Returning player, trying out the Ranger class.

[Foxy Andariel.3120]

Hello! 😄
I am fairly newly returned to Gw2 And I've wanted to try the Ranger class more seriously "lvl 27 when this is posted".
What stats should I focus on as a ranger to get as much DPS as possible and not being so squishy? LOL!
( I'm using a longbow if that helps) all help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance ❤️
// Jonathan aka Foxy_Andariel
 

[mikexg.7329]

Leveling use a tanky pet like bear and use longbow and greatsword.  Id suggest berserker gear for that setup.  You can check websites like metabattle for builds or just some inspiration.  Also a few good youtubers who are rangers, check out paper roll’s channel.  Once you level more you can start messing with builds and come up with something all your own.  If you are feeling squishy, you could always use short bow and go for trailblazer or dire gear.

[Foxy Andariel.3120]

15 minutes ago, mikexg.7329 said:

Leveling use a tanky pet like bear and use longbow and greatsword.  Id suggest berserker gear for that setup.  You can check websites like metabattle for builds or just some inspiration.  Also a few good youtubers who are rangers, check out paper roll’s channel.  Once you level more you can start messing with builds and come up with something all your own.  If you are feeling squishy, you could always use short bow and go for trailblazer or dire gear.

Thank you so much! 😄 I'll have a look at stuff 😄

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

Ranger benefits a lot from having tankier pets, so getting a bear like someone suggested is good advice. However, I'd reccomend having bear as your secondary pet, to send in when something I personally found better went down- drakes.

 

Drakes aren't as tanky as bears, but they're still pretty high up in the bulk department. They also do decent damage, unlike bears, who's whole shtick is taking hits. Also, once you learn your movement skills, a lot of ranger's survivability for the player comes from movement as well. Having the drake means it'll take hits, deal damage, and you can maneuver around with your movement abilities while also doing damage yourself.

[Foxy Andariel.3120]

7 hours ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

Ranger benefits a lot from having tankier pets, so getting a bear like someone suggested is good advice. However, I'd reccomend having bear as your secondary pet, to send in when something I personally found better went down- drakes.

 

Drakes aren't as tanky as bears, but they're still pretty high up in the bulk department. They also do decent damage, unlike bears, who's whole shtick is taking hits. Also, once you learn your movement skills, a lot of ranger's survivability for the player comes from movement as well. Having the drake means it'll take hits, deal damage, and you can maneuver around with your movement abilities while also doing damage yourself.

Thank you so much! I'll look in to things 😄

[Avatar.3568]

Hey Mister Ranger man, i am Not that big pve man, but quite successfull in PvP With Ranger, wilderness survival, beasmastery and marksmanship are a great Combo of 3 traitlines, that Makes you Tanky but still bursty. 

This is the build http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMFlFw8YdsQGKOePpr1Sk+HA-zZIPlGFB9KEKYBUyEQDDA

You gain a lot of boons With the pet Swap and you can Clean condis With it. Its played With greatsword and longbow or Axe dagger (i recommend changing the traitlines for daggers than). It should Work in the Open world flawlessly and even in Low fractals and doungens it shouldnt bei a Problem at all.

[AlexndrTheGreat.8310]

Can also look at the Base Ranger build on the website MetaBattle (a website for various GW2 builds).

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Basic_Ranger

The build assumes you’re already at level 80, but provides a good on idea on what stuff you’d want to prioritize unlocking early on.

The main idea for the build is prioritizing your strike / direct damaging abilities (condition damage build such as bleeding / burning / poison are weaker in the base game / below level 80 because many of the inanimate objects in events and quests do not have conditions applied to them and can only be killed using direct damage). Skirmishing, Marksmanship, and Beastmastery all increase your strike damage, Frost Trap is our most damaging power utility skill.

Stats to prioritize while leveling are Power and Precision (increase your direct damage and critical strike chance). Ferocity is good when you have enough crit chance, but shouldn’t be taken if you have the ability to take Power or Precision instead.

Getting Vitality and Toughness can help as well, but in GW2 in general avoiding attacks in the first place is much better than trying to face-tank the damage.

Most of your damage will come from your big burst skills (Longbow 2, Longbow 5, Axe 5, Greatsword 2), so it’s a good idea to get used to weapon swapping early on (as nice as it may sound to sit back and camp longbow, most classes and weapons are balanced such that swapping weapons back and forth to use their hardest hitting abilities provide more dps than camping just one weapon. Usually).

Edited May 19, 2022 by AlexndrTheGreat.8310

[enkeny.6937]

First of all, do you have expansions, or vanilla only?

It was really long time ago, when I leveled up ranger, but I used condition build. traps+short bow / axe torch. 
For pets I used the cats. they aren't good tank, but deals more damage, giving vulnerability, and you can learn some pet control.
For tanking, I used the white wolf. Dogs has high agro too, for some reason there were better tank by just staying then a hitting player. 

I don't recommend bear-bow build for starting. You will get bad habits, like running around when your pet don't get the agro, can't kill more then 1 enemy and if you want dps, sword axe, great sword is better, but most of your AoE are traps.

If you go to power: frost trap, signet of the wild, we heal as one!, Strength of the Pack! traits: marksmanship 2-2-1,  beast mastery 3-2-3, nature magic 1-1-2. 
Strength of the Pack! + longbow 5 or axe 5, we heal as one and you have 25 might, so you can hit hard. 
dodge removes some condition.
berserker gear (power, precision, ferocity) 

condition: skirmishing 3-3-2, wilderness survival 3-1-3, best mastery 2-3-1
axe+torch, short bow.  healing spring | flame trap, viper's nest, sharpening stones | entangle 
pets: drake/cat (drake can blast in your fields, cat has vulnerability)
any gear with condition damage as main is good while you're leveling up. after that: viper's set

If you has expansions, aim for soulbeast. It has the most potential for damage.

P.S.: This is some basic builds, not best builds, so the most important thing is: Read ALL skills and traits. Minor traits too! 
oh and it is PvE only 🙂