Guild Wars 2

I’m making a new class trying to go for 100% map completion could use some help deciding on a ranger or thief. I had my main pros and cons was wondering if I could get some help deciding.

Ranger pros
Love attack animation with sword
Decent dps
Not to squishy using bears to tank

Cons
Hate the long bow, feels like useless ranged dps
Swords auto attacks annoying with lunges
Pet doesn’t seem to always take the agro

Thief pros
Love the short bow for ranged
Enjoy initiative system
Great dps

Cons
Low level mobs are just crushing me
Don’t want to rely on black powder and just auto attacks isn’t as fun

My main questions are….

Does thief get a little bit more better at surviving later levels

Will thief black powder and just auto attacks out dps ranger?

Does ranger do better overall 100% solo all through pve? Not doing any dungeons have warrior and guardian for that.

Do bears still tank fine in places such as orr?

for the propose of map completion

Ranger
Pro’s
Pets
GS#3, MH S#2, SotH (gap closes and speed increases)
Pets
our down state (pet rez) means that we rarely need to run back from a way point
Pets
we can use our pets to distract things that we need to commune with
Pets

Con’s
you need to remember to press 1 before going afk
ugly trench coats

thief
Pro’s
none

Con’s
your playing a thief
ugly trench coats

If all you are doing is map completion rangers pretty much win at doing this and alot of that is due to the pet. Oh and don’t use a bear to tank use a cat and you tank for it, if you really need a tank pet use a drake as it actually fights back.

TL;DR: map compleation takes a long time so play the charter that has the nicest bum, as you are going to be staring at it for quite some time

Rangers a pretty great at open world pve. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the best (or at least on par with a warrior). just sticking that out there.

that being said, if all you want to do is map completion, thieves can probably get around faster. you’ll have a harder time with communes/heart events though (activities that I as a ranger can just /afk through with no effort)

I’d go with ranger. decent mobility for PoI’s/Vistas, Pets for Skill Points, Easily top tier for completing events without effort

edit: and towards your last 4 questions

1. when you get more skilled with the class you’ll understand more about surviving, so in a sense, yes,

2. No. ranger auto-attacks are our primary dps. i doubt that’s the same for thief.

3. Overall, yes. as I said thieves have a bit better mobility though.

4. I can kill a giant in orr before it can kill my wolf, so I’d say yes.