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Is ranger or guardian best for soloing PvE?


mayogirl.4160

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My first character that I ever made in this game was a ranger and up until PoF was the one toon I used to go through all of the content. The pets are also a great help for taking some of the aggro off of you, and if you use a longbow you are able to engage with a lot of enemies and easily stay out of their AOEs. So ranger would def. get my vote as one of the best solo classes. If the player has some experience under their belt, I think pretty much every class is equally survivable some just easier than others. When I show new people GW2 I usually start them on Ranger as it is the most forgiving.

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Ranger for sure. A pet is just too big of an asset. That being said, of course, in most PvE situations any class can hold their own. The game is designed around each class being perfectly able to solo the content meant to be solo’d.

Only when you get to unorthodox shenanigans like soloing dungeons and whatnot you have to start talking about specific classes or builds.

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I have 2 LV80s after playing for 4 months: Ranger + Guard.

I find Guard is 10x more fun to play (mainly because I like AoE), but there is no question that I had an easier time leveling on my Ranger, even though it was my 1st Gw2 character.

If you are using LB and understand how to manage your pet, you pretty much only have to dodge ranged attacks, with your main focus keeping your pet up via heals / swap. On my Ranger I didn't have any real challenge until towards the end of the Personal story (Orr region) and then into HoT, which prompted me to look at other professions, as I was getting rolled constantly.

Presently, my Ranger only comes out for WvW and World Bosses (where my FPS gets so pitiful, I'd miss every dodge on my Guard) as I just don't find the profession as fun to play.

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@Opopanax.1803 said:Next question: what pets and builds would you use for soloing champs as a ranger?

You pretty much have to go with a Condi build as the Power builds don't have the defensive stats necessary to keep you alive, and to get them, you sacrifice too much damage to be viable.

The singular design flaw between Condi and Power is that Condi only really has to stack 1 stat, while Power has to stack 3. So while Power builds are piling on Precision and Ferocity, Condi builds are free to pile on whatever they want; Expertise seems a no brainer, but they could also opt for Vit / Toughness, Healing, or whatever they feel they need to round out their build.

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@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@Opopanax.1803 said:Next question: what pets and builds would you use for soloing champs as a ranger?

You pretty much have to go with a Condi build as the Power builds don't have the defensive stats necessary to keep you alive, and to get them, you sacrifice too much damage to be viable.

The singular design flaw between Condi and Power is that Condi only really has to stack 1 stat, while Power has to stack 3. So while Power builds are piling on Precision and Ferocity, Condi builds are free to pile on whatever they want; Expertise seems a no brainer, but they could also opt for Vit / Toughness, Healing, or whatever they feel they need to round out their build.

First off, this is about PvE. You don't need any stats to keep yourself alive. Any defensive stats are pretty much wasted, except in very, very rare cases.

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@Feanor.2358 said:

First off, this is about PvE. You don't need any stats to keep yourself alive. Any defensive stats are pretty much wasted, except in very, very rare cases.

If you're talking about core Tyria, I'd semi-agree.

Once you step into HoT however, your glass cannon build will shatter quite quickly. Your experience might be different mind you, depending on what profession you play, but to say in PvE that everyone can effortlessly run a Power based build with nothing but 'Zerker gear is completely wrong, and people repeating that fallacy over and over again doesn't make it correct, and makes things particularly difficult for newer players.

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@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

First off, this is about PvE. You
don't
need any stats to keep yourself alive. Any defensive stats are pretty much wasted, except in very, very rare cases.

If you're talking about core Tyria, I'd semi-agree.

Once you step into HoT however, your glass cannon build will shatter quite quickly. Your experience might be different mind you, depending on what profession you play, but to say in PvE that everyone can effortlessly run a Power based build with nothing but 'Zerker gear is completely wrong, and people repeating that fallacy over and over again doesn't make it correct, and makes things particularly difficult for newer players.

Out of the two claims, the one that you need defensive stats to survive is the one demonstrably false. No, I don't. And no, you don't either, if you put some effort to learn your class. Core, HoT, PoF, whatever. Helpful to newer players, maybe. But not needed, period. Citing defensive options is OK. Making it sound like it's the only way to go isn't. That's just misinformation, and a harmful one.

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this game doesn't favor tanking. hence defensive stats on gear are moot in PVE. so it's better to have active defense and control to prevent damage. including dodge, blinds, CC, etc. also consider traits and utility skills to get out of jams. also the faster you kill them, the less risk to yourself. since skills are hampered by recharge time, you need to make the best of each action, since it will be a while before you can reuse that skill. i.e. maximize the damage of each attack. find the right timing for CC and dodge.

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I agree with @Feanor.2358 and @Zin Dau.1749, in PvE it may take some time to learn the attacks and behavior of the different AI attacking you but zerk gear is all you need. I started playing in 2013 and could roam around any part of core Tyria without problems. When HoT came out the enemies cut me down but I didn't change gear, I watched and learned. When PoF came out I took my lesson learned from HoT and went into the new maps cautiously. Now I can roam any map and take on fights still using my zerk gear. Fact is once you learn how an Ettin or Mordrem Wolf or Forged Soldier attack you have just learned how they all attack. Their is no need to use other than zerk gear unless you are learning or your build depends on the different gear, such as condi gear.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've leveled up to max in pve this far war, guard, ele, necro, mesmer, ranger

Easiest one is ranger. Easily.

Necro is nice and fun. Especially reaper. You can put on high dps gear and just pull everything and not die instantly (in most cases) (Forget condis that's boring)

Guard is not bad, but I'd say reaper is better/more fun as long as you don't do hardcore dungeoneering.

Ele is not bad but.. it's ele. There are some problems.

Warrior was/is? kind of unfun and generally worse for open world stuff than above mentioned. I think spellbreaker might change things though. Haven't tried. Warrior does good on paper but if you go solo pull 2523624626 enemies it's remarkably less fun than reaper.

Mesmer is generally horrible for pve.

Berserk gear is way to go since you want to kill everything fast. (Remember mob AI in this game is somewhat non-existant) However in some cases you want to consider taking some toughness or vitality and survival traits. For example if you are just running through areas and killing enemies is not top priority. Some top end areas also may be easier with some defensive stats, less micromanagement and you don't need to worry about pulling too much enemies. I do not recommend full zerk for general open world random stuff, just have some toughness or vitality so you don't die on random AoE those mobs die pretty fast anyway..

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It depends on what you are looking for. Guardian is burst one of the strongest. DH probably has the highest burst in PvE among all builds. And guardian sustainability in PvE is good enough.

Ranger has better sustainability and better range.

I find guardian much better, as you kill stuff much faster. It goes down to preference.

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@"Opopanax.1803" said:Next question: what pets and builds would you use for soloing champs as a ranger?

Soulbeast, because absorbing and releasing your pet is essentially a free, almost instant, full heal for it. I expect this to be patched at some point, because it feels like, uh, "clever use of game mechanics" in that not-quite-abusive way.

Pets, I'd generally suggest a good combo of robustness and damage; I like the Murelow for that, on condi builds, but you can use a wide range. The second pet, a good choice is a heavy CC pet, with warthog being one of the tougher options.

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The main difference I noticed in levelling is that a ranger can walk away from unwanted combat and switch pets to shed aggro, so it's easier to avoid wasting time fighting mobs you don't care about. However, the guardian is far more capable of surviving any given conflict, and can simply walk through mobs I don't want to fight. Slowed, yes, but not dead. Ranger is faster, Guardian is safer.

So it's mostly a matter of style. I found in levelling the guardian is more fun simply because the default longbow 2 and 5 combo gets boring fast. In fact, I prefer any other ranger weapon just for being more fun.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Best Solo pve build = power minion Reaper.Insane cc potential, good dm, good aoe, very tanky, plentiful ai meat shield , 2nd hp bar, insane down state (you can literally leech your life back in no time), pretty much ignores condition, able to solo most Champs (not legendary), and so much more.

Ranger comes as a 2nd with Soulbeast reviving pet instantly with 10 sec CD, but still not even close compare to power minion reaper.

Guardian is a pretty team oriented class, but the mechanic is just not good enough for solo play.

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