Ranger Noob Question for Leveling up a Ranger in a new Group

Hi all,

I am quite experienced with Guardian, Warrior and Necro in GW2 so far(about 820 hours so far) and I recently convinced 3 Friends to start playing. So now I wanna create a new char to play with them and I always wanted to have a Druid later in Raids. So my question is:

As long as I level up to 80 with friends, is Ranger good for providing Healing and Damage in PvE? Since my Friends are not experienced in GW I wanna be able to heal/boon support them while also being able to damage. Is Ranger good for this? If yes, which build should I use until lvl 80?

Raid Druid use harrier stats, with already consist power as the primary stat.Mix with a set of berserker trinklets and weapons you're good to go.

It's PvE, anything goes and I would somewhat recommend against running guardian for example, to get your friends accustomed to dodging and not relying on teammates to bail them out with aegis (or blind for that matter...)

Having said that, go for it! I'd recommend using "Search and Rescue!" and be revered as your party's hero. The build you run really doesn't matter all too much for leveling.

Echoing what the others have said, running "Search and Rescue!" is the best option for leveling. Otherwise, your build and gear choices do not matter as much as they would at level 80.

That being said, I would recommend taking Nature Magic and spirits to support your friends as needed, while using Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival along with shortbow to deal condition damage. You can do some very nice DPS, run a tank pet, and help keep your friends alive.