Ranger greatsword in pvp

[Doto.6357]

How do people use this weapon? Are there any videos or anything that show how to fight other classes with greatsword? It just seems super telegraphed and clunky to me. I’ve been using axe/warhorn for the unblockable plus ranged dmg for a couple seasons now, is great sword definitively better for sic em ranger?

[Jelle.7856]

GS is a very strong weapon set for ranger. It definitely has slower attack animations than a sword but it makes up for it with harder burst and strong defensive options (evade, block, stun, knockback... pretty much everything lol)If you want to run sic-em, GS is probably the best option due to the synergy with the sic-em burst.

• If you're trying to burst, have the habit of setting yourself up with CC first. If your merged, you can come in with smoke assault and knock them down then use maul/worldly impact. Once you do get a feel for the weapon you can aim your mauls too if you can guess where they are going to go.
• When I duel, I like to use my GS defensively. Abuse the GS autos. The Auto 3 evade is so powerful and you can time it to mitigate the burst from opponents. If your fast enough, you can actually evade twice on the third auto by stowing before you finish the auto frame and autoing again. Swoop is also a great evade frame. Use your block/knockback/stun to punish the opponents when they make a mistake. Some things you can do: Block/knockback with GS 4 then swap to LB 4 for knockback then burst with 2 rapidfire. Block/knockback with GS4 then Maul, hiltbash maul combo.
• This is just a ranger thing in general but, use GS in conjunction with your pet abilities. Swoop through smoke scale cloud for stealth, great way to reset the fight and re-position yourself for burst.

[Arklite.4013]

I'm in a somewhat similar boat - granted I play core because I don't own PoF. Whenever I switch to GS and engage in melee, I find myself missing some mauls, and especially hilt bashes. Swoop doesn't seem to stick very well if your target moves, either. But my biggest issue is I just get blown up whenever I'm fighting anything in melee. Once I use up Signet of Stone and GS 4, I feel like I just die too quickly. Granted I'm not expert and some of the more subtle stuff (like positioning GS 3 to leap out of smokescale's ability). It seems like it's just safer to camp in LB all day unless I really need to kill something quickly. I'm a pretty amateur ranger so I would appreciate all the advice one could offer.

[Kovu.7560]

The range on Hilt Bash says 300, but I'm certainly not feeling it. Seems all they have to do is strafe slightly and the attack misses. I have better luck landing Mauls. Its a pretty good weapon set overall, though.

~ Kovu

[Eurantien.4632]

If you're playing power for dps reasons, such as pairing something with longbow, greatswords is the best option. Sword and anything just doesn't have the ability to pressure/defend/counterpressure in the correct ways. In this way you are opting for more control in the fight instead of pew pewing, running away, and pew pewing again - cause you're not doing shit with sword which means you're giving up a lot of control with the fight.

Greatsword is all about getting a big hit in and staying close yet playing defensive until an opportunity for an another big hit is available. You have GS auto evade, swoop, and gs 4. To handle this. It's also a great weapon when someone is on their backfoot. That being said, GS 5 is useless against people running away. Pet swap quickness helps gs a lot however.

If you're running it with axe... like a gs and axe build it can work... but I find it a combo thats just worse than having a longbow, and worse dueling than sword and axe builds.

If you're running longbow and axe and warhorn... that can work if you always keep good positioning and run away the moment someone looks at you and run back when they peel off of you, but if someone wants you dead you really have no defense with that set up.

I am moving and have my fingers crossed that I'll have a good enough Internet connection to be able to stream a bit. If I do, I'll try and stream a GS guide...

In the end, if you know the match ups, I'd argue GS is the best weapon we have.

[Arklite.4013]

@Eurantien.4632 said:If you're playing power for dps reasons, such as pairing something with longbow, greatswords is the best option. Sword and anything just doesn't have the ability to pressure/defend/counterpressure in the correct ways. In this way you are opting for more control in the fight instead of pew pewing, running away, and pew pewing again - cause you're not doing kitten with sword which means you're giving up a lot of control with the fight.

Greatsword is all about getting a big hit in and staying close yet playing defensive until an opportunity for an another big hit is available. You have GS auto evade, swoop, and gs 4. To handle this. It's also a great weapon when someone is on their backfoot. That being said, GS 5 is useless against people running away. Pet swap quickness helps gs a lot however.

If you're running it with axe... like a gs and axe build it can work... but I find it a combo thats just worse than having a longbow, and worse dueling than sword and axe builds.

If you're running longbow and axe and warhorn... that can work if you always keep good positioning and run away the moment someone looks at you and run back when they peel off of you, but if someone wants you dead you really have no defense with that set up.

I am moving and have my fingers crossed that I'll have a good enough Internet connection to be able to stream a bit. If I do, I'll try and stream a GS guide...

In the end, if you know the match ups, I'd argue GS is the best weapon we have.

Following for aforementioned GS guide. I work, so a recording would work great.