Guild Wars 2

Just going off something Mr Hrouda said:

“Ranger to me isn’t a burst class – it’s a sustain and survive class”

I thought that one of Guild Wars 2’s primary objectives was to make it so that any profession could fulfill any role – i.e. by destroying the traditional ‘holy trinity’ that was the DPS/TANK/HEALER specifications?

The only profession I ever want to play is Ranger; the only style I want to play is DPS. So why can I not run a decent burst build – even fully geared – on my Ranger?

Even if they gave us a range of stealth skills we still wouldn’t be any where near as powerful as a thief because our damage just SUCKS. It would, however, genuinely help if they fixed the ‘pets can’t hit moving targets’ bug. Pets account for a lot of our damage and that is therefore depriving us of a good deal of DPS.

DPS doesn’t mean you have to burst.

However, if you want to burst as a ranger, go for it. Just make sure you, yourself, are good at it and that you aren’t a hit-or-miss one-trick-pony. That will get you dead.

Sebrent.3625:

DPS doesn’t mean you have to burst.

However, if you want to burst as a ranger, go for it. Just make sure you, yourself, are good at it and that you aren’t a hit-or-miss one-trick-pony. That will get you dead.

Well when I say ‘burst’ I really mean, ‘as effective at quickly killing people as say Warrior or Thief’.

I know. Take a look at what can be done with combined Ranger + Pet damage.

Misleading title. DPS means Damage Per Second which is what “sustained damage” is good for. Change “DPS” to “burst.”

Also, rangers CAN burst. The problem with it is the long cooldowns.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Hitting-like-a-Thief-Ranger-DPS-Build

They said every class can do everything. They never said every class would be equally good at doing everything.

What they said was not wrong. It is a matter of perception.

There lies the problem the general community of the game is going to always pick the fast method burst over sustained damage in the PvE, as there are not any fights that are designed to reward that design over the other option.

Rangers can certainly DPS, and IMO are better than the other profs at it because its sustain (the harder to avoid damage because its relentless and doesn’t matter much if you dodge or avoid a section of it), but in PvE it seems everyone just wants to skip everything and burst what they can’t skip….

Ranger can DPS just fine especially in melee when traited and built right. We are the simplest class to use from ranger and probably the hardest in melee, but very effective. They didnt lie when they said all classes can be played the same, it still makes them different though.

Anet devs have a hard on for warriors and thieves and hate rangers, that’s why. Next question.

Kiran.2705:

Anet devs have a hard on for warriors and thieves and hate rangers, that’s why. Next question.

That must be why warriors and thieves are one of the best profs in tPvP, oh wait….

Durzlla.6295:

Kiran.2705:

Anet devs have a hard on for warriors and thieves and hate rangers, that’s why. Next question.

That must be why warriors and thieves are one of the best profs in tPvP, oh wait….

lol. Well, Thieves are still good in pvp, its just theyre extremely difficult to use at high level. They work ,but for all the effort youre better off using a different class…. for the most part anyway

The other thing you have to consider is that in a general sense melee out dps’s ranged. All the really good burst build for rangers pretty much are melee (including pet melee attacks).

I’ve only been able to find one consistent burst combo:
Press F1, to send the pet in your opponents direction, and use Hunter’s Shot. Lock your opponent down with Grasping Vines (sylvari skill) or Entangle. Then use the F2 skill from River Drake, together with Rapid Fire from longbow.

The fact that you can use either Grasping Vines or Entangle, means you have two chances at this (assuming you can survive for the 30 seconds it takes Lightning Breath to recharge). You can use Quickening Zephyr as well, but if your opponent hasn’t escaped the vines within the first second, it usually means they don’t have any condition removal ready to remove the immobilize. So it doesn’t really matter whether or not you use quickness. The River Drakes F2 skill is also ranged, so if your opponent escapes at the last second it will usually still hit.

Edit: Forgot to mention condition stacks. It’s really important that you use Hunter’s Shot first, because if your opponent has a skill that removes one condition, the vulnerability from Hunter’s Shot will be removed, before the immobilize from the vines. Also, if you want to hit multiple foes, you need to use Muddy Terrain first, as you will then add cripple from Muddy Terrain before the immobilize from Entangle. Then follow up with Barrage and F2. If you use this burst combo against a Thief, you should also use Barrage instead of Rapid Fire, to prevent the Thief from getting out of range of Lighting Breath, should he escape the vines.