ranger or theif?

due to me having a 10mth old i would like too know out of these two whitch would have the quickest kill speed for open world i have lvled all other light and heavy classes but never a medium. ranger seems very slow but does that pick up? and at 80 whats the best elite for these two for pve

for Open World quick kills, thief for medium.

Thief hands down will complete open world PvE a lot faster than ranger in core Tyria. Depending on skill though you may have more trouble in HoT and PoF maps where ranger can let the pet take aggro and pew pew (because ANet seems to have abandoned range doing less damage) from relative safety. Mind you pistol pistol thief can range most things and do tons of damage too.

There’s also a lot of places you can stealth to get past mobs or to get a channeled hero point which ranger would have to kill unless you had someone escort you to get a smokescale for smoke field access, even then it would be limited stealth as no druid for extra blasts and stealth.

Ranger can get a little faster if you make use of the leaps on greatsword, about face to cast the first part of sword 2 (face away from direction you want to go) and then about face again to cast the second part of sword 2. They can also get and maintain permenant swiftness pretty easily too however thief has so many teleports it’s not a contest, even more so when you get daredevil unlocked. When you get mounts it’s all academic though as mounts are faster than all if you use the right mount in the right place.

Best elite for PvE:Ranger - druid for support, soulbeast for damageThief - daredevil

with quickdraw (a trait), some quickness uptime, a longbow and a frenzy sigil... thief is still slightly faster in killing, but ranger is more comfortable by a huge margin (rangeburst, keeping mobs at range, comfortable heals, a pet with cc and burst (gazelle)...).10mth old - assuming you mean a child? i'd go ranger... QoLunless you like jumping (literally) from mob to mob, then go thief. but you have to watch attack-tells and such very closely to not get downed with 11.6k life.

im really interested of hearing what people say about this, i have the same issue, cannot decided wichever to main my ranger or thief, i like my ranger cause it has the most builds that can be considered "meta" for endgame content (and its the only one of the 2 i can use my sunrise) , like raids, high lv fractal, etc. but i love my DD staff gameplay, but most people seem to see thief as, "ugh..." on these endgame contents

Considering your circumstance, I think you should go with thief. It's all about killing things quickly and, when new/average, dying a lot.This would be suitable to a new parent because they reputedly have short periods of time to play.

@apharma.3741 said:There’s also a lot of places you can stealth to get past mobs or to get a channeled hero point which ranger would have to kill unless you had someone escort you to get a smokescale for smoke field access, even then it would be limited stealth as no druid for extra blasts and stealth.

for stealth in openworld its mostly enough to carry some stealth consumables like ash legion spy kit, order of whsiperes kit, harpy feathers.

@kippa.5297 said:due to me having a 10mth old i would like too know out of these two whitch would have the quickest kill speed for open world i have lvled all other light and heavy classes but never a medium. ranger seems very slow but does that pick up? and at 80 whats the best elite for these two for pve

for kill speed i think thief is faster, for movement outside of mounts also and has enough stealth to not need consumables. but having the pet tank for you will probably make it more relaxed on ranger. thief sustain in open world pve , especially if you use invigorating precision is pretty good aswell IMO

It is a bit unfair to compare thief mobility to any other class, as they can outpace pretty much every other class on that basis. Only Mirages get anywhere close.

I'd say ranger is more comfortable to play over thief. You simply have more defenses, more health AND a pet to survive encounters. A thief, especially a berserker thief, will have more trouble clearing harder Hero Challenges, for example. Although this is where skill comes in.

@Yannir.4132 said:It is a bit unfair to compare thief mobility to any other class, as they can outpace pretty much every other class on that basis. Only Mirages get anywhere close.

I'd say ranger is more comfortable to play over thief. You simply have more defenses, more health AND a pet to survive encounters. A thief, especially a berserker thief, will have more trouble clearing harder Hero Challenges, for example. Although this is where skill comes in.

If the mob isn’t a champion you can keep it blinded by using smokescreen, black powder, whirling in a smoke field if you use dagger storm or whirling axes from steal and if all else fails have SR to hop into and heal up in stealth before having round 2 at your leisure. Champs will be more difficult but you can always use S/P and pistol whip it to death while being in evade frames most of the time, switch to SB when out of ini and just auto while kiting till you have full initiative then back in for pistol whip.

If you can do any of them on zerk ele without any defensive utilities (maybe sandstorm) then you can do it on feef just as easily.

I think a thief is always handy to have around for stuff like material farming because of Dare Devil's dash trait, which gives perm swiftness and a immobilisation breaker all-in-one. Its also a easy to learn/use compared to the other professions and you can get away hitting the one button for dmg for each weapon set.

I think its best to have both elites unlocked since Dead Eye with pistol/pistol traited into trickery and with be quick or be dead is good against any trash mobs while dishing out good dmg on elites. It also turns your steal into a ranged cast ability which synergises better with pistols. For heavily dense mobs though you prob want cleave and staff is the best in those situations. If you only got time to unlock one elite spec definitely get Dare Devil cause you can still use staff P/P and can deal with pretty much any open world situations. Id also take Critical strikes and invigorating precision when you solo content it makes things a lot easier.

@apharma.3741 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:It is a bit unfair to compare thief mobility to any other class, as they can outpace pretty much every other class on that basis. Only Mirages get anywhere close.

I'd say ranger is more comfortable to play over thief. You simply have more defenses, more health AND a pet to survive encounters. A thief, especially a berserker thief, will have more trouble clearing harder Hero Challenges, for example. Although this is where skill comes in.

That's exactly why I used my last sentence for. Thanks for elaborating!

Thief Mobility for Map comp is a completely moot point now with the introduction of Mounts, so it’s really a wash there, now for Combat in open world each has its benefits and flaws:Rangers have more innate defenses on top of high evade up time depending on weapon set, and can have a pet tank most of the Aggro while offering superb kiting, Burst is up there as well but takes a little more thought upon engagement, has easier time against Champs.

Thieves have a lot of damage avoidance but lack innate defenses so it relies on either blind spam, evade spam builds or stealth spam to keep yourself alive, it has amazing single target burst on champs it’s more difficult to solo on elites and below it’s a cake walk, takes some getting used to on when to engage and what targets/groups to engage and how(not too much of an issue in core Tyria)

It comes down to player preference on how they want to approach it and gameplay style.

Maybe is because i just suck at ranger more than i think, or im actually much better at thief dunno. But i been testing the same contents with both classes recently, and im having way easier time with my berserker daredevil than with my Marauder soulbeast. Just the first part of the ls4 chapter, agaisnt the branded wyvern i downed on my ranger like 10 times where with my daredevil i didnt downed a single time

On the other side, you might as well take both if you're planing to raid because while thief is downhands unkillable if you know how to use it. It currently has no place in the raid meta, while ranger cover 2 spots (healer, condi)

I would answer in PVP stand point, cause I haven't played Raid though I used to play Fractals. I main a Ranger with 3k+ games in PVP 2k+ rank. If you're going to be playing as a thief they would be expecting a lot from you honestly. You should be able to 1v1, decapp point, rotate, and assist in team fights by killing priority targets. IMO thief has highest burst maybe on par with Mesmer not sure. Main defense for thief is they can disengage anytime before they can even get hit! Blind spam, dodge spam, pair with stealth. But theyre glassy.

With Ranger the way I see it is that ANet designed GW2 Ranger as DPS, IMO DPS and BURST are two different things. Ranger kills by exhausting its prey. While Thief kills by devouring if that make sense. Hope that helps. Good luck.

Thief with either of its elite specs can out tank and out dps any ranger + pet in open world as long as there is no break bar (blinds+lifesteal). If there's a break bar, thief could possibly still tank it using lifesteal but not always, in which case has to kite with a rifle or shortbow but no pet to tank for them. Deadeye with dagger aa can chain kill regular mobs fast maintaining 100% quickness + fury uptime and pistol offhand to teleport between kills, while ranger would have to still move into range to reach next mob if it's impractical to mount between kills. Ranger can use pet tanking for a more comfortable experience, good for if you need to afk in a hurry, but definately slower in every way. Daredevil probably best choice for fractals and raids, unless you want to support on a druid.

Thief kills faster, ranger lives longer. Less porting is more efficient IMO. I would take the ranger (not biased at all^^). But just dont use Longbow 4 on mobs in melee range of others, they will hate you.

Thief will hands down win cuz: Unload, unload, unload, unload - most stuff gets 1 shot, especially if your deadeye.

Thief kills faster, and in my opinion is more fun to play because it requires more skill and thought to play effectively since damage avoidance relies on smart use of blind, dodge and stealth otherwise you're dead. Ranger is also fun, and safer to play, but slower. Pet tanking comes in handy for tougher mobs, but it's not as engaging. I enjoy both classes a lot but thief is personally more fun to me. You may feel differently though of course.

Thief deadeye deals way more dmg. Longbow ranger is just sad in comparison. Rapid fire has 2sec channel with 8sec cd(traited), while deadeye three round shot has no cd with nearly the same output. Plus deadeye can provide boons, rangers lacks in that aspect but they do have spirits.