Guild Wars 2

coming back to guildwars and I was thinking of playing ranger how are they?

can they do a mixture of melee/ranged well I want a class that can weave melee and ranged together to form a combined arms approach.

I noticed that rangers are getting a druid specialization I wonder what they will be like I wonder if it might add transformations into animal forms or something like that.

how is the pet did they improve it and make it better?

my other class choice was necromancer how are they in comparison?

also how are traps I like the idea of trapping

Rangers are considered by many to be the worst class in the game. That doesn’t mean they’re bad. They just don’t contribute much to a group. And all meaningful end game content is group content. To be expected in an mmo. Necros aren’t considered top tier either but neither are they bad. In spvp I’ve seen good necros but I’ve seen good rangers as well. Player skill is a big factor in a lot of things. As of right now Druid is a big fat wad of hopes and dreams for an ailing profession that has run away with speculation due to the lack of concrete knowledge of what druid actually is. All we know is its a ranger with a staff who loves nature or something. VINE SHOT! Pets make me sad. Pets can crit for massive damage and surprise you though Play ranger, you will love it. Haters gunna hate.

Ranger is a class that is very easy to fall in love with once you start playing it. The only class I have nearly the same level of affection with is necro and POSSIBLY revenant. The shear number of tricks you can pull off with a ranger despite us not having the combo potential of say an engi or ele is insane. And most of them are things you learn accidentally while playing.

Some people have issues with the pets. Others don’t. The pets take some getting used to but for players that prefer pet based playstyles the ranger is decent. (though they still need survivability mechanics. In a game about dodging having a pet that can’t dodge CANNOT fly.

When it comes to ranged combat or kiting based combat ranger is above average. When it comes to close quarters combat or condition combot were above average.

The issue is the people were competing with are significantly higher than above average in all of those situations. What that means is rangers can be beasts in 1v1 situations. But in group situations where having a specialized role is more important than general capability. Ranger will often be bypassed for a class that can do certain things at a higher extreme.

Rangers can have really great single target damage and survivability, as well as decent group support while stationary, however, rangers lack mobile AOE buffs, so for wvwvw zerging they are less than ideal. However, for roaming, PvP, and PVE, rangers can compete .

People on this forum tend to perpetuate a vicious cycle of victim hood, instead of focusing on the strongpoints of our class and how to augment them, so take all of the negativity with a [Salt Packet]

• A bit better than before. There’s some new traits to play with. Check out the Ranger Bugs thread in the Bugs sub-forum and the Google document so you are up-to-date with these kind of things so you are not left scratching your head if something does (or does not) work a certain way while playing.
• Yes. Longbow & Greatsword is the usual flavor for mixing it up between melee and range. YMMV so find something that works for you. I recommend visiting the +40 Builds for all Modes thread.
• Will most-likely be this “aspects” discussed last year during the Ranger CDI. There is a data-mined trait floating around the forums and reddit.
• 150 points for power, precision, toughness, and vitality was made baseline due to the revamped trait system and the “Guard/Avoid Combat” toggle now has a keybind option. Other than that, no significant improvements.
• Consensus is that both of those classes are good, but they are outshined by others. A very general and vague answer, so take that for what you will.
• Depends on who you ask. Since a half-second arming time was added and the ability to throw them was removed, some people loathe it, others are fine with it. Also, Spike Trap received a higher cooldown due to an added knockdown. Overall, Traps are in a solid place.

Rangers are in the most fun I’ve ever had. Marksmanship, skirmish, bestmastery brings a lot to the table to a group.

• You get spotter for increased crits party wide.

• you apply almost instant 20 stacks of vulnerability which increases all damage taken by a mob (open with rapid fire on long bow + opening strike yours and pet’s).

• Bring your frost Spirit for 7% increased damage party wide.

• You bring healing spring, arguably the best healing group skill which removes conditions to boot.

• Bring guard shout, which no longer has a cast time and give 90% swiftness to your party.

• Nature spirit has a party wide Resurrection ability you can trigger or just leave it on to get timed condition removal.

• Every 30s you can blast your call off the wild (every 2 pet swaps) giving more swiftness and tasty fury.

• You also have a signet of renewable which removes even more conditions on top of the healing spring.

• Pets! Many will tell you they are a liability but work with them especially via F3 and F4 management plus Guard! – easy mode pet survival. Plus in parts where it’s tough for a pet to survive, a ranged attack pet (spiders, devourer) may survive better than a high toughness one (boar, bear), it’s like Bruce Lee said, best defense is not being there
  This because if your party lacks fury, bring a red moa, need more even condition removal, bring brown bear. Bring hawk or Raven which in conjunction with traits give your pet permanent blind application on a 5 sec timer. For any other situation bring cats.

On the pvp side of things… That’s just a lot more complex to state it briefly.

Have fun with your ranger.

Edit: oh about the melee/ranged thing, sword/axe + longbow is actually meta now for dungeons

It is to my knowledge that traps may not be as good for pvp, since u can no longer throw them, meaning u need target to move at your feet.
After the june revamp patch the traditional longbow ranger has more variants and is quite a strong contender. Both LB/GS and LB/sword&dagger are viable options on a marauder amu (SPvP) or full zerker in WvW or with mix of either Knights/valk.
Traits makes much more sense now and it is harder to go with something that is “wrong”. Just read through em. Personally I love Beastly Warden which works great on bird pets and open up a new mechanic you havent seen before.

nacario.9417:

It is to my knowledge that traps may not be as good for pvp, since u can no longer throw them, meaning u need target to move at your feet.
After the june revamp patch the traditional longbow ranger has more variants and is quite a strong contender. Both LB/GS and LB/sword&dagger are viable options on a marauder amu (SPvP) or full zerker in WvW or with mix of either Knights/valk.
Traits makes much more sense now and it is harder to go with something that is “wrong”. Just read through em. Personally I love Beastly Warden which works great on bird pets and open up a new mechanic you havent seen before.

Trap ranger is one of the strongest, if not the strongest pvp ranger spec right now. You may not throw them anymore, but at least they do real dmg now.

Sina.9208:

nacario.9417:

It is to my knowledge that traps may not be as good for pvp, since u can no longer throw them, meaning u need target to move at your feet.
After the june revamp patch the traditional longbow ranger has more variants and is quite a strong contender. Both LB/GS and LB/sword&dagger are viable options on a marauder amu (SPvP) or full zerker in WvW or with mix of either Knights/valk.
Traits makes much more sense now and it is harder to go with something that is “wrong”. Just read through em. Personally I love Beastly Warden which works great on bird pets and open up a new mechanic you havent seen before.

Trap ranger is one of the strongest, if not the strongest pvp ranger spec right now. You may not throw them anymore, but at least they do real dmg now.

Don’t over sell it.
Traps work well in lower ranked PvP but aren’t very effective when you get matched up against more experienced players. They are also decent in WvW if they compliment your party comp. They are fantastic for preventing enemies from power rezzing downed players or stomping one of your allies and if you can immobilize them in your fire trap and bonfire you will do some serious damage.

Ariete.6509:

• Bring guard shout, which no longer has a cast time and give 90% swiftness to your party.

Wait what

Yeah, well you need to bring the responding timbre which is minor in beastmastery

Some bugs need addressed still but overall the Ranger is in a pretty good place with room for some improvements. Some fun builds meta..ish that I enjoy.

PvE/dungeon
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXTnUqAtqgtCCmsActgh9gav9AIB+4ocfaegD4RIjfOR2D-ThRBABXt/o8rjTBAe6DA4JAQp6PmpEEA-e

PvP
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTnEqAtsgtCCmsAUtghMhyT8Eox/JPyf8OZDgDIjHqQ2D-TZRBABxXGYjHAQg7P8whAAgjAAA

Also some mean BM focus or Condi builds for 1v1/ganking out there.

Ranger makes a great main, mediocre alt, easy to use, and hard to master (when compared/vs other professions).

good luck

Wetpaw.3487:

Ranger makes a great main, mediocre alt, easy to use, and hard to master (when compared/vs other professions).

good luck

Just out of curiosity, which professions are you referring to that are easier to master than Ranger? I myself didn’t notice any difference in difficulty between “mastering” Necro, Guard, Thief, and Ranger, at least.

The micro-management of pet and pet/weapon swap traits plays big in how the Ranger performs. That aside Ranger is still not really on par with some of the meta professions due to pet mechanics, (lack of) group benefits, bugs, and ease of play. Many professions can perform w/less effort &/or more room for error.

Not saying the gap is huge towards any one profession, but it’s there. Overall since the patch the Ranger is in a far better place, and possibly on its way up.

Oh, forgot reflects:

• Taking advantage of quick draw, you can have reflects up for 5sec (cancel it at the very last moment since there is a bug which is preventing quickdraw to trigger the CD reduction on whirling defense if you let it channel its full duration) then have another 5sec reflect on another location roughly 6sec after the end of the first channel.

If they do something about about the 5 target buff limit in HoT, Rangers have a good chance at being included in the meta compositions in raids.

Right now they’re fine in PvE, but you’ll never find yourself (or anyone else) saying we need/want a ranger for this party.

Ariete.6509:

Yeah, well you need to bring the responding timbre which is minor in beastmastery

Jesus I thought you meant 90% swiftness rather than 90% uptime, lol.

Good Rangers are actually getting slightly popular. Not really meta, but I am invited into 50 lvl fractals regularly. The sad thing is that it’s all about reputation. Not class as it is. The risk of involving bad rangers is just not worth.
(I myself get skeptical about time efficiency when I see another Ranger in my PvE group)

But even though, when I’m not online when those groups are running I always get reactions from other groups saying “WoW, we do have the damage / I didn’t expect that DPS”.

Frost Spotter is a thing. But what is getting much better thing for sure is the Sinister. That is becoming a real thing in HoT.
Spirit (Sun+Frost) Spotter with burning keeping it’s DPS at 4K per second and bleeding at around 3k – the DPS gets much higher than with Zerk. The initial 6 seconds are naturally lower due to inefficiency of quickness.

But now you provide 2 permanent fire fields, Sun spirit that is a 3K damage per target affected every 8 seconds (roughly 15K bonus) and your Direct Damage for condi immune targets is better than anyone’s else (playing sinister) due to your pet.

I’m having huge success with it even though it’s not worth for Dungeon Runs. Any boss melts within 8 seconds thanks to Icebows.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Frost Spotter is a thing. But what is getting much better thing for sure is the Sinister. That is becoming a real thing in HoT.
Spirit (Sun+Frost) Spotter with burning keeping it’s DPS at 4K per second and bleeding at around 3k – the DPS gets much higher than with Zerk. The initial 6 seconds are naturally lower due to inefficiency of quickness.

But now you provide 2 permanent fire fields, Sun spirit that is a 3K damage per target affected every 8 seconds (roughly 15K bonus) and your Direct Damage for condi immune targets is better than anyone’s else (playing sinister) due to your pet.

I’m having huge success with it even though it’s not worth for Dungeon Runs. Any boss melts within 8 seconds thanks to Icebows.

Could you please post your build Tragic? How do you provide 2 permanent fire fields?

I believe Tragic is referring to the Sinister Axe/Torch Ranger that people have been picking up (more) lately. Below is one version of it. Minor variances on traits, sigils, and runes depending on how much gold you are willing to shell out and utilities you take. Both fire fields are from Bonfire and Flame Trap.

Sinister Ranger

Why felines? And not say drakes

Also it doesnt have a 2nd weapon.

Daharahj.1325:

Why felines? And not say drakes

Also it doesnt have a 2nd weapon.

One of the cats has an AoE might buff for its F2 and another of the cats straight up turns invisible while attacking for its F2. They bring a lot of damage.

The A/T condition set has the axe in one weapon set and the torch in the other weapon set. This means that you always have both equipped but can still swap weapon sets to trigger various effects. It doesn’t give you a new set of skills with fresh cooldowns but it’s a pretty cute little interaction.

It’s pretty neat, are there any combos I should be aware off? Unfortunately rune of balth doesn’t seem to trigger a finisher.

@Leodon
Yep, Wondrouswall’s posted build is the thing.

In practice, your bonfire is on a 10 second cooldown.
Your Flame trap on 12 (less if you have the chance to pre-set it which you usually do).

Since bonfire lasts 8 seconds (and have a CD of 10 thanks to QuickDraw) with Flame Trap combined provides a permanent Fire field(s).

Percentage-wise, how does an optimized A/T Sinister build compare roughly to a S+Axe/LB power build in terms of damage?

To quote what Nike from DnT posted:

NikeEU.7690:

30 second fight length…

Sinister ranger with full group buffs is around 14k dps.

Berserker staff ele is around 17.5k

Berserker Engineer is around 17k

Berserker ranger is around 14k.

Condi ranger is a viable replacement for berserker ranger, and more fun to boot. But it doesn’t change the overall meta because ranger is still much worse overall than multiple other options, however it doesn’t really kitten your team if you do use one.

Edit: Link to the Condi PvE Ranger thread with 3 pages worth of discussion. Worth glancing over if you want more insight or general info.

A/T Sinister vs. Zerker is more about the content you’re doing rather than theoretical DPS. IMO, zerker is generally better for most content provided that you are comfortable playing with sword, and Clarion Bond/Zephyr’s speed are much stronger in weaker group comps. Sinister suffers from ramp up time, being useless against structures, enemies moving out of bonfire and enemies being immune to burning. The main thing that makes me not run it as often is it’s reliance on expensive food.

Pernix talks about it in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Krn3R6UX98