Guild Wars 2

I have a fully geared 80 Engineer who I play in WvW. He is powerful and effective, but grenades and the lack of ANY reliable gap-closers is really getting annoying, and I think it is time to start a new class. I don’t like light-armored classes or guardians, so I am really considering rangers for WvW.

I love soloing and running in small groups. I have never really understood “Zerg-Support” builds, because I am honestly just fighting for me, but I love to be able to get bags when I do join my guild in Zergs. I love Greatsword, and Longbow. I watched _"xsorus"_’ Melee Beastmaster video, and while interesting, I would really love to be able to kill people faster than that, and maybe have some ranged mixed in.

So there are some things I need to know about Rangers. Can they kill people within 15 seconds, without a completely unreasonable lack of survivability? Is GS/LB Viable? Can you make bags drop in zergs like the best of them? How is Solo/Smallgroup Roaming WvW?

Thankyou for your time, I will carefully consider all responses.

LB has a few issues with it. Personally I dont think its as bad as many people will come here and tell you, but it does have issues.

SB / GS is a very common setup for rangers and there are many builds around that, most are based around the Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival traitlines with knights or cavelier armour, but you could also look into doing a signet build.

This sort of build is good for some 1v1 ones but will struggle against some classes / builds. In small groups it will work great and in zergs you’ll do fine but you wont be tagging everyone so dont expect 30 loot bags every battle.

How is LB for tagging? I would be switching out my SB for LB while in a zerg, then switch back to SB while solo.

What about killing people in less than 15 seconds? Can Rangers do it? I get the whole class/builds, but for the majority could we?

Also, what are the main classes that rangers are helpless against? How serious of a hindrance is the pet AI? I heard its bad, but does it render you useless?

I’m in the midst of editing an ~11min video showcasing my zerg build and its effectiveness (mainly for my guild, but I don’t see why others can’t learn from it). I think I down a couple people in it in one shot and quite a few with two. In full glass cannon spec against another glass cannon, a ranger using maul can hit over 10,000 easily (not on upscales!). I’ve recorded myself hitting an 8.8k on another lv 80 and I’m not even fully geared, lacking about 150 power and ~15% crit damage. My build even has 2.8k armor and 18k health, nothing near a glass cannon. I wouldn’t recommend a glass cannon build as ranger can be built to have a good amount of survivability as well as damage, but I’m just saying it is possible to one shot glass elementalists, thieves, and guardians if you hit first. As for 15s with survivability? Easily.

I get a ton of loot with my build from the greatsword cleave and axe/axe skills. The build isn’t designed for solo play, but it can be altered to work moderately well like that.

Welswift.9813:

What about killing people in less than 15 seconds? Can Rangers do it?

Until you have an advantage of skill/stats/build you can. With equally skilled, equally geared players who know their classes, not so sure. I run a trap ranger with 1200+ condi damage, and I downed players in less then 15 seconds, not the best ones probably.

You can down people in 15 seconds, hell you can down people in 3-4 with some luck, but rangers are not really a burst class and trying to play them that way can be semi-effective but its not really what they are best at. Generally rangers are good at doing constant sustained damage, be it with conditions or direct damage.

GS is the best weapon for damage spiking and quick kills, using Moment of Clarity grandmaster trait + Hilt Bash + Maul attack.

Killing someone in 15 seconds depends on the other player. With my roamer (GS/SB) build I down some people in 5 seconds, while some bunkers take minutes
Your counter class is a well played phantasm mesmer. There are lots of weak ones that you will defeat but the good ones are extremely tough to beat.
While roaming there is not much that can stop me as a ranger and if I want to I can just outrun most enemies that might kill me like really good engis or good phantasm mesmers. Most thieves are just annoying but with 23+k HP and 3k armor they are not really a threath if you play well.

About the long bow. I gave it a try pretty often and every time I use it on a zerg I just almost die of retaliation so I simply banned that weapon. Our enemies stack retal all the time so its no option for me. What I do is run through the enemy zerg with RoA and tag them with the greatsword. That seems to work fine. You will never get the amount of badges as some other classes get but what I usually get is like 10 badges of 40 ppl.

Overall if you like to solo play ranger is a really nice class with great mobility (Greatsword). I have been pretty annoying to my enemies.
If you love running around solo you might want to make a norn for the snow leopard elite. The perfect “run-away” skill

Things to know. Ranged combat is deliberately nerfed in game. Melee wars ftw. 40% of your damage will reside in your pet – you HAVE to build to allow for this. Right now, rangers have exactly 2 viable builds. both are bunkers, one uses traps, the other uses conditions.

Think that covered it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/My-ranger-movie/first#post2012815
LB/GS
Not bunker, doesn’t use traps.
Is viable.

@terkov

You’re using what I am, at a guess. 25/25/5/10/5. Knights armour and ‘zerker trinket’s/weapons. (just watched the video, which is cool. zeppelin over the stones, though…)

If you’re honest, you’ll accept you’re doing far less damage than the two bunker builds, with half the survivability. The one advantage is you don’t have to care nearly as much about the pet.

Suppose I should have said “optimised” instead of “viable”. You (and I) are doing mediocre damage with high risk. The two builds that get played the most do excellent damage with medium risk.

The 40% damage that is missing from the pet shows. (We’re having fun despite the pet mechanic. One would think the profession mechanic would be something to AID the player, not something to work around…)

Rangers have more evades than you can shake a stick at and they’ll hit ya with conditions until the cows come home—all while their pet has a hey day. I hope that helps!

Wow, thanks for all the responses! These answers… vary, to say the least. However, I am feeling pretty confident about investing time into a Ranger. To me, the whole 15 seconds thing is important because on Tier 1, that is probably the most time you will have alone before someone or something else comes along.

I see that Rangers are powerful, but not OP. They have decent spec diversity, and can be good running solo. Pets might be annoying, but obviously don’t hold people back all too much.

Thanks for the responses! I can’t wait to see how my ranger comes about, and what he will be like once he gets all the way there!

I think that rangers are rewarding to play, it’s my first profession an the one that i understand the most.

I enjoy small groups the most, but i don’t mind zerging. and solo is fine i can take a camp by my self but i often don’t get it flipped before the opposition zerg or havoc group arrives.

I run mostly SB/GS and i speck either Hybrid 0/20/20/0/30 (Knights armor ranger runes, cleric/rampages Trinkets, about 50% crit chance) or Bunker 0/0/30/10/30 (apothecary armor with Dolyak runes, cleric trinks, 3k armor 1.2k healing).

Pet choice is important, I take the attitude of I tank for my pet not my pet tanks for me. The two pet combos that i use are Dog/Cat (wolf,jag) which i use for solo roaming and havoc and i use duel drakes for zerging and taking a camp (and PvE).

I have no problem dropping a Sentry or Dolyak in 15-30 sec, as for opponets it depends on how good they are and how there built, it could take 5 sec (if their glass and they’er bad) or it could take a few minutes (good build bad player) or we may even stalemate (bunker and a good player). About the only time i die is getting surprised by a thief (sometimes)

as far as getting bags in Zergs go you can still good amounts of bags, you either run around like a mad man with a great sword keeping an eye on your health pool being ready it hit “lighting reflexes” or stand back a bit with a short bow hitting tab and 1 alot. duel drakes a great for aoe damage if you swap them on recharge, there first skill after swap is tail whip and there F2 skill is aoe as well (this is also the reason i use them for taking camps solo)

TL;DR rangers are great

Rangers suck kitten don’t make one :P

. I love my ranger I’ve tried the other classes and ranger fits my play style. I use LB/SB in WVW and run a hybrid build of BM. I kill effectively in 1v1 and can survive awhile in outnumbered encounters. Kill in 15 seconds I don’t know I’ve never timed or thought about it I just play and have fun. Rangers are a good roaming class I take camps and hunt people in WVW all the time. If you Zerg run the edges and use barrage and poison volley. You hit multiple targets and usually get bags or loot once they die. I usually get a lot of bag drops in Zerg vs Zerg warfare. I have tried many pets i like the eagle/panther combo and use the panther/polar bear in high population BL for tankiness. The only real advice is try it if you don’t like it what do you really have to lose? It’s just a game you play to have fun.

Chopps.5047:

Rangers have more evades than you can shake a stick at and they’ll hit ya with conditions until the cows come home—all while their pet has a hey day. I hope that helps!

You can shake a stick at a cow to make him evade then go home ?

crazy talk

“Killing people fast” is not a ranger thing. Look at a thief.

Ranger can kill ppl fast, depending on both the ranger and the opponent gear/traits and playstyle.

Rangers have soooo many access to endurance regeneration that you can gear up a glass cannon and be pretty tanky via endurance regeneration.
Additional take two condition remove like SoR & HS when going for glass, or Empatic Bond when going for more defense.
I use carrion MS/BM atm and I’m pretty happy with it.
I have troubles against MM-Necros and the the immobilize/dodge bug, nothing else.

The pet does major damage on this builds.
For example you can spike down a enemy with cats or birds + RaO + Hunter’s Call + Sick ’Em
I can kill Svanir in about 10sec with this.

The Ranger is not the best burst damage profession, but you can get some burst out of them, if you really want.

Longbow is just not good for anything ells then hitting targets at long range. When it comes to ranged direct damage, axe/axe is superior. This is mostly because the longbows auto-attack has too slow of an attack rate. But also because you burn out the longbow skills very fast, meaning you rely on the auto-attack a lot. When attacking a target you always go auto-attack (to remove potential aegis, and make sure your foe isn’t blocking or invulnerable), follow up with Hunter’s Shot, Rapid Fire, and then you’re already back to your painfully slow auto-attack again. Point Blank Shot is extremely situational. I only use it to push foes off edges, which admittedly is a ton of fun, but that’s all the skill is really good for. Barrage is nice against a zerg, but because it makes you stationary, and is easy to dodge, you will never use it anywhere ells.

The greatsword is a great utility weapon, with some great burst potential, but it suffers from the same problem as the longbow, in that the auto-attack has too slow of an attack rate. So once you’ve used your other greatsword weapon skills, you’ll want to swap it out. But opposite to longbow, you won’t burn out the greatsword skills as fast. Maul is great for burst, Swoop is a great escape, chase, and travel skill, Counter attack is a block with a knockdown (great against Backstab Thieves), Crippling Throw is also a great burst that stacks nicely with Maul, and Hilt bash gives you a reliable interrupt. It’s also worth mentioning that the greatswords auto-attack has an evade on the third hit, which is great.

When it comes to burst pets, I’ve found the River Drakes’ F2 skill to be superior, as it deals the most reliable burst damage. Some like the Salamander Drake more, but it only has a 250 range on its F2 skill, compared to the 600 range on the River Drakes F2 skill. The Snow Leopard has the best chance of hitting foes with the F2 skill, but if you don’t need the snare, the Jaguar is the way to go.

The fastest way I’ve found that the Ranger can kill foes, with direct damage, is by using Entangle+Whirling Defense+Lightning Breath. It’s a lot of fun to use.