I found what the OP is saying to be true after over a 100 games of sPvP and many hours in WvW. Currently, I decided (because I got really bored with condition damage) to rock a greatsword+axe/warhorn for pure glass cannon. While fun, it isn’t on par with anything other classes can do, but at least I can have some fun. If my spider can land the stuns it actually proves fairly effective in solo PvP, but usually it depends on how well geared my opposition is and how smart they are.
I constantly 1v2 pugs with my condi build (running shortbow + axe/torch). Not to mention the build itself is great for the ranger’s arch-rivals, thief & mesmer. Carry condi removal, lit reflex, QZ and entangle – quite the powerful combo to escape any cc and deal dmg + cc your opponent. Of course you need to run double canine pets for their leaps, etc. to add additional CC.
I think the Ranger just simply isn’t an easy class to play and the general population don’t take the time to learn them inside/out. They are an amazing class with an array of builds that are viable for multiple situations. Play in an organized tourney team and you’ll find the general consensus of these teams is that ranger’s are easily one of the top classes for multiple roles.
Agree 100%. I use that exact build and stomp people, but I find it really boring (so I try relentlessly to find another decent build). Problem with the sPvP browser is the players you get stuck with never synergize with any other ranger build. Longbow needs a buff though to make a flat damage build viable.
I felt like ranger gave the most variety in options (weapons and builds) and came with a pet. Now that I know we are simply terrible at everything, I’m wishing I rolled a guardian.
Entangle is awesome in PvP against most classes, especially those without a reliable way to remove immobilize.
I agree with most of the rest of what Indoles said for PvE though.
My suggestion was fairly specific for PvE. I would never PvP with that build. Entangle is only good against people w/o stun breakers, and those people aren’t any good in the first place. Whenever I get entangled in sPvP I laugh, and proceed to destroy the ranger knowing that they just wasted their elite. I’m not knocking what you said, but I think every profession has the ability to cure immobilize by teleport or utility skill usage and all good players use these spells.
I hit a 150k on a rabbit. Seriously, you can’t hit an 8k with the longbow on a player unless you are in WvWvW at max range, glass cannon build, fire Hunter’s Shot , use Signet of the Hunt (150% damage) with Signet of the Beastmaster trait, against a level 1 naked player, with the best weapons and gear available. Against a Heavy Golem (sPvP) I have hit a ~4000 crit with this combo from behind, and then all other shots deal around 2700. Even then, you will get out dps’d and rolled by every other glass cannon or even player for that matter because the longbow is garbage. Thieves can hit 10ks with auto attacks from behind if they combo properly in sPvP.
Tbh, I found that if I want my pet to deal any damage in sPvP, I must use the trait that grants +30% movement speed. It allows the pet to stay close enough to the target to actually hit the a couple times. If you don’t use this trait, don’t use a dps pet (cat or bird) because they will never hit anyone.
I’ve used the longbow enough to tell you it is worse than a shortbow (post nerf) in every situation possible. At long range you can’t even hit a moving target because the missile speed is too slow. You can’t defend a wall better in WvWvW because you have no CC and you can’t deal any significant damage unless you are fighting trash mobs.
Longbow needs a general 15% missile speed buff (+25% if you increase the range to 1500 units to compensate for the extra distance), and some kind of cc. Maybe a 3 second Daze on the knockback or vulnerability shot. Right now the dps on it is not only low, but terribly unreliable.
Anyone defending the longbow has not used it in PvP or explorable dungeons obviously. You can’t tell me that a SB ranger will lose to you using a LB. He can cripple you, daze an stun you, dodge 3 times (2 rolls+3rd ability), poison you, and inflict bleeds. You can apply vulnerability (assuming it doesn’t miss) and knockback once for a whopping 600 units. As soon as you fire Rapid fire all they have to do is dodge, break los, or even strafe at around 1000 units and make you simply miss every shot.
This is my build with the longbow its use full for pve and for those who like the longbow,i finally manage to tweak a way to use the longbow to its full potential..the reason i choose the spider pet because of their immobilizing skill that is keep me save..and don’t forget to lay down traps before start of the fight..lay down the spike trap first before the frost trap because of its cool down..for those who is believe that short bow is the best weapon for the ranger..think again..enjoy my build..i hope u like it..for those who is a fan of the longbow weapon..i never switch weapon during battle because longbow is enough..unless i want to run against the group event monster..http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMEQNBjODbEpKuOvSzC1OAsesXfAyeYojP+K0aJX6J
I’m sorry but there are severe flaws in your build. First, you choose Sharpening Stone (and Sharpened Edges trait) as a utility but deal no condition damage. Second, you have no stun breaker or condition remover. Third, you get grandmaster marksmanship but don’t use Signet of the Beastmaster. Forth, you use entangle (terrible in Dungeons and PvP). And I could keep going on and on.
If you want some advice (in traits), replace Trapper’s Expertise with Quick Draw in Marksmanship. Replace Steady Focus for Signet Mastery. Replace Malicious Training for Signet of the Beastmaster. (In Skills) Replace Spike trap with Quickening Zephyr. Replace Sharpening Stone with Signet of Stone (6 seconds of invulnerability), Signet of the Wild (Stability + Damage buff), or Signet of Renewal (Condition removal and stun breaker). Keep entangle if you want for leveling. You will notice much more useful skills and a strong dps increase while maintaining traps, longbow, and current pets.
SB, Axe+Warhorn is the best combo I have come across yet (I have tested more combos than I can remember). With this build you can go either power/precision or condition/toughness. As for PvP, right now I think condition/toughness is the only way to roll a ranger because we lack burst damage altogether unless the enemy allows you to land every attack with QZ active. With power/precision you will kill enemies faster because it takes some time to apply conditions, but condition/toughness gives you insane tankyness and nearly equal dps overall if you can quickly apply your conditions and weapon swap. Simply blow the warhorn, split axe and chill axe, then swap to SB and try to stay behind the enemy for bleeds. If you want insane condition damage drop the warhorn and pick up a torch and use the bow for targets you want to be farther away from.
If you are still leveling up I would recommend power/precision so you can quickly kill most monsters. Know that veterans and champions will be more difficult to solo since they can soak large amounts of damage.
Longbow is garbage is any form of PvP. The missile speed is too low, the damage is too weak, and you can’t apply any useful conditions other than vulnerability. SB>LB in every case. I would even argue that i can defend a tower wall better with a SB than a longbow because of the CC that longbow lacks. The aoe is easily avoided, takes too long to cast, and leaves you stationary for 2.75 seconds. However, if you play PvE, the SB is still better, but not by nearly as much.
I’ve played over 100 matches of sPvP as Ranger, played a great deal of WvWvW, and have been level 80 for some time. I’ve tried countless builds and find the LB the worst weapon available for the ranger for PvP. It is to the point of not needing a buff, but a total rework. Even with the recent SB nerf, it trumps LB every time.
- Master Trait Eagle Eye – Increases longbow and harpoon gun range. Increases longbow and harpoon gun damage by 5%. Increases missile speed of longbow and harpoon gun by 25%.
My justification. After vigorous PvP and PvE testing, the longbow is the worst weapon for the ranger in its current state (imo) for PvP. Why? In PvP, players move constantly, which causes the game to compensate for their movement in your aiming. At the rather extreme range of 1500 units, I found that a player doesn’t even have to evade to dodge the arrows about 50% of the time. Since rangers only fire every 3/4 seconds, this leads to terribly low dps. Since the range is increased 25% by the trait (1200 to 1500 units), I think the missile speed should be compensated equally. This way it will take the arrow the same amount of time to travel 1500 units with this trait as it does to travel 1200 units without it.
I don’t even use the longbow and don’t know of any rangers that do. Even with the SB nerf, it beats the longbow in dps, condition, cc, survivability, etc. It even has equal range and it feels like the missile speed is faster (but I have no proof of this, I just don’t miss nearly as many shots at long range). Longbow needs some kind of buff, and I feel this trait buff will help, but a more general +10% missile speed bonus may be adequate. It simply put fires too slowly, misses too often, applies no conditions (an aoe cripple that leaves you stationary for 2 and 3/4 seconds, and 10 stacks of vulnerability (the only good one)). Which leads into my next suggestion.
- Point Blank Shot
Damage: 282
Knockback: 400 Cripple 1 second
Knockback: 500 Cripple 2 Seconds
Knockback: 600 Cripple 3.5 Seconds
Combo Finisher: Projectile
Range: 600
This suggestion mainly pertains to PvE, world bosses and dungeons, but in some cases can be applied to PvP. I mainly have 2 major suggestions/reworks for the pet ai so that pets can be more useful in dungeons and boss fights. As it stands right now, a ranger’s pet is completely useless in most dungeon encounters because of the typical high damage aoe attacks, pull combos, lockdowns, or all of the previous put together. They quite literally melt in the first few seconds of any fight unless you pick a ranged pet, and lets face it, ranged pets are practically worthless unless they are spiders. Ranged pets only last another few seconds before a “global” aoe attack insta gibs them. My first suggestion is more ai focused and realistic. My second suggestions is more of a rework to damage related to pets. It gets the job done, but doesn’t look as pretty.
1a. The main focus of this idea is adding ai for the pets to detect incoming aoe attacks much like players seeing aoe circles and evading (hopefully) before impact. Pets with evasion skills such as devourer’s can be programmed to check and see if Devourer Retreat isn’t on cd and make use of it if available. Another pet example are bears using Defy Pain. Pet’s without evasion skills or pets with skills on cd will simply cancel any attack and attempt to evade the aoe as fast as possible. If in the attack mode, pets will naturally resume attacking. If in the passive mode, pets will attempt to avoid aoe attacks while staying within a 450 radius of the player.
1b. Another addition I would recommend would be giving ranged pets a “warning” radius (for lack of a better word atm) of about 500 units. If any enemies cross this circle, the pet will want to flee, but will not necessarily flee instantly. The more enemies that approach, the higher the desire to flee. Damage taken drastically increases the desire to flee. When fleeing, the pet always runs toward the player, turning around to attack after it is withing 200 units of the player or makes 600 units of distance between the nearest enemy. (If it didn’t stop at the player I fear it would run forever, adding an exploit where the pet’s attacker is so focused on killing the pet that it leaves itself vulnerable to the player.)
2. The main focus of this rework is to make pets immune to certain attacks (mostly bosses), pulls and “global” aoe’s mainly. I would also implement suggestion 1b into this because it just seems logical. Note that nearly no changes will be made to pets for PvP in this case.
Obviously, I really would like to see suggestion 1b in the game if nothing else makes it. I prefer all of suggestion 1, but if they decide they like this suggestion and add both I won’t have any complaints. I know this thread is mainly ranger related. That is because my necro is level 2 and my ranger is level 80. I’m sure a necro can see benefits from these suggestions, but I don’t have any first hand experience. Thanks for reading.