Guild Wars 2

Rotasu.9782:

As a beginner ranger, as in lvl 1, is it good to start with bear since it is a good tank? Or better to start with wolf / dog / feline?

River Drake is fantastic throughout, and can be picked up early on. Don’t leave home without Buttercup! (My river drake) Dogs are wonderful as well. I like arcdotus bear in certain situations so you might as well learn to use it.

Despite popular belief, I suspect bears are for when you are using melle. They seem to fight nice right next to you and can land hits reliably like this. That being said I really think Drakes are mostly superior for a meele ally. The blast finisher is really nice and they hit very hard.

I have an idea. Let’s remove LB 4 cause rangers are obviously not smart enough to use it—duh! Let’s replace it with 4s stun and daze and increase the base damage to 2000! Yeah! I approve of this message and so will everyone in PvP! We can call it deadshot! Opponents can let out a scream, like when they are immolated, for fun.

I like many of the ideas in this thread. I kind of agree that we don’t have a decent role in tpvp at the moment, though it pains me to say. From quite a few games in spvp, I see the d/d elems, hambows, guardians filling these roles. It’s not that we can’t handle 1v1 situations—I believe we have advantage here, it’s in the group fights we start to suffer. Try to unseat a good hambow and mediguard together.

What about the useless pet skills. I mean come on, the requirements to make these land are rather silly. Try to get a drake to hit a d/d elemental or thief. Between the time you start the skill and the time the pet fires, your foe will have jumped behind, to the side, back in front, then 45 degrees to the left of the pet who then blindly releases his attack in the wrong direction.

The reason everyone runs wolf is that its skill is the only one that works reliably when you need it. How about making the pets move a little faster so they can engage in combat and give them better skills for group support. Things like AoE daze, stun, weakness, etc. get rid of abysmal 240 range—up it to 600, reduce cast time, reduce recharge time, and retire “cone” attacks.

As it stands, the pet is the least important thing I consider when facing another ranger. It’s an after-thought and I don’t think this should be the case.

Edit: I agree with Sol on weapon changes, but need to think about trait suggestions more.

Wanna hear a joke? Attacks in a cone and has 240 range! Ah ha ha ha ha…. Ehm. That’s funny.

Vikkela.7261:

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.7349:

They’re not really viable in most settings. Seems like they were only made for lesser skilled players to annoy others.

Just like that account name of yours?

+1 for shrewd observation. :-)

On a more serious note, conditions counter high toughness builds. Think, bunker-breaker. A foe with 15,000 hp, 3,400 armor, and protection boon will die faster than a foe with 16,000hp, 1,900 armor and no protection. All things being equal.

If you run a bunker build with low condition removal (I love you turret engineers), you will find them very annoying.

I like using GS with healing spring and lightning drake. You can drop healing spring, leap, and pet swap to drake for massive heal when in melee range. Drakes will almost always open with blast finisher in this situation. Massive heal on you and nice party heal if allies are nearby.

As for strategy, if you are using intelligence sigil, make sure to land 2,3,44 after weapon swap. Sword throw and leap have very high base attack damage so benefit greatly from critical hit. I think mastering Leap helps tremendously. It acts differently at different ranges. There is a sweet spot about 2 meters from foe, where you just pounce right on them without running. I find this weapon fun to play, as well.

Ryan.9387:

I advise sharpened edges trait, krait runes, an earth sigil, and condi damage gear with crit chance.

Generally build condi damage and spec for bleeds.

I’m in total agreement. Works very well.

Please remove this thread. Nothing constructive.

Atherakhia.4086:

Just to interject an alternative approach into the discussion, the answer doesn’t necessarily have to be damage. It could be in the form of utility too.

If greatsword offered more group value to offset the DPS value 1h sword had, it would also have a place in this game. The problem really is the 2 weapons fill the same role.

While possibly overpowered, maul being a blast finisher would instantly make GS more valuable than sword. Two-Handed training granting fury to a group (~50% uptime) would also be valuable.

They could also introduce traits to make the ‘animal’ attacks on weapons provide something unique. Since the GS has 2, it may elevate it above 1h Sword.

Also worth discussing is Hilt Bash. It needs to have its range increased so the skill can be used more reliably on targets that aren’t actively running directly at us or standing still. Just another 100-150 on it would move all the difference in the world.

I like these ideas. Both would be fine with me. I totally agree on hilt bash range increase and think the blast finishing maul would give us another role in Zerg. It would give us a situational damage increase which I like because it takes skill to benefit from.

eugenstash.8610:

How bout Power Rangers, are they a thing of the past? That was kind of what I was goin for really….

This build works well if you are good with GS. I tend to think it is in the strongest power ranger build category. Way better than the zerk meta. This goes with toughness and regen over vitality. You’ll rofl stomp thieves, mesmers, and other glassy builds. This build puts you at a disadvantage against turret engineers and some necros.

You’ve got 3 good hits in your GS rotation. Make them count.

Edit: fixed build, posted wrong one…

Norjena.5172:

In PvP GS needs a buff too.
U can´t pressure with GS. Dogde 2 and laugh about a ranger trying todo some dmg.
Yes alot people playing it, but i can´t see a rly high ranked ranger using GS.

Look at guardian GS for example it is viable. Not only because if it´s skills. It is viable because it does alot of dps just by using AA. It makes alot pressure over time.

Ranger with GS in pvp feels like attacking with a wet noodle. The kit is nice, but the AA does not enough dmg.

I disagree that GS needs a buff in PvP. GS critical hits extremely high on 2, 3, and both versions of skill 4. The cleaving auto attack is powerful enough and has great range and mobility. It is meant to be used with high toughness, Valkyrie, Cavaliers, and Knights Armour. It’s very difficult to avoid maul in many situations (like when you are cc’d). People rarely dodge leap and sword throw. You won’t see it in PvP tournaments because the other ranger builds work better against the current Meta other classes are running.

Lag would be the largest deciding factor in match-ups. No thank you.

Perhaps, I am mistaken, but I think the weapons are balanced around competitive play and not PvE. A 10% boost to ranger GS would be unfair to other classes in PvP after last patch. Nothing could knock a cavalier / Valkyrie ranger off point with the ranger dishing out that much damage. The warrior and guardian forums would be full of QQ threads.

The speed running dungeon crowd that is concerned with max damage builds, in order to avoid interesting mechanics that would improve competitive play, is not going to sway weapon balance in a meaningful way. The designers have given every class (maybe not necros) a speed running build or two. It is asking way to much to expect every weapon to perform “optimally” for fringe max damage builds in a speed run scenario.

Anyone who does PvP will tell you the worst title you can see at the start of the match is “Dungeon Master” :-) You know I am right! So why balance weapons for PvE speed runs?

I think every weapon has a place and purpose. Stay in PvE until you get to 80 and try them all out. Practice staying alive with swords only, bows only, conditions only, max damage only, etc. then you’ll have an advantage. Human intelligence is much more formidable than the AI. Many of the weapons and skills that seem useless against underwhelming PVE opponents may be life savers against other players. A few of the skills are completely useless, as well. I am sure you’ll find those…ahem. Search And Rescue…

Alkuan.4962:

Today, again.. was flamed in tpvp as being a worthless ranger and “u suck”.

Well, the “commander” aka the vocal imo idiot on /t chat was insisting us going for the middle when it was clear we couln’t do that and I was implying an alternative to go hold close and far instead.. oh, we lost ofc :P

So.. if you want to play a ranger… be a ranger

Rangers soly on wits and cunning Not perhaps listening to nor reading the meta on the forums.

Longbow… sigh.

To add some beef to my speech… new rangers: or old too, learn to use sword and bring frostspotter into your party in dungeons. Go sport a GS and a Pink Moa! :P

The best of this profession… them callled us huntards in some other game and agreed that easy to level, hard master

Duh! The commander (I picture a warrior Asuran with rifle) was right. The best way to win in TPVP is to stack all 5 players on home and wait the enemy out. Avoid middle and far like all the good PvP teams do.

Oh, don’t forget your bear, either! PvP powerhouses those beasties are! We all know grizzly bears can hit harder than owls and Ravens Right…. Heh, heh, it would be silly for that to work the other way around… :-/

I think yes. That meta build is solid. If you are looking to make it more of a hybrid, just swap in LB for SB, use sharpening stone, keen edge, earth sigil and blood sigil, or doom. It sounds funny because LB is more of a power weapon (has no condition component built in) but it works…

Cuchullain.3104:

Okay, I get it now. Retaliation really isn’t a problem for rangers, just me. I have been making the mistake of shooting at people in WvW.

I realize that if you use an aoe ability against multiple targets like it is designed for, you deserve everything you get. There is simply no time at which using aoe against a zerg is appropriate, so creating a mechanism that punishes you for doing so is perfectly reasonable. Large zergs are too weak and need more protection.

Guardians that have reflects, blocks, burns, heavy armor and the ability to outheal your damage while cc’ing you in place and three-shotting you need more protection against your attacks, especially when they are in a zerg that outnumbers yours.

When you are on a server in which you are always outnumbered in a game with mechanisms that favor larger zergs, you should run through the wall of guardians and warriors to attack the guys in the back end. Don’t worry they won’t bother you and if they do, use entangle. But don’t drop a barrage on the guys you entangle because that violates the rule against using aoe against multiple targets. Any retal damage you take is because you suck.

If you shoot at anyone in the front end the retaliation damage you take is your own fault. If you shoot at anyone in the back end the retaliation damage you take is your own fault. Stand there and wait for the 12 seconds it takes to go away before shooting. Make sure you are on JQ, BG or YB and have a massive ability-lagging zerg to protect you while you do so.

Remember at no time should you shoot aoe at groups. If a large groups should happen to run into your aoe after you fire, this is because you suck, not poor game design. You should only shoot at the players who aren’t moving, like downed players. Don’t use it to chase away rezzers. Don’t shoot at the gate to hit the rams behind it. Don’t use it against massed golems. Don’t drop it on groups of mesmer clones. If you do you need to l2p and your deserve the retal damage you take.

The aoe cripple on barrage serves no purpose whatsoever, so do not use it for its non-purpose. If you see a large group chasing your guys putting a barrage in front of them to slow them down is not a good strategy. If you do you need to l2p.

Wear PVT armor so your health pool can accommodate the retaliation damage that no one but you is experiencing.

Hit an don’t be hit is the essence of competent fighting in fencing, boxing and the martial arts. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable game design that you should be hit every time you hit something in a video game. Ranged players should rely on their armor, and not range and positioning, to stay alive.

You forgot the part about glass cannon builds being a poor counter to large Zergs, because they can easily rally their downed allies off you. Another thing I might add is that the game is balanced around warrior and guardian. Just look at the stats and traits on the typical zerker hambow warrior. It totally outclasses anything a ranger can bring to the table. High armor, high health, high damage output, high cc, great regen, great might stacking (will get itself to 25 stacks of might with no outside help). GG. Your only hope to win is with superior skill and tactics.

Edit: I forgot to mention it also has a passive counter to soft CC and great stability uptime. HaHa, it’s almost funny.

jcbroe.4329:

The scope of the issue is much more broad than just Retaliation (and WvW).

In general, rangers don’t handle boon maintaining/stacking mechanics on opponents very well.

It’s actually one of the main arguments I would give for why in a PvP environment, power builds on ranger aren’t top tier in effectiveness. They don’t have the boon handling capabilities of other typical power specs (thief, shatter mesmer) or the tanky capability of a warrior.

It’s easily one of the main things that has always pigeonholed ranger into running conditions in PvP. But conditions in WvW are generally mitigated by foods and by the group AoE cleansing brought by guardians and elementalists.

So the point I’m getting at in regards to the thread is; yes, it would be nice to have some sort of boon removal/punishment available to us. For issues with retaliation and beyond.

This is a great suggestion. I would love to have a boon removal option. There are so many times I see that one boon I want to get rid of (stability says hi) and can’t touch it…

Khenzy.9348:

Why am I not seeing more Rangers complaining about such a ridiculously bad skill?
…
Let’s have a friendly discussion on how could we improve this particular skill or the Warhorn as a whole shall we?

OK, you promised to be friendly, so here goes! I personally use that skill to demolish opponents in PvP. If they make it stronger, it won’t be fair to other classes. It’s lethality comes in the form of high precision condition builds. It hits harder than rapid fire (Ok slight exaggeration—but you get the idea) and most peeps don’t know it’s going to kill them. It can stack bleed so fast that opponents will die before the last bird hits if they don’t pull off a cleanse or dodge.

If you want it stronger, I won’t complain. Maybe each strike could have a 30% chance to inflict torment? That would be fun! I would feel tormented with a horde of birds clawing at my face!

jcbroe.4329:

Just because these builds aren’t currently considered “meta” builds doesn’t mean that they aren’t good and effective.

Yeah, seriously. I’d put both of the META builds at 2.5-3.0 out of 5. Both of SOLs are easily > 4.5. I’d have to try them to see for sure, but they look great. Not sure what the draw is to burst builds in conquest with so many high armor/evasion builds roaming around in a point capture game.

No, no, no! You’ve got it all wrong! Please give us Mordrem Thrashers! Just to see them spewing a trail of acid poison everywhere would be worth it!

Sol.4310:

Soon as I made this post I new I would get negative replies.

Not going to bother and explain my reasons test the build out for while first and you will catch onto what I’m talking about.

I’ll give some positive feedback. I like your thoughts behind earth runes and think this is a nice variation of LB ranger. You’ve improved the normal glass version by adding decent Armour and evasion to boost protection. You’ll have an advantage over most direct damage builds, I think.

Every good thing comes with cons. I think this build will suffer against what I call malice. That being all armor ignoring attacks, such as conditions, retaliation and life stealing. Thanks for sharing!

Sevans.4619:

Dungeons: Force and Frailty
WvW Roaming: Air and Ice
WvW Zerging: Bloodlust and Fire
sPvP: lollomgbow

+1 spot on!

If you really want to rapid fire & barrage into a Zerg of heavy armor, buffed with retaliation—and survive, you can equip “protect me” and a bear. You’ll have 6s to do whatever you want. The bear has more than enough HP to eat all the retaliation. I think signet of stone might give you another 6s…. Not sure though, I rarely have problems with retaliation in WvW.

Also conditions don’t proc retaliation once applied and keep on giving damage after applied… It’s really the obvious choice in this situation. In addition, conditions ignore all that armor, like it’s not even there… I do think a group of twenty heavies should be able to protect themselves from arrows if they choose… Don’t you think that is fair?

BobbyT.7192:

In the newer instances, I found a condi build to be pretty effective on some of the bosses compared to a dps power set.

Oh, now you did it! Get ready for the hating to start! :-)

You need to use Apothecary in this situation. They are using a resistance spec and killing you with minor malice and minor brutality. Apothecary counters both. They will have quite a bit of defense against conditions, through combo fields, shouts, and utilities so it will be a long fight. There is no easy way to cheese them down, but apothecary stats will give you the advantage.

Brutality is armor affected attacks (Power, Precision, Crit Dmg)
Malice is armor ignoring attacks (Condition Damage, life stealing, retaliation, precision)
Purity is the counter to malice (vitality, healing power)
Resistance is the counter to Brutality (Toughness, Healing, Vitality)

Even without the retaliation they would squash you because Resistance builds overpower brutality builds. Also use life stealing and retaliation, they have no counter to this, as well.

They are reducing the speed of rapid fire by 200% and renaming it sloth fire. They are also adding a laser pointer so engineers know when they are being targeted. :-)

Devildoc.6721:

Atherakhia.4086:

It’s not that they attract a disproportionate number of bad players. They attract a disproportionate number of players, period. And the answer isn’t to nerf something due to your misfortune of playing with strangers. The solution is to educate those you play with or play with better players. Like I said above.

You don’t get to choose who is on landscape maps with you or in public instances like Mad King’s Labyrinth.

There is no “play with better rangers” choice there. You have bad rangers who disrupt play for everyone around them, and no way to vote kick them off the map.

I already solve my problems with rangers in organized groups: I refuse to group with rangers except a few people I’ve known for awhile.

I need a solution to eliminate the disruptions of bad rangers in places where I can’t just kill them or kick them out.

and I wouldn’t say there are more rangers than any other class out there, there are always plenty of warriors from what I see anyway.

I suppose I’d need an infographic on that, but most the time I see a ranger, they’re bad and disruptive to all the other players around them.

For an example, during Mad King’s Labyrinth, the commander had us at a corner to LoS the Lich so that we could line of sight him and pull him to an advantageous position. The first command the commander said was for rangers to dismiss their pets (since they were out of combat they could do this until they got put in combat). The rangers failed to do this, there were 5 of them, all of them had their pets out, they ran up to the lich and engaged him in combat, preventing the lich from running to where we needed him to be and could control his adds. As we’re there in combat with the lich not in position, and we’re waiting for bad rangers to get control of their pets or their pets die, the lich continuously does his aoe. Most people dodge. Bad Rangers get knocked down, and spawn skeletons, the skeletons start picking people apart while we’re trying to get control of the situation.

By the time the lich gets into position, people have been downed enough times that they are red, and it’s essentially a wipe.

Clearly the commander (and you) don’t know how to fight lich.

SB is very useful in 1v1 situations and works just fine in open world content, especially the new stuff. High precision and rapid attack make it ideal for on crit sigils. Make sure to equip trait that allows it to shoot through targets. I have Kudzo, and love LB, but swap in my shiny SB from time to time, for a change of pace. It works just fine.

Very high conditions (read max) are fun to use in open world content as well, but most people with get angry with me for saying so. Give it a try with carrion or rabid, for fun. Just make sure you know what the META is and have that set in your inventory at all times.

T raw.4658:

I thought you were being a man and talking about WvW but soon realized it was PvE

I don’t PvE but I do man up in WvW.

Zerker all the way

Go Go Rally Bot. Please join Blackgate! :-)

Classes I enjoy to take in dungeons or Fractals.

1. Ranger → because it’s very fun to evade
2. Warrior → because it’s fun to bash things repeatedly
3. Guardian → because it’s fun to block attacks
4. Necro* → because it’s… Ok this is not fun

*just kidding, I don’t have one

witcher.3197:

Shortbow is a condi weapon, don’t try to shoehorn it into a power build. I1d change everything from traits to sigils.

If you’re willing to give up on that build I’d recommend
GS/Longbow for power and Condi Survival for condi/shortbow.

Erm, I think meta battle has GS/Longbow rated way to high. I would put that at 2.5/5 for conquest. It has no armor or condition removal, which makes you a walking rally bot.

Looks like a nice counter to direct damage high armor opponents. I’ll give it a try, thanks for posting!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAsf3YjMqUxaDL+rQ1agDhqdJ8rTNrA4dxus3cBPSA-TJRHwAQLDYc/BEnEAAPBAA

Will work well on thieves and most mesmers but may have difficulty with other classes. Sigil of intelligence on GS and signet mastery trait might make this build a little stronger.

Also, have a look at using Valkyrie or cavalier amulets. The extra toughness will come in handy. Skill 5 on both weapons can be devastating with MoC. Your condition removal is a little low…

Retaliation hits directly against your health pool and ignores your Armour. This mechanic goes all the way back to GW1 where it was even more devastating, along with skills like Xinrae’s weapon. Be glad you don’t have to face Ritualists!

It’s hard to say without seeing your LB build, but you probably have too little HP for WvW. Try adding more hp with celestial or soldiers trinkets. You may want to bring protect me and signet of stone as well…

Devildoc.6721:

…
Since subtlety wasn’t working the “confusing” thing was a joke about the NPE. Basically I’m saying that most rangers I see in the world aren’t very bright.

That’s not very nice to say to the people on the Ranger forum. If you think most Rangers aren’t very bright, what do you hope to accomplish by posting in this forum?

Knockback skills add an interesting aspect to the game and should not be diminished or removed. PvE and Dungeons are designed for new players to become familiar with skills and gameplay so it’s safe to expect players to make mistakes.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

…
The sword was designed to give the maximum mobility. 5 out of 6 skills do move the player. But by trying to give the weapon more mobility, the devs have ultimatively cut mobility.
The weapon does move you with almost every skill. The problem is that it moves you even when you don’t want it to. You can’t reposition yourself while leaping, you can’t cleave reliably, you can’t cancel the leaps other than through weaponswap or through an offhand skill. This gets intesified by the fact that the other skills of the sword do not synergise with the AA. They’re both not fast enough to be used as a reaction to your oponent.

The sword is a prime example of design decisions gone wrong.

I understand the points you are making, but I agree with yellow that the 1h sword skills are very useful, so I like the design where it is. However, one must turn auto-targeting off, and bind esc to a hot key to take advantage. I would recommend everyone do this in all game modes and all classes, for the most part, along with binding target nearest and target next.

When we can control the targeting, skill 2 gives excellent freedom of movement. Many times I’ll hit 2, change targets and leap to another. This is very useful in PvP and open world content and would be a shame to loose. You can also hit 2, hit esc, about face, and leap out of battle for swapping to ranged weapon. This is great for creating space (I love you guardians and ham-bash warriors :-))

Skill 3 allows you to evade, flip behind enemies who hit you in the back, and has several different rolling paths depending on the location of your target. I like this how it is as well. The leap finisher on skill 2 is very useful as well, when interacting with fire and water fields.

I do agree with your assessments when targeting is not micro managed. You can’t really control where you are going with 1h sword in this way. I think the developers gave all the auto targeting and auto attack options to make it easier on casual gameplay, but expect us to turn them off, for finer grained control.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I would remove the reveal from “Sic Em” altogether and make a new skill;

“Show Yourselves!”
600 Range
Applies 3s revealed to stealthed foes in range.
Targets: 10
30s CD

This is an interesting idea for a non-pet shout skill, but sic em is nice where it is at. I am sure many beastmasters rely on the speed and damage increase for pet spike. It would be a shame to loose that option.

Lifestealer.4910:

Why even play in a party if you aren’t going to offer anything good to a party?.. just because its a pug doesn’t mean you should just be selfish and run 5 signet warrior or some other crap kitten. People always say play how you want yet you are running a dungeon with 4 other people for a common goal. There is no reason you should be dead weight and offer nothing to the team.

ANet provided a powerful matchmaking system (LFG) to better help adventures with like minded goals meet up. I find that putting the words “META Only Pls” or “Speed Run” in the title really helps. If you see the words “Casual” in the post, then expect people to be running non-meta builds and perhaps avoid those groups. Communication is key to having fun.

Very interesting build. Valkyrie is quite powerful on a ranger in spvp, but I never thought to use it with beast master traits. I usually use 26600 with GS and either bow. I can’t wait to try this out! Thanks for posting.

Domey.9804:

hi there,

i love my ranger , especially with the recent buffs. but i never ever slot this skill. when i duel vs thiefs (which is my main proffession) i dont want to win because i use a skill which hardcounters all SA based builds. i want to win through skill and outplaying my opponent.
before you call me a thief in disguise who got ganked by sic em too much, yes…i admit i often get killed from that skill and a group of wildly attacking zerglings. sometimes i can survive sic em and burn all my utilities and dodges, but is that fair?
i think, it does too much for absolutely no efford and thats the reason i dont like this skill. not even on my ranger which has sometimes real problems vs certain thief builds.

does sic em need a castime?
or a animation?
or both?
make it affected by blind?

what is your opinion on that skill in wvw?

I like this skill where it is at. It is powerful against the very glassy theif builds and that is OK I think. Maybe a better tell so players know when they are revealed would be an improvement? Can you hear the Ranger yell “sic em”? I don’t feel like I’ve ever heard this from an opponent, but not many use this skill…

Yeah, I use GS when positioning is critical in mob stack (Cliffside). Otherwise just keep hitting “target closest” hotkey repeatedly. You’ll leap outta the fight once in a while, then right back in. You can also turn auto targeting on, but it usually messes me up, so I avoid it most of the time.

Use sigils of earth and blood to draw directly against you opponents health pool. Blood will be very powerful with rabid amulet against direct damage because of high toughness. This kind of build is great for slaughtering high armor opponents.

Hohou.1508:

You can keep pewpewing with longbow, knockbacking everything and doing pitifull damage, just use spotter and frost spirit, pretty please…

I would also like to thank you for your polite and intelligent thread.

Hohou.1508:

Archon.6480:

Hohou.1508:

Please, use frost spirit and spotter when being in dungeon group. It can be easy incorporated in your built. Please…

You can keep pewpewing with longbow, knockbacking everything and doing pitifull damage, just use spotter and frost spirit, pretty please…

Haha, sure… As long as you are playing your class specific meta, complete with party buffs, and can stay on your feet for more than 5s. Otherwise… I might just drop all my pet boons for healers clarity (to mop you off the floor) and swap frosty for protect me so
I don’t get downed while kneeling by your corpse…

To nail the last stake in the coffin, I’ll even swap out spotter for arrows shoot through targets if I detect low DPS allies. If you see skilled Rangers running non-meta it may have more to do with you being horribad.

Thank you for “polite and intelligent” reply.

But I actually havent seen skilled ranger WITHOUT spotter and frost spirit.

Your welcome, I was trying to be polite. The ranger meta does not work well with weak allies, so good Rangers will swap some of it out when paired with inexperienced teammates because it does not carry enough armor/utility for revives and such.

Make sure you, yourself, bring the right build into a dungeon and let your pug know your are aiming to be fast. I bet you would have a better experience and you would not need to QQ all the skilled Rangers on the forums for no good reason.

Hohou.1508:

Please, use frost spirit and spotter when being in dungeon group. It can be easy incorporated in your built. Please…

You can keep pewpewing with longbow, knockbacking everything and doing pitifull damage, just use spotter and frost spirit, pretty please…

Haha, sure… As long as you are playing your class specific meta, complete with party buffs, and can stay on your feet for more than 5s. Otherwise… I might just drop all my pet boons for healers clarity (to mop you off the floor) and swap frosty for protect me so
I don’t get downed while kneeling by your corpse…

To nail the last stake in the coffin, I’ll even swap out spotter for arrows shoot through targets if I detect low DPS allies. If you see skilled Rangers running non-meta it may have more to do with you being horribad.

shadowpass.4236:

Eurantien.4632:

I wouldn’t call it a balance update when these changes buff the 3 strongest classes atm (engi, ele, necro) and still leave others (ranger, guardian, warrior) in the bottom of the pool.

+1

Lol, agreed. +1

solrik.6028:

The problem right now is that if I want to play a power build then I would have to use GS with Sword or LB to have range. Most of our weapons are condition oriented and sword does poor damage in pvp because it’s used to evades. Sure, shortbow is hybrid but it can’t do without conditions.

Add mace or dagger main-hand. Or btter that that, swod off-hand and dagger main-hand.

Yeah, completely agreed. I ended up with the same dilemma when designing GS build post patch. There was no non-LB alternative for 2nd weapon set that made sense. A hard hitting offhand sword or mainhand dagger (hello LOTR) would be fantastic. I’ll check out the SB rework thread. I would personally like more interrupts or cc skills on this weapon.

Something to make it stand out. It’s sad that it’s use is so generic most can’t tell the difference when getting hit with it.

“Too many Rangers using longbow…”

Well, that’s true. I suggest we tone it down a little bit in the PvP arena before it gets nerfed back to the point of not being able to out-damage healing signet. Notice ANet did not say it was overpowered (sigh of relief), just that too many people are using it.

I would also recommend staying away from SB for a little while, as I still get hate messages when stomping people with it (omg Arie, stupid LB zerker, L2P noob)… Um, that was SB by the way..

We really should all switch to condi specs and give the community something else to worry about for a while. I still think condition specs are stronger, anyhow. I think most skilled Rangers would agree. Let’s just avoid LB and SB for a while. There are so many new unskilled Rangers running bows now that it is getting silly. We can balance it out by using non-bow condi exclusively for a while.

WhiteGlint.4897:

Hi Guys!

I’m looking for a wvw zerg build. My main weapon in my choice is GS and the second one is LB.

I have just the build for you!

You can use ogre runes instead of Melandru for higher Damage output for 1v1 / havoc parties. If you want better condition mitigation, swap out SoW for SoR and consider empathetic bond. Replace fern hound for river drake in eotm.