Guild Wars 2

Chopps.5047:

Broadicea.8294:

Chopps.5047:

I’m fairly certain you’re in the minority. There’s few redeeming qualities and no need to snare. All you need in dungeons are reflection, group stability, and DPS and the ranger can only do one of those things (reflection). Interesting how guardian does all three. Jon P wasn’t lying when he said guardian would be the cleric profession to end all clerics. Your best bet in any gamemode is always guardian. :p

Why so down on Rangers, Chopps? Where did this ranger-loving fellow from 4 days ago go?

Chopps.5047:

On the last boss fight, if you are doing a speed run, you have to alternate what you attack: Mai or her add. Doing this in the right order (google it) prevents a HUGE aoe from spamming the arena. Speed runs in this dungeon will want to aboid the time consuming aoe but also must be good enough to focus down targets with the right amount of power. You can’t just feedback land aegis while dropping 100b like they do on the kitten Lupicus video.

Now you DON’T have to play this way. If you run it like a pick up group you will just accept that you will be dodging aoe. There’s a chance to lose a pet. Swiftness, careful dodges, well timed swaps, and signet of stone are important.

Rangers must be strong. ANET is challenging us, not hating us. They love us. So they make it hard, forcing us to improve. It’s NOT an unfair fight to rangers.

I hope that helps.

Heheh, that guy isn’t around anymore :P

LoLs. I think my Ranger tests may have led to that. Here’s hoping it actually brings about some well needed changes. But for now, remember to pick up the stick at bloomhunger and spike at the end!

Vox Hollow.2736:

C’mon Swiftpaw, it’s not like people are coming into this thread making bold claims of meta superiority that needs to be endlessly debated, they just seem to asking to tone down the caricature. It’s got nothing to do with other classes and the comparison thereof, merely fair representation of what Ranger is for better or worse. I don’t think that’s such an outrageous request, really.

I’m all for finding a little self deprecating humor in all of this, I think Eugene is laugh out loud funny. But the difference here is that Eugene is playing up Ranger’s problems in such an over-the-top way everybody’s in on the joke, whereas OP and his chorus either genuinely believe this is output what Rangers can aspire to or are playing halfhearted for humor’s sake so subtly it leaves the third party viewer the impression that this is all par for the course.

In 700 hours of playing can you honestly back OP’s performance with your full faith and confidence? Because that’s kind of the impression I get from your defense of it.

We made a video http://youtu.be/PJK3OZt8rC8
You can watch Brazil spam short bow for about 1k at the first room then pick up a banner and auto attack for about 3.5-4k and do banner #4 for 5-8k. Even with the slower attack swing it seems to do more dps.

The non Ranger PoV
http://youtu.be/J3hk9Dd-S-k

SkyChef.5432:

How about Frying Pan, a common weapon housewives used to hit their strayed husbands on the head, in the earlier days?
Ranger! Just don’t Bonks your head yourself.
Ed: It’s a pick up subject, I’m afraid.

Yeah I just tried but they can’t be bought. I did it on level 29 ranger with level 24 gs and did 150 crit vs frying pan 200 crit. It seems to be like the other things but this test doesn’t meet the seal of approval.

Broadicea.8294:

now just carry that oakheart branch through every fractal and it’ll make up for the crappy DPS

Unfortunately it breaks on 1 hit. That’s why you should use it at the end and for practice.

I had a brain HURRICANE!!! See edited op.

Xystus.3241:

Obal,

Great write-up. Giving me some things to think about. Also if you need a guard for 48, let me know. I’ve done it several times and would like a group to run with.

Here are a few questions:

Why Force/Night/Acc over Fire?

Accuracy is good for anchor since it triggers AH and you give the group might stacks. I use fire on my scepter but not 2h weapons.

Force/Night is something that should be used for every dps build. You will do more damage than fire can do. For 1h weapons I’d rather stack might with the other sigil with strength or battle for warriors than fire too since it probably leads to higher dps given all the power you have.

If you have a mic and I need another guard I’ll let you know. I probably won’t go as much though since I’m pretty burned out after doing the guide and I have 5 fractal torches….

I did a dps check at dredge scale 32.

Results… grab a warrior banner or elementalist conjured weapon to maximize dps.

Edit: If you fight Bloomhunger pick up the stick on the ground to spike at the end. It does higher dps than ranger weapons and it is good practice for doing eviscrate as a warrior when you decide to reroll you will be ready.

CoF Path Optimal Ranger Speed Runs
4 Rangers = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3hk9Dd-S-k
3 Rangers = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJdX4E0VLOw

Edit #2:
The thread is meant as a satire in case you don’t realize it. Their weapons skills and choices are underwhelming, they have very little utility value, pets have poor survival and mechanics, and their dps is ok if the pet is actually attacking and alive but can’t match up to other classes. The dungeon community is very skeptical of Rangers and believe that Rangers are on the bottom end of the PVE imbalance and require changes from ANET.

Some really love their Ranger and defend it to death. For those Rangers, I’m looking for evidence to support your view of being a productive part of a group leading to fast and efficient runs. Please prove that we are wrong and they are as good as the “best” classes in a group setting. Even if you find they are not, please provide us with some optimal clean runs with the class to show that there is an imbalance for ANET to hopefully fix or at least show players how they can best play the class other than jump on every rock/platform available and auto attack and do nothing but spam a bow throughout every dungeon like the overwhelming majority of pug Rangers do. A way to prove so is making videos with 2+ Rangers in the group at fractal 48 bosses and comparing them to my normal runs I made for my guide which you can find here http://www.youtube.com/user/obal100 or just running something other than CoF path 1 which requires some degree of skill and coordination like Arah.

Important for people trying to give rebuttal:
- The videos should have 2+ Rangers in the group if you try this.
- Math is a great thing but excel spreadsheets don’t account for many things so support your claim with videos
- Soloing open world bosses won’t show your usefulness to a group in a dungeon so none of that either please. Same thing for hitting dummies (warriors did even less damage for my tests below but it took awhile for anyone to figure that out lols)

Fractals guide for guardians or just a guide how to high level fractals with an organized group (40+)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guardian-Video-Guide-for-Fractals-Shown-at-48/first#post2322691

Solo

Bloomhunger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td6ZAB6Lsxc

Archdiviner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7Y4G3lLmU

Speed Kills

Dredge Power Suit 20s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiIU_ktc2Ac

Rampaging Ice Elemental 25s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXLDvQOKzxU

Bloomhunger 43s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiDgdf0G9cU

Mossman 56s
http://youtu.be/ZsECC8zU8Ws

Mossman 4s
http://youtu.be/NlhVsoabtgo

Other Feats

Rampaging Ice Elemental Melee Kill without Superheated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYg2_WU_7rA

Archdiviner Full Melee at Final Seal
http://youtu.be/g7fWSETTFIg

Captain Ashym Full Melee
http://youtu.be/ILQgWA9UU7w

Aquatic Ruins Fractal

Krait Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hi8AX_wrRA

Dolphin Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXvpWPLL6IE

Luminous Plant Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJs7caAU5ik

Jellyfish Beast (Melee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-T1FZ61rcU

Cliffside Fractal

Legendary Archdiviner (Melee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_CxZV3WYk8

Chest Seal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZH1QOM9VH8

Arm Seals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Xtl1jWdKs

Final Seal with Archdiviner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD85exhKXcw

Snowblind Fractal

Bonfire Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkmqH7So8Yw

Elemental Source
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC2_Vx2InV0

Legendary Shaman Lornarr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7EyabBIfmk

Solid Ocean Fractal

Jade Maw (Quick video to show tome and 99%)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNW_jI7nrEI

Jade Maw (Full Fight)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9G_UrrgjWU

Swampland Fractal

Whisp Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17IxL3sli38

Mossman (melee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XYjjRaOlfI

Bloomhunger (melee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFxIG-3awM

Bloomhunger speed kill as dps guardian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiDgdf0G9cU

Underground Facility Fractal

Control Panel Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pury3dyGX20

Cannon Room Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiQZEnNtrHg

Cannon Room Event (Theif Speedy Style)
http://youtu.be/YerTi1PM6YU

Bomb Room Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_38rOY6Nl88

Champion Rabsovich and the Clown Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky2HpnvC05I

Legendary Dredge Powersuit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDDPPsBnB8k

Legendary Rampaging Ice Elemental
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh8j6DRIOms

Legendary Rampaging Ice Elemental (Melee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zMpl94nj74

Pulling Levers (Shown vs Powersuit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuTf8Zw7eCM

Urban Battlegrounds Fractal

Breach the City Gates Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VgJ6XbFGQ

The City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKuxoM0o9OM

Capture the Courtyard Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it_AVN0gZLs

Captain Ashym
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WL-QGZDsA

Volcanic Fractal

Grawl Guards Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdy-BUzbkdY

Break the Shaman’s Bubble Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMzqdRt0ll8

Champion Grawl Shaman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvOlDiArL4M

Legendary Imbued Shaman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnKnNAMaf1Q

Uncategorized Fractal

Harpy Events
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Q8YDPg0uQ

Escape the Holding Area Event (champion room)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzjBxKwXOpo

Old Tom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSYyqyW1cp4

Raving Asura
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EoSxlE2yCw

General Comments:

My videos were done at 48 so some of the strategies may be overkill for early levels.

I put the specific gear, traits, weapons, skills in the video description for each event/boss or you can look at the build info above.

I didn’t bother with the brain dead parts and I took only quick and clean parts to not waste your time

All the videos are shown as the anchor build which is different from the updated build. It does just as well for survival while offering more dps, flexibility, blinds, and vulnerability.

LoS means line of sight. This is a technique where you pull mobs around a corner and they swarm to it and group up in front of you so you can tear them apart.

Most pugs won’t melee things like mossman, bloomhunger, jellyfish beast, archdiviner so you may get complaints if you do so

My groups may make things look easy. You may struggle but hang in there

Use your virtues. Always spam F1, use resolve if your team is low and in trouble, and use courage for aegis chains, agony attacks, and if your team is low and in trouble.

If you are expecting good loot or an easy time in fractal than I’d suggest not bothering with fractals. You get terrible loot vs time and it will get tough but will make you a much better player and help learn your class.

Now on to the guide…

It’s not so bad if you do it right. Here is how you should do it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Q8YDPg0uQ

ilr.9675:

haviz.1340:

Some people were running dps guardians shortly after launch and were laughed upon, heh. Anyway, I believe most decent groups run 2 guardians and one of them is that so-called anchor.

It’s going to start being 3 pretty soon since they were the only class that received nothing but improvement in this update and suffered very little power shifting in traits.

Ranger is definitely done for though. Those nerfs to Zypher’s & Barrage was enough to kill it for me in even in the “easier” dungeons. I’m not even sure I can keep playing this in Open world anymore… I might just take another long break from the game entirely b/c I really don’t want to be forced to make my Guardian yet another DPS’ing clone. Getting really tired of Anet destroying its own build variety as often as it is. …while also ignoring dungeons for the most part :\

Raving asura in 80s at scale 48 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EoSxlE2yCw

3 guards

GGs

Still waiting on the ranger 48 vids

I’d say luck. I’ve done it every day and sometimes twice at 48 and we get mostly 1 skin from the chest when we used to get 2. It seems like they did a stealth nerf to the daily chest during the southsun patch. I haven’t noticed the overall loot being any better either.

Continued since my post was too long (I feel like Nikaido now with all this typing )

If you want to prove me and everyone in la la land wrong then bring us some proof about rangers being good. Here are some things you can try to do so that a group consisting of good professions have done. Try to get around those times or better with 2+ rangers in the group since having 4 good professions and 1 to carry isn’t that bad but 2 is a drag.

Beat lupi in under a minute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4FyXNgX2CE

Fractal 48 (no lower)
(these were normal runs and not let’s get a record run like the lupi one.
they didn’t know I was even recording and we have done a bunch of them faster)
Captain Ashym 0:56 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WL-QGZDsA
Mossman 3:00 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9cJWm-toi0
Bloomhunger 1:18 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFxIG-3awM
Legendary Shaman Lornarr 2:30 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7EyabBIfmk
Archdiviner 2:20 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_CxZV3WYk8
Raving Asura 1:30 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYs7bo-qlds
Jellyfish Beast 3:33 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-T1FZ61rcU
Legendary Rampaging Ice Elemental 2:41 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh8j6DRIOms
Legendary Dredge Powersuit 3:15 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDDPPsBnB8k
Legendary Imbued Shaman 5:15 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKdOMkq43OY
Champion Grawl Shaman 2:00 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvOlDiArL4M
Old Tom 1:00 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSYyqyW1cp4
Final Seal Archdiviner Fight 9:00 (spent 1m longer since we missed a charge) = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD85exhKXcw

If you do try then remember 2+ rangers.

Chopps.5047:

obal.3218:

It doesn’t matter in the long run. Rangers have terrible skills to choose from and offer so little utility value. All they can bring is dps which is out classed by other professions. Unless there is an expansion in which new skills and such are introduced they will always be bad in comparison to other classes.

You should just cut your losses and raise a better profession for pve. I loved ranger in gw1 during prophecies but after that they were a bad class and thankfully it swayed me from making this class last in gw2.

No dude you’re completely wrong. The way you slam rangers makes me regret every playing with you before. As far as I can tell, you’re completely uninformed and just another elitist.

Ranger is better in dungeons now with boon sharing in companion’s might insane buff. I don’t know how you “experts” overlooked that but you’d puke if you knew how much damage ranger can do now. But instead you will thrust your fingers into your ears and say LA LA LA. You know why? Because you live in LA LA land.

I’m not sure why saying a bad profession is bad is being elitist but ok. I’m sure the 100+ people I’ve helped over the coarse of the game would say otherwise about me. PVE is very unbalanced now and ranger is at the bottom still.

You say I don’t know what I’m talking about so I guess I’ll use your video you made to showcase how good rangers are. I will use your raving asura part of the video at scale 28 compared to my video at 48 which the enemies have more hp, damage, and agony hurts you.

I looked at you are running full zerker with scholar plus 300 power, 250 precision, 25% crit from your traits. This is a pure dps build. You are autoattacking for around 1k crits. I’m running the anchor build with knights armor and zerker trinkets and get 30% crit from traits as the only power buff. I do around 1500-3000 attacking depending on the skill in the chain. A warrior autoattacking with an axe with a dps setup would probably do around 4k here. Your axe #5 takes 5s to do 5k damage and the reflect is nothing special compared to a guardian, mesmer, or ele reflect/destruction. The rest of the video has pretty low numbers on both you and your pet compared to other classes as well.

You are boasting about the spirit. You run out of combat to put it up so in the time you could have been attacking it would have probably done more dps than putting the spirit up. Only half the group was affected by the spirit. Warriors banners are a lot better.

It took you about as long to show half the fight at 28 as it did for my group of good classes to do the whole fight at 48 as well. People in your guide that play ranger even say how they are lacking. Fractal 39 and below are pretty much faceroll with a half decent group of 1 guardian + 4 random professions. You will see how lacking they are when you play 40s for awhile. I’ve had 2 rangers before and we couldn’t rally on the dredge at all and that is an important part of 40s so the run took forever.

The bottom line is that Rangers don’t have good dps. They also lack the potential to be good based on their current weapon skills, utilities, and traits. Guardian, Warrior, Theif, and Elementalist all bring much more utility value and can do better damage. Play a berserker warrior for awhile and you will see the difference.

It doesn’t matter in the long run. Rangers have terrible skills to choose from and offer so little utility value. All they can bring is dps which is out classed by other professions. Unless there is an expansion in which new skills and such are introduced they will always be bad in comparison to other classes.

You should just cut your losses and raise a better profession for pve. I loved ranger in gw1 during prophecies but after that they were a bad class and thankfully it swayed me from making this class last in gw2.

Anything is better than clicking F 50x, 100x, and 150×. Sounds like they added something remotely challenging and engaging. Hopefully people give praise instead of casual complaints so we don’t get click F 200x next to appease that larger crowd instead of challenging and engaging content to appease that smaller crowd.

For it to be a challenge it would have to be classes with no projectile reflect/destruction skills. A bunch of eles in a group like above takes away a lot of the challenge. I tried it with a group of level 2-3 rangers and it went pretty bad. Ranger is very underwhelming.

I guess I’d try it again with 80s and not all rangers if you need another and have people that can dodge arrows. I’d bring my warrior since that’s all i have without reflects.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

JJBigs.8456:

Again, repost of my last post to the poster above. Why is there an abundance of video proof showing otherwise but these super pro necs never have any proof? Why are the people who are considered most efficient/pro in game by the community totally disagreeing with your opinion. Please help me understand this and I would would be vastly more willing to accept this.

You say no wipes, but again, the warrior teams dont wipe either and do it in less time with less hassle. Ofc you can do it with any class, there isnt a trinity. If you couldnt, the game would be broken. But that doesnt mean warriors are worse.

Its like my moms logic. Ants = your eating too much at desk while playing PC. My counter argument, theres ants in my bathroom too but i never had food in there ever.

someone posted while i was typing. comment @ 2 posters above

What sort of proof would you require? No one has really started standardizing speed runs for fractals. No zerk war team has recorded the world record for speed for any of the fractals. What would it take to show you that certain fractals can be done better with a Necro or Engineer or Ranger instead of a warrior?

Fractal 48 with 2+ zerker wars and better classes.

Captain Ashym 0:56 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WL-QGZDsA
Mossman 3:00 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9cJWm-toi0
Bloomhunger 1:18 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFxIG-3awM
Legendary Shaman Lornarr 2:30 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7EyabBIfmk
Archdiviner 2:20 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_CxZV3WYk8
Raving Asura 1:30 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYs7bo-qlds
Jellyfish Beast 3:33 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-T1FZ61rcU
Legendary Dredge Powersuit 3:15 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDDPPsBnB8k
Legendary Rampaging Ice Elemental 2:41 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh8j6DRIOms
Legendary Imbued Shaman 5:15 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKdOMkq43OY

These are typical runs and we don’t have setups optimized for each fight to make any record or anything. They didn’t even know I was ever recording so it’s not like they were trying any harder either lols. I don’t see groups filled with the under achiever classes getting around these times normally. As for the rest of the content other than bosses they do great as well. Yes, they do go down but we can rally very fast and not come close to wiping. I had a group with 2 guards, 1 war, and 2 rangers and the run took forever, especially dredge since rallying wasn’t an option with 2 rangers.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Also, Westhospu regarding warriors on grawl:

Wethospu.6437:

“I tried to solo it on my Warrior on level 10. Really showed how crap Warrior actually is, unless you have someone carrying you.”

and

“Not much to tell. At melee dodging every attack. Sometimes its dive bomb instantly kills me when I get unlucky (it does damage before circles even appear and also hits clearly outside of circles).
Then Elementals appear and 1) I can’t break shield on time and 2) they just kill me.

It’s not like Mesmer who has clones helping with shield and aggro and anti-projectile against Elementals."

For soloing…. any class that doesn’t have reflects/projectile destruction will have a miserable time trying to attempt it. I’m guessing he pugs and doesn’t get guardians in his group or they don’t do what they should. If you have good guardians in the group then warriors can kill the elementals quickly which helps the group a lot and the shield wouldn’t be a problem either.

The best composition for levels 40s is currently
1 Anchor Guardian with Hammer
1 DPS Guardian with Sword/Focus + GS for pulls
2 Zerker Wars
1 Other (1 more Zerk War or Ele or Mesmer)

Theif would be the next best thing in the other slot besides those 3. Then I guess Necro and Engineer. Dead last would be Ranger. People can argue otherwise but that’s how it is so I’d suggest going with guardian or warrior to have an easier time getting in groups and being productive. Elementalists and mesmers can be very good if played right but might be desired less since it takes skill to be productive for those classes.

I leave you with a 3min mossman kill at 48 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9cJWm-toi0
This is us just doing a normal run not putting on specific gear/traits/sigils etc to get a speed kill time and he went into his troll form at 1/5 hp after 2min and slowed us down. I don’t see other classes being able to do it that well/fast in a normal run as well as any of the other bosses I have videos for for fractal 40s. People like to be stubborn and stick with what they have and defend it to death and haters are going to hate.

Here is a video of the bomb room at 48. It’s a good strategy if you do it normally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_38rOY6Nl88

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

If you are in a proper dps group with two good guardians you can just kill everything, even at 48.

I found this to be better and even faster than the stealth suicide way. The stealth way is more annoying now then ever with the recent changes and they usually steal bombs and have to wait on cds and leads to a lot of repairs.

The key is going to los spot and clear the mob there and quickly move to the next los spot and repeat until you clear the ones that don’t keep respawning. After that you plant half the bombs at the same time and run away and repeat. I just did it with a group that is mostly fairly new to 40s and all 4 have never done dredge in the 40s and it took use 8.5min. I recorded and will probably upload it tomorrow.

SkyChef.5432:

5K AP = experience. Experience of what? running from pt A to pt B? And beat some dumb mobs while gathering, doing heart contents, daily group events, special events and more craps like that?
I’m pretty sure that if a person have 7K of that kind of experience will wipe the floor in hard contents more than those w/ 3K experience who doing dungeons days in & days out. Any objection to this?

Given the recent direction the game is going, people with those high numbers are probably very good at locating the F key.

Nikaido.3457:

obal.3218:

The first phase of the second fight is more of the same. He just hits faster/harder. If you have good guardians that know how to use aegis and people that can dodge phase 1 isn’t bad. As for the other phases I don’t know. They seem doable as well. I never get to try it out since everyone wants to cheese it….though I don’t blame them given the AMAZING!!!!!!! rewards of blues….

Well, considering the fact that.. his melee autoattack deals agony during phase 2 of the end-of-the-run-2nd-archdiviner-encounter I wouldn’t really want to melee that one. You’d have to both avoid ALL of his melee attack AND the flashing AoE agony. That’s.. a lot of dodge. Although it could work with experience and endurance regen food or signet of stamina maybe.

Yeah but I’m up for a challenge now and then. I’m sure it would be really annoying to do but it’s probably doable.

Sure there are a few bosses that need to be ranged (ex – dredge fractal ones) given the intended mechanics that would make it worse to melee, but everything else can be fought in melee with a faster kill time than range. If the hardest boss can be killed in melee with no one wearing armor in the same time as the average ranged pug = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnuGB9EZv-s or soloed in melee by every class in the game you can’t make a topic/statement that melee is not for gw2.

/thread

Avylin.2635:

For instance, cliffside Archdiviner and the snow svanir boss. You can’t dodge the melee frequently enough, and you certainly can’t tank it.

The first archdiviner fight isn’t bad. Here is a 2.5min fractal 48 full melee of him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_CxZV3WYk8

The first phase of the second fight is more of the same. He just hits faster/harder. If you have good guardians that know how to use aegis and people that can dodge phase 1 isn’t bad. As for the other phases I don’t know. They seem doable as well. I never get to try it out since everyone wants to cheese it….though I don’t blame them given the AMAZING!!!!!!! rewards of blues….

Avylin.2635:

I’ll take your word for it, but in regards to snowblind shaman, firstly I don’t feel it’s valid to assume every run will have 2 guardians, especially ones dedicated to being more rather than less useful. Secondly, assuming the boss attacks one person throughout, if you can’t dodge entirely through strafing the AA+dot are going to end up doing significant damage. Not to mention 20% of the time the boss is vulnerable he’s breathing.

You only really need 1 guardian for the fight which would use hammer for perma prot. It would probably work better since it would have a more clear target and the rest can stack up behind him. The boss is faceroll in melee. Here is a group of mine beating it in 2.5min in full melee at 48 though we did have 2 guardians with similar gear which made his targeting more hassle than it’s worth to have 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7EyabBIfmk

Dub.1273:

3 steps to become efficient in dungeons.
1) Reroll Warrior.
2) Get full Berserker Gear.
3) Throw all ranged weapons away, learn to dodge.

This would be the best advise. If you want to stay ranger though you will contribute less but at least bring a bow and a gs and get berserker gear. Use bow to fall back on or use longbow 2 at the start then run in with gs right after. Rangers bring so little/no utility value so you mine as well bring a decent amount of dps. If you range the entire dungeon with knights gear you are pretty much a waste of a party slot. Most rangers run this kind of setup and make the answer to this question a firm yes….. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Do-people-still-hate-avoid-RANGER-and-THIEF/page/6#post2235304

Lian Olsam.9541:

thanks obal for the costructive reply, i already have war so i know how to play melee, the problem is that with ele i cant switch weapon if some ‘not melee’ mob is coming, for example with war i have greatsword and longbow and i will switch if need, but with ele dd i cant change wepon cause i’m in combat, and if i will go close i’m oneshotted

I play with an ele that does d/d. He usually brings fiery gs and ice bow and falls back on those. He swaps weapons for some fights like scepter/focus for shaman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with a staff and he gets pretty kitten y if he sees an ele with a staff at fractal 48 lols.

Lian Olsam.9541:

r u serius? 80% of boss if u go melee will shoot u, and stop with that useless “bad player” and stuff like that

Here are some of the bosses that will all “shoot u” with 1 shots and every attack they do takes about half or more of your health. However they are all doable in melee range, but you need to learn how to dodge and use skills properly. Having good team composition is important for melee as well and you can see how a good group with a good group composition can destroy this game in melee.

Giganticus Lupicus <1m = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4FyXNgX2CE
Mossman @48 ~4min = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XYjjRaOlfI
Bloomhunger @48 ~1m = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFxIG-3awM

If you were to range GL takes like 8min+, mossman 10+, bloomhunger 5+. These are just a few examples.

Melee is best for the majority of dungeon content. You just need to learn it and get good at it. You could try dagger/focus for a bit for the invulnerable and projectile reflection/destruction for a bit until you get better and then use d/d or you could try making a guardian or a warrior and have an easier time learning how to play in melee range. If you range the whole time you won’t learn much or get better and make more threads like these.

Chopps.5047:

Dutch Master.7208:

obal.3218:

Your group should be grouping up mobs and cleaving them. Rangers have single target dps which adds little value in that scenario which consists of half or more of a dungeon.

Thats so wrong…
Piercing shots trait is the most important ranger trait, bar none.

also longbow 5, greatsword 1 2 3.
I wont comment on other ranger weapons because I havent used them in a long time.

My ranger does excellent aoe damage. I prefer when mobs get clumped up. All those numbers from a quickening zephyr + rapid fire through a crowd… so nice.

Not only that but drake cleaves, sword cleaves, greatsword cleaves, axe cleaves, torch is aoe, offhand axe cleaves AND reflects at the same time. What in the kitten is obal talking about?

I’ve already explained this. About 95% of rangers I’ve gone in dungeon with from pugging or a friend brings a friend/guildy use nothing but a bow.

Even if they used the piercing trait why would you range a mob that’s grouped up? The damage is poor and it still doesn’t cleave and will hit less enemies than someone meleeing. Even if they were to use an underwhelming melee/cleave weapon they are an underwhelming class compared to the rest. Their utility value is among the lowest and their dps is nothing to defend compared to other classes with the same spec. They specialize in nothing and offer nothing to the group other than healing fields and the pet can help res if it’s not dead which no one should need since rallying off good dps is far better for reviving and everyone can heal themselves. If you want to melee go try playing a berserker warrior and see the difference in dps and utility or really any other useful class. I can’t help that there is a large imbalance in pve, but Rangers fall at the bottom and it’s the truth at this point in the game.

I’m having a blast clicking on 100 things to get a speed buff for 10s each time and clicking on 150 of a different thing for fun. I’m also enjoying getting even less fractal skins at 48 since Canach came in and robbed Mr Maw’s splendid chest.

There isn’t anything left to keep people’s interest except for very casual players. It’s all well and good to add some content to keep them happy like click 100x of this thing scattered on a map, fight a boss that is invulnerable and lead him to traps to damage it, or a zerg fest boss where you auto attack and get 2 rares, but there is nothing left for people that want something that isn’t mindless or that is challenging.

For the past many months and many months to come the part of the game that many enjoyed has stood still and much of it is in a sad state (fractals, arah loot, lack of challenging dungeons, etc) so there isn’t much left for those people to do other than repeat the same content for a small reward that they have done way too many times as is. Many have quit because of this. My long list is getting bare solely from this and the ascended gear.

The direction they are taking with the ascended gear, having to kill 30x bunnies or whatever a day for dailies to keep up with gear, rng from fractals and boxes instead of progression, and other things that they are doing that are the opposite of the manifesto don’t help either.

It seems like they are trolling us or something over all the fractals threads made. My parties used to get mostly 2 skins a run and sometimes 0-1. Now we get 0-1 mostly. Ever since the patch for the canach/null dungeon….er instances… my groups have been barely getting any skins. We only do 48 and I’ve gone most days since then.

Rewards are far worse than even fractal. GGs

Zenith.7301:

obal.3218:

You could just melee him which is better. Here is a 4min melee run at 48. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XYjjRaOlfI

All you have to do is dodge his charging axe attack which has a decent tell and time to evade it. If 2 people die one kites while the others revive then we start meleeing again. It takes a lot less time. You just need some reflects and a capable guardian or 2. Once I started to melee him I never went back. Ranging takes forever and if you wipe doing it you will be sad at all the time you wasted.

2 guardians 3 warriors lol.

This is not about melee with other classes. This is about 2 classes which are the best damage soakers, one of them bringing ridiculously long projectile denial thanks to traited shield alongside group defensive boons/healing, and the other class absolutely destroys all the others except maybe thief in damage output while giving insane offensive group synergy.

That melee attack of his that is not the charged attack will easily remove 60% of a berserker light armor’s hp. About half of a medium armor target’s HP in berserker gear.

And to top it off, neither those berserker eles or mesmers or rangers or necros will have the DPS to make this strategy as smooth once reflection cooldowns are recharging.

Every melee strategy seems easy when it’s a bunch of warriors doing it propped up by a guardian or two.

I’ve taken a mesmer, thief, and an ele as a 5th spot and they tend to do just fine. Having optimal groups and strategies for 40+ isn’t really a lol. It’s needed unless you want to be in there for a lot longer.

haviz.1340:

obal.3218:

You could just melee him which is better. Here is a 4min melee run at 48. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XYjjRaOlfI

All you have to do is dodge his charging axe attack which has a decent tell and time to evade it. If 2 people die one kites while the others revive then we start meleeing again. It takes a lot less time. You just need some reflects and a capable guardian or 2. Once I started to melee him I never went back. Ranging takes forever and if you wipe doing it you will be sad at all the time you wasted.

Interesting that every character beside yours is human female.

Mossman is no match for my harem. Now if only they didn’t have manly voices on mumble….

You could just melee him which is better. Here is a 4min melee run at 48. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XYjjRaOlfI

All you have to do is dodge his charging axe attack which has a decent tell and time to evade it. If 2 people die one kites while the others revive then we start meleeing again. It takes a lot less time. You just need some reflects and a capable guardian or 2. Once I started to melee him I never went back. Ranging takes forever and if you wipe doing it you will be sad at all the time you wasted.

Lolita.7146:

Hi Guys
I have left this game for quite a few months but few days ago i wanted to log in to play some Fractals with friends. However i was surprised that no one online; i checked Gw2lfg and found out the number of LFG’s reduced drastically. Most people go for CoF and few for FotM and almost No one for other dugeons. I haven’t read some patch notes. This is a bit off-topic but anyone minds explaining to me what happened? Did they nerf Dugeon, esp FotM ? Thanks in advance!

The loot table change they said many months ago that was in the works never happened so it’s pointless to run anything but CoF path 1 which takes like 6-10min. CoE 1 and 3 is the next best thing, but you must have a speed clear group consisting of the right professions and capable people to do it. The rest really aren’t worthwhile.

They changed AC a bit and pugs can’t handle it as well so I’d imagine there are less posts.

They had a stealth nerf to FotM loot tables. This made this dungeon pretty much a waste of time and we are all pretty much baffled as to why they purposely broke the loot. You will see very few posts for the 40s since you get the same loot as 1 it seems. You just get a better chance at a skin but pugging it can be brutal compared to 30s and below so it’s not worth it.

Honestly, I’d suggest holding off and coming back later. Not much is going on here now or probably the near future.

All we got was that there would be improvement to the loot tables and a lfg tool but that was many months ago. We haven’t gotten any responses or any additional info about things to come since the dev that posted here went to the living story team. There are probably 10 fractal threads made every month with no response on them.

nethykins.7986:

I know I’m a minority in this. The devs think that the living story content trumps all PvE content in terms of priority, and anyone who speaks out to the short-comings of what the living story means in terms of “game longevity” is simply told to go play something else if they’ve got a problem with it.

You aren’t in the minority on this. Half my friends list stopped playing and the other half all don’t like the direction the game is going with the ascended gear grind and the limited time filler content + gemshop boxes instead of permanent good and challenging content. I find myself logging in just to talk to few that are left and thinking of things to do but there really aren’t any. Dungeons really need some love especially fractal loot + skin aquistion and arah loot and adding some challenging ones.

Very nice job. I was leveling a ranger just to do this but I just knew I someone would do this before I got to 80. My bets were on Dub but it looks like you won.

There was just a patch. If you start a dungeon before a patch and go out of the instance for whatever reason, download the newest patch, then try to reenter it won’t work since you are on different versions.

The best tests as skychef hinted on.

Lupi melee – 3 at a time (you plus 2 then the other 2) then doing it as a group
Shaman at 40+ – 2 at a time to see if they can get to the transition part then as a group
You can see how they do in general throughout the dungeon as well on top of these 2.

This will let you see if they are great, mediocre, or bad (like me!).

randomfightfan.4091:

STORY TIME!!!

My warrior friend did fractals yesterday and got fractal dagger skin. That’s right, the skin I’ve been working towards for months. He put it on the off-hand on his ranger. Not like he has anywhere else to put it.

Do you know what I got?

kitten ed off. kitten fractals I’m done. Rng isn’t a valid excuse for this bullkitten.

I have 3 daggers if that makes you feel any better lol. I’m in the same situation though as I have been wanting a sword and an axe but have not gotten either after 2 months of doing 48 every day. You could have had an incinerator and I could have had a bolt and lots of gold left over in the bank with the time wasted.

It seems like they nerfed the daily chest too with that southsun patch. I haven’t gotten anything in 8 runs and my group got nothing last night. We have barely been getting anything for a week or so and we do only 48. Such a small change is needed for weapon acquisition. It’s really getting hard to make groups for it anymore since people just keep quitting the game since it is turning into farmville.

Warrior is a pure dps class. The best build currently is 20 (V, IX)/25 (V, X)/0/10 (VI)/10(V). The best gear is full zerker with scholar runes and force sigils. The best skills would be Healing Surge for your heal, For Great Justice! (always have this on your bar), A banner (Discipline>Strength>Tactics>Defense), Shake it off or Endure Pain, Signet of Rage or Battle Standard. You use GS + Axe/Mace. GS to use hb and whirlind to avoid damage or do good dps if enemies are at a wall. You swap to Axe/Mace to auto attack and for skill 2 and 4 to add invulnerable then swap back to Gs for hb and swap back as soon as you can to axe/mace for auto attack and repeat. If your group is dying a lot or your having a rough time still bring a longbow instead of the axe/mace so you have something to fall back on. Use sword/warhorn + gs for running and skipping stuff.

Dattebayo.2817:

so too sum it up melee sucks for dungeons…..i should play a range class and its EZPZ…..great……..

Melee is the best thing for most situations. If done correctly it will make the fights a lot faster. However, you need skill, experience, and a good group compostion to do it effectively. If you have a tanky guardian taking the aggro and some high dps people in the group and group the mobs up with skills (mesmer focus/guardian gs) or stack around a corner and have them run in to group there, then you will see how easy it is to melee and how easy the game is. If you do this for awhile you will have the opposite opinion and want some content that is actually difficult.

Warrior is a pure dps class. The best build currently is 20 (V, IX)/25 (V, X)/0/10 (VI)/10(V). The best gear is full zerker with scholar runes and force sigils. The best skills would be Healing Surge for your heal, For Great Justice! (always have this on your bar), A banner (Discipline>Strength>Tactics>Defense), Shake it off or Endure Pain, Signet of Rage or Battle Standard. You use GS + Axe/Mace. GS to use hb and whirlind to avoid damage or do good dps if enemies are at a wall. You swap to Axe/Mace to auto attack and for skill 2 and 4 to add invulnerable then swap back to Gs for hb and swap back as soon as you can to axe/mace for auto attack and repeat. If your group is dying a lot or your having a rough time still bring a longbow instead of the axe/mace so you have something to fall back on. Use sword/warhorn + gs for running and skipping stuff.

I would suggest making a guardian if you pug and want to melee. You might have a lot of glass in your group and it will be rough depending what random groups you get. It is a lot easier to stay alive as a guardian and you can less painful time learning the content.

randomfightfan.4091:

Yea, too many terrible thieves give good thieves a bad name. Still kitten es me off whenever I get kicked from a group just b/c of my class though. Would happen multiple times a day, every day, just b/c of my class. People shouldn’t be so dense. If the player is bad, you’ll find that out 2 mins into the run. If they suck, kick and replace. Don’t just kittenoon as they join your group. It makes you look like an ahole.

It seems like many used the theives guild skill and learned by example.