Guild Wars 2

Hello all aspiring Rangers out there! If you’re like me and my friend who’ve been leveling toons like crazy in Heart of Thorns, you may have noticed that there isn’t really much that is up to date, as far as leveling your Ranger goes. I am here because of this very same reason, and it’s this reason that I decided to post an answer for everyone to find.

So WHY is it so hard to find an up to date leveling build?! Because you can literally put together anything on your Ranger… ANYTHING! and still get through leveling with just your pet and a longbow. You can pick what ever utility skill you can imagine yourself using and make it all the way to 80. That being said, I’d like to encourage any aspiring Ranger to use the build editor!

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

If that feels like way too much work, I have put together a build that I’ve been using to level. I want to throw some bullets down before the hate train starts running over my show and tell.

• I am by no means an experienced Ranger, or an experienced player for that matter. so this isn’t here to provide you with law, it’s here to provide you with help.

• I’m playing a ranger so that I can be effective at range. I’m going for laziness simplicity.

• The swapping and stowing and all the stuff current Ranger/Druids do, feels ridiculous to me, and is clearly not designed to be played the way ANet meant it to be played. (Wtf, you can’t hotkey stowing your pet? Who really even knows what they wanted). On that note, Huzzah to all the now level 80 Rangers that muddled through that broken system.

• None of ya’ll recommend warhorn in your builds. and the signet aint shhhhhugar. when it comes to keeping up with the other sprinters out there (Beast Mastery trait makes your shouts give you sprint as early as level 21, if that’s where you decided to start.)

So without further delay, here is a build I’ve been customizing.

• Think of your weapons as Ranged / Melee.

• For Ranged, Longbow is the KING, all the way through. Keep it, learn it, love it.

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC), or don’t. It’s up to you!

• Once you decide it’s time to put points into Beast Mastery, switch your melee to Great Sword, you’ll find Two Handed Training in the second tier that will benefit. I went with Beast Mastery first, since using Resounding Timbre wouldn’t limit me to a warhorn offhand.

Great news!!! You do ~not~ actually have to stow your pet unless you’ve got a need to squeeeeeeeeze out every bit of “Might & Fury Juice” you can. but you’ll probably benefit from the might if you do, which increases your damage. Swapping them is just as effective when (if you’re using the pets i put in the build) you want a tank pet instead of a moar damage pet. You have many ways of generating might & fury. The practice of Min-Maxing can wait till you’re 80 and in elite spec.

I hope this’ll save players ALL the time I’ve lost looking for builds that focused on Open World Solo (or partner) leveling.

Edit: to emphasize the guidance vs. law point.

An interesting thread, I have to say. Definitely helpful to those having their first steps.

I’d still polish it a bit, though. As a shout user – you have no need of Signet of the Hunt ever since your 1st trait point in BM is resounding timbre.

Also, which traitlines do you recommend taking 1st – which is the most common question? Is it MM for the opening strikes that feel amazing while leveling (and nowhere else)?

No leveling builds exist because they don’t matter.

Ghotistyx.6942:

No leveling builds exist because they don’t matter.

You haven’t even read OP’s message, have you… ? Well, it’s obvious.

I don’t think there are ‘leveling’ builds persay because … why should there be? Maybe Ghost has a seemingly glib response but seems to me that leveling is the time for you try things out and choose what you like about the class so when you’re level 80, you’re not spending tons of gold playing around with different weapons and skills.

I didn’t
Posted
Read the OP
We confirmed each other’s point

Leveling is for experimenting and becoming familiar with the entirety of the class. Get a bunch of new gear? test it out. Get a brand new weapon that you haven’t used before? try it. Find a new pet? Learn what it can do.

If you do all of that, then by the time you’ve reached max level and obtained exotic armor you should be able to manage most everything else on your own. Past that (like for wvw, raids, etc) then there’s other well-known resources available. But until then, spend that valuable time leveling to learn the profession.

Thanks for posting this. I’ve been lvl 80 for awhile now, but when I started this game these tips would have been invaluable. As a dedicated casual player (meaning I don’t have a lot of time to play, but do try to learn and read up on stuff when I can), I was completely lost when I started leveling. So many weapon choices and skills and then what are all these traits? So some basic pointers like this would have been helpful.

I’m not sure the point of this thread, literally anything works for leveling/open world as a ranger

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC).

I’m curious. Given the change to ranger’s sword auto-attack, why would this be necessary now?

This leaves the impression you haven’t been playing ranger all that much.

CETheLucid.3964:

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC).

I’m curious. Given the change to ranger’s sword auto-attack, why would this be necessary now?

This leaves the impression you haven’t been playing ranger all that much.

For PvP I’d say yes take it off for sure, but since this is a leveling guide, it’s can be a significant damage downgrade to turn it off. It you spam 1 it over queues the attack (as much as I despise reddit I actually went there and saw these idiots discover this a few months ago.) It will significantly decrease your damage. I have no idea how much I’d guess like 30%.

The major caveat is that you need to re-queue the skill as you revolve around a foe or you will have the biggest damage decrease. Basically, pay attention. I still sort of prefer the manual skill activation unless I’m drunk dungeoning, in which case I’m in 1 place and it’s the max DPS.

Edt as per usual: This doesn’t seem clear on re-read. If you run through an opponent you will stop attacking. You might want to cleave opponents that are behind the target or you might want to keep hitting the same target. Either way, autoattack will stop, an manual activation can be better. And THEN be careful of skill queuing.

Can I get a source on that? Is it cataloged anywhere in the bug forums? That’s a pretty serious bug with the sword auto-attack chain if it’s true.

Can’t imagine something like that not generating a fuss. First I’ve heard of it.

It’s really easy to see, just spam auto attack with the sword and it has a massive lag. It actually does it with auto on as well I think. Migh try it on the DPS golem if you want to see for yourself in numbers.

It does generate a fuss among the DPS crowd like for raids and PvP and such. I doubt anet will touch it since skill queuing has been a weird topic of weirdness since launch.

Reddit like 10 years late to the party: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/50qm21/major_autoattack_bug_huge_aftercast_if_you_mash_1/

Fluffball.8307:

It’s really easy to see, just spam auto attack with the sword and it has a massive lag. It actually does it with auto on as well I think. Migh try it on the DPS golem if you want to see for yourself in numbers.

It does generate a fuss among the DPS crowd like for raids and PvP and such. I doubt anet will touch it since skill queuing has been a weird topic of weirdness since launch.

Reddit like 10 years late to the party: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/50qm21/major_autoattack_bug_huge_aftercast_if_you_mash_1/

Alright but based on that it’s a general bug almost every weapon and class combo suffers from, save a select few.

I don’t see how it’s relevant to ranger sword auto-attack in particular.

Can’t tell if you’re being fussy about the minutiae of enabling/disabling an updated sword ranger auto-attack or hoity-toity about the application in PvP VS PvE.

The vast majority of time save for absolute min/maxing, worrying about frames in PvP (something someone who is leveling and learning the class probably isn’t too worried about), you’re fine leaving it on auto-attack VS how it used to be before the mechanic change.

It’s poor advice to tell new players to disable the sword auto-attack (and consequently, remember to re-enable it for everything else).

That isn’t necessary anymore.

I don’t care what you do one way or the other, it’s just a fact you decrease your damage by button mashing. Take that however you want.

Fluffball.8307:

I don’t care what you do one way or the other, it’s just a fact you decrease your damage by button mashing. Take that however you want.

Right. If the sum of it is “don’t button mash”, it’s good advice. But in general it’s not something you can really do anything about.

It’s not a ranger specific problem that obligates you to turn off your auto-attack on sword any more then necro needs to turn off auto-attack on axe for fear of less DPS.

It’s not a mechanic issue with the weapon as it was in the past. It’s a global issue with skill queuing.

I’m coming at it from the perspective of someone who didn’t button mash when we still had the rooting animation. Now it’s a handy skill that is can be applied to the ongoing skill queue problems. It’s not really an issue with something like LB since you’ll never accidentally move out of the field of view of the AI controlling your autoattack, but with sword you do all the time.

I’m not advocating anything either way, but if you’re not just standing in front of the PvE enemies (which is 100% valid since they’re no threat) you’re going to accidentally stop attacking all the time even with autoattack enabled.

Again no real point, it’s just the best way to attack with a sword is controlled pressing of 1.

Personally , i use lb -axe/torch. Siggnet of the huntgivesme a constant 25% wich is enough for me on my solo exploring.

longbow has 1500 range and you can pull many mobs around you from far away and then burst them down with barage, bonfire , traps, axe 2 and axe autoatacks.

with some pet control you dont have to worry much about geting killed, andeven if you do get downed your lingering aoes will rezz you up.

ofc grinding isnt preferable but kiling off 10 moas dolyaks deers with big exp boosts gives nice chunks of exp

CETheLucid.3964:

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC).

I’m curious. Given the change to ranger’s sword auto-attack, why would this be necessary now?

This leaves the impression you haven’t been playing ranger all that much.

You are soooo right. lol. I haven’t been playing a ranger all that much. (as per that first bullet in the op.) The Taking sword of auto attack thing is actually a popular recommendation out there for the outdated builds I was able to find. Ironically I put the comment in there to avoid the stink, seems like it stinks anyhow lol.

To address other concerns, this is solely my opinion here: Messing with your build while leveling is a ridiculous prospect. Especially starting out, you’re stuck with what you’ve got until you can get enough Hero Points to get something better. Even then you would have to make up for those points now because you squandered them making up for your poor choice (queue my argument for skill resets, a dead horse for sure).

I typically turn to builds to get the best idea of how traits blend with each other, so that I can work out a path that can take me to eighty, with out buyers remorse every time I pick a skill /trait line that seemed cool at the time, but really doesn’t cut the mustard. This is pretty much why I recommended the Build Editor first…

Cutting myself off there… At the time of this comment, my ranger has reached level 55. The build I provided wasn’t law (as I stated), it was just a plan I made so that I can get through leveling without tearing my hair out. I’ve tried switching things out a long the way, just as I hope everyone else does.

Hopefully that helps =D

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

CETheLucid.3964:

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC).

I’m curious. Given the change to ranger’s sword auto-attack, why would this be necessary now?

This leaves the impression you haven’t been playing ranger all that much.

You are soooo right. lol. I haven’t been playing a ranger all that much. (as per that first bullet in the op.) The Taking sword of auto attack thing is actually a popular recommendation out there for the outdated builds I was able to find. Ironically I put the comment in there to avoid the stink, seems like it stinks anyhow lol.

To address other concerns, this is solely my opinion here: Messing with your build while leveling is a ridiculous prospect. Especially starting out, you’re stuck with what you’ve got until you can get enough Hero Points to get something better. Even then you would have to make up for those points now because you squandered them making up for your poor choice (queue my argument for skill resets, a dead horse for sure).

I typically turn to builds to get the best idea of how traits blend with each other, so that I can work out a path that can take me to eighty, with out buyers remorse every time I pick a skill /trait line that seemed cool at the time, but really doesn’t cut the mustard. This is pretty much why I recommended the Build Editor first…

Cutting myself off there… At the time of this comment, my ranger has reached level 55. The build I provided wasn’t law (as I stated), it was just a plan I made so that I can get through leveling without tearing my hair out. I’ve tried switching things out a long the way, just as I hope everyone else does.

Hopefully that helps =D

No problem. Your heart was in the right place and honestly the rest of your guide is solid advice for someone leveling. Things get better once you’ve trained everything.

You can do so many things with a ranger not even including the elite spec.

I probably take it for granted how easily I swap around skills and traits and generally just muck around with my build freely.

I’m not much of an alt person so the characters I have at 80 were leveled and properly trained forver ago.

Keep at it, it’s worth it. Good luck!

Woot Level 80 for me! Stuck with this build the whole way through! (#bump)