Looking for ranged class?

I only own the core game and looking to play a ranged build.im newer to the game and not enjoying melee range. If tried guardian,mesmer and thief so far, thief being most enjoyable. I'm not interested in elementalist,so the leaves to my knowledge necro and ranger. I'm not huge on controlling pets, but afk pets and summoning is fine. I see a lot of builds suggest melee weapons and that throws me off. I just want to run around leveling and tagging world bosses from a far.

I suggest you try ranger with longbow, hope it suites your needs. GL!

Edit: Here is a link to a core ranger build for the open world https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Longbow_Beastmastery

If you want to go ranged, i would give ranger a try.The ranger-pets work mostly themself. You basicly just have 4 actions for them.F1 Tell them to attack a target (useful if you want it to attack another target than the one you are attacking, as standard they would attack the same target as you without the need to command them) ,F2 use a skill of the pet,f3 call them back to you,
f4 pet-swap button (you can have to equipped pets, but only 1 active (same as weapons)).furthermore you have the option to set it to guard or avoid combat.when on guard it attack mobs that hit you, and attack mobs you attack,on avoid combat, well... it does nothing.would probably go with something like that on core-only (for open world)http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT3XnUqAtCilsAWsActgh9gqL4eYI+4ocrg92DgzOlX9hgIB-jBCBwABeSBF3fIluHJKBTY+DwFVAn6PGV+BA-edrakes as pet aren't that often used but i personally like them because they have a bit toughness, can hit more than 1 target and have a bit selfhealsadly the "best" pets come with the expansions

Thief Shortbow is the most fun ranged weapon in the game. It has excellent tagging with a bunch of AOE and cleaving. For single target, switch to pistol/pistol and spam Unload.

Core Necro is also a good option. Go Power using Axe/Focus and run minions to tank for you. Its 900 range which isn't as far off as Ranger but it's not melee, and you are very sturdy.

You can do this with a lot of classes.

I have a staff on my Guardian that works fine for tagging open world content or scepter. Ditto on my staff Elementalist. Shortbow on Thief. Rifle on an Engineer combined with turrets or a flamethrower kit. Longbow on Warrior. Hammer on Revenant. Greatsword on Mesmer. Ranger is obvious. Necromancer has staff... They all have a ranged option. Some are more powerful at tagging mobs of enemies than others.