SEARCHING FOR A GOOD LIGHT ARMOR RANGED CLASS FOR DPS

[alaan.1746]

Hi, I'm new, and I want to go a ranged light armor class but Im not sure which are the best actually... I want do a good (maybe as best I can) DPS because Im not an expert healgin or doing tank, sooo. if can give an advice in which class I can use... I've seen that there were recent changes or nerfs and Im knew with this sistem of scpecializations, hero points and that... Ireally appreciate the advice... TY

[Infusion.7149]

I'm assuming it's for PvE ?

Power: Scepter warhorn fresh air tempest (run air traitline with fresh air so your overload air recharges)Condi: scourge scepter +torch ... there's multiple ways to run this but scepter is the condi weapon , mirage scepter+torch or scepter+ pistol & staff only if things have fast attack rate to trigger confusion

If it doesn't have to be light armor and you just want to be ranged and actually do respectable damage I'd look into renegade shortbow or condi ranger shortbow

[LaGranse.8652]

@alaan.1746 said:Hi, I'm new, and I want to go a ranged light armor class but Im not sure which are the best actually... I want do a good (maybe as best I can) DPS because Im not an expert healgin or doing tank, sooo. if can give an advice in which class I can use... I've seen that there were recent changes or nerfs and Im knew with this sistem of scpecializations, hero points and that... Ireally appreciate the advice... TY

This game does not follow the triangle of tank-dps-healer appart from in some modes that require a healer and specific encounters that has someone play a tank role. I would say if you want light armor try the 3 light armor classes and see which ine you like the feel of.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@"alaan.1746" said:Hi, I'm new, and I want to go a ranged light armor class but Im not sure which are the best actually... I want do a good (maybe as best I can) DPS because Im not an expert healgin or doing tank, sooo. if can give an advice in which class I can use... I've seen that there were recent changes or nerfs and Im knew with this sistem of scpecializations, hero points and that... Ireally appreciate the advice... TY

Hi! Welcome to GW2!

First, this is not a "trinity" game. No threat mechanics means no way for tanks to control enemy behavior = no tanks. We have healing abilities and even specializations designed for healing roles, but none of it approaches the level of dedicated healers from a trinity game because this game is simply not designed to support that.

Second, classes may swap between two weapons in combat, meaning there are no classes which will lock you into only melee or only ranged attacks by default (though you can choose builds that are).

So, what does this mean for you? Well, it means the specific role you want and your reasons for seeking it don't really apply to this game. But the good news is that if you want to play a light armor spellcaster with ranged capabilities, we have that!

Light armor classes are necromancer/mesmer/elementalist.

Necromancer is by far the most recommended class for new players. It has the highest baseline health, among the best passive defenses of any class, and a straightforward playstyle that is pretty easy to learn the basics with.

Mesmer is a little more complex. It has less baseline health than necromancer and fewer passive defenses. It relies more on movement and deception for defense (stealth, teleports, illusions, etc.) and dealing damage with it is less straightforward as well.

Elementalist is generally not recommended for new players. It has the lowest baseline health and a very complex playstyle with twice as many available weapon skills (2.6 times, in the case of the weaver elite spec, actually!) per weapon set as other classes, despite not having the ability to weapon swap in combat.

I'd share some video of mesmer and elementalist if it would help, but I tend to prefer melee builds in this game so all I have are videos of sword weaver and axe mirage (though the mirage does use staff as well).

[frareanselm.1925]

The thing is Anet rewards melee builds over ranged because melee implies more balls and risk(cloth class squishy).I dont consider scepter a ranged weapon btw.The only options are glass cannon greatword mesmer with shatter, or the same with staff elementalist. But dont expect meta damage.

[alaan.1746]

OOOOh I see it loool, srry thats why I feel weird when start to play.... there's no trinity as normal in most MMORPG, so If Im right I can make my own build adjusting to my class as you say and try to make my best in both PvE and PvP, its weird the point on swap weapons but its fun and new for me... so I will try.How I see it:

1. Necromancer: more sup abilitis with some DPS.
2. Elementalist: More burst damage with heal habilities (water stance).
3. Mesmer: DPS with condi capabilities and some bendi for the group.

Idk if Im right, but I can using that Im between ele or mesmer...

[Irensaga.6935]

Actually, Necromancer is largely a selfish class. All about the damage. Summon a bunch of minions and watch the damage stack up. Necros don't actually provide a lot of buffs to allies. They do chill and bleed and fear and stuff to boost their own damage, and they have some good condition damage builds that stack damage by doing damage-over-time and negative status effects on enemies. But you can also run a Necro pure power and just do a lot of damage. It's probably the simplest class - just drop a full set of minions and auto-attack.

Elementalist, is great at burst damage, but can also stack a lot of burning condition damage as well. They are really fragile and probably the hardest class to learn and master in the game in my opinion. Lots of stuff will just curb-stomp you. Your best survival strategy is to melt everything before it can hit back. The heal ability in water stance is more of a side-benefit than a feature of the class. You can weave in some water abilities into your skill rotation to make your character a bit more survivable. You can also weave in some earth abilities for defensive buffs. Simplest build to learn as Elementalist is just use a staff and camp in the fire attribute most of the time. The damage is good enough that you'll probably do alright up until you face Zhaitan at the end of the core game. But expect to be fragile if stuff doesn't die fast enough.

Elementalists only get good at group healing in Heart of Thorns content, when the Tempest specialization becomes available. And even then Hunters using the "Druid" class make better healers.

Mesmer can go either power or condition damage. They have group utility in being able to provide the "alacrity" buff to groups, and - believe it or not - they are actually the meta-tanks for raids right now - due to all their hard-evade skills like "Blurred Frenzy". They are pretty survivable in solo play due to all the clones getting attacked instead of you.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@"alaan.1746" said:OOOOh I see it loool, srry thats why I feel weird when start to play.... there's no trinity as normal in most MMORPG, so If Im right I can make my own build adjusting to my class as you say and try to make my best in both PvE and PvP, its weird the point on swap weapons but its fun and new for me... so I will try.How I see it:

1. Necromancer: more sup abilitis with some DPS.
2. Elementalist: More burst damage with heal habilities (water stance).
3. Mesmer: DPS with condi capabilities and some bendi for the group.

Idk if Im right, but I can using that Im between ele or mesmer...

Well, then if it helps here are videos of a couple of builds I like for mesmer and elementalist in open world. Keep in mind these are elite specializations that require PoF and can only be unlocked after reaching level 80 and unlocking all core traits for your class, however! And again, these are only one of many ways to play these classes!

[alaan.1746]

Ty for the comments, now that I watch some videos about specializations, I'm btwn necro (maybe scourge) and mirage mesmer.

I really freak out with that video os ele/weaver.... it's too muvh for me right now hahahahaha ty for the help, but now probably I'll go for a necro scourge DPS btwn ranged and middle ranged atacks.And then maybe try for the mirage staff/sword and torch....

Ele looks very complicated for now, for me... its like playing a piano I think so XD ty for the help REALLY

[AliamRationem.5172]

@"alaan.1746" said:Ty for the comments, now that I watch some videos about specializations, I'm btwn necro (maybe scourge) and mirage mesmer.

I really freak out with that video os ele/weaver.... it's too muvh for me right now hahahahaha ty for the help, but now probably I'll go for a necro scourge DPS btwn ranged and middle ranged atacks.And then maybe try for the mirage staff/sword and torch....

Ele looks very complicated for now, for me... its like playing a piano I think so XD ty for the help REALLY

Understandable. Ele is generally not recommended for new players for exactly that reason! Staff mirage, on the other hand, is one of the most effortlessly survivable builds you can play in open world. In fact, I have a video that is quite out of date at this point, but the concept should still work.

The build I used in this video is a bit of a joke. It's taken simplicity to extremes just to prove that it works. The basic idea is that you can slap on the cheapest 80 exotic gear, know absolutely nothing about what your skills do, and go out and defeat even some champions just by spamming dodge and auto attack. You can push buttons at random, too. It doesn't matter. You will still win, although the damage isn't great!

I don't recommend this. Again, it's just to demonstrate just how ridiculous staff mirage is for survival!

[alaan.1746]

OMGGGGGGG!!!!!!! WHAT WAS THAAAAT?!!!!!!!!!!!! xD yea it's true is almost a joke the survival in a staff mirage.It's really broken, I can't use other word.... And now I'm debating if use the item for been lvl 80 or not XD, or if it's worth to do it e.e

So I'n just playing with my necro a testing his abilities hahahahahaha...ands looks vere good, idk why but i love make DPS damage than burst damage XP

[Teratus.2859]

Ranged light huh..

Well as someone who has been playing a Longbow Ranger since this game was released I think one of the biggest pros of being a ranged based character is having a companion mechanic to take the aggro.

All 3 light classes have access to skills that can do this..Mesmer Phantasms.Necro Minions.Elementalist Summons.

Of all of them I'd say Necro Minions are probably the best at taking aggro and having the most control over.. however playing a pure range Necro isn't going to win you any high DPS points even with full glass stats, Axe & Focus is probably the best combo you can get on Power Necro for range but you could go Condi with Sceptor & Dagger.Going condi though will put demand for other skills on your utility's other than minions due to Necros slow condi stacking on Sceptor.That said I have heard of people running Condi minion builds but I have no idea how good or effective they are.

That said though Necro minions have ridiculous lifesteal/sustain capability with the right traits and it is very easy to build a Minion Master that can just facetank most things without any worry at all.This can be done with Soldier Stats as well so you can retain a decent amount of power damage while being very tanky and hard to kill, I made a build like this around 6 years ago and I still use it to this day, it's my go to build for helping people and soloing most stuff.

One thing I like about that build is that despite being a tank, with 25 vun stacks on the enemy and maxed out precision buff from the sigil (and full precision infustions) you still have a respectable 70% crit chance (90% with fury), though ferocity is abysmall and you won't be seeing anything majorly impressive from your crit damage.. that said though you'll be doing some pretty ok damage for something this tanky.If you're interested in giving that a try you can find my current Reaper variant of the build herehttp://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAg2FlFwYYVMK2IeqS+teA-zRQYbEIS01XORFFxFQ5FCJmIdGgtWAecCCzfFfD-e

If however you don't have Heart of Thorns and the Reaper Elite Spec then you can use the original (albiet current) Core Necromancer variant instead.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFgE25WZBsJWFjiNinqk/KF-zRQYbEIS03XOxECRFFxFQJmIdGgtWAecCCzfFfD-e

The main difference between Core and Reaper is the shrouds, minions and weapons.While the Core build can achieve 100% crit chance compared to the Reapers 70%/90% depending on fury, it's damage output is lower due to the Core shroud skills being much slower and weaker than Reapers.The loss of Greatsword and it's damage does free up weapons for an Axe/Focus combo though allowing Dagger to pair up with Warhorn for better melee damage, more life steal and a nice Daze CC to help with Breakbars and to stun mobile enemies for Life Siphon.You can also use Warhorn on the Reaper too if you prefer which is better when you're running with a group of people and don't need the extra vun.For soloing though that extra vun and the boon strip from the focus comes in handy against some things so that's my personal preference.The loss of Rise too is going to diminish your maximum minion cap as well so that will cost you some toughness, lifesteal and damage reduction, although the Range capability and Core shroud will do more than balance that out for you so you'll probably not even notice much difference there.

One thing I do love about these builds though is the downed support, these builds are very good at getting other players back into the fight thanks to Transfusion.I've clocked my Reaper putting out around 4k to 4.5k AOE healing on my whole party with shroud 4 which is a very nice party wide support heal every 30 seconds, and in other cases i've put out the same healing onto some players while pulling several downed players to my location for easy and quick revival which is awesome if like me you're a regular user of Flask of Pumpkin Oil.Flask of Pumpkin Oil gives a unique buff bonus of 100 power, toughness and vitality to both me and everyone I revive for 60 seconds, and I get it every time I revive someone which trust me happens a lot :)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flask_of_Pumpkin_OilA stack of these usually lasts me a whole year and I can farm tons of them every Halloween and they are super cheap too if I do happen to ever run out of them.

Anyhow if you take the build hopefully you'll enjoy it, if you go with the range Minion Necro instead I hope you enjoy that too ^^

[AliamRationem.5172]

@alaan.1746 said:OMGGGGGGG!!!!!!! WHAT WAS THAAAAT?!!!!!!!!!!!! xD yea it's true is almost a joke the survival in a staff mirage.It's really broken, I can't use other word.... And now I'm debating if use the item for been lvl 80 or not XD, or if it's worth to do it e.e

So I'n just playing with my necro a testing his abilities hahahahahaha...ands looks vere good, idk why but i love make DPS damage than burst damage XP

Broken? Maybe. A staff mirage build like the one in the video is pretty low damage. Standing in fire and pushing a 2-button rotation to win may seem powerful, but a high damage build could take advantage of the fact that hydras lose a head and become stunned when you remove 33% health from their bar. If you can deal that kind of damage in less time than it takes for the hydra to recover from the first stun, then they never recover and just stand there stunned while you burn them down in 5 seconds. Meanwhile, the staff mirage is standing in fire and getting knocked around for half a minute to make the same kill!

It just depends on how you want to play it. Every build has strengths and weaknesses.

[alaan.1746]

Well Teratus.2859 u have a good point and its true I see that I cant be only range, but I will try the scourge specialization, looks very nice and I like put thing to debuff enemies and do dps with condi, so as I see and read, I'll go for scourge necro, but You build are good actually... well I'm begining this game hahahahahaha...And yes AliamRationem.5172 it looks broken but not to funny, well I felt that... And now idk if uso mi coin to up my necro to 80 or not XD

[Teratus.2859]

@alaan.1746 said:Well Teratus.2859 u have a good point and its true I see that I cant be only range, but I will try the scourge specialization, looks very nice and I like put thing to debuff enemies and do dps with condi, so as I see and read, I'll go for scourge necro, but You build are good actually... well I'm begining this game hahahahahaha...And yes AliamRationem.5172 it looks broken but not to funny, well I felt that... And now idk if uso mi coin to up my necro to 80 or not XD

I've heard many good things about the scourge ^^ although i've not had much personal experience with it.Hope it all works out for you, Necromancer in general is a great class, One of my personal favourites in both Gw1 and Gw2.Good old gothy master of Death haha gotta love it :D

Welcome to Gw2 man I hope you end up loving the game as much as we all do ^^

[Irensaga.6935]

Disadvantage with Necro for the original poster is that it isn't really a big ranged class actually. Staff is the longest range weapon they have and staff is more about dropping negative conditions on groups of enemies than it is about damage. Staff damage on Necro frankly sucks. Axe has better DPS and is a ranged weapon, but it's a really short range - you might as well be in melee to be honest. That leaves scepter I guess.

Mesmer is hard to play really well, but it's not really hard to learn and do OK with. Just fix yourself up a power-Greatsword build slap down two clones and a phantasm in a hurry and use the greatsword to shoot energy beams from a distance. Really pretty easy, and a lot more survivable than Elementalist.

I decided to main an Elementalist when I first started the game simply because I really liked all the flashy spell abilities. They look cool. I always feel really cool running around flashing off damage spells. But man... that was a hard experience for a newbie. I - died - sooo - much.

Can't recommend the class to other newbs unless the abilities really speak to you. But if you do go Elementalist, the easiest way to do it is to just use a staff and camp on the Fire attunement all the time to keep things simple. That will serve you OK all the way through the basic game. But after that - you're gonna seriously struggle unless you learn that "piano playing" style you mentioned.

[alaan.1746]

It's ok and it's true Irensaga.6935 its weird make DPS with necro, and thats why I'll go for scourge necro, making a sustained but good condi dps and helping a little to my party.... then I'll go for a mesmer and then ele hahahahaha, yeah isn't easy to play a good ele.but for now idk if use mi coin or emblem (I can't remmember the mane) to up to 80 with my necro xP or if it's worth to do it XP

[Ashantara.8731]

@"alaan.1746" said:Hi, I'm new, and I want to go a ranged light armor class but Im not sure which are the best actually... I want do a good (maybe as best I can) DPS because Im not an expert healgin or doing tank, sooo. if can give an advice in which class I can use... I've seen that there were recent changes or nerfs and Im knew with this sistem of scpecializations, hero points and that... Ireally appreciate the advice... TY

I suggest this: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?Pi1AEx3lVUx2abd1Nm8WZnO0WatdA-zRZYBR9IGMcYlTURQbhQfFQhJQEBaFBlaXkw4vlIOjA-e :+1: