Guild Wars 2

Does anyone know if our Passive Signet of the Hunt bonus (25% movement speed) stacks with the Superior Rune of the Traveler (6); (25% movement speed)?

I would like to avoid spending 60 gold on something that might end up completely useless for my gameplay. I’m positive it doesn’t work in PvP. I’ve tested it there. I’d like to know about PvE – that’s what matters for me.

Fluffball.8307:

Someone is having a bad day. I don’t regret a single second spent on my ranger. I’m not even sure I would still play GW if I wasn’t on ranger. Also why were you spending that insane amount of time on something you weren’t having fun doing??

It’s called cognitive dissonance. You can google it up later.

Anyways, I like my Ranger. Just play him the way he is good at. Not the way you’d like him to be good at. I found a way to cover both.
I even found a viable power build for sPvP. I couldn’t have been more satisfied.

If we are generally speaking about sPvP/tPvP, then power builds are mostly too inefficient. That’s the reason why most GS builds are not “viable”. They are playable, but not much viable.

Rangers are pretty much meh for competitive game if built Glass Cannon (which is the only option as GS build) and they are horribly vulnerable to conditions and stability. Glass Cannon relies on a single burst out through CC abilities, which will be easily negated by almost any class out there.

Because being a Ranger doesn’t necessarily mean you are Chuck Norris, nor the Texas Ranger.

Holland.9351:

Ranger panic buttons:
- Protect Me
- Lightning Reflexes

I won’t count Signet of Stone, but I’ll mention it anyway.

Protect me is unreliable and requires tons of awareness.
Lightning reflexes requires awareness of your surroundings. You also can’t use it every time, because the space you’d appear in would be even more dangerous.

Signet of stone is nice, but doesn’t help you survive. It helps you stay alive LONGER, but doesn’t help you survive.
You can use all of them only if you already thought of WHEN and HOW to use them in fight – which is not “oh snap!” button, but rather a “Now’s the time!” button.

Thalionsir.5976:

I must comment that the Ranger forums are the only ones on which I see complaint threads. Of that does not tell you something, well try this: only the players that care are going to be on the forums, so the excuse “Don’t be a bad Ranger” I think, wears a little thin. People are actually here because they want to be better Rangers, you will not find many of the “Bad” Rangers on the forums.

O-hoo? I didn’t know we have people this thoughtful among us =)
… +1 Sir
Well said.

I also have no idea why Jungle Stalker’s F2 ability for AoE might has a raw cast time of 3 seconds, which is 3,75 if we take animation into account.
…
In PvP scenario everything has already been explained.

Shortbow – if you are running Condition damage and want stable single target DPS.
Axe/WH – if you are more into power and you face group of mobs more often. Axe is condition based, WH is power based. This mix is not efficient enough in any way chosen.

But you asked, so I answered =)

that baby stealing dingo.7216:

From what I’ve experienced, Ranger can succeed in every phase of the game (WvW, PvP, PvE) and has a good variety of builds to choose from. I mean, if you ask the strictly meta players, everything sucks outside of the 4 or 5 total builds (across all classes, no less) they deem “acceptable.” I wouldn’t worry about those complaints.

No… This one is totally not right. Power builds are just not made for rangers.
We are forced to stick to conditions, that vary from straight condi to spirits – or we are running BM bunkers.
For PvE – No one runs condition builds, so we are practically forced into Zerker builds. We do fine, but it’s definitely not like we can freely choose from many builds.

But to achieve that – you have to go for a specific build, and you DEFINITELY HAVE TO AVOID power builds.

Go tanky, add some condition damage, let your pet do the job. If he doesn’t pray for help. You’ll still be wrecked by certain roles/classes/builds.
But we are fine in PvP I guess. Just fine.

We have Murellow.

It is the only “corrupted” pet so far. But we still have like 5 viable pets. Why bring more of them?

We are viable under certain conditions.
… But ye, we still suck.

There are still millions of occasions when you’re gonna feel like you never wanted to roll a Ranger.
The rest of them is just okay. You’d definitely be pleased with this class if you played this game alone. You’re just gonna be hated. Not because there is a reason for it. Just because you CAN be hated. Regardless of whether you play this class the right way or not.

kiwituatara.6053:

Besides running GS, or condition axe/dagger/torch/sword setup, autoattack is the way to go for rangers if you want to kill anything. I’m not saying rangers are weak, but the way the class works…

To answer your question (@Tragic Positive):
What are rangers for? Autoattacking.
What do ranger excel at? Autoattacking.

This is by any means the best answer I ever got =D And it meets all my opinions. Thank you sir. +1

We all noticed that after it’s “update” it takes years of spamming till the abilities come off because of the pet range.

I came here with a situational hint that helped me some nice bunch of times in PvP (not every time, but generally).

If you really need the pet to use his ability – “Return” him and reactivate. He will simply reset his AI and force the ability (works mostly for non-target abilities like Wolf’s Fear or Jaguar’s Stalk). Also, their abilities are reliable right after pet Swapping.
~Hope it helps.

Oak da Vite.9054:

Well, a ranger does not bring one thing. I think it is always the combination of things you bring that makes the ranger strong. That is why he is so good for small groups. There he can fill out multiple roles. This gives more flexibility to the other team members.

This answer probably helped me the most. Thx.

Well, I was just wandering. Because while Rangers excel at Ranged damage, elementalists can disagree. It all depends on the situation. But the problem is that every time I pick out my Longbow, a huge disaster of flame, blame and rage comes out.

Rangers are not welcome in PvP, PvE, and some of the Commanders don’t want them in WvW, either. It took me 3 weeks to find a tPvP team, because 7 of them just turned me down for being Ranger. This one I’m having is fine and smooth working, surprisingly.

The point is – that people don’t like Rangers, and I can feel the reason why. We have practically nothing to bring. We can bring this and that, but how can Spotter and Frost Spirit compare to the burst and might stacks an elementalist can bring? Not to mention that elementalists don’t have buggy pets that can screw the whole dungeon run.

I’ve been playing Ranger-like classes in other games for 8 years now, but I thought I’m missing something here in Guild Wars. So the answer is that we don’t excel at anything – we bring a little tiny bit of everything. Thanks for all your replies, even though most of them didn’t help that much =D

Exactly what the topic says.

What Rangers offer that other classes don’t? Besides Spirits that are unreliable and Spotter?

What Rangers excel at? It’s not the Ranged damage, it’s not the melee damage, it’s not the burst damage nor DPS… Not the healing, neither support power.

Am I missing something?

Holland.9351:

If it’s traited with Signet of the Beastmaster it can be even worse, because the Ranger will pull conditions away from allies to himself.

No, he won’t. This signet has no interaction with the Signet of the Beastmaster.

Moreover, LB is completely unreliable. Rapid Fire casually tends to stop dealing damage even mid-cast. I wasn’t able to find out WHEN and under WHAT conditions does this occur but many times in dungeons I just cast Rapid fire, and after 4-5 shots no more damage is shown. This occurs mostly when I’m on the move and not stationary.

And the damage is still a joke, not comparing the laughable reliability. In addition to unreliable pets – I’m just thinking of rerolling completely.

Why would you have “Protect me!” when it prevents point capture… ?
… How this could be a bunker build then?
Doesn’t make sense, sir.

Actually, some of these changes would make Rangers far too superior.

I agree we need some portion of love for Power Rangers (especially those with Power Builds), but these are just too much.
Firstly, I guess we all agree that our most preferred weapon – Longbow – is not viable at all. This weapons should be looked at, but triple knockback interrupt and other stuff added might be just too much.

What I’d actually welcome is Pet’s damage pattern being improved. They don’t deal any damage to targets on move – which decreases the whole damage by a huge portion.
Second thing I’d like to see is increased damage for 1h Sword – by roughly 30%, but making the whole damage sequence single target. Rangers have kinda “meh” damage anyways, everyone melee beats them, and sadly, our melee dmg is better than ranged. GS will still be the AoE option.
Furthermore, I’d like to see Rapid Fire a much better damage ability. Something we WANT TO USE. Rangers have no burst and we can’t compare to other classes in damage. A don’t see a reason why couldn’t we have one hard-hitting ability, especially so easily avoided. (single dodge denies like 25% of the damage).

Troll.4237:

Nvm adding such a skill instead of rapid fire would just promote auto attacking.

If you pay attention to the cast time and the actual damage amount – you’ll see it is an damage increase for trade of being vulnerable and will add a reliable Vuln. Stack of 10 unlike current +1+1+1+1…

I’ll add that current Rapid Fire is the promotion of AutoAttack. And believe me – most of us will like the BOOM! just like most of them will like to dodge and go “HAHA!”.
I’m disappointed now because I don’t remember when did I hit the whole Rapid Fire into people EVER.

Shiren.9532:

Spirit rangers are still one of the best class builds in sPvP. Spirits freaking suck in PvE though, the only one of any real meta use is the Frost Spirit (“Generic 10% damage buff? Such compelling gameplay!”).

The balanced spirit Ranger is actually the only competitive build for PvP.
… The Frost Spirit build is the only competitive build for PvE.

The other builds are fine and entertaining to play, but will never show as much reward as these. And yet – we all know that spirits should not be the answer for every scenario. Not to mention that a RANGER is tied to using melee weapons, with the most clunky Sword target-sticking.

I actually agree that Ranger’s need some more love.

The Longbow is not Viable anywhere else except World Bosses and WvW. And this doesn’t feel right. Rangers also lack burst, and if our only bursty build is BM – let it be viable.

We don’t need KillShot though. I think that kill shot doesn’t belong to this game.

Some players used to play BM regen bunker build.

I’ve seen a pretty decent guide somewhere here in the forums.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/BM-Bunker-Build-Guide/
It’s not mine but will definitely answer at least some of your questions.

I approve this idea.

Gives rangers a “sniper” feeling (at long last), gives so much needed burst for PvP and might actually make LongBow Viable.

It will be more of a reward/waste ability – which would make it worthwhile and balanced. Current Rapid fire is … Bad. If you think about it – It’s used only because the whole damage pattern on Longbow is bad designed.
I’m still not sure about blast finisher, though.

This signet is not affected by Signet of the Beastmaster.
It breaks stuns and transfers condition to your pet – like you haven’t put traits into it at all.

The 1st thing you’ll need is some sort of defensive cooldown.

Since you’ll be going for Survival of the Fittest – that will be a repositioning tool. You either need to go for “Protect me” which is not so reliable and kills your pet straight ahead.

I found the most use of Singet of the Beastmaster in combination of Signet of the Stone. You won’t have much “viability” in Read the Wind if you aim for sPvP.

There are 2 different builds that I used to play.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARTjMq0waFLusw1agAhY9RQRrY2TXVFspC-TpBBwAfeAAQ3fAwhAwzFAocZAIHBAA
- This one is squishy if you don’t use your coodlowns , but really does it’s job. The 25% damage from SotW is noticeable. You could say it’s a build that highly depends on your skill.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARTjMq0waFLusw1agAha9BEAFQzYYEc+E7bBnqA-TJBBwAQ3fAwhAAdZAIHBAA
- this is a variation of that build – better fitting your role in sPvP. You have high survivability like this, and also roaming possibilities Thx to Greatsword and Longbow. Your damage isn’t that high, but still noticeable.

I always run for Signet of the Beastmaster if I go for Longbow and Greatsword. It peeks your damage and also provides you with precious survivability.

The second Hyena also deals less damage, just so you know.
And cannot be controlled. It just spawns a friendly NPC.

Couldn’t said it better than Infantrydiv did.

He said almost everything you could need. For the build you’d like to play – that is.
I’d maybe changed the trait in MM for Malicious training instead of Steady Focus.
10% of jack kitten is still jack kitten … And you’ll be rolling in melee range like your life depends on it. So you won’t have much profit of it anyways. But pet’s longer immobilize by 50%, also wolf’s fear is noticeable.

Don’t mislead the OP.

Rangers are a decent class. And we bring huge mix of mechanics. But we aren’t best in any of that.

Yes – Ranger can melt other classes – but that’s not what sPvP is about. There it is about staying alive on point longer than the enemy. And Rangers are one of the worst at it. Because our melee damage cannot compare to other melee classes and our Ranged damage has no use if we have to camp a point.

In PvE the Ranger community is hated. Everyone runs so-called “BearBow” which is super comfortable but doesn’t bring anything – not even damage. In PvE dungeons you’d like to stick to melee – which you can actually play your Thief if this is the case. In world encounters we are absolutely gorgeous. It’s our job to stay at range and flank it – and we are good at it.

We can fulfill this role even in WvW – without any problem (pet’s are useless here, though).

But you should never start a Ranger if you haven’t fallen in love with him or you don’t intend to improve for the rest of your life… Because there’s a proverb that goes on since GW1.
“If anything goes wrong – just blame the Ranger.”

Ranger-maining player looking for tPvP team.

To begin with, I’m well aware of the Ranger representation and it’s debatable performance. I also understand the passive hate community feels against Rangers, because I sometimes feel the same.
That’s why I’m looking for a team that is based on communication, teamwork and shared will to evolve.

The roles I can efficiently fill as Ranger are : Bunker, Roamer (DPS), Support. I’m currently playing a balanced Conditon/Support ranger with specialization in spirits.

I have experimented with many builds, since I’ve played 98% of my PvP games as Ranger – so it’s no problem for me to switch to team’s needs.
If anyone is interested – leave me a message.

I actually think we have plenty of it.

Longbow has Volley, it has piercing arrows through traits.
… Our Melee weapons ALL hit 3 targets. Our Off Hand weapons like Axe or Torch can be considered AoE.

We can run Trap Build which provides “tons of damage” °tm of AoE too.
Rangers aren’t in need of any more AoE damage I guess.

jcbroe.4329:

You DO know that in PvP, the score you accumulate during the match has nothing to do at all with how much rank you receive, right?

Yup, but if we assume we hit more targets – we get more points for participating in kills – and if all goes well – you can go and cap them.
If your party fails to win the fight – you simply pack you bags, leave them there because you have a huge range and start assaulting another point with the same scenario.

You are practically an aspirant for 3 top stats with this method. The only one that is not favorable is the resurrection one.

geogyf.5087:

Piercing Arrows & Spotter are mandatory.
So RtW gets left behind

for SPvP and WvW i could see RtW being picked

Neither for sPvP. You’d like to hit as many people as possible to grind rank points.
… If you don’t want to grind points but win the game – you don’t need the trait at all since you rarely fire more than 2-3 shots from 1000+

I still think the ability should be more rewarding for it’s cooldown.
Sacrificing a noticeable portion of our dmg as well as it’s utility for 6 seconds of invulnerability is not OP at all.
Since we are rangers that is. We’ll hardly ever take the target to even 50% hp for the duration of 6 seconds. Not to mention it lowers our DPS since our pet doesn’t attack and it stops point capping, too.

It sounds fair for it to do exactly what it promises to do.

What does it have in common with GW2, again?

That’s actually almost the build I run in tPvP xD
You almost hit the meta, Sir =D

Probably Sword.
It’s the best single target hitting weapon and it’s aesthetic for females too. It looks awesome on a female to jump around hitting stuff hard.

It also reduces Burst Healing abilities.
… So you could take those into account too. It’s not about maths. It’s about usage in practical environment.

Poison even with full condition setup deals around 200 damage per second. Increasing it by 50% makes it higher to around 300.

Guardians gained a bonus to BURNING which is the most powerful duration damage condition with more than triple the damage. How this can compare?

I agree that poison shouldn’t be as much powerful in damage perspective… But the healing reduction would definitely by the answer.

Well, I can throw you my build I used to play for some time.
With the exact same reason as you.
I get bored of Spirit Bunker easily.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjMq0waFLusw1agAhY9RQRrY2TXVlMqKA-TpRBwAP3fozhAQzFAgcZAAHBgHPAAA

It’s also a build that has it’s downsides – but it’s definitely more fun to play (and some of us know that what entertains us gives us better results than meta).

Believe me – with this build you are not forced to “max range only” – and I have won some nice duels even 1v1 against a thief.
This build is hugely cooldown oriented – and you can take upon most of enemies you encounter if you time them right. If you don’t – it’s a weak version of fighting build.

Pros:
~ insane damage tunnel potential
~ fair damage burst with GreatSword
~ high amount of utility offense-defensive cooldowns (Stun, KnockBack, Immobilize, Fear, Short Stealth, escape through GreatSword, Ranged Block/Melee knockback)
~ fair ranged damage output that gives advantage against melee roles like Guardians or Warriors
~ You can come up with many ability sequences that will make your game enjoyable and make you feel rewarded (because they reward you a lot).
~ The AoE damage can’t be compared.
~ can actually roam thanks to GS Swoop even without SotH
~ You are made to finishing off targets (3 sec stealth of LongBow + 2 cooldowns of stability)

Cons:
~ your are squishy if you don’t use cooldown to stay alive
~ your DPS doesn’t have any straight burst if you are focused
~ few condition removals – the worst weakness of this build
~ you are not made for bunkering a point. You can win most of 1v1 fights if you strike first and have cooldowns ready, though. (but you can never go 1v1 against Necro and some other class builds)
_____________________________________________________________________
If you are aware of your capabilities – this build is almost ideal for playing PvP. You just have to learn how and when to use your cooldowns – and if you give this build a try – I promise you that you’ll find it at least a nice experience.

Rym.1469:

God, another LongBowMan in Tpvp.

It doesn’t work, sweetie. If it did, people would actually play it, not only running for some lolz.

I really want to play LB power Ranger in some serious pvp too and we got the first step in lastest patch – SotF.
But that’s the first step and long way ahead.

I would rather not like to see more LB Rangers running around in pvp and trying to snipe from afar. 99% of them can’t play it, don’t have required knowledge and high situational awarness, run wrong pets. Condibunk, as it stands, is just a easier, better way for them.
Even if they suck, there are still some spirits buffing the party.

So please, don’t post another LB/GS glass canoons tpvp threads or we will see more Rangers dying rapidly, being useless.

We will be kings, one day. But that day is not today, my son ~ Wise Balance Teneras Words.

I used to play LB/GS … I was able to steal points easily. If I blasted my RaO, my SotH, and gave it a gentle push with greatsword (after stacking vulnerability of Rapid Fire). Everyone except guardian died (those needed to be poked until they blew their CDs – going full in afterwards). I was an undefeatable duelist.
The RaO + 25% increase of the signet (also stability) with prolonged Stun/Daze from traits was a downfall for almost anyone.
But in tPvP no one needs a duelist. We need objective-cappers.

Here are some miscalculations.

Longbow has a cast time of around 1.0 – don’t forget attack animations. More importantly, I usually hit for around 1000 damage into balanced Classes. 700 to Guardians.
If I was able to crit – the numbers would rise to 2,2 or 1,7. It’s theoretical, but you have to take into account that poison can be reapplied easily with 3 of your abilities on fairly low CD – also reducing healing by 33%.

You also said you can deal damage from safe distance. And what exactly is the point of that? Okay – so it’s not you who is suffering. That means your teammates are suffering for you.
Let’s be frank – I just tried to get back to that build just from curiosity today. And it took me around 20 seconds to get down a warrior from max range with no damage taken since I was not focused. 20 WHOLE SECONDS.
Who’s going to be able to fight 2v3 (most frequent scenario in tPvP) since YOU are not present in the fight – just your damage is.

The build you are presenting is a … It’s definitely a build of a solo player. You are safe all the time providing firepower. Your fellow soldiers are taking damage for you – they have to finish off enemies for you – they have to CAP points for you… But what’s worse is that they HAVE TO TRUST YOU. Because it’s you who is the GlassCannon damage dealer THEY HAVE TO PROTECT. You are their key member of teamfights – while … You are not even there.

I mostly run with wolves. Hound and Wolf to be exact (root + fear).

But I remember one time when I was running a full condition tanky support.
I found Bear (black / brown) to be kinda useful. You could either use them for Party Condition removal (2 conditions per person) or the Black bear could use his roar to reduce endurance regeneration of enemies, as well as their damage by roughly 25%.

I also ran “Protect me!” at that time making tanky pets exactly what I needed. But I was trying out the build, only. It was a fine one, but wasn’t competitive enough.

Filterkat.2143:

It entirely depends on your team comp and individual playstyle, but so far my team has found great success with this build in the team comp. Dont knock it till you try it

Well – as I said – I already tried it =)
… The point is that I was able to deal almost as high damage with condition builds and noticeably more tankiness. While I was able to support my team with resurrect (which is like 2 times more important than the Zerk role) and even Sun Spirit (bonus burning + AoE blind) and Earth Spirit (bonus protection + root) all while helping to soak up damage AND cap the point. With your build it’s impossible to help your team once they are downed or low on health. You just deal damage which is not even comparable to Thief’s.
Don’t forget I provide the team with the most powerful Water Field in the game ON POINT.

As I already said – that build IS VIABLE. You can practically be at 2 places in a matter of few seconds. But it’s far away from being “mostly efficient”.

I was curious about the spirits too.
Can you guyz tell me why every spirit has written “Effect Recharge: 10 Seconds” ?
Frost Spirit doesn’t seem to have an Internal Cooldown. Others seem to have either 6 or 10, I dunno.

May it be possible that if you hit volley – it can proc more effects since it hits simultaneously?

I’m not sure – but it shows up automatically if you hit level 6 or so.

Filterkat.2143:

This does not mean however that you should expect that you can facetank on point in melee against 2 opponents.

The big advantage of this build is the 1500 range, and increased velocity. This means you can do substantial damage to targets from a great distance while staying at a safe range.

This build also incorporates a good amount of mobility with GS and SOTH, and has a lot of built in active defence, making it a perfect roaming/skirmishing build.

1; That means it isn’t exactly made for tPvP.
2; This also means you are not helping with the objectives. (points > dmg)
3; This build has very nice mobility – that’s for sure. But your skirmishing is only mediocre. You don’t provide enough burst, you are too squishy, you are not able to kill any bunker with this build, it’s easy to LoS your shots away from points, and you are VERY EASILY focused.

What exactly is the point of this build? Steady DPS is not much needed in tPvP unless you are capping a point – which you can’t with this build.
Roaming is not needed if you can’t take a point.
If you are only giving a helping hand to your teammates while providing zero objectives yourself … That’s not a competitive build.

I’m aware of the potential of this build. I used to run a similar one myself. But it’s definitely not made for tPvP … Solo arena – might be a better scenario where people actually rush for levels – which is ideal with this build.

Chrispy.5641:

Fixed that for you.

Thx, even though it’s debatable…
… If you consider it from “front/behind” – it’s the matter of 180° angle.
It can be understood like Behind (90°) and Sides (2×90°) which is 270°, which I don’t believe is the case.

Chrispy.5641:

What? You mean when I shoot someone they bleed no matter what direction I hit them in, Its no longer from just the side or behind? What rock have I been living under for the last two years? (/obvious sarcasm)

What I meant is that ShortBow is mostly used as a PvP weapon – for it’s utility it provides.
You can feel that Shortbow is effective enough even if you don’t have 100% flank uptime.

Poison, pet bleeding and Cripple, also a daze. That’s all nice even without flanking.

Of course your damage is laughable if you don’t hit from behind – but it’s nor Flank restricted.