What is a strong Range Class?

Sorry , but i just played trough Living World Season 2 as melee GuardianAnd now I totally wanne play a range class. What good range classes are out there?Guardian with the longbow is just crapy slow - so not a chance i play thatwith the Scepter and shooting slow blah glowing projectiles is also not an option

Core - Longbow Ranger, Staff Ele, Greatsword Mesmer, Staff NecroHoT - Hammer Revenant, Druid, Tempest and Chronomancer can be played rangedPoF - Deadeye is ranged damage class

uuh, Deadeye sounds nice ,gonna take a look, doumo

Berserker longbow with tactics line for burn on 1 is a fairly strong ranged option.

guardian longbow rocks B)

gunflame is even more swaggy tho B) B)

staff ele. Hits like a truck.

For something that is actually viable in instanced PvE, you're gonna want staff ele or condi necro. No other ranged class except perhaps pistol/pistol engi is competitive in PvE, and pistol engi still has to rotate through cloase range skills.

Most ranged weapons outside staff ele and condi necro have weak sustained DPS.

@Zenith.7301 said:For something that is actually viable in instanced PvE, you're gonna want staff ele or condi necro. No other ranged class except perhaps pistol/pistol engi is competitive in PvE, and pistol engi still has to rotate through cloase range skills.

Most ranged weapons outside staff ele and condi necro have weak sustained DPS.

"Viable" has really taken on a backwards meaning in this community, I swear. The word you're looking for is "optimal", or maybe "meta".

Longbow and, to a lesser extent, Shortbow Ranger are quite suitable for what you're asking. Not only do they have range, but they also have pets that can take the enemy's attention and keep it from running over to you.

Mesmer's Greatsword isn't very powerful on its own, but the extra damage from their illusions help to bring that up. Additionally, their illusions distract enemies just as Ranger's pet does. However... You may not like the ramp-up time for Mesmers. You can only summon illusions so often, and it will inevitably end up taking longer than most other classes to deal with smaller-scale fights.

Elementalist is definitely a good choice, though they do lose a good deal of damage if the enemy starts to run at you. If you can keep enemies immobile, either via your own abilities or by ensuring they always have someone else to swing at, Elementalist is fantastic. They're not bad against moving enemies, but certainly not as potent.

I'd actually say that Engineer is kinda poor choice for ranged combat. Unlike Elementalists, who still do okay against moving enemies, Engineers lose everything against moving enemies unless you're great at leading the target and predicting the trajectories of your Mortar and Grenade Kits. Alternatively, you can use the Pistol or Rifle, but neither deal very good damage. On the plus side, if it appeals to you, Bomb Kit is fantastic for kiting enemies. Just keep running in circles as you lay bombs, and the enemy will go down quick without ever having touched you. Doesn't work very well against ranged enemies since they stand in place, but Grenade Kit shines against those ones.

I hear Revenant's Hammer deals a good amount of damage, and my friend tends to use a Longbow on Warrior, but I'm afraid I personally lack experience with those classes.

Go with Staff elementalist. Use a friend or earth element as ur meatshield so you can melt everything.

Ranger is a lovely simple class to play imo. The warrior of range.

(Simple is not an insult, you still need to know how to play but it's not the difficulty of mesmer or elementalist. Ranger is much more a linear curve of learning)

Ahhh, Didnt thought about a helping minion. That would also make some stuff easier

Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a melee condition spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

Naah, its just for open world pve and getting some story 2 achievements a bit easier. Some World bosses like the golem are just ridiculous as melee or the World Boss dragons - no real targeting but Im hitting their toe and I see numbers on the screen so Im hitting something, uugh..

@Vindicus.2130 said:Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a melee condition spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

I agree with you. I tried explaining this before, but not a lot of people seem to get it. You can't play a pure range in this game like you can in others because it is very anti-range and more pro-melee with how they balance everything. In order for ranged to be good, they have buff it's damage up to melee levels for it to be competitive, but all the melee people would be against it because "oh no, a ranged weapon is just as effective as my melee, whatever will I do.".

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Vindicus.2130 said:Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a

melee condition

spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

You're both conflating "good" with "absolute best". You do not need to put out the absolute highest amount of damage that can possibly be minmaxed into existence, in order to play and enjoy the game.

Maybe such builds won't work in PvP, but that's not the subject of this discussion. Focusing on ranged combat is perfectly viable for story missions and open world content. Heck, some approaches to ranged combat are even viable in raids, if you can get a squad together that won't turn up their noses at the imperfect peasants that dare to think themselves even remotely worthy of basking in the radiance of their magnificent and infallible presence.

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Vindicus.2130 said:Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a

melee condition

spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

What are you talking about? The only "elitism" I have is that I am anti-meta, and how I hate the pro-melee balance decisions. Yes, I know how range combat works. I mainly play pure range characters. I think you missed my point entirely. I want ranged weapons to be in a better spot then they are now, so the real elitists can stop turning their noses at them.

You are right about one thing though. I am a god among men, so people should bask in my radiance and my magnificent and infallible presence since that is your opinion of me after all. I also except my shoes to be shined every morning. Thank you and have a good day.

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Vindicus.2130 said:Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a

melee condition

spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

Shoot, yeah, I overlooked where Vindicus said it was non-viable only outside of casual play; I thought he was saying that ranged builds were non-viable period, and by extension, thought that your agreement with him was similarly all-encompassing.

That said, I don't thinking equalizing the damage output between melee and ranged is a good idea, unless ranged attacks get some other sort of balancing mechanism. Otherwise, all you'll have is a meta where melee is the awful decision, instead, as there's no benefit to it.

Honestly, where I think balance should come into play between the two is by giving high-end encounters occasional periods where they are far deadlier in melee range, or more resilient to melee damage, so that ranged attackers are able to "catch up" while the melee players run for their lives. Granted, that specific approach would likely just result in doing melee damage most of the time, and simply switching to ranged damage during those specific phases.

High-mobility bosses, maybe? Make the melee fighters run for their damage, while ranged fighters plop down in the middle of the fight and have a jolly old time keeping their damage going the full fight. I dunno. I just know that equal damage for ranged and melee without any other balancing factors will inevitably result in the obsolescence of melee builds. I've played games that did that, and the melee abilities are only ever used for themed characters. At least with what we have currently, there are distinct advantages to each approach, even if ranged damage doesn't have a place in the god-awful "meta".

Melee does just fine in WoW even though there is ranged vs melee dps parity. Why? Because they have plenty of gap closers, CCs and defensive options. Ranged in GW2 often doesn't even get to play as ranged (in pve) because you need to be close enough for boon share, so there's literally no reason melee should be doing 100% more damage than ranged, other than PvP reasons. I'm sure we've all seen pve game balance ruined in the name of pvp balance before, and it's precisely what we're seeing here.

Not to mention, at least for me, the condi meta is getting old. It's been in place for almost 2 years now and instead of more power builds becoming viable with PoF, they actually just solidified the condi meta even more. Imagine if you logged into WoW and you had 9 character slots to fill, 8 of them were forced to be affliction warlock and 1 a fire mage, that's GW2 in a nutshell.

Also, as I said before, outside of T4 fractals and raids you could play a build where you forgot to allocate your traits and you'd be OK. For casual play any build works, though the builds that work best for high end content will generally perform best in all content at least with some modifications.

If you wanna go full ranged, with no melee equipped there are only few options here: Scepter/Staff condi Mesmer is great for open world and WvW, Staff elementalist, p/p engineer, Scepter/Staff condi Necro and GS/Staff Power Mesmer. Deadeye P/P/Rifle Thief might work as well.If you don't mind having a melee equipped as secondary weapon set: LB Warrior, Ranger, Hammer Revenant.

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Vindicus.2130 said:Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a

melee condition

spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

I can only speak for Deadeye atm, but that is why I want Deadeye to do as much damage as any melee. It has the kneel mechanic to make it not mobile which is the price it should pay for the damage I want.

I wouldn't be opposed to that if A-net ever did encounters like that, but I doubt it will happen because of the prevalent amount of melee builds people use.

May I ask what games those are? Because I would love to play them if they are balanced that way. I know what you mean by balancing factors which I am fine with as long the factors aren't too bad. I just want an equal representation of melee and range in this game which currently isn't there.

BTW, OP Deadeye is still a good choice for you if want ranged combat.

Guardian, because scepter somehow always ends up being one of our best weapons on every build.

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Doctor Hide.6345 said:

@Vindicus.2130 said:Do not play this game hoping to be competitive at all as a ranged spec. It's the most anti-ranged game of all time. You are expected, nay, required to be a

melee condition

spec these days if you're to do anything beyond casual play. The one exception is staff ele as you can play power and mostly at a distance and are desirable in fractals and raids. Of course this is all horrible design, but it's the truth that some other sugar-coaters won't tell you. "Play what you like" is not valid feedback for GW2.

Champions Online, primarily, and Dofus in the past. Be warned, Champions is pretty much in life support. :( It gets occasional money-grab updates, but it's been mostly abandoned in terms of actual content... Unless things have picked up since I last played. As for Dofus, they've been keeping on top of things as of late, and have some pretty good balance. Melee does have a decent advantage in damage-dealing, but the fights are highly varied, so there are plenty of areas for ranged damage to shine.

Do you want a profession that's very different from Druid or is similar okay? I've enjoyed Hammer Revenant. I've always played Necro, and staff gets you range though a lot of people dislike staff. I've also enjoyed Longbow Ranger, which adds in the pet dynamic. Again, it depends on how much you want to be similar to what you've been playing.

Berserker hammer rev with glint/shiro, both plays fun and is good.

Pistol/Pistol thief is fun to spam unload with.