Need help picking a profession.

[Slumsw.8902]

 I am a new player looking at different professions since I got a boost from EOD. I mostly play ranged classes in other games. What would you recommend for a ranged class with an easier rotation?7 Thanks in advance for the help.

[Sahne.6950]

13 minutes ago, Slumsw.8902 said:

 I am a new player looking at different professions since I got a boost from EOD. I mostly play ranged classes in other games. What would you recommend for a ranged class with an easier rotation?7 Thanks in advance for the help.

Hey that depends what content you want to play.

Overall i think Ranger fits you. Most of the weapons are extremely straightforward and easy to understand if you are just starting out. There is no overcomplicated combos or anything that you have to do.... The pets help you alot aswell, as they take aggro from the mobs. Ranger is a solid pick if you want to start getting into gw2.

 

Coming mainly from a player versus player standpoint: my favorite weapon combination is Longbow + Greatsword. The flow of the two just....fits....  They are mainly pvp weapons, but you should have no problems clearing openworldcontent and doing quests with it.

If you hit maxlevel you should work on the Soulbeast elitespecialisation. It is pretty good as is, and will even get a nice buff in two weeks.

 

hope that helped! good luck in tyria!

Edited September 20, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[SlayerXX.7138]

Thief double Pistol, Thief Deatheye rifle, Revenant renegade shortbow and Engineer Mechanist Rifle.

For OW Ranger is kind of a trap for ranged combat. Auto attack are kind of weak so you basically wait for Rapid-fire and barrage to come of cooldown if you want to keep your distance. Good in PvP with longsword but meh in PvE. Short bow isn't much better as you do way more damage up close or from behind the target which is tricky in OW.

Thief has a simple rotation: Press 3 for double Pistol and rifle. Kind of lame but as Thief doesn't have cooldowns you at least don't have to wait for your cooldowns:). 

Renegade is mostly just pressing shortbow skills of cooldown.

Mechanist also does more damage up close but it feels less serve then Ranger shortbow. Rotation is clicking most of your weapon abilities of cooldown and up close pressing them all. Mechanist big plus is rifle Autos do respectable damage.

To Avoid: Warrior. Rifle and longbow are awfully underpowered.

Honorable Mention: Virtiuoso Mesmer dagger. Your throw daggers on short range simple rotation and strong, but you are kind of close.

 

[Eponet.4829]

1 hour ago, Albi.7250 said:

To Avoid: Warrior. Rifle and longbow are awfully underpowered.

 

A condition focused Berserker longbow build with the battle standards traitline + 2x battle standards (to make sure you have might + fury + quickness during your entire berserk window) is actually pretty decent as a ranged overworld build with either viper or celestial gear. I was getting around 9k dps just camping longbow which isn't optimal (I got significantly higher as a ranged build using condition virtuoso), but is good enough that it doesn't feel bad to play, and contributes quite nicely in group events by banners giving buffs to the other ranged people in the area who usually have much lower access to them than the melee do, and it should be a bit better than it is now once berserker gets back its regular burst skills since I often end up overflowing adrenaline between the times when berserk turns off and when the cooldown is back up again.

 

That said, if the OP wants a ranged build that's also viable as a ranged build in group content, Condition Virtuoso or Power Mechanist is probably the way to go.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Eponet.4829

[Farohna.6247]

Also depends on what you like OP.

Do you like pets and playing smart with good placement?  Try ranger!  It's fun, traditionally an easier profession to play.  Don't dismiss melee though, great sword and other weapons hit hard and make life easier.  

Do you like blowing things up, do you like green mech buddies who follow you around, like going pew pew pew a lot?   Mechanist engineer might be for you!  It's seriously a lot of fun and mows down pretty much anything in open world by rolling your face on the keyboard.

Do you like quirky, jack/jill of all trades, voices of dead legends talking to you, and big flashy spells?  Welcome to revenant, least played profession.  Renegade with a short bow...so much fun!  It does require energy management.

Try out a couple, look up some builds, metabattle is a great site.  Youtube has many good videos showing play styles and builds.  Best of luck and have fun!!

[Slumsw.8902]

Thank you everyone for the advice. In WOW I played a frost mage and in ESO I played a Sorc. Ia not against melee, I find it easier to learn mechanics, rotation and the game with range classes. 

 

I was thinking Ranger but it seems their elite specs aren't range. 

[Gibson.4036]

13 minutes ago, Slumsw.8902 said:

Thank you everyone for the advice. In WOW I played a frost mage and in ESO I played a Sorc. Ia not against melee, I find it easier to learn mechanics, rotation and the game with range classes. 

 

I was thinking Ranger but it seems their elite specs aren't range. 

Although out of all the professions, Ranger is still pretty strong as core.

I don’t know ESO or WoW, but it looks like you might also enjoy magical classes. Staff Mirage is highly survivable and easy to play in open world.

[Farohna.6247]

Rangers vary...they can be, but they have versatile access to weapons.  There are power and condi builds that use long bow or short bow respectively.  Melee range is preferred for buffs, cleanses, heals, etc in group situations.  So usually builds lean more towards that.

Unlike WoW that had pure ranged classes, GW2 doesn't as much.  I think I spend more time ranged with my renegade than I did my soulbeast 🤔

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Just keep in mind you'll only be playing ranged in open-world, story or World Vs World (WvW).

 

Ranged gameplay isn't viable in high-end instanced PvE because all support skills in the game have low range so you won't be getting buffs or heals from the team's  healer and you'll actually be more vulnerable and doing less damage from range and will usually be the first player going down in every fight.

 

This is often shocking to players coming from games where ranged play is safer, but it is what it is. Think of being ranged more as having higher attack uptime on anything that moves.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[mungozen.2379]

13 hours ago, Albi.7250 said:

 

Honorable Mention: Virtiuoso Mesmer dagger. Your throw daggers on short range simple rotation and strong, but you are kind of close.

 

Mesmer’s Condi Virtuoso primarily operates at 1200 range. Focus and Pistol might ask you to get closer but you never actually need to be in melee range or closer than 600 units if you don’t want to be. 
 

There is also Power Greatsword Chrono which can spend a lot of time at 1200 range.  And I guess Mesmer staff has 1200 range as well offering ranged play options as well. 
 

So Mesmer has several options for 1200 range gameplay on different eSpecs. 

[RavensSorrow.6128]

14 hours ago, Slumsw.8902 said:

Thank you everyone for the advice. In WOW I played a frost mage and in ESO I played a Sorc. Ia not against melee, I find it easier to learn mechanics, rotation and the game with range classes. 

 

I was thinking Ranger but it seems their elite specs aren't range. 

 

Don't be fooled, in this game weapons aren't always the range they seem. As others said Mesmer uses greatsword as a long ranged weapon. Axe for Ranger or Necro is a midranged attack. So you can get a lot of variety out of a class. Most do have a range option somewhere. While there are best builds, if you aren't pushing speed runs or challenge mode raid/strikes you don't have to be looking at cloning those builds.

For Ranger if you want to do Longbow, it's super fun in WvW to just rain arrows on people. For its elite spec Soulbeast I find using a short bow to be very satisfying. I built it condition oriented and use short bow as my main weapon with the draggers the spec comes with as an alternate for those bosses that have mechanics that require a bit of closer play. This is my main and I've played him through story, world bosses and even some strikes.

As I have a similar style to you my other ranged favorites Engineer with rifle, Mesmer greatsword or dagger for Virtuoso spec and Necromancer, as my newest character, Axe has been real satisfying. 

[SlayerXX.7138]

Well seemed I made an assumption about op looking for a marksman class instead of general range. That opens up the number of good range spec quite a bit. Don't play many caster so can't recommend much.

6 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Mesmer’s Condi Virtuoso primarily operates at 1200 range. Focus and Pistol might ask you to get closer but you never actually need to be in melee range or closer than 600 units if you don’t want to be. 

Fair point. Not as serve as other "ranged" weapon, but Bladecall does want you be real close and is the strongest of the 3 weapon skills on dagger from what I remember. But i mostly kept it as honorable mention because It goes more the caster route, then marksman. Virtuoso is great and a strong dps class in instanced content. Its great that why I kept it as honorable mention, even thought I assumed OP was looking for a Marksman class.

19 hours ago, Eponet.4829 said:

A condition focused Berserker longbow build with the battle standards traitline + 2x battle standards (to make sure you have might + fury + quickness during your entire berserk window) is actually pretty decent as a ranged overworld build with either viper or celestial gear.

Also a Fair point. It is decent I guess, better then rifle at least. I did probably undersell it. In my opinion It feels a little to clunky. Op shouldn't avoid it, but I still think it pales in comparison to the other option I listed if not in dps, then in ease of use. Especially in a learning context and camping your ranged weapon. It certainly outperforms thief and maybe renegade in instanced content, especially if you swap to a melee weapon in your rotation, but still not something I would recommend to someone who wants to stay ranged. Also fan of fire, your primary source of weapon dps is one of these skill that loses dps if you stay ranged.

[chronometria.3708]

Ranger longbow or rifle mechanist - both have great sources of pew pew and good survivability options.