Guild Wars 2

Looking to compare and contrast warriors and rangers. Specifically survivability and utility in dungeons and against world bosses. Two things to be aware of are that I have multiple 80’s already and, in general, I am not a fan of pets.

Talzed.4153:

I am not a fan of pets.

Warrior. Seriously, you’ll want to stay far away from rangers.

Warrior has it better on survivability too. You also only have 1 life bar to look after.

Well if you are not a fan of pets… what more is there to discuss? You are forced to use a pet as a Ranger, and it is a part of your character and your damage output.

I think Rangers are much more fun to play. Yes Warrior has efficient damage output, high base HP/armor, and high health regen… but Ranger has great weapon skills, nice mobility, defensive cooldowns, and ranger heals are pretty good too.

I got excited thinking this was going to be a match-up style thread. Now I am sad.

If you care what people think about you, play warrior. If you want a class mechanic that requires more than hitting ‘F1’ every 10 seconds, play ranger.

:3

PUGs love warriors and hate rangers. Truth to say, and note that my somehow abandoned main I liked to play is a ranger, pug runs are always easier if the team have more warriors and guardians than rangers.

Recently I do pug groups on warrior only. Most groups where we had a ranger member were struggling, and most groups consisting of zerker wars and guards with one ele or mesmer were smooth rides.

If you are a fan of pets, please play Necro, Ele, Guardian, Thief, Mes, Eng.
They both can summon stuffs. (e.g. minions, turrets, illusion…)
It’s still better than Ranger’s pets.

Better use up 1 skill slot than use up your profession skill slots (F1~F4) with a profession trait (Beast-master) that you won’t want to invest in.

warrior is more reliable and you will never have issues finding a party

Rangers have a bad stigma in PuG’s because of the whole “bearbow” thing. Though if played right they are very useful, top tier/record speed clearing.

The problem is, when joining a pug group your always worried that your going to be insta kicked or your kick atleast discussed. Sometimes i mention my weaps and traits:

“running s/h and s/a, spotter, 70% frost, healingspring full zerk”

It’s sad i know, but thats the way it is.

Warriors can do almost all that rangers can do, and contrary to common belief they cannot do whatever rangers do better. However, it will take a lot of time, gold and effort to prove them wrong.
The reason i said it will take a lot of gold, is because, you will have to buy/craft pretty much every gear sets in the game untill you find the right one for you

If you’re no fan of having a pet then that’s settled. Warrior for you.

That aside – here’s how answers to your questions look like:

• survivalability - glassy warrior is glassy. Tanky bear is still tanky despite ranger being glassy. Bad luck and got downed? No problem, ranger can call his pet to revive him, ignoring minor setback such as pet being dead (it’s insta-revived just to revive you:), low on hp (even when downed you can swap to 2nd, healthy pet) or getting hit (“Thank you sir, may i have another!”) as it revives my ranger.

And if you’re bit unconfortable when downed, there’s a trait to pop a nice 12 sec healing spring for you when you get downed, just your simple aoe heal, regen pulses, condition clenses and longest water combo field ingame. The usual deal for a ranger:)

• utility in dungeons - it’s a tie. Warrior is slightly above ranger (banners!), but then again if you got 4 warriors in a party anything non warrior is extra ulitlity. That scenario aside, it’s a fierce battle.

Warriors are racking up the damage with banners (crit damage buffs, precision and power buffs, even small stability casts), grant great party vigor with warhorn, and are known for abusive might and fury stacking.

Ranger on the other hand likes to go straight for the warrior’s jugular and provide protection that warriors lack and party healing that can make even water eles think twice if they’re the top dog in that department. When it comes to giving party swiftness, fury or regeneration, rangers can match a warrior anyday, however they lack a solid source of might stacking and easy to use source of party vigor.

Combo field wise…well just about anything trumps a warrios for obvious reasons. And having fire, ice and water field, sure doesn’t hurt ranger’s combo game.

Condition and control wise it’s a bit of draw yet again – both professions are great at crippling and immobilizing. Ranger has the advantage of chilling a lot and using different conditions or control effects via pets.

Warrior has the lead in immobilizing, and definite lead in crowd control – hammer burst, “stomp” or “fear me” utilities.

Despite that ranger has one card warrior can’t play – his pet. Street smart ranger can send in pet to draw in aggro, while his party stays unscathed, then have it fight there, go pest another mob, or return, bringing the party to him.

World bosses if they’re not that lethal, then warrior with his simple and hard hitting burst is the dish of the day. If they’re something really nasty that doesn’t like being approached, then it’s a tie between ranger’s bows and warrior’s bow & rifle.

If you like dueling and roaming while playing a condition bunker class, Ranger is for you. If you want to do anything else look somewhere else.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

If you’re no fan of having a pet then that’s settled. Warrior for you.

That aside – here’s how answers to your questions look like:

• survivalability - glassy warrior is glassy. Tanky bear is still tanky despite ranger being glassy. Bad luck and got downed? No problem, ranger can call his pet to revive him, ignoring minor setback such as pet being dead (it’s insta-revived just to revive you:), low on hp (even when downed you can swap to 2nd, healthy pet) or getting hit (“Thank you sir, may i have another!”) as it revives my ranger.

And if you’re bit unconfortable when downed, there’s a trait to pop a nice 12 sec healing spring for you when you get downed, just your simple aoe heal, regen pulses, condition clenses and longest water combo field ingame. The usual deal for a ranger:)

• utility in dungeons - it’s a tie. Warrior is slightly above ranger (banners!), but then again if you got 4 warriors in a party anything non warrior is extra ulitlity. That scenario aside, it’s a fierce battle.

Warriors are racking up the damage with banners (crit damage buffs, precision and power buffs, even small stability casts), grant great party vigor with warhorn, and are known for abusive might and fury stacking.

Ranger on the other hand likes to go straight for the warrior’s jugular and provide protection that warriors lack and party healing that can make even water eles think twice if they’re the top dog in that department. When it comes to giving party swiftness, fury or regeneration, rangers can match a warrior anyday, however they lack a solid source of might stacking and easy to use source of party vigor.

Combo field wise…well just about anything trumps a warrios for obvious reasons. And having fire, ice and water field, sure doesn’t hurt ranger’s combo game.

Condition and control wise it’s a bit of draw yet again – both professions are great at crippling and immobilizing. Ranger has the advantage of chilling a lot and using different conditions or control effects via pets.

Warrior has the lead in immobilizing, and definite lead in crowd control – hammer burst, “stomp” or “fear me” utilities.

Despite that ranger has one card warrior can’t play – his pet. Street smart ranger can send in pet to draw in aggro, while his party stays unscathed, then have it fight there, go pest another mob, or return, bringing the party to him.

World bosses if they’re not that lethal, then warrior with his simple and hard hitting burst is the dish of the day. If they’re something really nasty that doesn’t like being approached, then it’s a tie between ranger’s bows and warrior’s bow & rifle.

you forgot poison field and we can easily apply vigor too. Both on heal and pet swap.
Another point to mention is that even with might stacking, +15% crit chance and +10% damage is better then might, with might, it is simply epic.

its +7% crit chance and +7% damage :p

Ranger is Warrior BETA

Warrior will never be bad at anything until they actually nerf Healsig for real and you hate pets so the choice should be obvious.

warrior was top dog PvE even without the HS buff.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Combo field wise…well just about anything trumps a warrios for obvious reasons. And having fire, ice and water field, sure doesn’t hurt ranger’s combo game.

Bit unfair. Combo play involves fields and finishers and i’d say both classes are about even, with each having a clear focus on one aspect. While the warrior is poor on fields (fire on LB, that’s it?), it is a massive team player with blasts. Banner summon blasts, then banner 5 blasts, and the banner can be used by anyone for additional blasting. By comparison, the ranger only has the in-combat drake and the horn 5 (gotta love that blast, maybe the best buff we received EVER). There’s some whirl on both classes too, but whirl is generally underwhelming compared to blast.

cafard.8953:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Combo field wise…well just about anything trumps a warrios for obvious reasons. And having fire, ice and water field, sure doesn’t hurt ranger’s combo game.

Bit unfair. Combo play involves fields and finishers and i’d say both classes are about even, with each having a clear focus on one aspect. While the warrior is poor on fields (fire on LB, that’s it?), it is a massive team player with blasts. Banner summon blasts, then banner 5 blasts, and the banner can be used by anyone for additional blasting. By comparison, the ranger only has the in-combat drake and the horn 5 (gotta love that blast, maybe the best buff we received EVER). There’s some whirl on both classes too, but whirl is generally underwhelming compared to blast.

when it comes to combos, rangers only need a spammable blast to be far superior to warrior by all means.
We already got more finishers (that can be used in a practical, working manner. Yes you can possibly argue that a warrior can equip 4 banners. but then you become utterly useless on all fronts.), granted most of them is projectile or leap,

Prysin.8542:

when it comes to combos, rangers only need a spammable blast to be far superior to warrior by all means.
We already got more finishers (that can be used in a practical, working manner. Yes you can possibly argue that a warrior can equip 4 banners. but then you become utterly useless on all fronts.), granted most of them is projectile or leap,

More finishers? Warriors have access to every type of finisher as a utility skill for example. About the same access to projectile, and more access to leap. Add a fair amount of those finishers being pet-tied, and yes, the warrior is a better finisher in every way:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_ranger_combo_skills
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_warrior_combo_skills

Of course, they don’t have access to fields apart from fire. That makes the solo warrior pretty much a non starter for combos. But it’s really a great finisher class for group play.

Azure.8670:

Ranger is Warrior BETA

For what the OP has stated as requirements, a warrior would make more sense.

I will add, though, that 1V1 against any class build EXCEPT for perma stealth, Rangers totally kick kitten, and will destroy a warrior one on one (I state this with the caveat that both players are of equal ability). IMO Rangers are absolutely, hands down, the best roaming class.

Cassocaster.4576:

Azure.8670:

Ranger is Warrior BETA

For what the OP has stated as requirements, a warrior would make more sense.

I will add, though, that 1V1 against any class build EXCEPT for perma stealth, Rangers totally kick kitten, and will destroy a warrior one on one (I state this with the caveat that both players are of equal ability). IMO Rangers are absolutely, hands down, the best roaming class.

I actually had a few 1v1s against a guildie of mine last night as a ranger. We were both running really glassy builds too so it was a lot of fun. He was running Axe/Axe and Hammer with me as Greatsword Longbow. It was fairly even i would say. Basically if one person caught the other they would win that round.
Funniest things were the 6k counterattack kick and the hilt bash while he was mid air on his Earthshaker

To the OP Though:
A warrior in my opinion is a lot more brute force, where as a ranger requires more tactical play (more my style) to bring down their enemies.

Warrior is currently the Meta for dungeons, and with really simple and easy to kill mobs using 100B and Triple Chop and a 5second weapon swap it’s no wonder most people flock to them. Also having the highest base armor and highest health pool in the game at the same time helps too. That all may sound great but in reality what it brings is mind-numbingly boring gameplay.

Rangers right now are hated on a lot by the community. Between lots of useless traits and not the kindest UI/AI for their pets its not really a shocker either. As a ranger you will not see numbers as huge as you can on a warrior. If huge numbers is exciting gameplay for you than by all means go for the warrior. On the other hand the ranger brings a lot more tactical play to a fight. If its between supporting allies through spirits or survival skills or throwing down huge AOE heals that give regen. Their weapon skills have a lot more flare if you ask me and a lot of the weapon skills have great synergy between them, they don’t feel like just a bunch of random skills that are thrown together on a hotbar. Also on a ranger you will find one of the hardest and most unique weapons to use (1h sword) effectively. Blocking and countering that big hit with your great sword, or dazing them in middle of their attack and interrupting it (like I did earth shaker last night) is a pretty epic feeling. And that my friend is why i say ranger anyday.

Warrior, now i know what you’re thinking…Why would I suggest Warrior when I play my Ranger so much.

A. Ranger is able to kill Warriors in a 1v1, But that’s the only part of the game where a Ranger outshines a Warrior.

B. Warrior is pretty much better at everything else, Zerging, PVE, GvG, I mean..Its the best class period for all modes of Gameplay in this game..It has zero negatives…Zero..even 1v1 It can come out on top on most of the classes.

Warrior is the perfect example of a class that was given to much to fast to fix a minor issue it had (bad condition removal, they decided to go overboard with that, while giving them massive sustain)

Talzed.4153:

I am not a fan of pets.

Ranger is a pet class.

/thread

Im really not a fan of pets either usually mate, but tbh i really enjoy how they’re done in GW2, not just a ridiculously useless AI driven mob that follows you, they’re actually useful. Imo, just make both…level them side by side, they each have their strength’s and weaknesses and depending on build can both fill most roles in PvE and WvW.

I love my warrior for pve and small-large scale group roaming (and guild runs), ranger isnt as strong in the group environment, i usually run it for solo/duo roaming and thats about it. but as others have said…it depends on your build and what u wonna do with each of the classes. if you read enough into it you’ll find something that suits you perfectly for each, there are some very strong builds out there for both Warrior and Ranger atm.

You will not see as high BURST numbers on a ranger, however you will see high damage, consistently. So while you cant hope to do 30k strikes every 10-15 seconds, you can expect a constant stream of 3-4k strikes.

Just out of curiousity, when people talk about Ranger being awesome for 1v1… are they talking about condition bunker BM spec?

I am just wondering because I am new to Ranger and the only builds I have played are Longbow/Greatsword, and Sw/wh/GS BM build. Both are extremely fun to play and can hold their own 1v1 against power specs, but seem to melt vs heavy condition builds.

I am not a big fan of condition builds, because other than Necro and to a lesser extent Engi, the only way you can actually kill someone is if they stay and fight you forever. From what I have seen of condi BM rangers, there is nothing stopping your target from just walking away because while you may be tanky, your damage is just steady dots.

Prysin.8542:

You will not see as high BURST numbers on a ranger, however you will see high damage, consistently. So while you cant hope to do 30k strikes every 10-15 seconds, you can expect a constant stream of 3-4k strikes.

lol so can the warrior. This “sustained dps” myth really needs to die already…

Something that I feel really needs to be mentioned here is that warriors are boring as kitten. I have an ele (d/d or staff), ranger, and warrior I use in wvw and honestly I almost never pick my warrior to play anymore, even though it has the best gear, just because it is so so so boring.

That being said they do basically everything better than rangers with about 1/5th the effort (if that). Only thing rangers shine at is roaming and that’s because half of roaming is taking out NPCs and the other half is killing power zerkers with a condi bunker spec… oh wait any condi bunker can do that…

I do like ranger GS abilities a lot more than warrior at least.

Stx.4857:

Just out of curiousity, when people talk about Ranger being awesome for 1v1… are they talking about condition bunker BM spec?

I am just wondering because I am new to Ranger and the only builds I have played are Longbow/Greatsword, and Sw/wh/GS BM build. Both are extremely fun to play and can hold their own 1v1 against power specs, but seem to melt vs heavy condition builds.

I am not a big fan of condition builds, because other than Necro and to a lesser extent Engi, the only way you can actually kill someone is if they stay and fight you forever. From what I have seen of condi BM rangers, there is nothing stopping your target from just walking away because while you may be tanky, your damage is just steady dots.

This is the build I use for my ranger and the one from which I state that 1V1 it will rule:

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides/basics/ranger-build-guide-wvw-roamerlongbowgreatsword

Good luck!
(BTW, condi damage ignores armor so your best bet is to have condition removal up your sleeve, o wait, you already do with healing spring)