Guild Wars 2

just like the title says any tips guys ? thank you

Bleenko.2763:

just like the title says any tips guys ? thank you

Well according to the thief on the winning EU tournament team, the most important thing is sorting out your keybinds. And I totally agree.

Build wise, conquest lends itself towards being very tanky.

As a ranger you never want to stay stationary when you’re in a fight. Always move around your target. Know when to apply your poison and when to interupt with your shortbow. Save your dodges for when you need them also. I recomend every ranger to use the wolf for the fear, as it can save your life and your teammates aswell.

First off, you can’t spend any points in beastmastery or plan on being a beastmaster.

Keep your pet on passive and use F1/F3 to engage/disengage as necessary.

Don’t think you can just #yolo a group of players because you’re playing greatsword.

Keep your distance from the blob and do not just stand there with the back line. Circle around the fight as necessary to both interfere with their back line and to prevent just getting AOE’d to death.

Healing Spring is a water field. Understand water field interactions and use this wherever it’s necessary. Greatsword #3 -> HS -> Lightning Reflexes can augment your frontline’s survivability by a lot. That said, be sure your frontline isn’t pugs and call your water fields to be sure other fields are not placed down on top of it.

For longbow:
Only use Rapid Fire on enemies which will be going into stealth (mesmers/thieves) just before they will start going into stealth. RF does less damage than your #1 but it does have stealth/target tracking.

Use #3 to reposition (see circling above), not as a means of extra “burst” damage from Remorseless if you use it.

Point blank shot is incredibly useful as an engage skill on their frontline to interrupt targets without stability and push them out of the front line; conversely, using stealth towards the end of a complete flank, you can push their backline targets into your heavies.

RoA is pointless unless you’re roaming.

While unfortunate, RtW is almost necessary for longbow to work as a weapon, forcing you into 30 power.

DeceiverX.8361:

First off, you can’t spend any points in beastmastery or plan on being a beastmaster.

The ranger in the team that placed second in the EU ToL had 30 (edit, er sorry, 6) points in beastmastery.

Learn thy craft. What I mean is don’t just copy a build. Understand all the effect that a skill is capable of. In build creation don’t waste skill or abilities. If you have a build with regen you don’t need 3 skills/traits that will give you regen when you have a 90% uptime with two.

combo off yourself and others when you can.

While rapid fire does do less damage in general than the aa if you have an on hit sigil then it can be an offensive/defensive boost.

Nothing is wrong with a power ranger build that doesn’t me you have to be a glass cannon. you can be just as tank as a condi build and still do better damage.

Learn how to use the 1h sword. The axe both main and off hand are better than a lot of people think.

Rangers can have so amazing control learn good positioning to make the best use of those abilities.

id just like to say thanks so much guys hah i followed ur tips and it instantly improved my ranger and how i play it. If u have more feel free to share it would help alot thanks

Do not use LB#4 on cooldown!

Only use when:
Creating distance from an enemy.
Knocking-off rezes or stomps.
Disrupting formations. (Wolf fear is better for this but, hey.)

Having multiple rangers in WvW knocking enemies around like pinball is amusing just once. Control, and they will love you.

a lot of noobs rely on healing power like Settle or Celtic.

Try to play something that actually do dmg and learn to dodge at right time / using skill at right time. this will improve your game play. ….. not just trying to out heal and do little to no dmg ( that bring your team down as well )

shout warrior could do a better job at that role.

Exactly what DeceiverX.8361 said. Thumbs up.

Rangers have to really watch their footing. Get jumped by someone and you’ll most likely end up dead instantly.

If i may add, don’t stand in 1 spot. Keep moving. Use LB #3 to confuse enemies and reposition yourself constantly. (if you are using LB)

Beastmastery is one of our better lines (when you have learnt how to use pet that is), and offer both some handy utility, and some support. How you build your beastmaster however, is up to you.

Spirit ranger or reroll class. Rangers would be at bottom tier if they didn’t use a condi bunk spirit build.

“How to not be a bad ranger at pvp/wvw”

As far as WvW roaming goes, first and foremost, learn how to fight common solo roaming classes (Thieves, Mesmers and Warriors jump to mind). Otherwise you risk becoming one of the oh-so-many forum posters creating the daily, “X class are OP, please nerf” threads. You don’t want to be “that guy”; you know, the video game tantrum thrower that blames his losing on another class’s mechanics, instead of his own lack of knowledge or playing skills.

Both in WoW and Lotro, I was a dedicated solo/small group WvW roamer. Having decided to give GW2 a whirl, and knowing that my play-style would not change, I immediately made it a priority to become very familiar with the mechanics and skill rotations of other classes in general. And since obviously, the high-burst squishy stealth class would be out in force in this games WvW just as in all other MMOs, I made learning stealth mechanics and weapon skill Thief rotations a priority.

So I rolled my Ranger, did the PvE thing to 80, geared up and then did the WvW zerg-blob thing for a short while ( I despise zerg-blobbing, but I needed to understand it regardless). Then I did 2 things: 1. grabbed a well regarded WvW Thief and Mesmer player from my guild and asked him to duel me over-and-over again while also explaining what, how and why he was doing the things he did and how his rotations work with different weapon skills. and 2. Later on I rolled a Thief myself, leveling it exclusively in WvW, and solo 99% of the time. This all sounds like a lot, but in realty it took very little of my playing time to do, and the pay-off more than made up for the learning-curve effort. Also, a few nasty experiences being pawned by Necros straight away sent me “back to school” with a well played Necro player in my guild.

Now let me get something out of the way: Yes, hell yes, I still get my butt handed to me by many a good player out there (and no doubt will continue to) – but I ALSO get my own very big fat share of kills too, and many against those very same good players. Oh, and BTW, believe me, killing Thieves or Mesmers is not nearly as hard as the tantrum throwers make it seem. But they will annoy and frustrate the hell out of you, so if you think you have some kind of “right” not to be annoyed or frustrated, take a pass on WvW roaming and stick to the Zerg-blob.

And lastly, you have to be honest with yourself. What I mean by this is, if you are by nature hot-headed, thin-skinned or extremely casual in your gaming approach – WvW roaming (especially solo roaming) is something you should pass on. Because it will only make you mad as hell, and possibly it could even turn you into “that guy” on the forums; the whine-QQ master that has a million reasons why his class needs buffs and the other guys class needs nerfs – but among those million reasons, not a single one point to his own short-comings.

I’d highly recommend just getting the hang of the profession, learn how to use your pet (absolutely crucial if you want to be a good ranger), other than that it REALLY depends on the type of build you’re running.

You can always check out the ranger podcast Arrow to the Knee on http://sittingonacouch.com or you can message me in game and I’d totally be up for helping you out!

Liza.2758:

a lot of noobs rely on healing power like Settle or Celtic.

Try to play something that actually do dmg and learn to dodge at right time / using skill at right time. this will improve your game play. ….. not just trying to out heal and do little to no dmg ( that bring your team down as well )

shout warrior could do a better job at that role.

Real good sign of your expertise there, writing “Cleric’s” as “Celtic”….

Fluffball.8307:

DeceiverX.8361:

First off, you can’t spend any points in beastmastery or plan on being a beastmaster.

The ranger in the team that placed second in the EU ToL had 30 (edit, er sorry, 6) points in beastmastery.

OP mentioned WvW. If you run a pet build in WvW (assuming you’re not doing 1v1’s, in which case you’re not really doing WvW) you’re not going to fare nearly as someone building deliberately to avoid as much pet use as possible regardless of how good you are with a pet.

The BM line is fine for sPvP and 1v1/small-scale fighting if you’re building bunker or tank-oriented, however simply put, the line is inadequate for WvW play due to roaming opposition being way too slippery and bursty for the pet to matter at all, and the zergs way too AOE-intensive for the pet to stay alive or even have any impact at all in a given group fight. Even then, ranger has some high potential builds in sPvP which are now being experimented with which also do not use the BM line.

Expiatus.4210:

Do not use LB#4 on cooldown!

Only use when:
Creating distance from and enemy.
Knocking-off rezes or stomps.
Disrupting formations. (Wolf fear is better for this but, hey.)

Having multiple rangers in WvW knocking enemies around like pinball is amusing just once. Control, and they will love you.

This. Millions times this. When I see a friendly longbow ranger entering the fight, I can’t help but wish that there was friendly fire enabled so I could take the ranger down before he knocks every single enemy out of my melee range. Only use it when you really need it.

Backpedaling and keyboard turning makes you easy target to pick off. Also it’s important to be aware what’s going on around you, don’t get tunnel visioned into chasing someone or else you will find out all your friends have moved away and you are all alone in the middle of an enemy group.

Try not to be squishy. It gives us a bad rap.

1. Never turn your back to the enemy.
2. Know your enemy and you will know how to counter their approach.
3. Stay calm, very calm and use your skills in an efficient manner, a calm mind can easily turn the fight into your favor.
4. Go to pvp on 1 vs 1 non rated SOLO arenas, practice practice practice a lot and come up with better builds.
5. Learn to defeat all professions in 1 vs 1 fights, from the easy to the difficult opponents.
6. Learn to fight as part of a team.
7. Never make a build that has anything less than 2500 in total armor, unless you plan on being a sniper and even so you can still achieve nearly 3000 in total armor.
8. Know how to use your pet perfectly.
9. When you are in a do or die moment, remember to breathe.
10. Your first measure of progress will be simple: you’re capable of defeating most thieves in combat, in wvw and pvp, at least 2/3 fights should be your victory and that is the first step.

Good luck!

DeceiverX.8361:

RoA is pointless unless you’re roaming.

I agree with everything else you said, but this? Entangle lasts all of 0.5 seconds in a zerg fight. And there seems to be no end to the number of necros and mezes that are doing aoe boon stripping. It’s saved my life plenty of times.

What other leet would you recommend?

Edit: woops, I read RaO. What is RoA?

Serraphin Storm.2369:

While rapid fire does do less damage in general than the aa if you have an on hit sigil then it can be an offensive/defensive boost.

I noticed this recently with a Sigil of Strength. Sometimes now I’ll use both Rapid Fire and Barrage at the beginning of an engagement to build might stacks. You can easily get 10+ stacks on your own off of one Barrage into a group…with enough precision .

a t s e.9614:

Spirit ranger or reroll class. Rangers would be at bottom tier if they didn’t use a condi bunk spirit build.

Spirit ranger ONLY applies to PvP. In WvW it is horribly weak outside 1v1 or 5v5. As for PvP, you will find that the railgun LB (air+fire 60260) is equally efficient as any spirit ranger build. Trapper is simply a beast.

As for personal skill – it matters, yes. Knowing the other professions do also matter. Knowing their rotations only matter when there is rotations to watch for.
A DD ele has a rotation, a DD thief has a rotation, a hammer warrior just bashes face at keyboard and hopes to win….

FrouFrou.4958:

Expiatus.4210:

Do not use LB#4 on cooldown!

Only use when:
Creating distance from and enemy.
Knocking-off rezes or stomps.
Disrupting formations. (Wolf fear is better for this but, hey.)

Having multiple rangers in WvW knocking enemies around like pinball is amusing just once. Control, and they will love you.

This. Millions times this. When I see a friendly longbow ranger entering the fight, I can’t help but wish that there was friendly fire enabled so I could take the ranger down before he knocks every single enemy out of my melee range. Only use it when you really need it.

Backpedaling and keyboard turning makes you easy target to pick off. Also it’s important to be aware what’s going on around you, don’t get tunnel visioned into chasing someone or else you will find out all your friends have moved away and you are all alone in the middle of an enemy group.

My favorite is when they run piercing arrows and knock every single enemy out of your teams “killing field” (where you’ve dumped all your big damage)

WvW: You can’t use the same build for zerg fights and roaming. Until recently, condition ranger was better for roaming, though I have recently read on these forums about some power builds but I am dubious as to whether they would be suitable for a player who is unseasoned.

Mobility is very important in wvw. You need some form of swiftness if you solo and probably if you are in a small group. Warhorn, signet, greatsword, elite Ramapge as One or nature grandmaster (no. 12 trait Nature’s Voice) are possible options.

Play other classes. You will understand the gamne better. It costs nothing extra for the 1st 5 characters. If you want to roam solo, levelling a thief helps understand thieves – since I would estimate that between approx. 1/3-2/3 of solo roamers are thieves.

You don’t necessarily have to solo. You can duo or grab a few others.

Always use consumables (food and sharpening stones/maintenance oil/crystals). You can use cheaper foods until you get yourself geared up.

Prysin.8542:

a t s e.9614:

Spirit ranger or reroll class. Rangers would be at bottom tier if they didn’t use a condi bunk spirit build.

Spirit ranger ONLY applies to PvP. In WvW it is horribly weak outside 1v1 or 5v5. As for PvP, you will find that the railgun LB (air+fire 60260) is equally efficient as any spirit ranger build. Trapper is simply a beast.

As for personal skill – it matters, yes. Knowing the other professions do also matter. Knowing their rotations only matter when there is rotations to watch for.
A DD ele has a rotation, a DD thief has a rotation, a hammer warrior just bashes face at keyboard and hopes to win….

Trapper or bust. If you’re roaming or in small groups, trapper will destroy people. Every fight I win with trapper I lol a bit because of how ridiculously hard it hits. It’s not bad in zergs either assuming you know how to dodge. If you keep dropping traps everywhere, and you’re using a mainhand axe, you’ll get a LOT of tags and a LOT of bags.

Bleenko.2763:

just like the title says any tips guys ? thank you

Follow numbered order, that easy.

1: Learn to kite
2: Learn conditional timers(bleed, poison)
3: use your cooldowns situational
4: Try to keep a meat shield between you and your opponent(mostly when caping nodes, this way they focus on the meaty and leave you alone)
5: LEARN YOU WILL NOT WIN EVERY ENGAGEMENT,

Thank you
Crystlviper

FrouFrou.4958:

Expiatus.4210:

Do not use LB#4 on cooldown!

Only use when:
Creating distance from and enemy.
Knocking-off rezes or stomps.
Disrupting formations. (Wolf fear is better for this but, hey.)

Having multiple rangers in WvW knocking enemies around like pinball is amusing just once. Control, and they will love you.

This. Millions times this. When I see a friendly longbow ranger entering the fight, I can’t help but wish that there was friendly fire enabled so I could take the ranger down before he knocks every single enemy out of my melee range. Only use it when you really need it.

Well, sometimes, when you catch someone distracted and alone, it’s not bad to open with Lb#4 to chain it with a pet’s inmobilize/knockdown/fear, entagle, mud… unless it’s a warrior with lots of vit/armor you are putting a lot of preassure in a few seconds.

For pvp, the key of being a good player is knowing your priorities. You should always consider what would be more beneficial to your team.
Also knowing the weaknesses of your build is really important. Sometimes you can win fights by running away.

For WvW, i think ranger is subpar. We lack aoe skills on ranged weapons and pets still die instantly in zerg fights. For roaming, the main problem is disengaging the enemy. If a thief, mes or warrior roamer realizes that he will lose the fight, he can use a few tricks to run away safely. But for us, it is hard to run away from an enemy. The only advice i can give to a roaming ranger is to be aware of your surroundings and try to understand what your opponent is doing.

I’m still a beginner but traps are pretty awesome in WvW. With Poison Master trait, you can easily dish out 1.3k+/second condi damage to an entire train with poison and flame trap+bonfire which should be ticking for bleeds as well with Sharpened Edges trait.

Which in some cases is better than necro staff marks which is visible, can be evaded through, and may only affect 1 target. When traited, traps apply more condi damage than necro staffs, are as large as wells, and have extremely low cooldowns compared to wells. Then you have axe#2 and shortbow#2 which don’t have a 5 target limit, and possibly axe#4? (wiki says the pull has a target limit, but I’m not sure about it shooting out).

Spike trap is super deadly against tight groups. Layer spike trap with chill/burn/poison traps and you can immobilize the driver+surrounding frontline tanks and lure them to eat pulsing condi damage. You can easily force half the team to pop cleanses early which should help your team immensely.

All of the tips here so far are good, follow those!
One tip I always tell anyone else who plays ranger which has saved me a lot; carry one of every weapon we can equip. I usually use Sword/Axe for my main weapon set, but I constantly swap the axe out for the dagger or warhorn, it depends on the situation and what it calls for. Doing this, especially if you’re in a small group in WvW means you can better aid the group and be of more use than if you just auto attack with your longbow from a distance, or with any weapon really. Always keep an eye on what is happening and switch in and out accordingly, but always remember to swap back to your main weapon set before entering a fight!

Oh, also, master using the 1h sword. One of the best weapons we have. It can be a big learning curve if the mechanic gets to you, but push past that and you’ll see its potential.

Super build here for WvW.
6 markmanship (mainly you go for Signet of the Beastmaster [grandmaster], can also go for Signemastery[adept])
6 wilderness (Shared Anguish [adept], Barkskin [grandmaster])
rest 2 traits can go where you want

Since you have Signet of the Beastmaster you gain Signets you use (also pets gains them)
Skills you go
1.Signet of Stone (extra armor + 6 sec invulnerability)
2.Signet of the Wild (passive regeneration, more damage, stability)

PS: as for weapons use what you want. I have good versions of all weapons.
usually for WvW i use GS (mobility) & LB (crowd control, catch strugglers)
be flexible and find the weapons that suit your playstyle.

Follow the commander and and enjoy slaying people with your heart’s content.