Guild Wars 2

Rangers aren’t easy.

If you wish to play longbow at range, then have at it…not too hard, but if you wish to fight close, you CAN out-tank the toughest enemies around. High toughness combined with a cleansing oriented build and lots of active dodges make for a class that is vey hard to hit…if your timing is right. That is to say that you, as a ranger, cannot force your will upon an enem as all other classes can. Instead, you cleanse their conditions, dodge their power bursts, and interrupt them constantly. Since your damage is moderate and sustained, their skills will be on cool down whe you slowly tick them down with he help of poisons and slowly, you will win any fight…it’s stupid hard and I wouldn’t recommend trying a ranger as your first character if you want an easy time.

Don’t be a Ranger. We don’t need any more rangers.

I can’t think of any builds that work well in PvP, PvE, and WvW. Simply just doesn’t exist.

Zerk/Assassin (LB/GS) works well as support in WvW, but fails in PvP. Does well in PvE, also but doesnt match most other DPS-classes for DPS.

Condi/Survival Ax+T/SB or Sw+T/SB is very good in PvP but doesnt have the speed for WvW and the condi damage is lost on PvE swarms who die too fast.

Trapper Condi is very good for roaming and does alright in PvE. Not even possible in PvP bc the Rune of the Trapper cant be used.

Use Reef drake vs Eless, Theives, and Engis
Use the jaguar/lynx if you want DPS, but be prepared to switch it out constantly and it will die a lot more than other pets…then again, no other pets will regularly hit 2000dmg 3x in a row. Birds are second bst for DPS

Runes of the Trapper
Skirmishing 6, trap focused

BAMCIS: you have 12 seconds of invisibility and super speed.

or

Nature magic 6, bonus to the shout skill and you have forever-swiftness.

Shatter mesmers are the only class that gives me a real challenge in PvP where I run a short bow/sword+torch conditions/tank ranger. I’m forced to get up close and chase them around while their clones hammer me until they explode. Generally, anyone that can turn invisible wrecks me. However in WvW, Im a longbow/GS assassin and they can’t tank 20,000 DMG in a few seconds, especially since they can’t close the distance in time.

You’re basically Legolas without the knives.

Or a machine gunner.

Or a walking cannon…actually, being a walking artillery gun, crew and all, is the best comparison.