Guild Wars 2

my ranger is also full melee, but i alway take horn for buffing and one bow for wall defending.

btw, with the right spec…fly into the zerg with greatsword with that 1100 range leap, daze/bleed, switch to 2nd weaponcombo, continue, hit one of your 2 invincible-buttons if things get to hot, dodge and move out of enemyzerg (its not that hard, just use your conditionremoves and/or stunbreaks if u r cc’ed) and u often leave the target dead, especially if u had support from one other member of grp. i love to do that, since nobody expects a ranger or whatever to fly to u in melee-range. ppl r not prepared. works even better in spvp.

btw, Xsorus is right, thieves r no horror in 1v1, but i am talking about spvp, where at least lvl and gear is equal.

YumCHA.8706:

The word Ranger itself misleads alot of people into thinking they are skilled in opposing foes from ‘a far’. That’s the basic understanding of a Ranger.

no. what misleads ppl is 1) a lack o knowledge/education -ranger has ZERO to do with ranged weapons like explained before and 2) prejudices derived from a certain comic-styled mmo and its hundreds of clones how a “ranger”-class has to be. btw, there r other mmos out there where a “ranger” is also not usually a bow-huntard.

i prefer “emphatic bond” over “barkskin”. bond seems to remove all conditions every 10s, which is better imo then barkskin, which “only” reduces 30% dmg when u have about 5000 hp left…

btw, rangers r not squishy, if build so. this one here is kind of squishy, i would build different. anyway, it depends on playstyle/task. he does good dmg, has tons of evades…so in smaller fights or 1v1s it will be good. and for zerg-encounters…just take a bow with u, equip it before fight, and u r fine…

edit: there’s one “godmode”-button as ranger (with right traits though) and anotherone if your pet (bear preffered) is still alive that u can hit and just watch whoever (thief) land his attack-chain while doing zero dmg…

pets r not broken.

there s “just” one problem: if u want your pet to hit stuff in melee-range, then u have to take “agility training” in skirmishing line. since it only needs 10 points there, it is no big deal; on the other hand it is a must for most builds.

if someone says sword/dagger combo is bad in pvp, especially spvp, then he has no idea.

imo its one of the best weaponcombos. ofc dont play glass canon build, use a balanced one. sword and dagger is THE option againt melee classes, especially against those squishy thieves or hb-warriors.

if u want to play full offensive, then this combo is not the best option, but again, then ranger is not the best option at all. if u want a combo with which u can kill stuff -yeah, even those nasty guardians, get kiters and survive high-burst builds like this faceroll-thief-build or GS-warrior, then sword/dagger ranger works great.

just some hints:
-disble autoattack from key 1. this helps a lot and your pinkie gets some training…
-u have 3 (or counting 3rd autoattack then its 4) evades. use them! just dont spam weaponpowers, watch what your enemy is doing and evade at the right time with weaponattacks. it needs lots of training, knowledge of other classes, it is not a mindless faceroll-combo, but if u get a grip on it then its great.
-choose pets NOT for dps, thats not their job, choose them for utillity and what fits your playstyle best. play around.
-uhm, even if u should figure out build for yourself, cause only u can know what works best for u, but wilderess-survival traitline is must imo for sword/dagger…

for pvE:

ofc u cant suck up dmg like a bunkerguardian, but again, thats not your job and besides other profession cant also. still, with the evades and practise u will be good in melee -apart from those lot of encounters in explo-mode-dungeons where melee doesnt work in general and u have to go ranged -but again, this counts for all profession.

in spvp or wvw rangers are in good or at least ok shape. there are only a few builds that make problems at all, but thats also ok, since everything should have a counter. especially in spvp pets can be a great help…ofc dps-pets r not the best option here, same goes for trait spec -full dps-glasscanon can work, but there r better options, thankfully. nothin is more lame and skillless then builds that can 3-shot players or let them die in stunlock before u even get a chance to react.

imo main problem with rangers in gw2 is ppl coming from other mmo’s and think that rangers must be able just to shoot stuff from distance with their bows while kite around, being faster then everyone else and never touched. huntardstyle. thank the gods its not the same in gw2. it’s cool e.g. that as a pure melee ranger u r able to outclass and kill lots (/most!) warriors/thieves around. it’s cool that one has the option to play ranger ranged or melee or both or something in between. i hope they won’t change this in the future.

imo the weaponpowers of rangers are one of the best (for pvp), maybe excluding axe and well, warhorn is more like utility-skill in between fights. the heals r ok, elites r ok…some of the utility-skills need work over, but thats also for other classes as well, so nothing special here.

EDIT:
- theres trait that gives pets higher move-speed. i always have it and my pet hits enemyplayers…
- pets r more for utility. choose a pet that can “jump” on target, maybe cripple or freeze it, so u get kiters. and for tanky-players, u dont even need that
-it would be lame at all if your pet could hit the enemy evrytime without a drawback. that would be overpowered
-one doesn’t need to do the highest burst dmg to be successful. that goes for classes in general, like for warriors, or also for class-comparison. its the usage of burst/dmg on one hand and defense/evading on the other that counts. and rangers are more balanced here, lets say even more on the defensive site. use it!