New Player needs advice on Ranger- first character to level to 80 and first MMORPG

[Shane.8374]

I am new to this game and to MMO games and I have allot to learn. I am spending several hours a day reading, learning, and playing this game, but with a 50 hour a week job there is only so much time ! I know I can't learn everything at once, but would greatly appreciate your advice. The first character I am leveling up is a Ranger. I was instructed to go for "power" as I was leveling up, but over the last couple of weeks I have gotten up to level 47 and basically just keep choosing weapons and armor that have higher base numbers than what I had before, always electing things with a higher power stat if I had a choice not really understanding what all of the different attributes mean in game or how they compliment each other or how they relate to the build and play style my ranger will eventually have. With so many options, and so many opinions out there it is really hard to decide and I am getting to the point where I feel like my choices are going to start to matter. By the time I get to level 80 I at least want to know what kind of ranger I want to have, and what kind of weapons, armor, stats, ruins, and skills I should be looking for to fit that build. What I don't want to do is continue to invest time into something that may not allow me to enjoy the character to its fullest. Being totally new to the game, I imagine most of my time will spent playing PVE and eventually dungeons and lower level fractals, but I want to be able to be able to take that character and do some WVW or PVP eventually, but I need to get allot better first.So, from what I have read and been told, I can be a power or condition build, I can be a druid or a soulbeast, or I can be a core Ranger which I guess means choosing neither Druid or Soulbeast. It seems reaction to soulbeast is mostly not good. It was recommended to me to do a power build , but when I read about it, it looks like a condi druid is a better choice for damage output.I would love it if you could give me some recommendations on what might be the best most versatile way to go , and what weapons, armor, and stats I should strive for. If you were to ask me what I like and what my goals are, I would say I am not really sure at this point, and that I would love to be able to try out every aspect of the game and that it will probably take me 6 months to a year to figure out what I like the best. I do know I want to get good enough to try everything, but that will take time. Putting myself in a PVP match at this point would be like putting a baby on ice skates and sending him into a pro hockey game.I know ultimately allot of these things will be personal choice, but there is a huge time investment involved[which is a blast !] and I just don't want to invest hundreds of hours into a character I can't use as I progress in the game because I didn't understand how to build him.Last question is after I level up my ranger, what is a good choice for my second character to level up ? I was thinking Warrior or Guardian.Thank you !

[Alatar.7364]

There are so many Questions and so, so many Options to your Post that I can't simply put them all in just one Post on Forums.So, Please, feel free to whisper/contact Me in-game anytime as a Real-time correspondence would be of a much better effectiveness with such a huge amount of Information needed in this Case.I'd love to help.

[Moonlit.6421]

As Alatar said that is indeed a lot of questions and while I personally dunno if I'm the best equipped to deal with them, partially because I'm not a huge pve player and haven't played ranger in a while, I would highly recommend finding a good guild to join to you have constant companions in game to answer your questions and help guide you in game. The same goes for pvp and WvW. Exploring for yourself is definitely important but there's nothing wrong with learning from the paths those before you took and using them to plan your own.

[Shane.8374]

Thanks to both of you for your responses ! As a side note, I have joined a guild and have had several members help me with questions which is awesome, and I also had someone from this forum offer to help like Alatar just did above. All have been very helpful. I just don't want to be that guy that is bugging the same person every day or every couple of days so I feel like if I can spread my questions out, I won't burn anybody out and I will probably make a few friends along the way ! I am no slacker either. I bet at least half of my logged playtime I am actually AFK reading something in the wiki or somewhere else and right now it is the slow season at work. I am in sales and have my own office with a pc so I spend an hour or two a day at work reading stuff online. I don't want to information cram so much I forget to enjoy the game, but I also hate dying and every time I do I want to get this thing figured out sooner than later. One thing I have noticed from reading tons of posts today is that lots of people have multiple characters, even in the same class, for different game modes, so I probably don't need to worry so much about making a character that can be used for multiple things. I just need to learn to level faster. Saving my 2 level 80 boosts until I have at least tried every profession and leveled a few by playing.

[Moonlit.6421]

Yah I wouldn't worry about making a character for everything to much right now. One of the wonderful things about gw is how easy it is to swap builds and change up how you play and there's always more characters if you wanna experiment leveling a new way. You can have I think a max of 69 characters in this game atm do you have a very high ceiling when it comes to experiments lol.

[Seteruss.4058]

Maybe most of your questions already answered but i ll give you my ranger setup really quick.Keep in mind after some time in game i manage to make all that gear ascended but this has nothing to do as exotic is fine to start.Druid--> healer(magi for start or Harrier for end game)- staff/axe(or sword) and warhorn. Working just everywhere in game.Druid/Ranger --> Power(berserker) -Longbow, sword, axe, greatsword, warhorn are all viable. Again you canuse it everywhere except fractals and raids(if you dont want to get carried).Druid/Ranger/Soulbeast--> Condition(Viper)-Shortbow, dagger, axe, torch. Meta dps working everywhere except pvp and WvW(depends on taste).You can clearly see the viability of the class. You can play whatever you like and stay at meta builds if you re gonna follow raids and fractals.As for pvp doesn't matter at all as in there are build templates and your actual gear does not count...

Hope that helps.

[mercury ranique.2170]

For the vanilla (core game) ranger, the stats that matter are power, ferocity and precision (this combo is called Beserker). Power gives you higher Damage. Precision gives you a higher change to get a critical hit and ferocity deals even more damage if you hit a critical hit. So it is the way to optimize your damage output (damage per second or DPS).

Once you go to the elite specialisations, there are more options, but I would say this is only really needed for the more elite game content. So I would not worry about the other content for now untill you are ready to do high tier fractals and raids.

I would suggest unlocking both Druid and soulbeast with power based gear and actually play them that way. Both have fun mechanics. Again, only for high end content, you need the specialist gear. Worry about that when you are there. Having played the specialisation with DPS you will have a core understanding of the mechanics

So play through. Enjoy the game. Get into HoT and PoF, join in the meta (big event chains in the HoT maps) or the bounty hunt in PoF. Do a bunch of dungeons and try low tier fractals.If you are confident in all those aspects and are getting bored by them, join a guild that trains in raids and top tier fractals. They will explain the roll of rangers (druids) in them and help you set it up and learn how to play it properly.Please do not rush to the high end content yet, cause you will fail. This results in the ugly side of the game being showed, so a lot of kicking out of parties.

[Ahnog.8795]

@mercury ranique.2170 said:For the vanilla (core game) ranger, the stats that matter are power, ferocity and precision (this combo is called Beserker). Power gives you higher Damage. Precision gives you a higher change to get a critical hit and ferocity deals even more damage if you hit a critical hit. So it is the way to optimize your damage output (damage per second or DPS).

Once you go to the elite specialisations, there are more options, but I would say this is only really needed for the more elite game content. So I would not worry about the other content for now untill you are ready to do high tier fractals and raids.

I would suggest unlocking both Druid and soulbeast with power based gear and actually play them that way. Both have fun mechanics. Again, only for high end content, you need the specialist gear. Worry about that when you are there. Having played the specialisation with DPS you will have a core understanding of the mechanics

So play through. Enjoy the game. Get into HoT and PoF, join in the meta (big event chains in the HoT maps) or the bounty hunt in PoF. Do a bunch of dungeons and try low tier fractals.If you are confident in all those aspects and are getting bored by them, join a guild that trains in raids and top tier fractals. They will explain the roll of rangers (druids) in them and help you set it up and learn how to play it properly.Please do not rush to the high end content yet, cause you will fail. This results in the ugly side of the game being showed, so a lot of kicking out of parties.

You answered some basic questions I've had for a while. Thanks for your post

[therapite.3645]

Hey there Shane! So ultimately the option that is going to be the best for you is the one that you like playing the best. The 'best' builds come and go as the game changes and gets updates, but the build that you like, whose skills you like and the weapons that you enjoy using, who you feel the best moving around and playing on the most, is going to be the class and style that is going to be the best for you. I started this game as a staff ele, then the meta began to unfold and I was told that I wasn't playing 'right' by the people who get their enjoyment from getting the absolute most out of their characters. They said I should play dagger/dagger and that's just not something I enjoy. I stayed with my staff and since I play with someone else usually I did fine. In fact, I did more than fine. Because of how I play the class I ended up doing better than it seems the average person in PvE.

Then the meta swung back around with Tempest and suddenly I was playing the Meta build, Staff Tempest. I have all the wrong armor, I'm sure, but I'm putting out more damage than what I need, I play fine solo, I play more than fine in a group, I have skills that I love and a look that I think is lovely, and most of all, it's kept me in the game feeling fresh and like I'm useful since the three day headstart. I've never gotten tired of the game or my main character, and never been upset by balance updates nerfing my character since I don't put that much stock in those things as a PvE player. So. Play what you like. Don't worry about the armor and weapon stats until you hit 80 as they don't really matter as much until you get there anyway, and just experiment. Find what you like and then play that for a while and change your traits, change your armor to see if you can make it even better. That will serve you better in the long run than 'everyone says X stat is the best so I'll play that'. Happy gaming!

[Biff.5312]

My suggestion is, as you are levelling up, try different weapon/build combinations. Don't worry about stats so much, just see if you prefer one play style over another and then commit to the one you like best, and build towards that.

I personally have multiple toons of each class, so I have the best of all worlds. For what it's worth, the ranger I find most enjoyable to play has double-axes with traps, and a short bow for an alt-weapon.

Also make sure you pick a pet that complements your choice. For example, the ranger I have that uses a greatsword has a spider companion and a great dane companion, because I like to root my opponents in place for melee combat, and both pets have opponent-immobility skills. But if I were using a bow that would not matter and I'd go for a different pick.

[Pretty Pixie.8603]

You were told to go for power because condi is more reliant on traits to do their damage.

Your prefered weapons will determine what stats to go for. Greatsword, longbow, Axe offhand are power choices, while Shortbow, dagger offhand, Axe mainhand are condi, and sword being decent for both.

[Shane.8374]

Wow, what a bunch of fantastic and informative responses. I wish I know how to respond to some of your individual messages, but I don't, so here is a resounding thank you to you all ! What I am going to do for now is focus on power stats, and keep trying different weapon combinations and pets until I know which ones I like most, and then base my build around what works best for those weapons. Thanks again everyone. I love this game !

[evilsofa.7296]

While you are leveling up for the first time, a bunch of stuff is not working yet, so just tend to choose Power, Precision and Ferocity as you make your way to level 80 but don't sweat even that very much. Up until level 80, you'll be upgrading your gear so frequently that it is not even worth paying attention to sigils, runes or other upgrades to your gear. When I was going through the Personal Story, I was more concerned with choosing gear that unlocked skins that were difficult to unlock otherwise than I was with their stats.

When you hit level 80, everything changes. You should switch to Exotic gear as soon as possible, and you can do it very quickly because it is very, very cheap. You're probably very low on gold pieces. For a Ranger, the bargain-basement exotic armor set is Sneakthief. In the Trading Post, use the gear icon to restrict your search to level 80 and rarity Exotic. You'll see some armor sets with prefixes and others with names; for example, if you're interested in the Carrion prefix, buying the Carrion Emblazoned set is a lot more expensive than buying Shiro's set; the difference is that Shiro's set comes with a Superior Rune of Rage on every piece and the Sneakthief skin, while Carrion Emblazoned has a different look and no runes. At the time of this writing, you can buy a full set of Shiro's (coat, mask, gloves, greaves, leggings, and pauldrons) for less than 3 gold pieces; a Carrion Emblazoned Coat will cost 6 gold pieces by itself. The list of named Sneakthief armor sets for Rangers available in the Trading Post are: Aiden's, Errol's, Nika's, Reyna's, Shiro's, Vatlaaw's, Zho's.

There are also cheap exotic weapons, some named, some not; they are a bit more expensive at 1 or 2 gold pieces each. For example, I was interested in getting used to condi Shortbow and Axe/Torch swapping (SB A/T) so I picked up Carrion Tribal Short Bow of Rage, Jaws of Death and Carrion Tribal Torch of Rage very cheaply; Carrion Tribal Axe of Rage was also available but I got Jaws of Death (same stats, different look and sigil) for cheaper at the time. I talk about Carrion a lot in this post because I chose it as an ersatz form of Viper's but you can choose other prefixes; just figure out which named sets correspond with the prefix you choose.

If you don't even have enough gold pieces for cheap Exotics, work on being able to do the daily achievement challenges; do any three of them and you get 2 gold pieces. Per day! Some of them are in places you can't get to yet. Some of them may look impossibly hard but are in fact really easy. For example, when there is a daily jumping puzzle or mini-dungeon, everyone goes to do them, and you will usually find mesmers doing portals to the end of them (but I suggest at least trying the puzzles first). You can often get a daily achievement just by participating in an unranked PvP battle, whether you win or lose. I haven't been able to get anywhere with WvW yet. When a zone's events are chosen as a daily achievement, that zone will be very busy with people doing all of the events.

If you check places with suggested builds for professions like snowcrows.com or metabattles.com, you'll see for Rangers that it's all Condi this and Condi that and they show Viper's Ascended gear (Yassith's) which is so far in your future you don't need to even think about it yet. You will be wearing the Exotic set for a very long time. But it's good to start figuring out and practicing rotations and weapon swapping and they describe them pretty well at snowcrows (I haven't found rotations described in written form elsewhere yet).

[moonstarmac.4603]

I run my ranger with Longbow and Greatsword. MY BUILD

I focus on ranged attacks and boon sharing. I use feline pets, but you can use whichever you desire. When you are in a situation where you need to be in the middle of the battle the greatsword is handy. I chose Wanderer's for my armor for the Power, Toughness, Vitality, Concentration stats. My boons last longer meaning I can easily reach 10 Might stacks and maintain them for the fight. It also prolongs Regeneration so my pet and I are constantly gaining health. Marauders is a good second choice if you want to increase your overall damage without worrying about boon duration. I chose Altruism runes for the might and fury sharing, improved healing, and boon duration.

[lilypop.7819]

(a) PvP is one of the fastest ways of learning a profession (you can change everything without any effect on your current PvE build at zero cost), you should think twice about delaying till 80 etc. Also note PvP is in such a state that you don't really want to specialise in it, so dipping into it bit-by-bit is advisable imo. Oh and ignore/block rude people in PvP.

(b) Do the dailies that target a particular area - this is often a fast way to gain XP and completions.

(a) + (b) will net you at least 2 gold a day from Daily Completion which is a lot if you're a newish player.

© Crafting is still the best way to gain ascended armour, and it takes a very long time. For a Ranger leather making is a must.

Guardian is a very solid profession which might prove useful in the more difficult bits of the expansions. Unfortunately sub-80 Guardian is a little dull compared to a Ranger, so you might want to consider Engineer which is pretty unique in D&D games - also head in this direction if you're the Luke-Skywalker(Holosmith) type!