Guild Wars 2

Once you learn how to handle an engineer in zerker gear it doesn’t matter really your trait setups. But you have to have 30 in Tools. I run 0/30/0/10/30 Rifle HT TK RT and RB which is a pretty cookie cutter build, although sometimes I use Pistol/Shield with it too, it’s more about timing your abilities and learning to survive than the build itself. No get out of jail free cards.

DargorV.8571:

Or is it still subpar?

In PvE and WvW yes. I believe at least 80% of the engineer profession play PvP, which is where you will find one or two every game.

Benailim
Fissure of Woe
PvP

You can break the sword chain by swapping, dodging, hitting esc, using 2 and 3. And all of those prevent you from dieing.

Also something that would interest me which I feel would open up Ranger support builds would be for Natures Voice to have different effects, per shout.

“Guard” :Regen + Swiftness
“Protect me” Aegis + Protection
“Sic Em” Might + Fury
“Search and Rescue” Regen + (quickness?)

I played a game where 4 people insisted on sitting on Mid and wouldn’t move. Unless you are part of a team there really is no point.

Most full Zerk ranger builds run signets and are extremely gimmicky and spammy. I wouldn’t recommend them whatsoever however if your really want to play a power build (you will struggle vs high ranks) then try this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNAR8XnMqQLL2KI+rAXLGIaP4k5xE7B/T0ieFmVBbqA-TsAA0CnIuSdl7KzVyrsXNEZBxmDA

This build is hard to recreate in PvP so I chose the Valkyrie amulet but the build has decent healing/condi cleanse and more importantly high armor and power. It builds crit damage over crit chance because of Moment of Clarity and Sigil of intelligence. You can play defensively and then interrupt them with great sword, then switch and use axe 4 which will hit twice and pull them. Moment of Clarity gives +150% to the first hit and intelligence, from my testing (but I may get lucky and be wrong) effects both hits.

But don’t get to down if you can’t play amazingly as it is a ranger power build.

For PvE dungeons go full zerk with shortbow and sword/warhorn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGtY69tcek
That is still a decent build for PvE.

For WvW if you want to zerg surf a longbow build of your choice would be suitable and for pvp you will want to go with traps, regen, spirits, beastmaster or you could attempt the power builds which unfortunately handicap you.

Were they using tonics? That could be the case or they could be using costume consumables or missions. Otherwise it was the norn elite but you said they weren’t so I assume it’s tonics.

While they’re at it, please make “Search and Rescue” do something.

I agree 95% to this, except the support. No other class can bring spotter, no other class has a frost spirit and no one can upkeep the sword dps. Axe OH is a reflect, it has been used on the 5 ranger Lupi run to 1 shot his projectile phase. Rangers have a conditional fire field available every 12 seconds potentially.

Rangers are not a hopeless class and need to stop being considered one, however ranger is the joint most played class and is catered as an easy class which attracts, unfortunately, bad players. Only a fraction of Rangers visit the forums, and we’re normally the better ones as we care to visit, however as you rightly said a bad warrior > a bad ranger. It comes down to game mechanics really, but a lot of bad drops doesn’t mean the entire ocean is bad. Personally my ideal party is 3 warriors, 1 ranger and 1 mesmer but that’s just me.

TL;DR
Ranger can excel at everything you said it cannot, not all at once clearly, but neither can any other class. It comes down to game mechanics and the player, not the class. But I still agree on a lot of things OP said.

While the spirit build is still Meta it is, in most peoples opinions, mind numbingly boring. If you want a more active higher skill build then you can go for Regen Ranger or the classic Beastmaster. The regen ranger is good for team fights and on point survival, but the Beastmaster ranger still trumps most people and is good at taking far points.

I use this version:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQRAsf3YnEqQLL2KIWsAXLGIWFAU7BnMPmePm16bfJr4J-TsAAzEgpAzBmBMJYWwGgs8YfwUAA

As a class rangers damage is shared with their pet, and going full zerk is not as effective as it is on a warrior. You didn’t mention a game mode either but for PvE all you need is full zerk and frost spirit. In WvW mix in some soldiers,clerics,knights or magis depending on what you’d prefer and for PvP go Zerker or Valk.

[quote=3832345;Seifer Thalaen.7869:]

What I’ve been thinking about more and more, if rank 55+ are getting bumped to rank 80. How high will rank 35 get bumped? What about rank 2. Will current rank 2 players get bumped to 30? Because while 30 is easy to get (skyhammer) it still splits the people who have tried a bit from those who haven’t and so on.

Hey Psi. Firstly, this looks pretty decent for condition bunkers. Looking at the new poison trait at the moment seems promising but come April 15th it might better be taken by Empathetic Bond still due to all the condition spam, although in WvW you might get away with using the Survival trait over it, but the 50% doesn’t seem like a massive amount, but who knows till the final patch right?

Also I don’t know if I’ve said this before and it really comes down to preference, but personally I find Sword/Torch and Axe/Dagger is a better combo.
Firstly it spreads your evades across both weapon sets rather than having one super evasive set and one full condition set.
Secondly it allows you to use bonfire, which at its current radius is melee range, in sync with your sword 2 leap, allowing you to get a fire shield.

Go full Celestial with some mixed in gear of your preference(rabbid/knights). I can switch through all of our available weapons and still beat most people, and it’s fun.

In PvE go full zerk, it’s already been proven we are one of the best DPS classes.

I’ve played with rank 60’s that don’t use the chat and do their own thing then blame the “troll team”. Likewise I’ve met low ranks that are amazing, in one of the EU Dueling servers we had a rank 2 ele come along in celestial gear and beat everyone in a duel. I’ve also met Deer ranks that actually know when to leave points…

Generally Rank is a good estimate of someone’s ability, but recently I’ve seen many exceptions to this…

The Developers said they want Dragon rank to be achievable by anyone, and as they clearly cannot tell the difference between people who farmed Skyhammer and people who are more highly skilled, the difference will have to lie in the skill level (like PvE , except there you have gear differences). I don’t like the change myself even as a lower rank, because I’ve fought people into their late 50’s that I consider unskilled.

They need to add something that differentiates skill level between people, rather than something that can be flat farmed in my opinion.

I’m probably going to repeat what other people have said here but if you can successfully get the reef drake f2 to actually hit someone then I tip my hat to you. Just go spiders and watch as they do hit someone.

I reached the stars on my ranger about a month after launch. I do feel for people who want to play full power builds though, keep waiting guys.

I like the build and I’m definitely impressed by the crit damage, it made me double take when I saw the clerics gear before I realised how that happened. I would still rather people use this over bearbow any day if they wish to go full zerk as they can take a hit with this at least. Although the food is expensive. Personally I’d swap the longbow for short bow for a greater dps at close range, although I can see why the longbow was chosen, I just dislike the weapon.

The build has no condi cleanse or armor, and lacks survivability. Looks like a good zerg surfing build, but it isn’t a beastmaster build really.

I love how people constantly complain about rangers, we’re not Warriors and likely wont be as good as we were in the beta ever again. However why does everyone seem to think we are rubbish? In PvE our DPS build, disregarding the pet is still top tier (the pet only adds to it) and as far as PvP we are still one of the best classes; spirits are still fantastic for team fights and beastmaster builds still crush people and for me have a 80% win rate? What is this super problem that causes rangers to be extremely subpar? I haven’t been looked down upon, or felt that my class is a failure since I started playing it? Or do you all want easy.

Ranger needs a trait, like warrior, that shortens our weapon swap. Rangers are meant to be mobile and I believe ANET needs to capitalise on that…I want a dust trap and I strongly believe Rangers deserve the Preparations from gw1. Also Hammers.

Rabid is better in builds that make use of the precision, sigils, traps etc. Rabid = good vs power, carrion = good vs condition.

Now Dire is the second most cheese mode armour we can use as it is it gives good defence and vitality. In WvW always take Dire > Rabid. You didn’t mention apothecary but I will anyway as an apothecary ranger is basically godmode.

Wilderness Survival and Beastmaster are pretty nice for my build actually. With 100% poison the buff is nice, and if it scales off condi damage thats a nice tick. This wont make us godmode, but it will help the classic master builds I reckon. With these traits I will wreck any power build, but yet again condition damage builds will still trump us rangers. Give us good removal.

Bunker with Spirits? Hahahah if you want to die of Boredom. Go 10-0-30-0-30 beastmaster, take a dog and spider with the 50% condi duration trait and cripple on f2. For PvP go rabbid and take Shortbow + sword/torch(dagger) or axe/dagger and sword/torch. Destroy everyone.

Ranger population? Excusing the Bear bows us real rangers are few and spare, although we are all fighting strong.

I actually believe the active ranger community has gotten better and improved, I’ve seen more people double leaping waterfields with their greatsword and most rangers in WvW are more skilled and fun to fight. Heres to april 15th!

Time your evades. In my opinion, swap the dagger for the torch on sword. That way you have evades spread across both weapon sets and you can mess up less. I use this in PvP and if I’m doing well I still destroy people. I recommend spider + dog rather than two spiders simply because it gives you more pushing power with your Sick em.

Alright Rangers are not in a good place. But ‘good’ is subjective. We are in no way equal to the current Warrior, Mesmer and Guardian however we can still hold our place. Yes we have QoL issues and yes sometimes people just have bad days however:

1) In PvE we still are one of the best dps classes to take into a dungeon or fractal.
2) PvP Spirit builds are easy to play, and a typical Beastmaster build when played skilfully still trashes most people, especially if you evade properly.
3) WvW… right this one is tough, in a zerg fight? We don’t offer much. Roaming or small groups a Apoth RR will destroy, a Celestial trapper works great too. WvW is lacking for us a the moment but it doesn’t mean you can’t do well. Just learn the class and how it works and anyone skilled enough can play well.

Hey.

Ok, I am not normally the one to complain about matchmaking and the amount of players per team, I think “I guess he had to go as real life came first”. But this is not what I expected, granted they weren’t the most skilled as I held a point for a good minute and a half. But I do not expect to go into a tournament and lose because…it was a 5v1.

I’m not even sure how this happened, or how someone could deal with this. At least the match was a good laugh.

EDIT: Blocked out their names.

You will always get this because you cannot control what other people do, and in a game mode where you want to win people will trash you if you’re seeming to under perform. However I have never seen a class prejudice in my time at PvP, it’s more or less when your above rank 30 and you get two rank 3’s in your team that say “gg” at the end when you lost 500-100. I find DPS guard is an extremely effective roamer up until you get to high tier tournaments where another role would suit better.

Condition damage player vs player wise is fine, it’s the active removal that needs a buff. Traits such as Diamond skin, Empathetic Bond and Automated Response to name a few need changing. The passive immunity or remove random x every x does not promote active play in the slightest. We need more active cleanses, and make them available to weaker classes.

The average engineer user can cleanse 2 every 15s with Healing turret (Elixir Gun) which cannot possibly counter a condi burst, even setups such as Elixir builds can cleanse 1 at a time with 1/2s on each. The Ranger is a second example, every ranger takes EB because it is the most reliable cleanse they have outside of healing spring (30s cooldown, again cannot counter burst).

Number one is obviously condition necromancer, they completely hard counter engineer and you need to excessively outplay them to win. So disregarding that;

Greatsword Mesmers can kite engineers extremely well

Some people have said warrior but on my Condi build I have enough blind/chill/poison to keep them away from me. On my power build I struggle moreso until I manage to interupt.

Alright, topping what trebor said I highly recommend you do not go full glass cannon, or even Static discharge. The reason I dislike static discharge is that, until you are confident enough with the class to know when to time that blind, dodge, block etc you are wasting all your utilities on a burst. I have fought so many SD engineers that net shot me and scroll through f1-4 and I simply use gear shield and ALL their burst is gone. Now they’re just a high damage rifle user with the armor of a puppy.

Remember that you can still achieve an incredibly high sustained dps while ignoring static discharge and taking more reactive/defensive utilities. At the end of the day though I’d try as many builds as possible, and playing static discharge will teach you how to be a better engineer due to it’s inbuilt weaknesses.

Givers are good and all but any competent player will use cleanses so condi damage > condi duration in that regard.

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

this forums are basicly nothing but QQ from the worst pvp community out there.

Have you played with or seen the League of Legends community (MOBA I know but..)? I was told to “get cancer for jungling past level 4”. So at least Guild wars is slightly above that.

Engineer and Elementalist are both a good 10x harder to learn than guardian. Elementalist requires that you play very well to get an adequate result, and amazingly well to play good. Engineer offers a bit more leeway, if you play bad you have a bit more hp and toughness. They both require high awareness and use of combo fields. They both perform ok in PvE and at PvP the engineer excels moreso.

Engineer is in a really sweet place, it alongside elementalist has a high skill floor and and extremely high skill ceiling. When played bad the builds are bad, when played good the builds are good with the ability to be extremely competent with the class. I wouldn’t say engineer is OP at all as the people that will constantly win will be good players. Get a new player to roll engie and they will most likely go nades/bomb/x and get destroyed (not that that’s a bad combo, but new guys do nade spam).

I feel sorry for ele at the moment. (Also don’t give builds out, we are already the least played class, lets keep it secret :p )

As far as PvP is concerned I’d vote Sizer. I’ve yet to beat any one of his thieves.

If you really don’t like nades you can still give HGH a try. 0-30-0-30-10 zerker (soldier) rifle and toolkit. Amazing damage, we’re talking 6k+12k rifle 5 with 25 might.

Grenades? Oh wait…you don’t have them?…. oh

Engineer- More skills than any other class should you choose, it’s hilarious to play and requires massive synergy with combo fields and blasts to secure victory. Like the ele it has a high skill floor and massive skill ceiling.

The only time I passively play traps is at the beginning of a game where I protect mid or if I’m running from someone. 9 times out of 10 I use them to keep spiking conditions on my opponent, and I don’t use the aoe placement trait (slightly longer place time). Generally I daze or chain imobilise my opponent, and while they are stuck unload traps on them before another daze. I only use fire trap and occasionally poison trap however. I never use 3 and rarely two, I just can’t give up lightening reflexes and protect me.

Full Glass Longbow Ranger is the glassiest build in the game, you will need to have somewhere to run or hide to. However the damage is amazing, over 1000 range expect 3k autos and rapid fire should hit a hefty 8-18k depending on how glassy you go. Signet of the Hunt 150% proc with maul can hit 12k also.

I know now the build is broken, but back to around launch to march Pyroatheist made a bunker mesmer build that could destroy anyone and would troll zergs, sadly it isnt as viable but don’t write off mesmer bunker! I’m sure there is an alternative way to bunk on a mesmer.

As a PvP and WvW player I can say the same for PvE. It is a much LARGER grind for me to do 300+ hearts to get my wxp than the 4 bl maps. Get on with it.

Quick tip, it says leap backwards however it functions like other leap skills such as mesmer phase retreat. Basically it leaps away from the target, so if you run through your opponent and use it you will leap forward.