Guild Wars 2

Woah woah woah never thought I’d ever bee on this forum like ever. But the recent ready ups have me considering ranger. I’m a full ascended zerker thief with 1k hours logged on it.
I have all the zerk armor I just need the character.

So the real question is it worth it? Will zerker ranger be viable in this next balance update?
I have the gear so why not.
But I want to know if it’s worth my time to get another class to 80.

Also if yes. Tell me why :P

uh… all I can say is are you able to watch where your pet would be, where you are and fight all while doing so? if the answer is yes go for it. if not I would just stick to thief. ranger also has less ways to escape a bad fight than a thief would so take that into consideration.
If you think you can handle it, it can be a very fun class and you will get a good share of laughs out of it. I wouldn’t make any rash decisions about the ranger thing from the ready ups. they are not set in stone and ranger could very well still be bottom dog after this patch goes through. most people that play rangers are usually gluttons for punishment so asking us if it is a good idea might not be the best thing to do. (never forget the aquaman patch)

You can use a zerker ranger even now in PvE and WvW. In WvW it’s tricky, but I’ve seen it done. As Criminal said before, don’t decide based on one balance patch. The professions are always going to be changed around and will never stay the same. Best to play something you will love even in the dark times or get 1 of each class to level 80.

Though, as someone else with 1k hours on a thief I understand why you want to re-roll because right now thief is so horribly bad and it’s been this way for too long. I’m actually thinking of going the way of the ranger as well.

You will love it and probably never go back. Glass ranger is super fun and challenging. I have 1900+ hours on thief and switched to Ranger some months ago. I started with condi/tank and switched to pure glass. It’s best with a small team but you sure can roam on it as well just don’t expect to always win or escape. As with any Player vs Player game once you stop caring about dying all the fights are fun win or lose.

Oh forgot to mention, glass ranger is already viable with a lot of attention to terrain, positioning and good team-mates. I run pure glass in dungeons and all pve content and it is a blast. 6 6 0 2 0

Congrats on beating Easy Mode!

See you in Normal Mode!

Are you talking about PvE or WvW?

Pugsley.9627:

It’s best with a small team but you sure can roam on it as well just don’t expect to always win or escape. As with any Player vs Player game once you stop caring about dying all the fights are fun win or lose.

This sums it up perfectly. Small team roaming, especially with at least one other zerk Ranger, is great fun. Last night I was roaming with a mesmer and another zerk ranger (I was zerk too ofc) and we were wrecking face against other small teams, though might stacks from 2 jungle stalkers helped a lot…

Unless you’re playing RRR or some other take on condi bunker/regen, in which case you can solo roam pretty safely, but you’ll have to put up with party invites and whispers from very angry thieves who get mad kitten that they didn’t beat you 1v1.

Between the super high mobility on the two melee sets, lightning reflexes, the enormous amounts of CC, the absurd amounts of evades, and the couple defensive skills on LB, I’ve never had any trouble leaving fights. Thieves and warriors are faster, but it’s not good enough to kill a fleeing ranger.

Once you get the hang of ranger, you can reset fights whenever you want. Which is super handy for a WvW berserker ranger, which I also use. Just don’t expect it to be as simple as pressing a single button like with thief.

Thief will be still superior, don’t worry.

Zerker Ranger may be a thing in PvE dungeons, but playing it on WvWvW roaming or tpvp… Well, unless you like to trade some zerkers for more sturdy pieces like knight or soldier, don’t run in there.

Pugsley.9627:

Oh forgot to mention, glass ranger is already viable with a lot of attention to terrain, positioning and good team-mates. I run pure glass in dungeons and all pve content and it is a blast. 6 6 0 2 0

This is what I run too. Longbow in WvW, Sword+warhorn in PvE.

As others are saying, zerk rangers are good in groups. Rubbish on their own, though.

Ranger will never be like thief, so if that is your thinking save yourself the agony of disappointment.

Ranger is a different animal, especially in PvP. You will rely more on vigor and dodging rather than stealth spam. In WvW Thief was my hardest competitor when playing my Ranger and roaming solo.

I have both thief and ranger lvl 80, recently played a lot of wvw. Thief is the best disengager. Period. Resetting fights is much easier. You pick your fights. If you use Gs on ranger you might escape, but if some mesmer, etc spam immobalize on you out of nowhere forget it. Having 1500 range over 900 (thief) is a big advantage imo. Still heavy professions get close to you in no time. Using hunter’s shot (cloack on hit, pet gets swiftness, nr 3 longbow), is pretty tricky. There’s almost always a delay between using it, and getting the cloack. And 3 second isn’t crazy long. But it can make a lot of difference. Like breathing room to cast your healing without being interrupted.

I kinda like build variety on ranger. You can go conditions, power, ranged, close combat, mix, and you have lots of pets, with different skills at your disposal.

The most frustrating part is is getting ganked by enemies who spam like a madmen there combo’s, to burst you faster. Cause against those (mostly thiefs, mesmers, some warriors), you’ll melt. Especially if they surprise you. If you have the ‘surprise’ advantage, ranger is fun though. Will make a lot of ppl panic.

In pve, ranger is very viable, no matter what people say. Warrior may be slightly better, but I wouldn’t take it over ranger for that fact.

Fact is, in wvw, I should play warrior/guard to counter the SFR bunker meta, but I can’t. I keep coming back to ranger cause it’s more fun.

With the upcoming patch, bursts and stability (signet of the wild) are gonna be quite a bit better.

Axe is very good actually. I’ve been comparing it lately, to make a ‘next legendary’ decision. Axe on ranger vs SB thief. I think i prefer the Axe, especially offensive. Clusterbomb is a bit clunky and on trained zergs hard to pull off without getting some smashes (900 range) yourself. And the reflect can be amazing. Retal + 12 vulnerability + 12x hit (good to proc crit sigils) + reflex. Can’t move, but sometimes it’s very nice skill to have. I love nr3. Trowing chill + weakness (via pet) on enemy is a strong debuff. Nr 2 can be a bit weird at first (Spitblade), but it has 5 strikes that each pierces, wich means again proc sigils are very nice. It also opens possibilities for hybrid build. Nr 4 goes nice damage, hits twice, and (especially with Velocity boost) can have some nice pull effects

But everything is up to you of course. I tried to make a ‘burst melee’ thief, with both sword, and dagger, and I just don’t like it as much as ranger. Basically, level the ranger, (it can be very fast, Use lvl 20 scroll (birthday gift and each 5k ap chest, give em), then burst personal story till lvl 30 (pretty fast), use tome of knowledge if you have em (pvp drops them), use birthday booster + killstreak + exp booster, in for instance edge of mist. It took me 3 days to level a (second) ranger to 80. So I wouldn’t worry about leveling. Just do it =D Cooking crafting can also speed things up.

But only you can decide in the end. Rangers had quite some improvements already (small, but i wouldn’t want to go back to old bugs again anyday.).

I think a safe comparison of the effectiveness of the GC longbow ranger is something like that of a signet burst thief running something like 5+/6/0/0/2+. Your disengage will not be very good once you get into combat, but the damage is very high, and getting the jump on someone gives you a solid chance to kill them. The thing is, once you unload, you’re idle for a few seconds without much left, so you need to pick your encounters well.

Try 1h sword before you invest any serious time into ranger. There’s a lot that’s great about a zerker ranger, but if you don’t like the idea of a weapon set that interferes with your ability to dodge just by auto attacking while you’re playing a glassy character, then you may save yourself some time in rerolling.

Some people really don’t mind if and as some will undoubtably mention, it is a little better if you turn off autocast on #1, but for some like me, it’s a deal breaker and the main reason I play thief over ranger.

In pvp zerker will become viable for midfight builds and thief-like decaps. Zerker will still get beat by any strong side node build (ele/turret/condi anything).

if you gonna play glassbow you gotta play it right.
Glassbow = http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQFATjEqUyaLLWsw1ag+ga9DEAjN3M4D8dFjIK-T1BEABGcBAYa/R5Xb6QA4AEQwDAIR1f2SJYAAEgbezAw9tv9tv9tP38m38m38mlCYslRA-w

With that setup, you should do 2.5-4k crits (+ 2.4k from sigils every 5-8 seconds)