Guild Wars 2

In the end you should play what’s fun. Longbow can work but it’s not really optimal right now.

Same for Axe, it could be better even though I am using that in my current build that I run. I run an Axe/Torch Condi based build.

To add to your question, right now with where rangers are for ranged damage your best bet is Short Bow. Sword/x is in a pretty good spot too right now. For “x” a Warhorn would probably be ideal usually, especially while leveling.

Watch this: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/3176076

It will probably give you a lot of insight as a new ranger. Longbow isn’t that ideal of a weapon really in a lot of ways.

But give that a watch, I think it will be worth your time.

Jump in WvW, meet up and charge into an enemy zerg with all your defensive abilities. Dodge a couple times. Complete

Also plenty of zones to do rezzing with events that result in the deaths of many NPCs. Or find a couple buddies willing to take a couple dives off a cliff for you.

Chopps.5047:

I respectfully disagree; I’ve found more useful builds than just three. And I think rangers are overly amazing at evasion, actually, as well as mobility. I’m going to take another break from the forums and get a video up very soon. I promise I will show very unique and special things that only rangers can do. This includes an explanation of the stealth trolling rangers have been doing in dubs (makes people claim “hax” and is loads of fun harassment strategty). Think more creatively about how you can combine abilities and maybe you’ll get some of this cheese in before I make it public, which is something I feel like I must do to try and repell the beliefs people have ingrained about this class.

Chopps, I agree completely and I guess I should had conveyed that a little more from my initial post. I was simply summarizing largely what he will see if he rolls through the Ranger forums as it’s a lot of the same depressing stuff. I personally love Ranger, and have no problems with it as it is the only profession I play. The build I run with now is not one of those mainstream builds that I mentioned before and I agree, there are a lot of options if you get creative. However most of the time when people post in these forums like this they want the quick fix, cookie-cutter approach so I tried to inform him what he was in for in that regard. I stand on the side of yes, Rangers have some problems as all classes do but it’s not the end of the world as most of these forums lead people to believe.

I still enjoy Ranger, but some of the claims you see on the forums have some truth in them. We do have some things that could use attention and I’m still standing that in time it will be done. We’re a jack of all trades class where we can really do anything, but we are not overly amazing at anything. Most of what you will find are BM bunker builds, a trap build, and the occasional berserker glass cannon. We don’t presently have a lot of effective build variety however you can still adapt and succeed with a Ranger, or shamelessly complain as others do. Your best bet is to create both and give them a go for a few levels and see what feels the best to you. If Ranger is a class you truly enjoy you will adapt to play how it is designed presently working through the flaws.

I assume you meant cripple duration not immobilize unless you are talking about the hidden split second of immobilize you get with Trapper’s Expertise that I believe is un-inentional. Cripple is a duration stacking condition though, and if working correctly should see the benefit from trap potency. I have not actually ran a trap build in quite a while to test, but I’m curious to confirm this so may do some playing around this weekend. Hope this helps for now.

Edit: Porky beat me to it =)

Not hard to find, but for your benefit I will give you a brief explanation. It has to do with the issue of other players rendering and showing up on your screen. Mostly noticed in WvW with huge zergs when it all looks clear ahead of you and suddenly you’re in the middle of a 40 man zerg from the other server. And at times, as quickly as they appear they will disappear. As you said though, the issue is being worked on and hopefully resolved in the near future.

Hey Omniderad, I have a build and setup you may want to consider. Out of simplicity for the time being I chose to come up with a build that would suit the means of both PvE Content as well as WvW as I spend a fair amount of time doing both and did not want to switch between sets all the time. It does leave you with a build that does not overly excel, but I find it has strong enough survivability and still pushes enough damage to be worth it.

Here is the build: http://goo.gl/5Qcqi
I have included with this in the equipment tab, the runes I use as well as the sigils for each weapon.
(Edit: Fixed broken link)

I utilize longbow/shortbow with this build out of personal preference as I enjoy these weapons the most, and have success using them. The traits in the linked build focus around maximizing the longbow as lately I spend a little more time in wvw and focus on that weapon.

I use Knight’s Emblazoned armor which is a fairly inexpensive crafted set that you can pick up which has a primary stat of Toughness, and secondary stats of Power/Precision.

Currently I just have a Beserker’s backpiece and I use Beryl off-pieces. I also use corresponding gems on these which gives you a boost to vitality, crit damage, and power.

While unorthodox, and you likely won’t find many players advocating such a build, it has worked well for me for quite some time as a well rounded build and may be worth checking into for yourself as you’re looking for something to fit all cases. This build will give you reasonable survivability without turning into a bunker build leaving you with respectable damage for a ranger.

On a side note, I will occasionally switch out SB for a GS depending on what I am doing.

Hope this helps!

Here is the build I run with presently: http://goo.gl/UAWOv
You may consider it, I use it for both PVE and WvW as it’s a little unorthodox but a pretty solid all around build. It has both good survivability as well as maintaining fairly high damage output as you really don’t want to sacrifice all of your damage as a ranger. I run LB/SB, but for the laughs I will occasionally swap SB for GS. It utilizes Power/Precision/Toughness gear with Superior Eagle Runes. I run with Beryl off-pieces and corresponding gems on that which gives you some vitality to boot with extra damage.

Bears, Devourers, and Spiders are your best bets overall. Bears tend to last the longest of any of them as even the ranged pets get stuck in uncontrollable AoE. It’s a tough road with pets right now but it’s where the class it just have take what’s most durable and work with it the best you can. You can also have some success with other pets if you’re willing to micromanage a lot and work with their buffs. This involves having to pay attention a lot though and being prepared to call them back to you.

I run a pretty non-traditional build but it works well for me in both WvW and PvE situations. Has reasonable survivability while still good damage throughput and I’ve enjoyed it so far: http://goo.gl/kXxff

I run with LB/SB which is somewhat rare these days. I run Power/Precision/Toughness Gear. I also run with Beryl off pieces and corresponding gems on those to get some extra Crit damage and vitality. Unbuffed puts me just shy of 19k HP, about 2500 Toughness, over 3K Power, and 41% Crit. Working out well so far as an all around build.

It’s less about the damage, as overall the damage between those and other birds are equal and more about the utility that each provides. A Chill vs a Blind, and imo you get far more benefit in most situations from the chill. In certain sPvP situations the blind would be handy but I think overall the owl is a better choice between the two.