Guild Wars 2

I just wanted to pop in and say this new expansion is amazeballs. I feel like there’s meaningful progression with the mastery system again. It’s something worth earning. Same with the elite specs. People with maxed elite specs make me jealous. The content is challenging. I freaking love gliding. These maps are huge… being on TS and hearing someone fall off the map for the first time is just great. And finally the story! Ah so far… It’s better than the entirety of the personal story and living story combined, and I’ve only played like 5 missions.

So yeah anyway I gave it a few days expecting to find some fatal flaw but… found myself losing sleep because I can’t stop playing. The content is challenging, people are crying, and I’m just over here weed whacking with my new scythe.

I’m a huge fan. Played every weekend and this one feels a lot less “lord-rushy” by far. It’s a rarity to break down both doors on the first rush now. Defense and supply matter. Killing someone with two supply has consequence. Mist champions matter and they always spawn on the losing side giving a comeback opportunity. I dunno maybe I’m in the minority but I had fun today in PvP. Granted I did get a bit drunk and start yelling at mesmers…

At least it’s not 3 more years of conquest!

By design the rifle is a bulky, long ranged weapon which undermines the quick, evasive class I love. A good thief can stand in the thick of a fight just by dodging, blinding, and teleporting around. Miss a dodge or blow your teleports too early and you die. It’s high risk, high reward gameplay. I would hate to see thieves reduced to standing safely on walls shooting into the fray much like LB rangers do now. Sure it’s funny to instagib someone from 1200 range but it’s… not lasting gameplay and good gameplay should not be sacrificed for lore.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again. Rematch.

I’m down. Just send me a pm when you want to duel I’ll be in sPvP for a while.

Prysin.8542:

with such comment, it seems like you set a requirement of tournament victory in order for a build to be called viable or even good. I will however remind you that there is 4 other players on the team that each can be the source of a loss.

lol what’s the point in arguing? You’ll all just run your LB/GS builds anyway. There’s a reason rangers are referred to as free bags in WvW. There’s a reason people are shocked when they get beat by a ranger. Yet you still all preach the viability of power rangers. I’m done. You can drive this class to the ground for all I care. I’ll be in PvP getting free kills if you need me.

Power ranger isn’t viable. Everyone points to Eurantien as proof otherwise but we’ll see how the actual games go.

Embrace the cheese. It’s the only way to play this map.

Longbow rangers annoy me the most. Not because they’re good but because they’re all so bad. I die a little on the inside every time I’m forced to murder some poor innocent little longbow ranger. He just wants to pew pew why can’t we just let them pew pew?!

Hambows and axebows. Catch an earthshaker or an eviscerate and it’s gg for you. Meanwhile the warrior just walks through damage and conditions with blanket immunity and passive regen to heal up one of the highest health pools in the game. I can’t be the only one that thinks this class is just absurd. Is anyone here defending the class who doesn’t play warrior?

Find a group of friends that are willing to work around your disability rather than a group of strangers. Teams trying out now probably won’t even make it into the ToL, and even if they do, they’ll get crushed in the first round. I wouldn’t even associate myself with them if I were you :P so don’t take it too hard.

My unqualified opinion on the topic:
1. Warrior
Really any class can excel at this. 1v1s are often determined by player skill.
2. Thief
Unparalleled mobility and stealth.
3.Warrior
Toughness with sustained DPS and spike damage + stability for the stomps.
4.Thief
Ability to spike backline DPS and then cleave while they try to res can turn the tide.

Those are just my opinions based on what I play and what I see. Any class can be made to be epic. There are no hard counters in this game so if you learn to master the class you can fulfill any role quite well.

I feel like I’m obligated to recommend a trapper build. I’ve never lost to a thief. ever. Even in the beginning before the ‘revealed’ nerf, when thieves were rampant and OP as kitten none of them could beat my ranger. Problems with shadow refuge? Go over there and drop all your traps on their perfect trap-sized circle of stealth.

None of the classes I play have ever had a problem with thief. Even the current S/D thieves that everyone is complaining about. I actually rolled a thief because I felt that they were under-powered and I like a challenge. Guess I was wrong judging by all these forum posts XD

From my short experience though thief is one of the more challenging classes to play well and the people who complain about them usually don’t understand how the thief works. Now that’s just my experience! lol and for reference I play Ranger, Mesmer, Guardian, Engineer, and now Thief.

Odik.4587:

Some very experienced shatter mesmer have no trouble with s/d thiefs
^
very experienced shatter mesmer – OK …
above this on 1×1 server got feared in dodge,DODGE INTERRUPT,ofc good thing to interrupt dodge somehow (it was condigaywarrior) 10 sec 4 stack confusions and while i was feared 20 000 pin down which isnt op (15 sec cd lol)
how some1 can like things like that and ppl like u , L2P BROS U DO IT WRONG
everycondiclass > mesmer due no condi remove
thief > mesmer, unlimited dodges, 8-10 k burst an 2-4k autoattacks YOLO
ele > mesmer , outhealing everything mix of high condi and physical damage(hello to buffed celestial amulet)
hammbow > mesmer – u wont win bcuz or u run away from fire or die there
lb / axe sword > mesmer (celestial or soldier doesnt matter) i cant see impale animation because anet dont think what this is important to see incoming torment , mesmer torment u can see at boons and dodge, imlape? u will face everything ? arc arrow > dodge , u left 1 dodge , pin down > dodge, say hello to torment and eviscerate
dps guardian > mesmer – blocks ,blind,extremely high damage , huge instant heal from meditations, 1 of them teleport to enemy burn and he doing what he want we got 1 dead body which must be stomped
no need to tell about broken pets and rangers i guess …
aw engis 4200 burning 7 seconds ,actual recharge time 3 seconds, since mesmer dont have condi remove its matter of seconds or u kill him in few seconds or u slowly die from burning/poison/confusions/nades etc
ow necros … signet of spite bye mesmer
and im talking about tpvp builds
u want to say everything in this game designed to fk mesmer?
(tail swipe, shield of wrath who dont understood)

That post gave me cancer.

LB/GS…. explain to me why.

As far as sPvP goes I can give you some general tips but if you’re looking for a full blown guide then I’m not the guy to write one and there isn’t really much to learn in WvW. Go in and pew pew stuff.

1. Try to fight on point. Points can be held by one person. Having multiple people on a point does nothing. Don’t stack on top of an uncontested point. For example when the game starts and two people go to close point (which is the point closest to your spawn) don’t stand there with that person capping the point unless an enemy comes in to contest it. In that case kill the guy 2v1 quickly. Otherwise leave your teammate there to cap the point and go assist the fight at mid point.

2. Rangers are typically close point bunkers. This means you cap the close point and then go assist the fight at mid but your priority is keeping the close point held. If you see someone running to decap it or see it contested then go fight them off. Pushing the far point is generally frowned upon in the higher level PvP. Your priority is to hold home and mid. Obviously these rules change as the game changes so try and adapt. There is no set rule when and where to rotate so just play a lot of hot joins until you understand the basic rotations.

3. LB/GS isn’t a good build for sPvP. People might tell you it is, in fact there will be some people in this thread “Well I run LB/GS and I can do this!” they’re wrong. I’m sorry that’s just it. If you want DPS then roll another class. We are most effective as condition or beastmaster bunkers. There are plenty of builds on these forums and plenty of people willing to help you build one if you ask.

I think that’s it… the best way to learn is to play plenty of hot joins. If you want to run LB/GS in hot joins then there is nothing wrong with that. It’s a place to practice with builds and learn the game. There is no real consequence for wining or losing and the structure is usually pretty lax. People can get a little salty but that’s just PvP for you. Enjoy sPvP

I never understood why people were surprised when I beat them as a ranger. I never understood why people thought rangers were “free bags” in WvW. I always felt like our class was in a solid place if lacking proper specialization at times. That’s what I thought… until I started finding other rangers on my thief and guardian.

Bad rangers are bad and I don’t know why that is. Is it because we aren’t carried by passives like other professions? Is it because we have AI to manage and work with? I saw a ranger in WvW the other day running LB/GS, spike trap, and runes of the vampire. I mean… I don’t even… wut? I just don’t understand why there are so many bad rangers.

Anyway my point is we’re not bad. I agree with most of what you said though. We need some work but we’re not in such a bad place as most people think.

Half the fun of a thief is watching people rage on the forums after you’ve killed them.

Thief OP pls nerf

Personally I’m a fan of might stacking, double sigil proc and strength runes. It brings more damage and burst into the game. I’m so sick of seeing games that are bunker v bunker. Stop the passive play and learn to dodge.

Thief! Roll a thief!

Seriously though I’ve played ranger, guardian, mesmer, engineer. and necro. None have been as much fun as my thief.

Warrior might be a solid alternative as they’re a pretty forgiving class for beginners in PvP. Thief has a steeper learning curve.

Whatever you do, join a guild, make some friends, and go at it together. This game, pvp especially, can become frustrating if you don’t have someone to laugh with.

So you’re a new ranger, inevitably you’re going to run LB/GS. Something about that weapon set attracts the newbies… if someone could explain to me this phenomenon I would appreciate it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Some-questions-from-new-ranger/first#post4088005

Link to build discussion. If you insist on running greatsword I would recommend Prysin’s build. There are other solid builds further down if you want to mess around. Feel free to pop into the ranger forums! It’s not all QQ… ok most of it is QQ but there are some hidden gems like this.

Daishi.6027:

Because the skill floor is so low anyone can fight with it and be effective without being punished for wasted moves.

Lots of PvEers who are new to PvP or players that are just lacking in general why not roll a safe bet and still be credit to team?

Yeah warriors are a pain.

Yes! Step one of rangers’ world domination is nearly complete! Now if only we could get them all to stop running LB/GS then we could make some real progress!

Ah the beauty. We sit here and argue about how thief is OP and the warriors sit in their fort, peeking over the battlements saying “nobody look over here!”

If you’re willing to take a 3 day ban to gamble with your internet connection so be it.

Julie Yann.5379:

Basically, nobody from Australia (they have horrible connections) should be allowed to SoloQ so that your 9 other people can have a good even game. I hate 4v5 as much as everyone else but restricting an entire continent from Soloq doesn’t seem like a reasonable solution.

What are you talking about? I queue with Australians all the time, in fact, I’m in a primarily Australian guild and they’ve never d/ced on me. I, on the other hand, have been having issue with my modem shutting down periodically. Guess what I’m not doing today.

Yes! More thief nerfs!
grabs pitchfork

Vigor increases the pet’s endurance regeneration so that it can dodge more often. Otherwise it would be crushed in team fights by AoE and serve no other purpse than to kitten the ranger.
Right?
cries

To answer your question, vigor does nothing for the pet. lol

RoRo.8270:

Easy fix when the match is ready everyone has to click a ready button. Obviously if everyone doesn’t click it within 10seconds then you get put back into the mm. This is how it works in counter strike go. People queue up and alt tab/walk away and forget they queue up. Note that it’s impossible to get 100% 5v5 the point is to reduce the amount of 4v5 that occur. Too bad anet doesn’t care though

That’s actually not a terrible idea. Would cut down que times with afkers being booted and replaced quickly. Though to say Anet doesn’t care is to ignore the ban from tPvP if you so much as lag out of a few games. What other game bans you for hours on end because you missed a few matches? There are even forum posts whining about it. If Anet did anything right, it was implementing that epic kittening Dishonored debuff. It seriously makes my heart lift a little every time I see one of them running around HoTM

Welcome to the forums.

Adding incentives for the few thousand people who still play competitive PvP is pointless. Something needs to be done to revive the playerbase rather than try and hold on to the dwindling people still there.

Does anyone else have trouble with condi warriors in sPvP or am I just bad? XD

Happens once every few Foefire games on my thief. Only started playing thief about two weeks ago though so when it started I don’t know. I just know that it’s a common issue and I’ve learned to avoid porting on that spot. Usually aim more to the left.

Too many people play the ranger how they want to rather than playing to the class’ strengths. If you play “archer” and don’t manage your pet then you will be punished. If you run full zerk LB/GS ranger in sPvP… kill yourself. The hate stems from ignorance. The ranger certainly has its flaws but I see the same posts you do and it’s never constructive. Usually just angry QQ because their bad build is bad.

I think they just need to add more to PvP. The April 15th patch really only added a few QoL changes and some minor re balancing yet it seemed to spark the PvP community alive for a short time at least. Guild Wars 1 had so many different options for PvP. Here we have conquest and WvW. Don’t get me wrong WvW is incredible but after tens of thousands of kills… you just need something else. Same for conquest. Something needs to be done to break up the monotony. Right now I’m content with rolling different classes and getting good with them in PvP but I’m running out of classes.

If we had faster pets and birds that could scale walls instead of flying up the stairs I would be sooo happy.

I would recommend a celesial trapper build but since you’re not into that style of play (heart broken) Prysin’s build looks solid.

Keep in mind we don’t do power builds well. A percentage of our damage is taken off the top in order to balance us with our kittenty kittening broken worthless pet. So no matter how glassy you go, you will never be able to play DPS effectively. I don’t think I need to tell a shatter mesmer what a joke LB/GS DPS rangers are >.>

Remember to swap out your pet and use the F2 when it is available. The best thing you can learn on ranger is how to make your broken worthless kittenty kittening pet not be a broken worthless kittenty kittening pet.

Dude that no prize is mine.

Pet: Hambow Warrior

Skills: Carry – The Hambow warrior picks the ranger up and carries him on his back. Together they ride through PvP best friends forever!
(other 3 skills optional)

Pet AI doesn’t matter because the hambow warrior doesn’t require intelligence to function effectively.

Seriously though I’m an Asuran ranger and if I could ride a hambow warrior into battle like some sort of mighty steed… life complete.

Inverted.7439:

bows are bad, rangers don’t have much going for them but definitely more than you people think. They’re a very strong class but it’s the bearbows or shortbow rangers that set the terrible image. (sword/Greatsword is your best dmg)

You leave my shortbow ranger alone -.-

I will say we excel at small skirmishes and 1v1 so we make excellent roamers but lack the specialization required for top tier PvP/PvE. We don’t bring anything specific to a team that another class can’t do better.

Just to throw my vote in here… I want a map vote system. Nothing more, nothing less.

I don’t need (or want) any sort of filtering system. I don’t care what you do with people who don’t vote or don’t want to vote. I don’t care what you do with people who never get to play their treasured Skyhammer again. I don’t care how you determine which map is chosen in the event of a tie.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Video-s-WvW-Longbow-Ranger-Roaming/first#post4009260

I’m not well versed in LB/GS builds so I figured I could point you to this guy. Just know that I hate you for running LB/GS and everyone like you. Just kidding. Not really. Maybe a little. But only a little. Welcome to the Ranger!

Fluffball.8307:

I’m not sure how serious I am, but I would like to see an elite pet elephant for like 45 seconds that functions similarly to a champ abomination, berserk stampeding through the middle of a WvW zerg. I’m picturing bodies flying all over the place like the oliphant things in the last LotRs movie.

Fluffball for Ranger President 2016.

Big or small they’re all instagibbed by AoE the same way. :P However, an Asuran ranger running the traited Beastmaster Signet is just hilarious.

Prysin.8542:

if you are referring to the “moving forward instead of backwards” bug some people claim to have.

I do not have it, however i get a weird sliding at the end of the jump animation.

I recommend reinstalling GW2 as it may be a problem caused by local programs interacting with GW2.exe in a not so positive manner.

As I understand it, the sliding animation is an intentional nerf. The animation itself is glitched so that when you shoot backwards your charcacter jumps forward, away from the target, then slides backwards toward the target. As far as re installing GW2 goes I would. instead, recommend deleting System32 as it takes up a lot of hard drive space and has been known to cause issues in the past.

Yes it’s a glitch that came about after the most recent patch I think. Thief’s shortbow #3 is also bugged in the same way.

Please, for the love of all that is good in this world, stahp running glass cannon ranger. I promise switching to a decent build (Trap, Regen, BM, Spirits) will make a world of difference.

LB/GS rangers have mediocre damage with no defense or mobility. You’re literally only left alive until someone gets tired of getting hit by 2k crits every few seconds and kills you. There is no in between. There is no chasing you, there is no fight, there is just them noticing the LB ranger and then the LB ranger dying.

For a trapper build in PvP I run a celestial amulet with runes of Krait. I use sigils of Earth/Energy on SB and Leeching/Energy on Sword/Dagger. Use the SB to stack bleeds combined with Sword/Dagger and Sigils of Energy to dance around your opponent while dropping traps. This isn’t necessarily the “best” setup but that would be my recommendation.

I 100% support perma-stowed pets and always have since the beginning of GW2. However I understand that it will never, ever happen and I’ve accepted it. If any other class mechanic relied on AI to be effective then you would see the same threads on their forums. Instead it’s just the ranger and every time this thread pops up the same thing is said “other classes use their mechanics just fine.” Other classes don’t lose 30% of their damage when their pet gets insta-gibbed by AoE. Other classes aren’t punished because they don’t trait for their mechanic. IMO the ranger pet has always been a kitten and will continue to be a kitten .

THAT BEING SAID

Perma stowed pets will never happen. Stick to your strengths, and keep your pets out of the zerg fights. Keep them stowed while you’re running/leaping. If you’re not running Beast Master then use pets with CC to supplement your build. Keep an eye on cooldowns, the best thing you can learn as a ranger is to swap your pet as it’s about to die and accurately use F2 skills. Hopefully this helps to ease the pain caused by the pet!

Shortbow is more condi based while the longbow is more power based. I would choose either one or the other to support your build. I know people favor stacking and DPS in dungeons so I would recommend longbow. Take my advice with a grain of salt, however, as I’m bad at PvE. XD