Guild Wars 2

Rangers have recently moved in to the upper class as far as PvE, outdamaging warriors and obviously guardians.

They’re decent for WvW and PvP.

But ya, Prysin’s joke post has some truth to it. Be prepared for Anet to kitten on rangers at any given moment.

Tommyknocker.6089:

because nothing bores me more that an enemy unwilling to fight back.

You’re completely delusional. No one is fighting back because there is no one. 5 players can hold a tower?There are maybe 5 combined mag and FA players on at 5am EST. So if the two servers work together they can hold 1 tower. You’re just completely delusional.

Ok great, TC is comprised of superior players than T2. You guys are better and it’s not the fact that Mag is a completely dead server and FA doesn’t have any non NA primetime coverage at all. You’re up by 600 points per tick because you guys are just better.

Nice lying there Tommy. Clearly FA and Mag have comparable numbers to BG………..

Frenk.5917:

Isn’t there a more reliable condi cleanse of some sort? Or do I need to stick to that?

There is a fairly meta LB build that goes the normal 6 in MM and then 6 in NM, which gets you “survival of the fittest”, also 2 in WS for reducing recharge of survival skills. That clears 2 condis and gives you fury every time you use a survival skill. I’m not a fan at all of the build, but it definitely gives you some more defense options.

It wasn’t a 100% serious post. However players have consistently shown over the course of more than 2 years that they have no interest in creating a fun WvW environment and would rather ruin it for everyone involved.

It’s akin to when Brazil took some extremely drastic measures to stop their hyperflation back in the 90s.

Only way this will be solved is an iron fist.

If you haven’t been on one of the T1 servers for at least a year and a half, you and your guild get assigned to another server until the active populations of all tiers are relatively equal, with lower tiers still being lighter in players (so players can choose the number of opposition they want to face.)

Now that all tiers are balanced, transfers are managed like national immigration. You need to “apply” for transfer to a server, and if its active WvW population has room, you might make it in. Active population is weighted by number of players in a WvW match at any given time, not the total number of active WvW players. E.g., 1 player playing 12 hours counts as much as 4 players playing 3 hours.

We need anet to get in to the dictator spirit.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I never got why sharks are in a marsh anyway..

It’s not a marsh, it’s a pool. They’re pool sharks.

I don’t agree with the suggestion of taking a fern hound since you already have 100% regen uptime (or at least close to, I refuse to do the math :P), and fern hounds are not very good pets. Definitely don’t lose the wolf. A bird instead of jaguar would also help with the pet not having much swiftness.

If you try it and feel you don’t have enough condi removal you can always use the other condi removal sigils. I know generosity is extremely expensive, but purity is extremely cheap. ~3 condis per 10 seconds plus the big anti-condi bomb of SoR active should be plenty.

I have a feeling you’ll wind up swapping SotW for LR though since you don’t have a stun breaker that you can use regularly.

Not a fan of soften the fall, but it’s personal preference.

Keen edge counts as a survival skill for SotF.

You have to be in combat. It also pops the protection after you dodge, since prot during the dodge is useless.

Counterplay. Morechars.

thefantasticg.3984:

And can’t you go into one of those useless for PVE trait lines.

15 3 in WS gives your pet protection at the start of your dodge roll.

Re: effect on PvP, dodging for your pet in PvP/WvW wouldn’t do anything other than randomly save your pet from time to time. People probably aren’t going to waste an important dodge having their pet avoid something when you could just recall or swap pets and keep your endurance.

I am loving the visual of a fire drake doing a somersault though.

Of course I don’t feel it, I’m in NA T2 which is a giant mess.

Watching a thief stealth rez an NPC seems like a good way to kill the thief.

GW1 wasn’t even out in the 1800s, let alone GW2. You’re off by a good 30 years or something (not very good at math.)

Might spamming is pretty common place, I find my PUGs usually have too much might. Combine that with fortifying bond, sword giving your pet might, and RaO on bosses, and I don’t see axe having a place in dungeon runs. Also that’s just looking at pets, sword obviously does a lot more damage for the player.

What kind of numbers is that though, let’s say with 25 might (that’s the normal amount on the pet right?) against the typical hambow?

Just out of curiosity what kind of numbers is your drake autoattacking for on average?

I have found memories of holding the ruins on Raid on the Capricorn against 4 people while I was in the downed state. You should be able to draw some information from that.

Hepas build is pretty common. A more dangerous, experienced LB ranger would be using signet of renewal for a passive condi cleanse as well as 100% condi removal on a condi bomb. Lightning reflexes would also be there for stun/immob break as well as added mobility. Probably sword/dagger swap for extremely high evasion and mobility. The pets would be more dangerous, like a wolf for cripple, knockdown and AoE fear, drakehound for AoE immob, jungle spider for poison and very long immobs.

The inexperienced rangers can be killed extremely easily via pressure, condis, CC, and reflects. More experienced rangers just need to be outplayed like any other profession (although condi and pressure are still the best options there.)

Hasn’t it always done that?

1) Not the correct build and not viable. At the very least you need condi removal, which can come from signet of renewl and healing spring combined, or the grandmaster traits empathic bond or survival of the fittest. Condi bunker rangers are a hell of a lot easier to play if that interests you.
2) The bear is terrible, the dog is decent. Almost everyone has a wolf as the swap-to pet and the main pet is either for damage or utility (i.e. lynx for damage or spider for lockdown utility.)
3) GS is easier, sword has more flexibility with the offhand and much better combat movement.
4) It’s usually considered the weakest of the 3 but some people like it. HS is great team support and TU is very good personal healing. Use it slightly preemptively since it ticks over time.
5) They’re super cool and they take a bit of getting used to.

Sube Dai.8496:

Do you have a might source for the pet on that 0/0/6/2/6 ?

No, your build is better for PvP. I don’t like axe, but I think it will be the new weapon for arenas.

Sube Dai.8496:

My GS/Signet build was a total fail, mostly because of the short Might duration.

0/0/6/4/4 Celestial strength runes has been working well though.

IMO this is quite close to a new ‘meta build’. It’s pretty hard to mess up a celestial damage focused build that uses the lower half of the trait tree. Very tanky and wide open for team support.

I’ve been running 00626 in duels and now starting to move this back in to arena, but I think there about 500 variations of this sort of slightly condi heavy celestial might BM build we could do well with.

Ehecatl.9172:

NO ONE was aware of it’s full range, as it didn’t matter.

Well, EVERYONE on the ranger forum was aware of the full range and you can probably find hundreds of posts on it, but that also didn’t matter. All arcing projectiles go “further than they’re supposed to”. Ballistas do the same thing.

This is not a new thing and it’s not a ranger thing, it’s a projectile physics thing.

This is incredibly suspicious timing. The arcing range has been in the game for over two years. Really weird you start whining shortly after a buff to rapid fire. I might direct you to one of a few whining threads we are currently trying to deal with on the ranger forum.

You list advantages of the GS of being able to draw out dodges, but sword can a) use axe for the same thing only to hit harder, or b) use the sword to set up the LB again.

I usually use the sword to set up axe spikes as a melee ranger, however back in the day when I was a LB ranger I would use the dagger to set up LB ‘spikes’. As I mentioned in many a “I can’t kill thieves” threads, it takes 3 LB autoattacks to kill a glass thief or mesmer. So rather than baiting dodges, you bait attacks and then hit.

I used to, and probably can’t anymore, use muddy terrain and lightning reflexes in the same way. Use yourself as bait, allow the thief to unload, get out, unload yourself.

Edit: actually watching a couple different twitch videos that show the s/d bait tactic right now but I’m not sure how to link specific times…

jcbroe.4329:

But yeah, in combat, Sword works much better as a repositioning tool. Not necessarily a good dueling swap set for the LB though.

I’ll disagree with you there, it almost seems two conflicting statements. Have you checked out that floppy koroshi duel I posted? He makes excellent use of s/d especially for respositioning.

Floppy has an entirely different style to me back when I knew how to use LB but at the same time I relate entirely to his s/d choice for the movement. You just need the movement for things like thieves and condi mesmers and engies.

Well out of combat the movement is probably pretty close, not enough to fret about. IN combat, sword just blows GS completely out of the water and it’s not even remotely close depending on what exactly you’re doing. Obviously sword1 as a useful movement skill excludes just outright running away. Unless you ask FrouFrou who seems to enjoy running away by bouncing off of unsuspecting opponents…

Anywho, no need to rip your hair out (by the way what the heck is wrong with anet making this amazing game engine and not being able to make a functioning search feature on a website?)

jcbroe.4329:

I haven’t used dual birds since

I actually meant either white raven OR eagle because I always run wolf. But I’ve been having a blast experimenting with every possible trait, weapon, and pet in the update so whatever. Really loving all these possibilities.

jcbroe.4329:

Greatsword actually ends up being the better weapon for … general landspeed mobility.

I just disagree with this completely. s/d has 6 mobility skills and GS has 1.

Edit: Just to tag on to this, my personal ‘most requested’ feature would be a drop target hot key other than escape. Jcbroe I think you may be underestimating how far you can travel with things like sword 1 or sword 3 with no target selected. Dagger 4 is certainly no sit in place skill, you move forward with no target. It’s something I use often when outnumbered.

Ah I see. I do like Eura’s build more. Regarding the rune choices, I have been using krait as my dueling rune lately and really quite happy with it. Celestial + entangle + krait rune + flame trap + maul is a nice little mini-burst. That adds literally nothing to the conversation as I haven’t used Orr runes .

Edit: One other thought, I’ve been really in to the white raven and the eagle lately. White raven does a great job with blind if that inspires anything for you with the new BM traits.

jcbroe.4329:

I was playing around with a similar concept, albeit, more passive tanky-ness. Thoughts (anyone)? http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0saLL+rQ1aABhaVA0+FS2u29RsEfdBbqA-TJhHwAPLDUc/BAPBgAnEAA

I’m not loving that you have two traits dedicated to a burning every slightly more than 10 seconds, especially when it can die without a swarm of AI. Even though it doesn’t move I might consider flame trap for the same thing, you can almost always get people to hop in to it even in WvW*. That would allow you to take something like nature’s protection.

Flame trap might even make you reconsider the torch depending on how it works out. Dagger as both offhands increases your tankiness quite a bit.

*I know you’re talking PvP, but I’m just saying people love diving head first in to flame traps, and conquest makes it all that much more likely.

Actually I don’t think you will see too many people talking about how SoR is dead considering it’s been THREE QUARTERS OF A YEAR since they were a T1 server. Not many people talking about their activity level at all.

I guess I meant all that would do is delay the player for 20 seconds, which isn’t terribly productive for anyone. Sometimes I kill those guards just because I don’t currently have the buffs on me and they disappear when you kill the yak.

Their CC and damage can be a huge buff for defending humans though.

I think the guards are there to stop the krait/bat/skelk etc. attacks on the caravan. They can also prevent sentries from killing the yak.

There is not a type of AI enemy in the entire game that will stop a human from killing the dolyak. You could hire 2 G. Lupis to guard the yak and a player could still easily drop it.

OP was fighting a thief, but with mesmers, it’s (usually) very important to not kill their clones with melee or kill their clones immediately if you’re ranged. That will reduce the amount of chaos in the fight by about 80%.

Ha, I’m almost the opposite story. I still run in 100% berserker in WvW, I just got bored with LB. Been running a wide multitude of tankier melee builds with berserker gear. I tried switching back to GC LB after the patch and it just didn’t feel as satisfying. Poor necros never stood a chance.

At any rate, bark skin does make a shocking amount of difference for when things go really wrong, no matter how many you’re fighting.

Also one of my favorite hobbies I try hard not to seek out is running from a zerg while at 20% health. Good luck catching a s/d + gs ranger with bark skin, muddy terrain and lighnting reflexes. You can lead them across the entire map.

jcbroe.4329:

So I have been thinking about trying out Bark Skin just to see if I see a noticeable difference.

Because tanky builds are so popular in WvW (and PvP), it makes a weirdly large difference. If a tanky PVT character hits you for 700 damage normally, bark skin takes that down to 350. Natural healing, SotW, and mango pie heal for something like 200 per second. That could mean you’re almost unkillable before your heal skill comes off cooldown. You might even gain health while some attack you, like a zerg staff guardian noob.

On the other hand, if you only have a few thousand health left and someone lands an eviscerate on you, well good luck.

Go, go FrouFrou Rangers!
Mighty Swording Power Rangers!

Stronger than before!
Signets can do more!
RF goes through your core!
Power Rangers!

Go, go FrouFrou Rangers!
Mighty Swording Power Rangers!

Your pet never stealths when you do unless it’s an AoE stealth like shadow refuge. Also don’t use minipets in WvW, as they also never stealth. Don’t spread that around though, I’m enjoying killing all these stealthed thieves with their minis permanently out.

The pet thing isn’t too bad because presumably it’s chasing your target and not at your side anyway.

I think it was supposed to be a WvW trait. But ya, I don’t know of a single ranger using this, even in WvW.

Seems like it would be quite good in Diablo II…

I doubt for two years. But anyway, the focus is unnecessarily on RF when things like signets, mainhand axe, and pet traits are where the real excitement is. Those things are huuuge for PvP.

It’s not really a status thing, LB ranger is not a balanced build. Many other classes can go full berserker and still bring tons of condi removal, party support, self sustain, etc. LB can’t go berserker and basically bring any of that. That’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. An all or nothing build is awfully hard to pull off in PvP because if you wind up with the “nothing” your team is screwed.

There is however a much more balanced bunkery beastmaster ranger in the ToG finals.

rapthorne.7345:

put the kittens away, please guys. I’m just after advice, I didn’t want to trigger an argument

If it helps, as a nub I will mainly be focusing on PvE, rather than PvP

TurtleDragon.3108:

Towelcat did the math recently for various ranger set ups http://puu.sh/b6f2s/2cc82028fb.txt

S/A > GS for 3 target scenarios by a significant margin, S/A > GS for 5 target scenarios by a very small amount.

GS still has it’s uses outside of trash skips. It’s still useful for max melee range fights and scenarios where you don’t want to accidently leap out of a stack spot. It’s also our next best option on fights where using the sword is difficult.

You’re just listing a bunch of things that you’re more experienced with on the GS against a single profession in an extremely specific situation.

If you’re out of stunbreakers and a mesmer starts blurred frenzy on you, the s/d will prevent almost all the damage and GS can’t do anything at all against that. It’s also easier to get to safe positions in 1vX with s/d, as you have so many extra on-demand evades as well as the greater mobility (sword3 and dagger4 can be used to re position as well as evade.) CC is one of the best weapons against a thief, and hitting them with a path of scars can stop the fight before it even starts.

You can’t just cherry pick a situation and drop a name and GS is now clearly superior to sword.

And to top off all this silliness, I am usually using both sword AND GS. Those were 2 of my first 3 ascended crafts.

Eurantien.4632:

I can call them superior in that if I am using a great sword I will be more likely to win my 1 v 1 than if I am using a s/x. Not to mention, in a team fight, the GS utility is better served than s/x.

The OP asked which he should use. In my humble opinion as probably the best power ranger around. GS is superior.

Well in that case sword is superior because I am the best power ranger NA and am more likely to win my 1v1 using it. Seems like the topic is settled now.

Eurantien.4632:

If you want to kill people and know how to control your pets properly, great sword is superior.

Are you talking about using a CC pet to set up a maul? I think you’d be better off with path of scars in that situation.

Both swords have their advantages, and they’re both good enough there is no way you can call one clearly superior.

Axe or dagger would be better offhands for a sword IMO. I prefer either of those combos over GS, axe for way more offense and dagger for way more defense. But it’s pretty much 6 to one, half a dozen to the other as far as sword vs GS.

Sword is also nice for the poison on warriors.