Guild Wars 2

Sebrent.3625:

@Narkodx:
Precisely … but people shouldn’t “look down on” the bad players. It would behoove us all to be more helpful to those players so they can learn and stop being “bad”.

Also, part of being a “good” player is recognizing and understanding the pros/cons of each class, their abilities, their builds, etc. and what to do with that knowledge as well as when.

Every class has pros and cons.

I learned that this part is slightly incorrect.
… I bet that you didn’t really try to help more of them in a nice and kind way, did you?

If you did – maybe you’d get turned down with something that I got tens of times like “there is no wrong way to play! Shortbow for PvE is viable! It deals damage!”… And stuff like that happens if you do.
EDIT: I’ll mention that I was told countless times that I’m the one who does not listen.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

If you’re playing in team. The loot could be dependent on your damage to the creature. Shortbow damage is more condition based and so much slower.

And flank restricted.

SYPHA.9283:

…
…

All valid points. However i see more and more rangers owning d/d eles. Myself i can take down most D/D eles. Yes its not about 1v1s.

Rangers are good grouped as well.

High single target damage (more so than an ele)
High aoe damage(could be moreso than an ele…depends on ele build)
They have crazy good CC
They too can cure condis on group
They also have group heal
Great mobility
Condi damage second to none (on up to 5 people)
Spirit ranger has crazy team buffs as well. Although i think spirit rangers lacks a lot from other ranger builds.

Rangers were just in such a bad place for so long…they got a bad rep for being useless in Teams. They are far from that NOW.

Just to clarify a few things.
Rangers have higher single target damage only in a specific condi bombing build and in a specific rotation that has to land. Once a single part of the abilty sequence fails – the damage is going to fall by far.

The high AoE damage is not really true. Rangers have more powerful AoE condi bomb. But not higher AoE damage. The Axe -2- is mostly single target point blank ability. It’s weak on anything else. Torch and Entangle are the only AoE damage abilities.

Crazy good CC is a wolf. That indeed is good. And a Longbow – which reduces the argument about AoE damage to zero since with Power build you don’t have any reliable AoE whatsoever.

Rangers on Power Build cannot cleanse the party, neither heal it.

You don’t have condi damage on Power Build…

And a spirit Ranger is -again- another totally different thing to bring up.
_____________________________
You see, while you say that rangers have all of those things – you forgot to realize that they can’t have all of that at the same time.
Eles sure can. And they also can boost the party with offensive Fire blasts.

anduriell.6280:

Oh come on, this again?

It is stated and proven that ranger is the weakest class in the game after the necro. The idea behind the class is nice it’s execution is awful.

…

Then why was I asked by my former tPvP buddies to specifically bring the spirit ranger to the table? Why was I asked for this specific pick then?

If it was the weakest class, then this would never have happened. Also, it’s true that the ranger’s execution is awful. But it’s pressure on downed targets is one of the better since the condi pressure has … no cooldown or very short one (depends on using shortbow over axe).

Also, the blind idea “it has been proven” means nothing but “I was too lazy to find out for myself”. This is something you should think of. If you didn’t find a viable way to play the ranger, do not blame it on the class.

Power Ranger is the weakest from Power and Zerk builds. But no one forces you to play it.

What does it offer what a condi does not?
All I see so far is a blast finisher on a 25 second cooldown.

Plus you are more vulnerable to everything … Since sword. And off hand Axe.

And I’m positive I can dish out higher dps in Condi bombing builds.

It’s not like the build is bad or anything… I just still see it inferior.

katz.8376:

…

are rangers bad? no. each class has it’s strengths and weaknesses. but playing a ranger in WvW or sPvP takes a heck of a lot more skill than playing one in PvE which results in 2 things… ranger players trying to get into one of those things getting frustrated and playing something else, and everyone else with the (not entirely incorrect) impression that (most) rangers are an easy kill because of lack of skill.

I agree on most of thing you said … But that in terms of terminology would be the other way round.

Is the Ranger bad? No.
Are Rangers bad? Yes. Statistically.

Sebrent.3625:

I don’t know what you are talking about … people friggin love me in Fractals and no one complains whether I’m on my Ranger or another character.

You are treated based on what you actually do with the class.

If people want to not be looked down upon … show up and play well.

If people want to be noticed / unique / etc. … show up and play well … and be nice. Many don’t care if you’re #1 if you’re a jerk.

If you fail at something … it was probably your own fault … figure out your errors and learn from them … or you’re likely to fail that way again.

Simple stuff, really.

Sir, you do realize that even most of US look down on other rangers, assuming they are bad?

Do you realize that we are talking about majority of the rangers being super bad? Not you, not me, not him, but like the vast majority out there?

Puck.9612:

Darkness.9732:

RANGERS are BAD.
Everyone knows that.
IT’ s not a learn to play issue. IT’ s a play a useless class issue. Rangers have 0 survival skills. Rangers have no decent F skills. Want to talk about Pets^?? why if my pet dies can t use any F skills?
Rangers compared to other class is simply zero worthy. That’s why it s Always the first target. That’s why it Always dies for first both in pvp and wvw.
That’ s why tons of rangers have quitted the game.
That’ s why even the devs during point of interest they NEVER play RANGER.
(They play warrior ofc )

You see, darkness here is the perfect example of why the community thinks rangers are bad. When a bad player like him tries out ranger and repeatedly dies he assumes something is wrong with the ranger class because the problem couldn’t possibly be his own lack of skill.

I have to agree on this, Puck.
But you see, the average and above average players are usually grouped in forums. Which leaves all the players like Darkness in game. And that means the “ranger=bad” is a thing.

But it’s not like Rangers are not viable or do not have the mechanics. They do. But they are not held on Power Longbow ranger.
For example, I use my longbow for not even a power but a hybrid build. It offers just amazing amount of utility. The knockback is a game changer for decapping points on a short cooldown. The AoE cripple is also a thing.
But I do not use Longbow for dealing damage. That’s my other weapon set.

Also, the support Spirit Ranger is an amazing tool to have as well. The AoE protection, the bonus burning uptime on enemy targets, occasional root and blinds. The AoE condi cleanse. All while having noticeable condi pressure.
Did I mention you heal a lot and can rally your teammates (including yourself) sometimes even 3 times?

That’s all powerful stuff when you learn how, when and where to use it. But that requires skill. It’s a different skill-requirement that is not the same as ele that has to combo the abilities and track the cooldown through 4 magic sets.

Skullface.7293:

Try to not get stuff in the forums too personally. You won’t change the minds of these guys until you prove them wrong. As long as you are having fun and having success playing this game it doesn’t matter what build you play.

Some builds perform better than others at specific things and I do think a good power ranger brings more to the table compared to a good condi ranger. I am at a level where I can beat the best cele engis, shoutbows and even d/d eles in NA on power ranger.

Mostly this.
If a Power Ranger is the best a person can play – than everything’s fine.
But as I already said – that’s super rare. I played it for a few weeks myself, and found out that even if I can kill someone – I can kill someone even with other builds that do not die by breathing the air and can contribute to objectives as Revives, CC, AoE damage pressure and such. And I do not lose points by doing so (you are forced to leave the point if a serious contestant comes for you – which is his goal)

Yes, even a Power Ranger can contribute on the point … But can do that worse than anyone else in the game. Hence “he is bad at it” = brings less than others.

pfanne.9783:

oh please.
the elitism in here is strong.
I’m average at best and I play against other average players and I manage just fine and so do a lot of other rangers.
And all that 10 seconds or less talk is bullkitten.
Most powerrangers use signet of stone and that lasts for 6 seconds.
After that you go invis or use the GS block for another 3 seconds or something.
And you can probably dodge twice for another 3 seconds.
Oh and did I mention lightning reflexes?
You have that too.
Thats like 15 to 16 seconds of being untouchable as a powerranger.

While dealing zero damage for the whole duration. ~ check
While still dying to any condi pressure builds in the process. ~ check

Want to compare that Ranger to an Engie who will bomb 2-4 people with nothing but turrets, while not even being there? And if he is there – he will simply decap the point regardless of the enemy holding it or not. Ranger would have to go into melee range for that – and guess what – that’s his weakest position.

Take your time and count up the Ele’s immortality duration. And pair it with their sustain and healing uptime. That is also AoE. And has reflects. And more CC. And stuff.

I’d also like to mention that your exaggeration with the “untouchable” duration will be:
6sec signet (direct damage only – keep in mind that cele is the meta)
3sec block (melee damage only – if you intend to hold GS at 1000+ range – then something’s wrong. If you hold it for melee range – it’s more like an Aegis)
3/4 second Lightning Reflexes.
Every single class has dodge in this game. Do not overestimate the mechanics that much. You can, however, say that a Ranger will have 1 bonus dodge roll every 10 seconds. (which is another bonus 3/4).

Which means I somehow made your 16 seconds of immortality a 1,5sec evade, an Aegis and 6sec Direct Damage mitigation in practice. The 3 second stealth is not an immortality. The meta classes that do not need targeting since most of their damage is AoE or Cleave will hit you anyways. And it won’t cleanse the conditions, either.

If a Power Ranger makes it to the tournament it doesn’t mean that the build is the most powerful version available – that means the player deserves a medal. It means nothing more than a master of dagger was able to kill the master of the sword. Simple and complex as that.

Slavi.9137:

I’m kind of tired of seeing these posts. Haven’t played in a while and still this question keeps getting asked.
So here just take it and go
Defensive variant
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhF6kRFaF0KWwfF4axAHCFrA4dWUENr73tFq5MWJBZPA-
TpxHwABOEACOCAILDY4BA4Z/BAnAAA

Offensive Variant
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhF6kRFaF0KWwfF4axAHCFrA4dWUE3s73tFq5M+ZFZPA-TpxHwAJLDE4QAI4IAY4BAA4EAge/BA

A more power/healing oriented BM build instead of your typical condition damage bleed stacking roll around while my pet hits you build.

But the thing is… Defensive variant is pointless. Bunker ranger is far inferior to his Guard buddy. There’s just no reason to take the defensive variant from objective poin of view.

For the offensive variant – it lacks condi removal, it will get melted by Zerk classes like Thieves and Mesmers… So what’s the point of taking a dueling spec (pet is dead in teamfights) when you don’t even have the upper hand in duels?

Also: Why would you overkill the direct damage, when you know that BM ranger specializes in sustaining a fight while his pet deals the direct numbers?
Does not make sense. You need to invest 3 stats only to be effective in Power Variant. That leaves no space for defensive ones – that BM needs. Condition damage is ideal since it only requires 1 stat to be invested for the results very close to the 3 stat power variant.

Lazze.9870:

Tragic Positive.9356:

I’ve been playing this game (ranger most of the time, 91% sPvP games played) for over 2 years, now.
And statistically around 8-9 rangers out of 10 I played with were horrible. PvE wise I’ve seen 2 good rangers out of all the hundreds I’ve met, so far.

If you see my name beside the numbers, you can assume that I made the maths behind it.

Remember we queued in on the same team three times in a row and won all three matches flawlessly a couple of weeks ago, so I reckon I’m 1 out of 10 ;-) Felicia, if that name rings a bell.

I cringe everytime I’m teamed up with another ranger, the obvious reason being that most of them don’t even seem to know half of what the class can do and more importantly should do. That goes for both pve and pvp.

Yep, that would be correct. That is the one of the few names that does indeed ring the bells =)

It’s just that people don’t really have the knowledge about the game.

The last time I saw a PvE meta ranger was 2 months ago in a fractal.
The last time I saw an sPvP meta ranger was … A month ago? (No, GlassBow is not the meta. That build has just so many weak spots that there’s no way that a maths guy like me could ever accept it as “the best available”)

But I constantly see that one and only GlassBow selfish build that players started to play. Because it’s comfortable. Not effective, not useful, and not mechanically geared (not more than any other class in the game)…
But it’s comfortable because people usually won’t follow you 3 floors up.

The thing is always about “what can one play best” in terms of results. If a ranger is a master of Shortbow + Longbow – and can beat 1v2 with that – I have no problems with that.
But if the player sticks out the most useless build I can think of pretending to be wannabe pro – and this player is actually 9 out of 10 – than the class as such will stay classified as “bad and useless”.
But the problem is not the mechanics or power. Neither the potential.
It’s the human factor.

Fluffball.8307:

I was actually just about to try out a new BM build. This is completely untested, and I already have some thoughts on how to improve it, but this is what I’m going to try when I get a chance.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHRxG2IjKNsWxi/KctGwPoW2ABAzJ4BefGb73eyP62D-TJhIwAAeCAfPJAf2fQYZAA

Edit: Er, just tried this on the golems and wasn’t getting the numbers I’d hoped for. Even with 25 stacks of might and SotW active, axe doesn’t crank out enough damage. The bird hits like a truck, but I was hoping for more than that.

It might be more viable in an actually team fight scenario, because the numbers were low but there were an awful lot of them. Meh.

If you want the highest burst on Ranger possible, I propose this build to try.
It still relies on the pet, so don’t expect any Ranked placement with that.

But it’s a lot of fun in normals.
Blows people up in seconds. All of them.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fnMqQrgWxC+rAXLI4QoafC/6IwKA+Vs+e3LWpEJ-TJhHwAPLDA4JA8Z/hAnEAA

worminator.5174:

Thats my beastmasterbuild for PvP. It is not the best Teambuild, but Entangle and the fear of the wolf can save teammates, before they got stomped. With this build. you should focus on 1v1 and 2v2 fights, that happends more often while you are fighting at the sidepoints.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0xaFLusQ1agDhiVA8uKW2b2dO0CV9FTUVF-TJhHwAPLDA4hAE4MAAa/BA

Wolf is a must-have for every single Build You will ever run as a Ranger.
Entangle is used in almost every single build there is. The only exception is the Spirit Build.

What’s the difference ?

A bit of offtopic question.

Does the internal cooldown of Evasive Purity proc even if I have no poison / blind attached?

LughLongArm.5460:

Hi, I use a BM build and its very effective.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjEq0ya/KWsQ1agDhq9K0uTNrA4dxus3cGPkgsJ-TpBFABAfIAa7CAkwRAAqyAA8AAGZ/BA

I think this build is very fun cus you actually combo your attacks with your pet.
quickness on birds+poison master put tons of pressure. you have great healing defence and survivebility.

Except you die to every Zerk class and every Condi Pressure build.
And since you are Beast Master you are useless in team fights.

And you bring very little team utility.

And neither the damage nor the survivability are good =D

But yep, the build might work in 5 out of 10 duels.

Beast Mastery is not really a beast mastery.
It’s a healing trait line.

And healing in GW2 is not worth any investment at all.
I had one pretty interesting build that could melt a bunker guard in 5 seconds straight if he blew all his cooldowns…
… But that’s pretty much it.

I had to wait a lifetime afterwards since I was out of cooldowns or my pet died from breathing air as usual.

Zenith.7301:

Pets should have had 90% aoe damage reduction/avoidance from the very beginning anyways.

I disagree here.
This is a spoiled idea taken from World of Warcraft. However, AoE combat in that game is much more … Skipped.

Everyone has at least one spammable AoE ability and there is no cap on the target count (even though the damage lowers if more than 10 targets are hit).

The thing is, that AoE combat in GW2 is a bigger thing. Even when taken AoE into consideration, you have to utilize the positioning and in higher numbers – you have to utilize even the targeting. That’s why WvW stacking is so huge. In zergs – you rarely get hit by the same AoE twice if more than 50 people are stacked at 1 pixel. Chance to get hit drops to 10%.

WHICH MEANS … ahem … That pets are saving people’s lives, since they soak up the AoE that normally would be targeting the player.

However, I agree that condition cleanse must be addressed at some point, since players are encouraged to swap pets on cooldown just to keep them alive. No strategical thinking – you are just forced to do that, because if you don’t (and you’d think of tactical use) you’d end up loosing 30% of your character. And you don’t want that.

Razor.9872:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Community thinks that every Ranger is bad.

Because a vast majority is. Over 85%.
If you want to maximize your results – you should prepare for the worst – which naturally means finding a way to get through even without a ranger or with a useless one.

I have high prejudice against rangers on the spot as well. For a good reason. Once they earn the trust – we are free to get back on the road immediately.

“92% of all statistical percentages are made up on the spot” ~ Abraham Lincoln

I’ve been playing this game (ranger most of the time, 91% sPvP games played) for over 2 years, now.
And statistically around 8-9 rangers out of 10 I played with were horrible. PvE wise I’ve seen 2 good rangers out of all the hundreds I’ve met, so far.

If you see my name beside the numbers, you can assume that I made the maths behind it.

Community thinks that every Ranger is bad.

Because a vast majority is. Over 85%.
If you want to maximize your results – you should prepare for the worst – which naturally means finding a way to get through even without a ranger or with a useless one.

I have high prejudice against rangers on the spot as well. For a good reason. Once they earn the trust – we are free to get back on the road immediately.

Crapgame.6519:

If I didn’t already have 3 sets of armor and weapons I’d probably try and give either of these builds/armor sets a try. I know I could do sPvP but I’m more of a outside kind of guy who likes the wide open wilderness of WvW

That build doesn’t really work in sPvP.

Tried out a long time ago =)
That build is good for dueling, but does not bring any objectives to the table. You’ll simply get outshined.
Regarding the WvW – almost everyone goes for mobility and utility. Of course a build that connects (as the only build actually) those two with dueling capabilities will have the upper hand in there. But in sPvP where everyone goes for contesting – that’s another story.

Neither the Charr gates in fractals.
…
And I don’t remember it dealing damage to structures or Tequatl fangs for quite a few weeks, now.

Dardamaniac.1295:

Bark skin my friend..

Against Condi-meta, my whoever you actually are to me =)
… Plus your Bark Skin activates at roughly 5450 hp … That’s 3 autoattacks instead of 2 from a Power Built class. You’ll be able to live for 2 seconds longer.

… So it procs at 5450 HP … Which means that if you are at 6K and you get hit for 5K – you’ll end up at 1K HP that will count into bark skin.
… I am not really sure in which way do you see that trait, but it definitely is not a life-saver.

I once tried something VERY similar to your build.
There is one very clear problem, though.

Your build is Glassy. You die on sight (no Signet of Stone, neither Protect Me). And yet – you are effective only at melee range. If you intend to stay at long range – GlassBow is the way to go.

So you see, your build is designed for environment where YOU are practically in the highest disadvantage.
You are going to be ridiculously outshined by HamBow warriors. No discussion. While you may bring 3 more unreliable knockdowns and 1 pull, you won’t live long enough to apply them.

If a mesmer comes to contest you – you won’t survive even the 1st Mind Wreck. And you intend to use it for teamfight scenarios.
If you intend to duel with this build – it’s ridiculously binary. Enemy without Stability/Breakers will be at a disadvantage and enemies with those will roll you over a thousand times.

The difference between rangers and other classes is simple.

When a mesmer comes to contest – you can fight back – but you’ll have harder time to contest than against a Ranger (more elusiveness and much higher burst damage).
When a Thief comes to contest – you can fight back – but you’ll have harder time to contest than against a Ranger (more elusiveness, higher damage and more disruptive tools).

When a Ranger comes to contest – you could fight back – but 30% of the community chose not to. Because they picked no gap closers / no ranged counter-measures.
Only one of those is needed. Both is an overkill that some people still use in practice.

People claim GlassBows OP because they are too lazy to move their fat a**es to actually contest. Because it’s easier to fight someone who’s in point blank range. But it’s too hard to think that YOU have to be the one to close the gap (especially for some people).
If they did – Rangers are practically a morning snack. But until people realize that, we’ll continue to stay somewhere in the meta as GlassBows.

mistsim.2748:

playing a glassbow perfectly is very rewarding. id say it’s worth getting good at it. but i feel the xpac and the druid will mix things up a lot. everything will change.

Than why playing a Mesmer perfectly is 3 times as rewarding in mechanics AND objective control?
You can’t even compare the potential of these two. A ranger only brings damage. Mesmer not only brings damage, but also the portal that turns tables.

ThyShadowPaladin.9521:

How in the world do ranger’s surpass warriors and guardians in DPS? Burst probably, with signet. But other than that, they have horribly low dps and that signet wont recharge anytime soon.

Statistics.
Experience.
Theory-crafting and numbers.

Pretty much that. Also, Rangers have no burst whatsoever. It’s called tunnel / tunnel pattern.
Also, Might and Fury is not unique for the Guardian Class and Eles are usually the ones to bring it. Which means that if we take 15% AoE damage boost that IS UNIQUE to ranger class – we already surpassed warriors and guardians.
Warriors are suparior in their overall defense/offense/banner support ratio. But not in raw damage.

Also, there’s a huge difference if we are talking thrash mobs DPS and Boss DPS. If you want to include factors as “long cooldowns” and such. Also… Are we talking solo DPS? Party DPS? With buffs that are not available to the class by itself, but always present in a party?
If you want me to help you with numbers you have to specify yourself.

HawkEyeMihawk.1258:

Oh, for condis, I meant the weakness ill that axe #3 gives, and not really focus on the single bleed skill #2. I’m also hoping that the survival mud traps, longbow kb + #5 aoe cripple + trait cripple, would keep them at bay. Yeah, I see what you mean — I have no close range offense/defense whatsoever. I’m from conventional mmos so when I made a ranger, I still had a keep range mentality.

If this is what your situation is, than you already are aware that it simply doesn’t work.
…
Also, your idea of playing this build is to “debuff the target” to allow you to stay alive.
… Well, that would have worked with condition scenario, but with this setup… Nope, it won’t.

It’s easier to compare it to “channeling”. To deal Direct damage – you need to “cast” it for the whole duration since rangers do not have burst apart from rapid fire that is not even a burst. You are destined to spam Auto-Attack for the rest of your life.
Which means – that you have to choose whether you want to cripple your enemy by debuffing him, or dealing damage to him. You see where my point is?
You simply won’t be able to do both effectively. Not even one of those since anyone specced for such a role will outclass you by miles far.

1st of all…
… Axe does not really come in hand with the longbow for a simple purpose.

Longbow is Power based weapon and Axe is condi based weapon. And all up to that – warhorn is a utility weapon (not even damage weapon at all).

That being said – your weapon set is not really effective in any way you build it. None.
Regardless of what rune set we suggest – your results would be inferior to any meta build currently available.

But if you insist on running these weapons – I suggest you to get a jack of all trades – Celestial amulet.
Your runes would definitely be runes of the Pirate. Just because your condition damage is not high enough, your power damage is not high enough, and your build will mostly be for dueling – that’s why the Parrot Spawned will be your highest damage output.

For the traits, I’d personally run something like this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBjODbkQlGW7YxlFuWDYIUtPhWoEYFAuLi49qLYSF-TpRHwAFuAABOIACOCAAeAAHLDoe/BA

The build is basically set around hybrid damage paired with high might investment for improving both, while boosting direct damage through pets from Runes and your own. Offers nice disruption via Chill, Root, Fear, Blind and Knockback.
Also – Warhorn will deal some extra damage since it will apply some random bleeds.

Well, I’m afraid that’s as far as my creativity goes.
You really took the most horrible weapons to go with =D

Rangers are actually one of the new PvE meta.
They surpass guards and warriors in damage at the moment.

AoE unique 15% damage boost. That stacks with Fury and Might.

People do not know that, though, because there’s 1 build that can do that and no other.

Larynx.2453:

Standard condi ranger with a Settler’s amulet is the best you’ll get for solo point holder.

Not that it’s even worth bringing, since all it can do it solo 1v1 on a point, but there you go.

That’s what I call bunkering. Because you can bunker a point simply by winning the duels. Point-holding is practically what Guardians do.
Survive till their teammates come and support them up to win the fight afterwards.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

…

I mean if skulking on the sideline is your idea of using a very offensive spec to it fullest and it fits your play style, I wouldn’t say your playing wrong if its works for you. Yet I don’t think its the best use.

…

Correct me if I’m mistaken here, but you consider GlassBow ranger an aggressive character… That sadly is only good at fighting people that cannot fight back – due to range – or people who die in 1 rapid fire. (lack of survival and lack of burst… Ranger’s damage peak is tunnel variation of DPS, not a burst)…
…
I’m afraid I wouldn’t really support that idea since it’s technically incorrect.

If you wanted someone to deal high power damage, to offer team utility and HIGHER damage than a ranger, also suitable for melee combat – you’d tell him to pick a GS / sw+torch Mesmer.

And not only he’ll deal better damage; his damage can’t even be reflected; he’ll boost some of his teammates with might, he’ll strip boons in AoE – he’ll have easier time porting in to stomp a target – with opened doors for stealth too, and instead of dealing nice damage with Maul – he’ll Blow people from 100-0 if they don’t dodge at the right moment.
While having access to a priceless Portal Mechanic, and having much higher Burst Spike.

Prove me wrong.
The only upper hand a ranger has is the range. Nothing more. Not the CC, not the utility, not the damage and definitely not the survivability.
If you consider playing Power Ranger for it’s melee capabilities – you are focusing on the wrong build (if not the wrong class altogether).

If we take non-competitive environment into consideration – than all the brainstorming is pointless. Everyone should play what suits him and what entertains him.
I’m mostly talking about results and risk/reward ratio.

Hello, fellow rangers.

I was thinking outside of the box. And I felt like there still is a build that hasn’t been tried in PvP yet. We had Condi bombers, Survival duelists, Power GlassBows and it’s fury variation, support spirit Rangers…
…
But no tanky point holders.
I’m aware that it lacks stuff that people want, but if my intel is correct – it’s still powerful strategically. If they can’t decap the point – it doesn’t matter that your damage is low.

The goal of this build is to bunker a point and help your team hold it by any means necessary.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBMhFakRlKWbYxfFiWDQIUrCg2tQJkCv3iotrLY1D-TZBHABSXGAgjAwAnCgAeAAEt/AA
What does it offer? :
- huge sustain (high defenses + Block + 3-4 leaps <water field>)
- AoE passive regen, Situational Ress, And 5k burst heal (pet + Warhorn blast) in AoE radius
- passive AoE condi strip and Active AoE Full cleanse
- AoE vigor
- AoE fear through pet and situational single target knockdown
- High evade uptime
- Knockback + Stun/Daze

I didn’t really have time to try it much, but if any of you like it – feel free to give share the feedback. I think this role might have the potential, but not as a duelist, but as an objective holder.
Any feedback appreciated.

The very 1st idea…
… If you are a Zerk ranger – you are playing it wrong if you are closer than 1300 range.

If you really think of actually stomping the target – you are doing something wrong. Stomping comes into consideration only if it’s the last target to be executed and your allies are downed as well.

But even there I consider healing my teammates up a bit just to make sure the enemy won’t rally in this case.

Zavik -
- there definitely is a reason to master the Ranger class.

Not many people will tell you this – but rangers ARE superior to plenty of his fellow classmen.
But here comes the “but”. The usefulness of ranger does not come in mechanics but rather his “counter-counter-play” kit. You see – you are the best at mind games. Even better than thieves – because everyone expects a thief to do that.

With the ranger – most of your damage output comes out passively. You do not have to worry about you and your cooldowns. As a ranger – you care about your enemy’s cooldowns. And if you are able to read them – You are going to be the downfall strategically, mechanically and tactically.

You’ll have to pay 10 times the effort, but you’ll get probably twice the reward as with any other class if you do it right.

P.S.
I do not recommend raw Power Builds. Those are strategically useless. You’ll offer only and only constant Power Pressure, and that one is much lower than condi pressure. Even the condi bomb is usually higher than Zerk Rapid Fire.

Fluffball.8307:

In addition to the lack of teles, rangers also lack burst. Every other berserker class out there has a true burst, unloading lethal amounts of damage instantly or nearly instantly (maybe not necros, I’m not terribly familiar with their “meta” build.) LB rangers do good damage, but it isn’t fast enough. Many of the meta builds can simply outsustain a “burst” by 2 longbow rangers, where basically no one can survive a burst from 2 of any panic strike thief, medi guard, GS mesmer, even a static discharge engi because you don’t have time to react.

Melee rangers pack way more burst than and even more mobility than LB rangers. I’m pretty surprised more people aren’t trying those. They still fall flat from lack of teles, and despite insane 1v1 abilities, don’t have the sustainability of a thief.

I used to play a full melee build once.
… It was a blast, actually. I was able to beat most of decent DPS guards and most of d/d Eles (I obviously lost some).
But they do have ridiculous stuff. 3 Leap Finishers + 1 Blast finisher (I ran GS – Sw+Wh) – and I had lots of mobility, evades, sustain, Stability, condi cleanse, Maul every 4 seconds and … Well …
I didn’t really bring anything but high tunnel sustained DPS that was good for dueling. I still blew at TF’s, I still had no high burst. My damage peak took 3 seconds to finish.

Sebrent.3625:

What might I ask are you doing 11111 with on a Condition-spec’d Ranger?

You see, I use longbow for utility.
Not the damage. I mostly use it for the stealth and knockback (that is cool when fighting on point). Also – opening with barrage helps a lot when fighting on points.

I usually avoid longbow in the long turn, and I keep it for “when the time comes”.
But if you happen to be on cooldown of Swap, just look for the target below 70% hp (in case he has regen or whatnot) – shoot 1 – blow Rapid Fire and apply 3k damage paired with 5 stacks that will bleed the target for total of ~3600 damage.
Then stealth away – push someone back, bait people into following you off point – swap into sword > root them out > jump back in….

And stuff like that can happen. You do not really use Longbow as a DPS weapon.
EDIT: Gee, I’m blind, didn’t realize that’s not targeted at me;

Crapgame.6519:

Tragic Positive.9356:

#I want to set up the Barrage>Rapid Fire combo successfully

Going to go out on a limb here and say I’m a newb, but why this combo? Is it to proc a sigil / effect to slow?

It’s actually much more complex and easier.
You – as a Power Ranger – would most probably be at range (which means no Guard / warrior cleave knockdowns) – and the only way to stop this combo would be stuns and dazes.
Which need a target.

And if you use Hunter’s Shot as 1st – it will give you 3 seconds of stealth – and Barrage starts dealing damage after 1,5 second… And takes 2 seconds to cast … Which is ridiculously short time for the enemy to react – 90% resulting in successful (at least) barrage.

If they can’t see it coming – they won’t be able to stop it. Easy as that =)
No nuclear physics in that.

StickerHappy.8052:

You wanna share this build of yours?

If you insist =)

Longbow, Sword + Torch
Krait Runes
SotF
Keed Edge
Empathic Bond,
Sharpened edges, Muddy terrain, Lightning reflexes, Entangle

Celestial amulet, Geomancy sigils, (Sword energy, LB doom).
22,500 HP; 2700 armor.

And once you force the cooldowns and manage to hit the Entangle – you are capable of applying Burning, 18 stacks of bleed, poison, pet damage, and also 2-4K Rapid Fire depending on enemy armor.
All that while providing AoE immobilize, AoE fear and Water field + 6 AoE condi cleanse from that.

Too lazy to make a build =/ But I hope this helps.

I use it only under 3 conditions.

#I see an enemy targeting me and trying to enclose (point blank distance is too-late) for reposition.
#I want to set up the Barrage>Rapid Fire combo successfully
#I want to use a finisher on my downed enemy

This is an utility ability. I use it for such purposes. Also – I look for the easiest target to be hit when using Hunter’s Shot. Engie Turrets are one of the best possible since you won’t miss them (stationary) and are unable to obtain Aegis.

I really love the Ranger class – because it absolutely fits it’s current position and my game-style.

Even while being a target of all the hatred and prejudice … You do not need anyone to comfort you. You do have a pet that helps you out – and your kit is suited for being a solo player.

Not to mention that there are viable ways to outplay much more mechanically powerful enemies – which means that a “useless” ranger can be played into perfection and beat his “overpowered” nemesis classes in a blink of an eye.

That’s what I’ll always love about this class.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

…
How is being at range, dealing huge damage, ever a problem for a team game? That’s like saying a Mesmer won’t ever be Meta because they have to fight off point with Greatsword. It’s simply not a disadvantage, in any way. When you’ve four other players on your team capable of staying on point, the Ranger is in an excellent position to pin point targets, remain unharmed and use their utility from a long way away. Perhaps I’m a half-full sort of guy, but the Ranger being ranged is a huge advantage if your team actually use that range to their advantage. I know in the many tournament games I’ve played, targeting players who are downed, preventing stomps or pressuring a bunker is incredibly easy – all the while I’m out of the way.

Exactly because this is a team game.
A thief can prevent Finishers WHILE holding onto a point. AND dishing out better damage AND better utility.

While YOU think that it is an advantage to be at range (aka it’s more difficult to target you), it’s especially your team who is going to think otherwise.
While you are ranging the point safely (dishing lower damage than Thieves or Mesmers who are suited to fight on points), your team is suffering from lack of HP pools – which means they are going to be downed easier. And you are NOT going to be there to help Rally them or Revive them.

You see, they don’t really have to kill you. They just need to mitigate your Barrage/Rapid fire and that’s it. And there are lots of ways to do that.

You see, auto-attack damage for roughly 1300 per second that is single target is not even close to celestial ele/engi damage output that, sadly, is AoE.
I actually blow out much higher DPS in my celestial (not even full condi) Ranger build – but I have 22K hp and if you get caught in entangle – you die in 4 seconds straight from full HP. Not to mention that I’m basically condition immune, I bring team utility and it’s actually pretty difficult to kill me.
And I am capable of reviving my teammates by immobilizing enemies, knockbacking enemies and fearing them – On every single map there is. And yes, my build is suited for on-point fighting.

In one way or another – Power Ranger is horrible unless you orientate all the team and strategy around them. Which is far too much investment knowing that the reward is not even going to be half as much as an Ele would bring.

Well, if we should break down the game objectives – you can win by 3 most common ways.

Bunkering 2 points. – Which means solely staying alive at 2 points. Guardians and Warriors excel at this.
*If they can’t kill the player who holds the point captured at all times, it doesn’t matter that everyone else died. You are holding the objective.

Decapping enemy points with powerful dueling builds – which require more than 1 enemy to take you down.
Engineers and Eles excel at this.
*If you neutralized their point and made them come at you in number advantage – it means 2 other points are pushed into your advantage and you bought precious time that wins games.

Braking enemy formation and tearing them apart through sheer firepower (dmg and CC) – winning by contesting. Thieves and Mesmers excel at this.
*Similar to PvE meta. If your target is dead, it cannot deal damage or take objectives. Also known as “a retreating enemy does not fight back”

Sadly, rangers do support these objectives up to a certain amount, but do not excel at any. Not with the proposed build.
Rangers excel at team-fight scenario with the spirit build. The bonus revive, AoE defense, AoE condition damage, AoE cleanse.
That’s really powerful stuff.
But definitely not the Zerk Power GlassBow.

Guyz, but you are missing the most important point in this…
…
The reason why Rangers are not going to become a PvP meta is simple.
They need to be light years away from point (the goal objective) to be effective.
Which means the following: Not only they bring nothing but damage (neither entangle nor Muddy Terrain are used for point objectives – but solely for selfish survival purposes) – but even the damage is lower in comparison to Other Zerk classes such as Mesmers or Thieves.

Which means the following:
The only contribution the Ranger will bring is damage and a cripple (barrage).
No health pool to distribute the damage, no utility to help secure the point. A mere single target knockback that is super weak at long range and gets blocked by unimportant targets most of the time anyways.

tl;dr
A ranger will not become the meta, because he is only effective at range where his objective contribution is Zero.
There are less targets to be downed or pushed out of point, less targets to help you revive or rally (Thieves excel at saving), and even the damage Ranger brings is not even comparable to either a Mesmer or a Thief.
Ranger is just more comfortable sniping from “safe” distance.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

You could argue “good players” for anything. It’s a merry-go round. Even the best players can be easily caught in a Rapid Fire when they run out of skills or dodges. Just like any good player can be caught by a Thief or a Mesmer shatter. It’s about finding the opportunity and using it to your advantage.

Being caught by a thief will result in being stunned > dazed > blinded and waking up at 50% HP… With a possibility to repeat all over whenever a stealth button is hit.

If a Ranger catches you off-guard, that means that someone else must have set the CC for you – which means you are already in a 2v1 situation and there’s no way you are going to loose anyway.
If you think that a Ranger can just blow 2-3 target’s dodge rolls and reflects or defensive cooldowns just by AFKing with Auto-Shot than you are quite wrong. It’s actually the other way round. By using Rapid fire – your enemy uses most of their Dodges and Def cooldowns.

While we are at it …
…
Poison damage from the Spider Application seems to go the exact same way.
It kept jumping from 84 – 47 … If I used my poison in addition to it (with condi damage) it started jumping from 148 – 84 – 67 – 59 – 34 – 14 …

And whichever way you look at it … It’s absurdly wrong.
Something needs to be done, and it’s a surprise that it’s only rangers (again) who need to be fixed. I’d really welcome being able to play the character that I played 90% of my PvP games with.

Holy monkey…
… I came here to confirm. The Bonfire indeed is bugged.

But it’s not a slight bug at all. The damage difference is huge. Around 2K.
Also, the damage seems to refresh once it reaches the minimum and start from 445 again and keep getting reduced.

Anyways, other fire fields do not seem to be bugged. Elemental Ring of Fire ticked for constant 406 damage for the whole duration (different condi damage). Didn’t really bother trying out different ones since we know that Ranger is seemly the only one bugged.

This bug needs to be addressed ASAP.

Hyde.3180:

But If im going for Generosity sigil i would need rabid amulet instead of carrion.

Jesus, I meant Geomancy, not Generosity.
kitten man, I’m totally sorry for this. My bad.

You are very welcome