Guild Wars 2

Swoop = 1,100 units

Hornet Sting + Monarch’s Leap = 1,000 units

The evade on Hornet Sting is negligible since you’re already rolling away and out of combat. Then you still have to do a 180 and drop target, otherwise Monarch’s Leap will put you right back in your enemy’s face.

For Swoop you only have to cancel your target and then use the ability. There is no need to turn around. You launch yourself 1,100 units straight ahead, behind your enemy, forcing them to turn around.

The two evades you have from sword are a joke compared to the amount of evasion you get from a greatsword. Two evades during a 15 second period versus somewhere around six or seven evades in the same duration simply auto-attacking with a greatsword.

I know quite a bit about sword, which is why I’m telling you it’s not even close to equal to greatsword for utility and mobility. It’s an excellent weapon for unloading a lot of damage quickly and sticking to a target. Sword/axe is an awesome combo for a melee focused Ranger.

For the record, I don’t currently use greatsword on my Ranger and pretty much use it exclusively for ONE sPvP build.

Go ahead and test it ingame, if you still say that GS swoop is 1.100 units and Hornet Sting + Monarch’s Leap is 1.000 i will give you 200g.
Description may be wrong or Swoop bugged, but if that has 1.100 units then the 1h sword has 1.400 real units or so, that or my ranger is bugged which i doubt it.

The evade on GS is a joke because to use it you actually have to hit your target, every third attack is an evade and that’s…let me say it…pure garbage. It’s 2-3 seconds for an evade to pop, 2-3 seconds where the enemy is hitting you harder than you hit them.

The evade on Hornet Sting is not negligible because there are other things that hit you other than melee attacks…like for example ranged attacks come to my mind, and this game is filled with ranged attacks. You have to do the same with the GS and the Sword, the difference is that with the GS you are getting hit while you do it unless you dazed him first (but yet other people around will still hit you) and with the sword you evade that second while you cancel your target and turn around your camera, i can’t believe you are still arguing that GS is better at that.

It’s two evades, one with 8 seconds cooldown with leap included, and the other one has 15 seconds with poison, both also do damage.

You know nothing about the sword as everything you seem to say is simply wrong, it just looks like you read through sword skills and miss half of what it does. And i say it again, the range shown in the skills description has nothing to do with the real range when you use these skills.

Sleepy.2647:

Go ahead and test it ingame, if you still say that GS swoop is 1.100 units and Hornet Sting + Monarch’s Leap is 1.000 i will give you 200g.
Description may be wrong or Swoop bugged, but if that has 1.100 units then the 1h sword has 1.400 real units or so, that or my ranger is bugged which i doubt it.

The evade on GS is a joke because to use it you actually have to hit your target, every third attack is an evade and that’s…let me say it…pure garbage. It’s 2-3 seconds for an evade to pop, 2-3 seconds where the enemy is hitting you harder than you hit them.

The evade on Hornet Sting is not negligible because there are other things that hit you other than melee attacks…like for example ranged attacks come to my mind, and this game is filled with ranged attacks. You have to do the same with the GS and the Sword, the difference is that with the GS you are getting hit while you do it unless you dazed him first (but yet other people around will still hit you) and with the sword you evade that second while you cancel your target and turn around your camera, i can’t believe you are still arguing that GS is better at that.

It’s two evades, one with 8 seconds cooldown with leap included, and the other one has 15 seconds with poison, both also do damage.

You know nothing about the sword as everything you seem to say is simply wrong, it just looks like you read through sword skills and miss half of what it does. And i say it again, the range shown in the skills description has nothing to do with the real range when you use these skills.

Well, I’m done. You’re obviously arguing just for the sake of argument. The fact that you think the sword combo is 1,400 units is ridiculous. You’re either an excellent troll or oblivious.

Continue to spread your misinformation. Hopefully other people don’t read it and take your posts at face value.

[Edit: I’d actually take the time to prove to you that you’re wrong if I thought you’d be willing to part with that 200g. Or that you even have it.]

nldixon.8514:

[Edit: I’d actually take the time to prove to you that you’re wrong if I thought you’d be willing to part with that 200g. Or that you even have it.]

Sure, upload a video using both and i’ll give you all my gold and ask a GM to transfer you all my Gems, obviously after i upload mine showing that sword covers more range than GS. Maybe my ranger is special and has higher range with sword…or you just don’t use it properly.

Let’s see who is the real troll. The real question would be, would you give me 200g if you are wrong? Arguing over stuff you didn’t test…that’s interesting.

Btw, mine is a sylvari male ranger, perhaps different races have different animations (which i doubt).

I’m not going to continue the conversation with you, because you’re either a troll or you just have a snarky attitude. Either way, you’re not someone I would like to converse with further.

And for the record, there was no bet, so there’d be no reason for me to give you 200 gold.

Sleepy.2647:

Go ahead and test it ingame, if you still say that GS swoop is 1.100 units and Hornet Sting + Monarch’s Leap is 1.000 i will give you 200g.

Thanks for trying to bait me though. Have a great day.

So, you didn’t test it, but i’m a troll? Right.

As i said, go ahead and post your proof that GS covers more range…you didn’t even know 1h sword has 2 evades until today…

When someone can’t argue properly, that’s the typical answer.

Hi,

Please refrain from engagin in personal wars. Keep the forums friendly and constructive

Longbow with axe/warhorn for PVE/dungeons and i switch to sword/warhorn for wvw/pvp

I carry Shortbow, Longbow, Greatsword, Sword, Axe, Warhorn, and Speargun for Underwater.

I used to use a torch, but I just feel that it is lacking overall. Have not spent much time with dagger.

ive been using SB and double axe for PvE… SB for single targets and axe for groups
but it doesnt seem as useful in wvw (where longbow range + swords retreat + warhorn swiftness seems really useful) – i also havent touched sPvP… so cant comment
since ive got rampager gear ive been considering switching to axe/torch for the chance at burning projectiles

I currently roll with a budy who is also a ranger. We are both geared/traited/skilled for maximum survivability.

I roll Axe/Warhorn and swap to Sword/dagger
He rolls Axe Warhorn and swaps to Greatsword.

I prefer Shortbow/Longbow. Although I only switch to longbow for specific skills depending on the situation. I always switch back immediately to Shortbow. Wish there was a trait to make weaponswitching faster like on my Warrior.

I tried sword on main hand, but I don’t like how the animation roots you on the spot. And in general I don’t like melee much in GW2 PVE (I always play melee on other games). Mainly because with a lot AOE spam I sometimes can’t see attacks coming and how some mobs autoface you if you dodge sideways (highly annoying). Ranged makes me feel more in control of the fight in PVE anyway.

I would like to see an improvement for Longbow. And for pets to be able to do dmg against a running mob. The +30% speed trait doesn’t seem to help.

Axe/Torch, and Sword/Dagger with a condition/trap build. Flame trap, and torch can keep an opponent perpetually flamed, and the axe brings good close-ranged bleeds, and a bit of freezing/weakness to hamper the opponent.

Sword and dagger can easily keep poison up 100% of the time as well as providing a leap for use with healing spring to increase self-healing (twice per use of healing spring is possible). This combined with the cripple, and multiple evades makes the sword/dagger great for stalling whilst other cooldowns clear up, whilst often-times preventing the enemy from properly remedying themselves of all their conditions.

Ok, all I have to say is WOW to the sword/warhorn combo. I’ve been using SB/whatever I’m experimenting with. I’ve read about the sword combo and thought that’s cool, maybe al these people just PREFER it. I used it last night and holy cow, I felt like I was owning mobs. Mind you this is pve, but I felt like I was doing twice the damage at least. If you haven’t tried the sword/warhorn combo then I highly highly recommend it. The mobility did seem hindered, but I will say that I didn’t care at the time because I was mowing down mobs like crazy. I really didn’t need any mobility. At one point I thought, maybe I should roll a thief, this is too much fun.

With that said, I love my ranger though and I’m really getting the hang of using my pets. So here’s hoping the patch makes the SB and LB and any other weapons fun to play. As well as making other builds viable. Pets do a lot of damage but they really do die quickly. I like many others, keep all the weapons in my bag to try out different things to see what I like. I think I’m done looking.

@Rottaran Owain.6789

I was wondering if you could elaborate on your build. I’ve been using a condition/trap build but with the SB. I feel like using a sword/horn or whatever would change my style of play. I would just be interested to see your setup, thanks! Also, would you concentrate on power/precision/condition dmg or power/vitality/cond dmg?

Qixilver.3784:

@Rottaran Owain.6789

I was wondering if you could elaborate on your build. I’ve been using a condition/trap build but with the SB. I feel like using a sword/horn or whatever would change my style of play. I would just be interested to see your setup, thanks! Also, would you concentrate on power/precision/condition dmg or power/vitality/cond dmg?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=104751218&insideModal=1

The linked image will have as much of the build showing on-screen as I could get. I’m not level 80 yet, so I’m not bothering with exotics and such yet (and as such, my current stats are inconsequential), but when I do, I’ll be grabbing the carrion set, and have 20 points in nature magic, taking 33% longer regeneration for healing spring, and 5 seconds of protection if I take 20% or more of my health in one hit.

The build works great for roaming PvE with great AoE damage with flame trap, bonfire, spike trap, and ricochet on the axe’s auto-attack, and from my experience can hold its own in PvP as well, so long as the opponent doesn’t have too much condition removal.

In WvW, throwing traps atop walls can be very effective, though I tend to replace spike-trap with venomous trap then in hopes of limiting the opponent’s healing.

Can’t say I’ve used it in dungeons yet, so I don’t have any idea how effective it is.

Note that in this build, sword/dagger are very much secondary to the axe/torch, mostly used for delaying, and applying poison. I use the evades to dodge incoming attacks, and use sword 2, in combination with dagger 5 to stall for time, as the axe/torch conditions deal much more damage overall.

Flame trap is used for its low cooldown, and high condition damage.

Spike trap is used for the immobilize/cripple mostly, allowing me to hold enemies in place for the flame trap to pulse multiple times on them, and denying D/D thieves from doing their combos we all know too well. The extra bleed damage doesn’t hurt, but it’s nothing compared to what the flame trap gives.

Signit of renewal for a stunbreaker, because the only other option doesn’t help me cure immobilize, and I already get plenty of vigor from my traits.

Hope this helps give you some ideas.

It does give me some great ideas. Thanks much! And I guess we’ll see how things change after our patch too.

Axes axes axes. Gosh do I love axes. Axe/Warhorn or Torch is always on my weapon bar, usually with GS or Longbow as my off set. I’d like to use Sword more, but I can’t feasibly see myself using it unless I download the combat mod.

I used to run with Axe/Warhorn + Shortbow (Longbow rarely used). Now I have Shortbow + Longbow and another shortbow. I also keep a warhorn just for the swiftness. I find it to be more effective overall in pve and pvp settings. My build is primary designed for high sustainable damage which means good raw outburst (longbow) and excellent condition damage (shortbow). The axe is great for pve scenarios where you fight mobs but compared to the shortbow, it’s really not worth much except maybe for a change in playstyle. I use piercing arrows so all I have to do is target the enemy in the back of the group to let my arrow pass through several for some semi-aoe damage. I also do a lot better in pvp with this combination.

I have a build that’s not very specific to any weapon in general (except offhands, since I take the offhand trait).

My of my setups look something like this.

(Axe, Sword)/WH

And

(SB, LB, GS) Or another set of one handed weapons, so… (Axe, Sword)/(Torch, Dagger).

I always have a Warhorn on, no matter what. Call of the Wild is just TOO DELICIOUS to give up.

Longbow is too slow and boring for me. Honestly the shortbow is much better, unless you doing WvW and need the range.

For PVE and PVP, I go with SB and axe/dagger or axe/torch if I really need that much AOE (like AC path 1). With a lynx/hawk pet and traited traps I can stack ~16 stacks of bleeding in 2 secs. Also, dagger 1 gives an amazing 10 secs of poison, along with a nice evade during melee skirmishing. If the action gets too hot I switch over to my SB to put some distance between me and my target while flanking for even more bleeds.

I use axe/torch and short bow. I usually run with short bow out unless I get caught by a huge chunk of agrro which the axe is amazing at leveling quickly.

Against tougher fights vet and above I start with the axe/torch. I’ll drop torch throw if single target or lay fire field if it has extra mobs. chuck my freeze to give my pet an easier time and then toss split blade to get a head start on bleed stacks. Switch to short bow, lay down #4 so pet can start stacking bleeds, #2 to add extra cond damage and limit healing, sharpened stone and then spam #1 while working on getting to a flanking position, once I have flanking qz for the win. So far I’ve gotten 16 stacks of bleed up at my low 24 lvl. Should get much more interesting as I keep increasing condition duration.

Its fun watching all those numbers jump all over the place from conditions. Also have spike trap for further bleeds and a buffer room maker. Yeah there are stronger traps but it has a really short cool down.

I carry the LB in WvWvW for when I get caught up in a zerg.

nldixon.8514:

I’ve been using longbow/shortbow. Two of the “worst” weapons according to the Ranger forum warriors. Guess what? It’s awesome.

…….DITTO

My favorite sets are Axe/Warhorn and Sword/Torch. I like to start with Axe/Warhorn and buff myself and pet while calling my pet in to grab aggro first. I unload the Axe/Warhorn skills and ranged traps as needed (specced into Skirmishing to allow ranged traps) and then if any mobs are still alive, I switch to Sword/Torch and cleanup. The sword #1 root issue has problems, but I’ve learned to workaround them. No denying sword/torch is a lot of fun. People may argue the effectiveness of the ranger 1H sword, but it is fun to play – and that’s important.

Double SB w/ Sigil of battle on both SB’s for might stacking.

Axe/Torch, and Sword/dagger works great in combination with a trapper build, and healing spring. The monarch’s leap can be used twice per healing spring, and with its combo finisher, you can use it to make up for the lack of healing power.

I’m set up for condition/crit kills using sharpened edges and sigil of earth to stack up the bleeds. For weapons I use the short bow (obviously, so much bleed dmg) and the sword/dagger combo. A lot if condition rangers prefer the torch over the dagger, but traiting heavily into traps makes that really unnecessary. Flame trap makes a great aoe burner that’s usable at range with a crazy low 12 sec CD.

With that in mind the sword/dagger gives me great evasion with 3 active dodge abilities, a ranged bleed/cripple for more damage and CC, and 2 ways to inflict poison. Because I’m so dodgy I can run circles around my target while the dots chew up their HP. As for people who say sword is “bugged” or “unusable”, using skills 2,3, or 4 will all break you out of the attack chain while giving a nice long ‘gtfo’ dodge. Even without those there are distunct windows in which you can dodge roll without jumping back onto your target. It just takes practice to learn