Guild Wars 2

Post a screenshot, it would be better if you want insightful advice

Yuo should reroll to dp.
Oh wait, you can’t even BP→HS→Steal into the enemy anymore.

We should all roll condi mesmer and get done with this game, honestly

Shatter Mesmers need to be zerker to be any effective.
Zerker mesmers are completely shut down by any kind of thief.
Also, people have stopped running glass cannon builds in WvW, so even if you are full zerker, it would require some time to actually kill someone.
It’s a boring meta, but that’s what we have.

We need a way to take upgrades out of un salvageable gear (Karma, WvW, Dungeon).

I press both keys at the same time to be honest, but I have both Dodge and Jump mapped on my Mouse.
Do you, by any chance, still use Double Tap to Dodge? Because it’s a tad harder if you dodge that way (still doable – I started Jump-Dodging when I was still using double tap to dodge)….

nearlight.3064:

hihey.1075:

Having played lots of GvGs, I believe that there could be a spot for a ranger in a GvG team – more specifically in a focus party (or gank squad, as you people call it).
But that would be viable only for 1 round. You can swap out one thief/mesmer/dd ele, and take a LB+GS Ranger, full zerk, with Sic Em, RaO, Quickening Zephyr and SoS. Condi Removal food.
He just has to target an enemy thief, cast Rapid Fire+Quickening Zephyr, get him downed, shout his allies that the enemy is down, Sic Em, and have a thief stomp him.
It’s high risk, high reward. But you must swap it out the following round, because if the enemy expects a zerk ranger on the enemy team, they will just kill him before he does anything. RaO will be ripped by a thief and he will get trained so hard that you dont even need to waste banners on him.

And forget talking about useless stuff like torch, axe, Maul, dagger, TRAPS… geez…

I understand what you’re saying. Maul won’t be useuless in the next patch, and I merely brought up traps to discuss their viability in a gank setting, more as a tool for CC than actual burst. It would be helpful if you can justify why you think those things that you listed are bad. I do agree with you that zerker longbow ranger is merely a one trick pony, so we’d be better off discussing ranger choices that aren’t a one trick pony.

First of all, “GvGs” are fight between two guild with EQUAL numbers: in these battles, you want to maximize the efficiency of all your groups (frontline, focus party, ranged) by using the BEST class setup you have. Every “slot” is meaningful, and using a “subpar” spec instead than an “optimal” spec is not advised.

As many people have already thoroughly explained, Ranger’s CCs are useless in a GvG.
The only “CCs” that work against a guild are:
1-Stuns
2-LONG DURATION Immobilize and Chill.
That’s why “Pulsing” CCs are not good: they cannot stack long enough to a single person (because of the AoE cap) to make a difference. Also, keep in mind that pretty much every frontliner runs Melandru/Hoelbrak with -Condi Duration food (and Warriors even run Dogged March).
Also, “Stuns” must be AoE and must have a low recharge, because the Stability upkeep of a good guild is near 100% and you have to be “lucky” to land your stuns on the person without Stability AND Stunbreakers to make him panic and kill him.
All these are easily provided by Warriors: Hammerstuns (AoE Stuns every 10s) and Flurry (4s AoE Immobilize every 10s). Even with a lot of -Condi Duration, a 4s Immob (which might become a 2s) is enough to guarantee a downed if you coordinate it with a burst and if the person caught by it is out of cooldowns.

Rangers simply don’t have the above mentioned tools. Frost Trap has short (1s), pulsing applications of Chill. Meaning that it will do close to nothing to a melee train. Muddy Terrain is not that bad, but again, the Immobilize is too short to be worth (Flurry is 100 times better). Also, Rangers don’t have access to AoE stuns.
The only good thing they could provide to a melee train is the Waterfield (which, if you have enough Eles, you won’t be lacking anyway) and the Warhorn Blast Finisher for good group buffs (but the Vigor from the Warrior’s one is still better).
A Ranger CANNOT replace either a Warrior or a Guardian as a frontliner for all the above mentioned reasons.

Speaking of the Focus Party, Conditions don’t work. I don’t know if you know the speed at which the members of a Focus Party kill people. Conditions are a no-no. Plus, it does not provide any group utility (the only group utilities which is worth having in a FP are AoE Stealth and Cleave).
Again, I can see a LB ranger to be a good choice for a few rounds (1, maybe 2) in a GvG – but that’s it. You basically have to catch the enemy guild off guard, so to snipe one of their gankers early on and gain the upper hand this way.

EDIT: in order for a profession to be viable in a GvG, think like this: “What can X profession offer that other professions don’t?”. So far, Ranger is completely outshined by every other profession for every role he could cover. If you find a spot in which you can say “Ranger does Y better than any other class”, then ask yourself if this “Y” is important in a GvG. Lastly, consider if the build you are speccing your Ranger around in order to use “Y” is viable (enough defenses to not be a rallybot, enough overall utility to prefer a Ranger over another profession).

lalamonsta.4237:

I probably should have asked this in one of stickied threads, but I couldn’t delete my post. Basically I was curious which stats are best for a D/P roaming thief. I wanted to do more small scale pvp. My biggest problem is I am used to spvp where there aren’t really any stats. Also does gear boost your characters much? For instance will a player in ascended be much better than one in exotics?

The difference in Ascended vs Exotic is minimal BUT it’s still there. Although if you are looking for a Power based spec (which almost all D/P require), if you just manage to get the Ascended weapon you will see a boost of 1-2% of your damage just from that. Getting full Ascended Trinkets will provide another 2-3%, and the armor will do the last 1-2%. Not noticeable, but could surely help in some situations.
As for the stats, there are a lot of opinions on how to build a D/P thief. Just start with some zerker/valk and mix it with some more defensive (PVT, TPP) items.
Remember: the main reason D/P thieves take some defensive stats is to avoid being instagibbed by other thieves. I started as full zerker, but when you are outmanned the risk of a random D/D thief jumping in and getting a Steal→CnD→BS combo are really high. With some toughness/vitality you can avoid being oneshotted, so I usually try to stay above 2,5k armor.

Hope it helps

Wait for the Confusion on Steal to wear out. Use Healing Turret to heal after that, which will cleanse the Poison and Bleed stacks and will get you back at full HP.
After that, dodge/block/blind their predictable CnD. Use Shield #4 when they are stealthed to reflect the projectiles if you are low OR use it to knock them off the refuge.

And don’t be picky about using Supply Crate: there is nothing “legit” about a PD condi thief.

tobascodagama.2961:

You guys realise Moa has a 1s channel time? And it can be dodged and blocked? And that nobody actually runs it for PvP anyway because it’s not even all that useful compared with Time Warp or Mass Invisibility?

Lol, of course nobody runs that, only every top mesmer.

Travlane.5948:

hihey.1075:

Alex Behemoth.4952:

This is the only problems I have with the class. Hopefully I will get replies of how about I need to learn to play or such. Since I think that if most of the community has these complaints then they must step up their game and improve

Fixed it for you. Nice try though.

Also, fun fact: the people who are complaining are only (bad) WvWers, as almost no one in PvP is complaining about stealth thieves.

really good point. cant realy play stealth well bc of 4 sec revealed in pvp. i think its way too long. they should have put thieves in medium HP range. not lowest.

I won’t speak about the Reveal debuff being longer in sPvP, but what I say is this:
PvP players (hence those who know how to play, to an extent at least) already know how to counter a D/P thief.
Bad WvWers don’t. And the difference is, in PvP you MUST overcome the difficulties you are facing in order to win. In WvW, you just tell your buddies “heh, stealth op” and come to the forums asking for nerfs.

Terrahero.9358:

Acandis.3250:

There is literally no counterplay.

Knockbacks = CC-effect
Stability = immune to CC-effects

You literally dont know what literally means.

Throw Mine says hi.

They never counted as that. The reason you got might was because of the Grandmaster Minor Trait that gave Might on Stealth.