do. That’s all. And don’t be afraid to use ranged weapons in near melee range to pick up allies’ boons.

I pretty much ditto this, with the exception that I recommend using a ranged weapon mainly and using a melee weapon when the situation calls for it. I personally run Longbow/Greatsword.

All class can go melee if im not wrong.

Einlanzer.1627:

I lol’d. Rangers are about 100 times easier to play than Thieves are.

Yeah P/D Condi thief so hard.

nobody ingame ever said to me that GS is not accepted or kicked me for that reason.
Players that have not played GW1 should adapt to the play style.

Kaybosh.5183:

Fluffball.8307:

Kaybosh.5183:

Ranger, remove the second r !
Anyway other then the name, ranger is specialized in long range combat, none of the class will ever be equal to it on long range, in the same way that ranger`s melee damage will never be better then Warriors/Thiefs melee damage for example.

Ranger’s do more damage in melee than warriors though, and multiple professions can compete with ranger at range, particularly ele which can out damage rangers.

And the name is not related to that type of “range”, although I’m guessing you were joking.

Ofc i was joking with the name, but you missed a word there “LONG” put all the classes at 1200 range and invite them to shoot some thargets, tell me who will deal the most damage, futhermore traited it will add 300 more range so it will be far superior at long range damage.
And i still believe that if you put full berz 6/6/2 on ranger and warrior and invite them to fight the same target with melee the warrior will end up dealing more damage .

1500 range grenade engineer ;p

Killyox.3950:

Kaybosh.5183:

Fluffball.8307:

Kaybosh.5183:

Ranger, remove the second r !
Anyway other then the name, ranger is specialized in long range combat, none of the class will ever be equal to it on long range, in the same way that ranger`s melee damage will never be better then Warriors/Thiefs melee damage for example.

Ranger’s do more damage in melee than warriors though, and multiple professions can compete with ranger at range, particularly ele which can out damage rangers.

And the name is not related to that type of “range”, although I’m guessing you were joking.

Ofc i was joking with the name, but you missed a word there “LONG” put all the classes at 1200 range and invite them to shoot some thargets, tell me who will deal the most damage, futhermore traited it will add 300 more range so it will be far superior at long range damage.
And i still believe that if you put full berz 6/6/2 on ranger and warrior and invite them to fight the same target with melee the warrior will end up dealing more damage .

1500 range grenade engineer ;p

but they fly in an arc you will miss 90% in pvp and about 30%-40% if you try to hit a moving mob at that distance.

Bakabaka.6185:

Killyox.3950:

Kaybosh.5183:

Fluffball.8307:

Kaybosh.5183:

Ranger, remove the second r !
Anyway other then the name, ranger is specialized in long range combat, none of the class will ever be equal to it on long range, in the same way that ranger`s melee damage will never be better then Warriors/Thiefs melee damage for example.

Ranger’s do more damage in melee than warriors though, and multiple professions can compete with ranger at range, particularly ele which can out damage rangers.

And the name is not related to that type of “range”, although I’m guessing you were joking.

Ofc i was joking with the name, but you missed a word there “LONG” put all the classes at 1200 range and invite them to shoot some thargets, tell me who will deal the most damage, futhermore traited it will add 300 more range so it will be far superior at long range damage.
And i still believe that if you put full berz 6/6/2 on ranger and warrior and invite them to fight the same target with melee the warrior will end up dealing more damage .

1500 range grenade engineer ;p

but they fly in an arc you will miss 90% in pvp and about 30%-40% if you try to hit a moving mob at that distance.

If you bring pvp into matter I can make your ranger miss most of his attacks at 1500 range as well Hectic strafing is known to screw with aiming since beta. And for mobs I would say I got ~20% miss. Bad side is that grenade spread over 1500 distance is quite big :S For stationary fights however it is very nice

Killyox.3950:

If you bring pvp into matter I can make your ranger miss most of his attacks at 1500 range as well Hectic strafing is known to screw with aiming since beta. And for mobs I would say I got ~20% miss.

RtW, which almost all LB rangers take makes the arrow hit instantaneously.

Fluffball.8307:

RtW, which almost all LB rangers take makes the arrow hit instantaneously.

Not at all that is just perception fooling you there, that and how stupid slow the projectiles were in the beginning. Read the Wind would have been deleted if it had launched in the beginning of the game.

Bran.7425:

Not at all that is just perception fooling you there, that and how stupid slow the projectiles were in the beginning. Read the Wind would have been deleted if it had launched in the beginning of the game.

It hits quick enough so that it’s not possible to avoid the projectiles in any way. Jcbroe even did tests where he used movement skills like savage leap at max range to try make the arrows miss and they still hit. I’ve never had an arrow miss while using RtW, and I’ve played a reasonably large amount of time with LB in WvW.

Edit:
Here is jcbroe’s test paraphrased.

jcbroe.4329:

As far as I can guesstimate, out to the realm of about 1800 range (manually pressing the auto and using skills of course), not a single attack was missed from strafing.

Even tried it with leaps as movement modifiers, every attack was still successful.

The testing conditions were with Eagle Eye and Read the Wind being used at maximum effective range in a PvP server with both no speed boosts, speed boosts, and movement skills being used.

That still is not ‘instantaneously’. Would it be prefered if opponents can dance around the projectiles without needing to dodge?

The arrows cannot be dodged other than to push the dodge button. If you consider that instant or not is semantics; they hit 100% of the time.

So is your issue the fact that projectiles due to the mechanic designed within the game can surpass the listed range?

No, I don’t have any issues other than correcting this statement, which is inaccurate when you consider RtW, which as I said almost all LB rangers take.

Killyox.3950:

If you bring pvp into matter I can make your ranger miss most of his attacks at 1500 range as well Hectic strafing is known to screw with aiming since beta.

Ah. Sad to say that for while no longer true that was the state of things for as long as it was. It kind of feels like they replaced most of the original design from the time the game finished beta and the last year/year and a half.

but they fly in an arc you will miss 90% in pvp and about 30%-40% if you try to hit a moving mob at that distance.

This is true, but the Engineer can do something Rangers cannot: damage at 1500 range through walls. While the shrapnel (explosions) will not go through walls, the grenade effect (blinding, chill, poison, etc) will as well as all associated traited effects.

Flamethrowers, while shorter range, also go through walls and doors.

Forgot I posted this until now. Thanks for the advice. Currently running LB with S/D as my second set. Melee Ranger is actually more fun than I thought it’d be, and if I want to stand back and pew pew with my LB and my sub-optimal raven pet, I can still do that when I’m playing on my own.

I’m keeping my Thief also, it’s crazy fun to play, but I really like exploring in MMOs and pet collecting can be a fun way to do that. Went and got myself a shark at lvl 14 which was fun.