Guild Wars 2

urdriel.8496:

Xyonon.3987:

Spotter, Frost Spirit, AoE revive for bad days, reflection, pull, buffing kitty, good damage – yea, I guess the ranger is pretty ok for a party. I prefer ranger + warrior over 2 warriors. It’s a huge damage increase.

2 warriors are better for party than 1 ranger + 1 warrior , in terms of damage.

Similar classes stack poorly. Give me two different anything over two of the same please. Except for high level fractals, there I like 2 guardians and No zerkanoobs.

Chokolata.1870:

Ranger is reliable in PvP and WvW roaming.

As far as PvE, there is a place for the ranger in the current meta. A ranger is superior to a second warrior in a 5 man organized team because the class brings unique buffs, spotter and frost spirit.

Yeah, and you can almost perma fury your team with moa and Warhorn. Might roar helps team might get closer to 25 as well. Guardians mostly run knights for difficult dungeons, so a banner warrior and ranger can get their crit chance to 100%, while allowing them to take much of the aggro and tank a bit. Guardians benefit greatly from crit chance in current meta so the three make Alan excellent combination. Just stay close!

Tozen.9814:

I have a level 80 Thief but have been trying to level up a Ranger lately. I’m level 56, but so far am finding that all of my ranged damage options are pretty lackluster. That’s when I compare it to the huge damage I can put out on my Thief with Dual Pistols, and I know that even that gets laughed at in regards to serious damage.

Axes and shortbow seem geared towards condition damage, which is still pretty mediocre. Longbow damage feels slightly weaker than using plain auto-attack on my thief pistol. =P

Does it get better? I’m running sword or GS pretty much all the time these days, but there are many difficult opponents to fight where ranged damage would be useful. Is stacking power, precision, and crit the way to go?

Yes, the damage gets better, but it depends on what you are trying to do. LB works nicely in dungeons if you stay about 6-8 ft behind melee. If you are looking for easyish content and want high numbers put everything into damage 30/30/10/0/0 and put on a zerker GS and LB. Big numbers for chopping stuff down fast.

Harder content requires more thought. Ranger works nicely in fractals 50 with LB and axe/Warhorn. You can use sword Warhorn for some of the squishier opponents. Think more celestial than zerker. Mix the two. I keep crit damage at 100/110 with LB and axe. Base precision at 50. With food sigil and horn/moa you can perma fury yourself and team. With banner warrior you will have 100% crit chance. Things die fast.

Durzlla.6295:

@TurtleDragon, i’m fine with full zerker guys running into WvW, i mean if they’re good players (which many of them are, i just have a bad habbit of never finding them in PvE) then they can be very useful pumping out a large amount of damage in both small skirmishes and in the safety of the zerg, if they’re bad then they’ll be bad either way and probably just try and DPS from the floor like in PvE.

And the problem is i don’t have a place to store my gear (my bank is already overflowing, and i mainly sPvP so i haven’t really had the funds most PvE players do to just buy another bank tab with gold), i could easily buy another set of gear and respec my traits, but i would have no where to put the old set, or the new set when i’m not using it so i just am making due with what i’ve got and am going with a tankyer support set.

@Neoheart Yes, i know i’m not dealing as much damage as them, that’s kinda the whole point, i don’t care about damage, i never have, and never will, it doesn’t matter what MMO i’m playing i’m going to go for the more supporty role whether it’s optimal or not. That being said it’s not like i’m not providing them with anything, i’m giving them perma swiftness (it helps them get out of circles without having to waste a dodge, not much else to use it for), perma regen, a waterfield, over 33% uptime on vigor (from me alone, likely much higher with others there), extremely fast and safe rezzes that put them at 50% of their healthbar instead of a measily 30%, a large uptime on protection, and perma fury.

And as i said, it’s not like i NEED the bear there, i’ve thrown him out of the fractal countless times because he was proving worthless in favor of a more useful pet like say a Melandru Stalker for the AoE 5stacks of might, or a red moa if we need more fury for some ungodly reason or maybe a spider or another canine for more support, there’s a lot of options.

As a zerker friend of mine said to me when i told him i was going to run clerics, “If taking a hit to your DPS means an increase for the group as a whole i see no reason for you not to do it.” and the way i see it, keeping the zerkers from taking a dirt nap has been doing great so far.

Very well said! There is more to team play than individual dps. Slightly decreasing your individual damage output in favor of support will make team damage higher in most cases.

Chokolata.1870:

you can run anything when on low-medium levels. On higher levels you get instant downed irrelevant of your defense rating so people go full zerk

Not true at all. Armour is required for higher levels or you will get insta-downed and you will not be able to revive the heavies when they do go down, because even the best will.

Bambula.3649:

ingorant when you think you need it

it´s better to rezz with kill an enemy than rezz with signets they are just panic button and if you know when to doge you dont need them, for what a cleric guard? Oo

sorry guy, but your arguments are weak.

and the biggest joke that your rly thing you deal the same dmg with lb..
axe offhand is most time not needed and weak, if you got a got guard

I must be a noob running fractals 50. I didn’t even know you could revive while dodging. You’ll have to explain that trick… Or not. You dont know how to use combo fields if you think LB doesnt deal much damage.

Rym.1469:

Archon.6480:

Rym.1469:

In general, strongest builds for Ranger doesn’t contain any Bow. The less bows you bring = better you are atm lol

Not true, bows shoot through targets and spam conditions trough targets. With the right sigils and allies, no weapon does more damage against mobs. No weapon comes close even…

Oh, boy..
To begin with, to make your arrows pierce you have to pick Piercing Arrows trait which is 20 points deep in MM, you have to either lose Eagle Eye (the only advantage roaming ranger has – outraging opponents) or Spotter.
So you dump 20 points and your arrows pierce. Now, who gives a flying kitten about it? It may work only with Mesmers maybe, but good Mesmer should kill any Ranger built around bows.
You pierce… What? You’re a kitten roamer, your goal is mostly 1v1, 1v2, we’re not talking about zergfests. Nobody 9 a clue of brian will ever stand in line when fighting with you just to allow you for imba pierce. And if it comes to damage, every single other class will do more damage than you, piercing with your shortbow. I have yet to meet some group of people, who in active fight stand in line, turned back to you… Seriously, DS Power Necromancer which I play can get piercing by adept trait in mandatory line, which not only allows you to pierce, but also apply 2 stacks of vun each Life Blast hit, lasting long time. And yea, even in balanced build Life Blast crits for 5-7k every 1,5 second and has better piercing radius

You speak about shortbow stacking good bleeds. Now tell me, why does nearly none apart from Spirit Ranger spam build and maybe some controll specs run Shortbow? It has amazingly poor condition application, requiring you to not face your opponent. When you kite someone, he’s facing you so you apply nothing.
If player is fighting with someone else, the no-brainer he has to do when he sees you with your pitiful, little pony bow is to simply face in your direction and continue fighting. Suddenly, your bleed application goes down to nearly zero and he can ignore you.

Please, don’t even try to argue with me about bows in WvWvW roaming. I’ve put about 150 hours in roaming with Bow specs on WvWvW, killed tons of players with them.
Still, after 19567 death because of weapon not working, skill breaking, pet being useless and trying to craft working tactics with my builds vs. decent opponents in meta builds, being roflstomped because of broken class….
I gave up and came back to my Necromancer. Now I have a lot of fun with Power specs roaming. Most of things do work, I face meta builds with success, pets obey commands in most of the times I need them, I can kite.
Unless something big happen, I can’t see myself coming back to Ranger. Running with Conditank builds and spamming #1 all day without any proper tactic (because none work better than spamming)… Not for me, lost faith

Wow, you totally won that debate with yourself. Next time read my post before responding. Roaming and solo roaming are different. Since when does the word mob refer to less than 5 people. You should always roam with a friend or two and if you want to solo roam (and nerf your server for being a moron) you should come up with some wired 1v1 build with the OP runes that are not allowed in PvP (like perplexity) then you can steamroll the other morons running around like chickens in WvW…

KyreneZA.8617:

I have an ascended LB, WH and soon will have a main-hand Axe too on my Ranger main. Yet when my son started playing the game, and picked a Ranger alt a week ago, I told him to learn how to use the GS and Sword+Axe off-hand. He’s probably better off for me telling him to toss that LB he picked up in the nearest fire…

Power/Cond/Pet with swords and no crit dmg or precision is just as nice as the bow ranger who specialized in Power/Pre/Cond/Crit. and uses LB + Axe/Warhorn. The latter will deal a bit more damage while the former will deal nice damage and have much more survivability… And it feels good to bash things with the GS for sure

Chokolata.1870:

axe/bows are very equal at the moment, in their level of blehness that is

Just stay close to the enemy and your allies. The blehness will go away when you are spamming their fire, bleed, poison, healing, blindness, and condition removal all over the place. Bleh becomes pretty nifty with a few party boons as well. Just don’t go all in on berserker. Zerker trinkets mixed with enough celestial to keep you alive will do nicely for close ranger power dealing rangers.

Aggrostemma.1703:

I was a bow-type ranger, but I love the GS now.

I am a ranger who gets into the heat of the battle with his two trusty pets, Mighty (stalker) and Condi (bear). They are there only to -if the time calls for it- give some motivation (might) or a few seconds of protection (50k HP bear with Protect me! is very handy). I’m the ranger, who engages from afar with a deadly hail of arrows, then leaps into the combat while encouraging his fellows with shouts. I’m a ranger who has no honour. Tricks and traps are all acceptable to bring down a foe. It needs honour to decide who has to die. After this decision was made the honour is not important anymore.

I am a ranger who stalks the land and uses everything for his advantage and accepts no rules. Rules are to protect the weak. But in the forest there is only one rule!

“The weak loses, the punishment is: death!
The strong wins, the reward is: may fight again!”

If the nature follows only this rule so must the ranger too.

…

I use 10/0/30/30/0 with GS as main, and whatever I need as a second… axe+horn or longbow. I like this playstyle and I think it fits into the “ranger” category. I never get blamed because of my pet or my bow (bearbow…). Basically I am the first who gets into the combat and usually the last one who drops

Yep. Ranger can tank like a guardian no problem. you will live longer too with protect me and (if you retrait a little) signet of stone. 12s of invulnerability is nice.

Skyburst.4576:

Hi,

I am a bit new to Ranger at level 80 and am still working on grasping general concepts on the weapon choices for optimizing PvE and WvW.

They have the lowest auto-attack DPS. The weapon benefits are split by both power (#1) and cond. damage (#2). The issue is if I’m gearing for power, I’m definitely going to use Sword, GS, or even LB before picking Axe. If I’m gearing for cond damage, I’m definitely going to use SB + S/T or S/D before picking the axe. This is considering that every melee weapon cleaves and bows have AoE capabilities through piercing arrows, which lessens Ricochet’s main benefit.

So, I’d like to know under what circumstances do you use the axe.

The Axe is good for hitting multiple targets that are not in a line. The auto attack ricochet’s back and forth so you often hit more than twice. Splitblade at point blank range is a powerful spike if you have decent power and condition damage. Skill 3 adds ice and most importantly a long duration weakness to enemies. This is useful for softening the blow of some tough pve enemies that might otherwise one shot you and your teammates.

I find the best use is that you can hit enemies all around you while dodging though them as you can almost throw the axe backwards, initially, and then it will bounce anywhere a target is from there. So you can run and attack enemies all around you at the same time in close range. If you lead off with splitblade at point blank range, you can call it in a second time before switching back to other weapons set. This weapon has a natural synergy with bows as they will help you get in close for the initial attack or get out after the last one. In both cases you want to use it at point blank range.

Keep in mind conditions effects pass though targets, so if you put a bleeding sigil on the axe, you have a nice chance to paint a group of targets with bleed as the axes pass though them. If you are with a guardian or elementalist, you will be painting fire as well, which really boosts your damage output.

Bambula.3649:

^signet ranger..and your out

and with ranger with ascended you dont need assasins gear -.-
with ascended trinkets and weapons you reach the crit chance cap you need and with ascended armor it´s even more waste of points

Ignorant. 30/30/10/0/0 Fractals 50. You need signet of stone to revive your teammates and survive close to friends and enemy. Signet of Wild, Signet of Stone and Defend me. If you kick those rangers your are kicking the best. Rangers group damage, up close to allies with axe/sword warhorn and LB is same as warrior. And revives are better cause you have 12s of invulnerability so you can revive is situations that would down a guardian with clerics gear. Because most things will 1 or 2 shot a guardian at that level

TurtleDragon.3108:

Nurgle.6597:

Fext.3614:

So rangers suck. Anybody knows it and no respectable player would wear a ranger. And if you happen to log your ranger, there is hardly a group where you are not told by one or more morons that you suck just because you are a ranger.

I’m just wondering

1. where this really started and how can you really tell that a class or a player has a low damage without dps parser?
People say that a thief or a war with a bow does more damage than a ranger. How can anyone prove this claim?

2. if rangers are improved, and would perform as a welcome (ranged) dpsers, how long it takes before the antiranger prejudice dies?

But it is true, I made a ranger character, I got to lvl 45 and it’s pretty clear that there is absolutely no objective reason to play a ranger over a warrior or any other class, they don’t do anything better than another class.

Spotter and Frost Spirit.

Um, unlimited party Fury? Projectile and Blast finishers… Best ranged damage? Best water field? Or do you think you can face stomp every foe in dungeons and fractals… that will go over really well on fractals 40+ and 50+.

Kilger.5490:

Pretty hard to compare anything to warriors atm. I think its universally understood they are the pinnacle class right now, which will change no doubt.

But Ive never felt threatened by a warrior with a bow. Not when I can knock him back any time I want, disappear into stealth, cripple him (make him use his evades) with barrage, or just dps him down from out of his range. Theres so many ways to put him on the defensive, I dont care much that he can aoe better. Every weapon is supposed to be viable in some way or else it wouldnt be an option.

Yeah, LB Warriors in WvW are defenseless targets.

solrik.6028:

sminkiottone.6972:

a warrior is much better with LB than ranger.

Whahahaha please tell me what makes your statement true.

ROFL, oh OK. Those LB warriors are sooo dangerous!

Bambula.3649:

^yes serraphim

@archon we do not say the only good build are without bow, but most of the stronger build are without and dont need any bow

Good point. I agree totally. I alternate to GS and Sword torch. It is stronger than bow builds for sure. I misunderstood “strongest.”

I like the way ranger now plays. My only suggestion would be for new defensive pet skills for WvW battles. Stuff that other players would want to have:

1. Mass healing
2. Shield bubble
3. Mass invisibility
4. Slightly Faster response time on f2 skills

Rym.1469:

In general, strongest builds for Ranger doesn’t contain any Bow. The less bows you bring = better you are atm lol

Not true, bows shoot through targets and spam conditions trough targets. With the right sigils and allies, no weapon does more damage against mobs. No weapon comes close even…

Rangers trait lines allow you to completely avoid pre/crit when maxing power/toughness and condition damage. You can go 30/0/30/0/10 or 30/0/20/0/20 with signets and swords, depending on how much you like pets. You can tank like/better than a guardian this way with natural evades and signets.

Casmurro.9046:

Rangers need a new high dps weapon to use in dungeon’s speedruns, you dont need the leaps from the sword if the boss is usually rooted in place. Necros also have a problem with speedruns because they dont have a high dps weapon that cleaves.

Until ANet fixes these issues we will still see a lot of lfg posts that says “lfm full zerk. No ranger/necro”

Those are noob groups. Avoid them. Most speed run groups are full of noobs. Just start your own party or join another.

Yes, put 30 in power trait line and choose active affects of signets also affect you. Use signet of stone and signet of the wild as well as protect me shout. Then you will have 12s of inv and stability option. the Rest is up to you. Place 30 in toughness trait line for more 1v1 style fighting or 30 in precision trait line for more team style damage (you’ll get squished in most 1v1 fights).

bckerr.4798:

1) Does our attributes affect in any way our pets? ie: attack/power/crit etc.
2) I have a much easier time soloing Veterans and often 2 at a time with those tough pets. Granted, I am only level 30. Does it get harder to fight those type of mobs at higher levels?

Yes, it really does get harder to fight mobs at high levels. Usually you’ll be paired with guardians and warriors who will take the place of your tough pet. In which case mighty roar or infuriating screech will benefit your team more. Be that as it may, you may want to bring “Protcect Me” along with a bear for 6s of invulnerability. You can swap to swords and burst enemies down this way, before and after level 80. Works great on zerkers in WvW as well. <evil grin>

Eggyokeo.9705:

I try and give you a bit more of a explanation.

1. Our stats have no effect on our pets, our pets have a set of base stats and each type of pet is different. Every point in the beast mastery line increases your pets stats. There are traits spread through our traits that effect pets in different ways. Pets Wiki

2. open world PvE is very easy (possible more so for rangers then other classes). As you level your ranger put attribute points in to the beast-mastery line and don’t use bears (i like drakes for general usage) and you will have fun.

make sure to test all the pets, and use all of your weapons. don’t just stick to bows and bears (known as bearbow and is a bit of a dirty word)

…until you get to advanced gameplay. Then you’ll want to have at least one bear hanging around, bow or no bow. You’ll need to use “Protect Me” often for revives and such. Call it inverse bear-bowing. :-) Bears carry about 50k hp, and you’ll easily chew through 40k to revive an ally against tough foes. If you use lb or sb try to stay within 8ft of heavys all the time.

Fext.3614:

OptimistPrime.9283:

1. They do tests.

What kind of tests? I have a war, guard and a ranger at 80, mixed asc and exo zerger gear (yeah at the guard, too). What test shall I perform to see how exactly my ranger suck at, well, everything?

They do worthless beginner tests, at best 1v1 against slow dumb giants in cursed shores. They don’t consider class pairing, either. Combo fields rule advanced play and require combo finsishers (blast, leap, and projectile). Rangers become powerhouses when paired with Guardians and warriors. The 3 have a real nice synergy. You need to stay alive within 6 – 8 feet of them. Challenging and rewarding.

Ltomato.8649:

Here’s one test: My friend leveled an engi to 80, picked up Rampagers exotic gear, used boon duration runes and grenade traits, and did more damage with nades than my longbow ranger using full ascended zerker with ruby orbs and 3 versatile mighty infusions, 2 mighty wvw infusions , max range.

That’s one test.

That’s one worthless test. Sorry to say. You need to do timed tests against Veteran Karkas in southsun or the champion drake near the arena. The first test is finding a build to beat them, the second test is improving the time it takes. Most people do damage tests against the giants in cursed shore, or other enemies that don’t fight back.

Once you’ve tuned your build, you should retest with a friend or two to see how your build pairs with other classes… As an example, you need to stay about 6ft behind warriors and guardians, etc etc. I mainly use LB and axe/warhorn for fractals 50, and even bears for some fights (say it ain’t so!). Swords are great as well for some things. WvW is great fun as well… Full zerker gear on ranger is garbage. the second attribute of a ranger’s power trait line (condition duration) should tell you this.

Your bow attacks spam conditions through enemies with your condition damage multiplier, tagging everything touched. Stand behind a guardian and see what happens.

Rym.1469:

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

Its amazing to me he said that the longbow is pretty much garbage and that new players should just move on from it.

This.
Yay for “unparalled archers” !

…and then when you get really good you should revisit it!

One more note, individual DPS is far less important than team dps. Selfish builds are inherently nerfed for being selfish. It’s better to decrease your damage by 150, if you can give each teammate +100 damage. The build system is full of these wonderful enigmas. Must I nerf my own damage to boost my team? Say it ain’t so!

I hope he doesn’t give too many secrets away… I like being one of the few rangers that can deal unearthly amounts of damage. If he tells to much, Rangers will be in for another nerf. The reality is rangers do more damage than most classes, but you have to think less linearly to see it. The developers know this because they have programs to analyse raw damage behind the scenes. You’d have to combine your condition damage with your raw damage, with the damage increase you give to your friends, to really see what is happening. In the end of a long fight, on a smart team, ranger damage is very very high. I don’t believe full zerker is the way to do this, either. Not even close.

I see. Are you saying a mode for people who actually want to play the dungeon the “right” way? Where you get better rewards for clearing each room and slaughtering the evils within. I’d love something like that. I really would love an excuse to try to kill some of the champions and adds in between bosses.

As it is, most everyone runs past everything they can. Kinda boring. I suspect the developers do give better rewards for more killing, but try to convince speed runners this is true. I noticed this in fractals. I usually end up with rings at the end when Dredge comes up. You gotta kill all the mobs in dredge. nothing to skip you see…

Any class should do just fine. Try to put some Armour on in fractals. Other than that you should be OK. Make sure to up your agony resistance as fast as possible. Agony is biggest killer… That and those big red circles.

Chopps.5047:

Someone may have said this already but I think they’re counting character slots. Myself and a few dozen regular posters on this forum are about the only ‘main’ rangers in the entire game. Last night in wvw, myself and Dewolfe were the only two rangers I saw playing for JQ on JQBL.

LOL! Wait, there is one more who mains Ranger in JQ. That makes 3 of us!

swiftpaw.6397:

Strife has a Non-Teamwork based build philosophy? What

Yes, you bet. He, and many others, promoted a selfish play style. Don’t get me wrong, he and his sPve team were very talented and I am sure he could of trounced most players. What he and many others are promoting is simply maximum damage == good. It’s very one dimensional. Equip beserker, do a lot of damage, don’t die, presto! You are good! Not. How about, here’s how to carry newer players through a hard dungeon. Or this is what you can do to help your team/squad survive. Alas, such novel concepts are lost on the elite beserkanoobs. So the beserkanoob is someone who equips beserker (or some other max damage) configuration, and pays no regard for their team/squad and thinks: As long as I am doing great damage, I am good. If my team dies, they suck, because I do a lot of damage….and am good. :-)

Noobie.1073:

Archon.6480:

Yeah. Ranger is 14 percent because it is one of the best PvE/PvP classes, if you know what you are doing. Anet can see this from statistics which is why they have tweaked it quite a bit. Even with all the tweaks, I still feel sorry for opponents in PvP and WvW as they get continue to get steamrolled. Too many people use beserkanoob charts to analyse class viability in PvE as well. They forget about the important things like combo field options, power/condition pairing, group traits, etc.

Are dungeons considered PvE? cause if they are, Rangers aren’t too welcomed. They’re like the kid that gets picked last to join a team lol. WvW? besides roaming and 1v1 or ocassional 1v2s….Rangers are not the popular choice. I would say WvW consists of many many thieves and mesmers. PvP is about the only place a ranger is welcomed or favored.

Dungeons are Considered PvE, and are no problem with a ranger. At least, at this point, I am 38 in fractals and have Dungeon Master title. Beat everything first time as well. Passed every queens guantlet challenge as well (except Liadre). Rangers aren’t too welcomed in beginner groups for sure, but that is more due to some pretty popular beserkanoob folklore perpetuated by people (strife) who have an interesting, non teamwork based team philosophy on class viability. I sometimes think people post garbage to fool beginners into having a tough time. Rangers are walking arrow carts in WvW and are very welcomed in JQ. 1v1 in WvW? That’s like when 1 person tries to storm a castle by himself? I would argue against 1v1 ranger builds in WvW, but i am sure that’s debatable.

Yeah. Ranger is 14 percent because it is one of the best PvE/PvP classes, if you know what you are doing. Anet can see this from statistics which is why they have tweaked it quite a bit. Even with all the tweaks, I still feel sorry for opponents in PvP and WvW as they get continue to get steamrolled. Too many people use beserkanoob charts to analyse class viability in PvE as well. They forget about the important things like combo field options, power/condition pairing, group traits, etc.

There is nothing wrong with any of the classes, and those who imply there is are still new to the game and parroting others who don’t know what they are talking about. ANet spends quite a bit of effort balancing all the classes, to great success. Each class has group based skills and traits as well as individual skills.

The group based skills rely on your team, and out power individual skills by a lot when in a group. The group skills help you less when running solo, but more when in a team. Most newer (and some older) players get fixated on individual dps builds and use those metrics to judge everything. I think they do this because the math is somewhat easier and more consistent than trying to calculate team dps.

This is silly because the elegance of the game involves creating and finishing your own and your teams combo fields as well as buffing… The damage and dps gets way to hard to calculate when taking your effect on your teammates into account, so many avoid it altogether (to great peril) Take ranger’s spotter as an example. 150 extra precision is ok for you, nice for a team of 2, great for 3 (we are now talking 450 precision added to the team). How about a group of 5 or more?

Every class has a nice little team nugget to offer (think banners, AoE combo fields, team traits etc). And, every class can do great solo as well (up close or at range). Pick the one you like best and don’t look back, you’ll do fine.

For Pve, I like running Power build with LB and axe/wh 30/30/10/0/0 with divinity runes and celestial and beserker trinkets. LB #3 is great team skill as well as Warhorn #5. This pairs nicely with warriors and guardians. Use a mix of soldier and clerics Armour. You’ll end up with high team damage and decent defense. Fractals is a breeze till level 38 with this. BM bunker is totally different than this, but works just as we’ll, btw. Bunker is easier when you are lacking decent heavy Armour allies.

Yenn.9185:

There is no place for ranger in harder dungeons. Red circles will eat your pet leaving you lacking with DPS. They’re great in open world solo PVE. Have I known how bad rangers are at dungeons (compose the majority of my end-game goals) I would not have rolled a ranger.

Yikes! This is really not true! Rangers can be great at anything. I personally think they are the best class, based on how I like to play. I would recommend the Ranger class to anyone who is a tactician, loves math, and enjoys figuring out the mechanics of the game. If you are more interested in beating the snot out of your opponents, with little regard for what is going on, I would recommend another class.

As a ranger you will have to dodge frequently, obsessively watch your pet, and switch your weapons, skills, pets between encounters in dungeons—sometimes. If this seems like a pain, don’t choose a ranger. If you like the idea, that’s good news. You’ll benefit your team more than any other class (these are fighting words, I am sure). I detailed some of the specifics below, read on if you are interested:

Rule #1: Check your server, you will find it more enjoyable to play on a server that has skilled WvW and PvE players. Jade Quarry, Blackgate, etc… In dungeons, check your teammates achievements. If they are under 4K, you might end up getting quite a bit of flak from your teammates that don’t really understand the game yet. Most everyone over 5K will be a joy to play with, for sure. Be ready to get grief from noobie players just for being a Ranger. Comments like: “Great we have 3 guardians, this will be easy!” (and take 4 hours to finish) are a good sign you are grouped with inexperienced players.

Rule #2: Don’t forget you have 6 pets. 1 you can control and 5 that join your party Don’t let them die and buff them to cause massive damage! This is your primary objective. Revive, revive, heal, revive. Your 6 pets will help you deal massive amounts of damage if used properly. Think about Call of the Wild, Mighty Roar, and Hunter’s Shot combined—The Mighty Spike Ranger’s must pay attention to their pet and the other five team members. This might not be true for other classes.

Rule #3: The strongest boss (think fractals) will die the fastest when it has 25 stacks of vulnerability, is on fire, poisoned, and is bleeding 25 times over while your 6 pets (team) have Fury and 25 stacks of might. Watch what your team is doing and change your weapons to fill in the gaps. In my experience most teams will have difficulty applying Vulnerability, Fury, and poison. That’s easy for you, so equip the right utilities and weapons when this is the case. Just make sure to fill the gap, wherever it is. Ranger’s need to be tactical.

Rule #4: Every once in a while you will end up with “runners” that run dungeons for the tokens. They basically end up skipping more than half the content by running past it to rush to the end. Understand what to do when this happens. This will usually be done with warriors and guardians build for low dps and tons of armor so they don’t go down… they usually don’t know how to revive so you will likewise need to build selfishly to survive. To keep alive, you need to “bunker” yourself. Basically equip RaO, and signets if you are using a damage ranger. Ranger’s need to adjust for survival more than other classes that have high armor and survivability by default.

Rule #5: Love your pet. He is your best friend. It’s fine to put 30 in BM for a bunker build, or 0 for a Pwr, Pre, Cond build. Either way your pet will help you quite a bit so pay attention to picking the right pet for the right situation. BM bunker/regen condition rangers are most likely the most powerful spec right now so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I don’t use it on my main because I enjoy the thrill of dodging and using wits to survive a bit more. Regen Ranger is sooo strong it takes the thrill out. Kinda like a healing Guardian… The Ranger class will require you to micro-manage your pet in most battles.

Rule #6: The GW2 Secret. Team based skills and affects benefit you less, but when all the numbers are added up, are much more effective than the seemingly more powerful individual effect skills (the selfish ones that save you and hose your team). The Ranger has nice team based skills.

So, to answer the question: Choose a ranger if you enjoy tinkering with your equipment and skills from time to time, and like watching all the little damage markers and status of your teammates. If not, I don’t think you will enjoy Ranger too much. In honesty, quite a few people loathe the class…

Tierce.5370:

@ ZudetGambeous, yeah. Rangers are a disadvantage if they’re not paying attention to their pets.

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For any rangers reading, if you can keybind F1 and F3 to your mouse to sic your pet on an enemy and recall them when necessary, it’ll make your dungeon lives SO much easier.

Also, like Hrouda said, try to stay near your pets in this dungeon, like within 600 range. Less chance of them running over traps because of weird pathing issues.

I agree, the pet is not an afterthought (the extra 10% damage or whatnot). I run two ranger builds, one with 30 in BM and another with 0 in BM. In both builds the pet is critical to being effective.

Take time to study each pet’s abilities and choose the right pet for the right situation. Watch what your furry friend does and adjust accordingly. If you see your pet triggering traps and enemies, call him back and stay near him. Make him attack when it is safe. I would recommend all rangers play with 30 in BM for a while. It will force you to think about the pet and the strengths in this class should become more clear…

Sina.9208:

Archon.6480:

I end up using a balanced build with LB and Axe/Warhorn…

A traited rifle warrior will do more dmg than you period, also it will be able to inflict similar amount of vulnerability(rifle skill no4 + “on my mark”) & also it will be a lot harder to die with, also even if u are a power/crit ranger LB is only useful as a secondary weapon, SB will win out if you are not in max range, so in my opinion currently the best way to maximize dps as a ranger is to use SB/LB, use barrage, hunter’s shot, rapid fire and then swap to shortbow try to flank a bit and once the LB burst skills are off cool-down repeat. That way if your pet is alive for a long period of time (very rare) you can actually pull some acceptable dps. The Axe/warhorn is alright for support, if you are running a full time shortbow build, but the LB is just too weak on it’s own.

An improperly traited warrior, wielding a rifle as a main weapon, might be able to deal more raw damage than a ranger, but I really think it would waste the potential of the warrior and end up being less useful than a Ranger to a team. The sacrifice this build would undergo to make it powerful at range, would defeat the purpose. I don’t see this build in fractal runs or dungeons, so I think it is rather useless. Do you have an example of this kind of build so I could try it out? I hear it’s great all the time, but have yet to see anyone attempt to use it on a team.

I think the comparison of skill 4 on the rifle to hunter’s shot (3) on the LB is equivalent to how much less damage a decent warrior build will do with a rifle at range vs ranger (about 40%). A properly traited warrior is traited for close range combat, and equips a rifle when they are in situations where they need to put distance between themselves and a real nasty PB/PBAoE enemy—to heal up a bit. I agree that on My Mark is awesome, and I run it on my warrior might build . This vulnerability skill comes as a utility. Used in conjunction with Axe/Mace the inflicted vulnerability is very nice. I get 2.6K of damage per hack with might maxed warrior doing this. The Ranger’s vulnerability is included in the trait line and weapon. Same is true for Call of the Wild vs warrior’s not-so-good equivalent.

I think the Ranger could be updated so their pets are a little stronger. My three changes would be:

1. Make all pets a little tougher. I expect my bear (the strongest pet) to die/or be swapped after about 8s of melee contact with a tough boss. This means it usually gets only 4 or 5 hits. Seems too short. The long pet swap cooldown pretty much guarantees his friend will end up dead, on his back, bleeding profusely 8s later, if I don’t call him back.

2. Pet skills activate too slow as well. I usually need the effect sooner than it comes.

3. Speed up skill 1 of the LB, just a little bit. I sometimes get stuck having to fire 2-3 shots between weapon swaps in a good fight (as you said, I am usually too close), so it ends up being 3 slow weak shots (ugh).

My build does not favor LB over Axe/Warhorn. It has no main weapon. To be effective the weapons are swapped evenly and both are treated as main. I have yet to figure out how to make SB/LB work right. SB is traited for conditions (non-vulnerability) and pets, so I find SB/Axe Warhorn better for condi pet build. SB Power/Crit build seems not right… Maybe this works as a Ravager build?

My main is a Ranger and I think it is very fun to play. I just hate listening to everyone yabbering about how it sucks and is worthless and Guardians and Warriors are sooo much better. Nothing I say matters, because there are a hundreds of posts about how their DPS is no good.

I end up using a balanced build with LB and Axe/Warhorn. The problem is that players don’t understand the mechanics of the game and I can’t explain to them why mass amounts of vulnerability and cripple on a fractals boss combined with fury and speed on the team is better than individual DPS…

I wish something could be done so I could get into a group without getting ridiculed. It doesn’t matter if I revive my teammates 10-12 times in a fractals run and don’t drop a single time. Some people don’t even know what is going on cause they have it in their head that all rangers suck and only warriors and guardians are good. I wish something could be done to discourage that thought line.

I maxed a warrior for Fractals runs, because I am sick of dealing with other players. Now I can hack and slash with the best of them. Yawn