Curse

toast07 · Jul 01, 2005, 03:59 AM // 03:59

OK I'v ben cheaking out guild wars recently and now a friend and I plan to buy it. I'm not sure what caracter to use but i do know i want to use ranger as my primary or secondary. And I was wondering what was a good profession to compliment that of a ranger, thanks.

Thom · Jul 01, 2005, 04:43 AM // 04:43

Here are some suggestions:
Monk-Unlocking monk skills is great and will help you down the road. Everyone needs a healer and the self heal options here are great. Also some smiting combos later in the game.

Elementalist- If you like pure damage go with this combo. You'll get the most damage out of your ranger and you can also pack high damage spells and more support stuff.

Mesmer- Greatest shutdown combo. You can counter most anyone with a ranger/mez or mez/ranger (although both could do the job alone). If you like utility and complex play, this is the way to go.

Warrior- I personally hate this combo, but others will disagree so I'll include it. R/W over W/R(which is almost useless) can do reduced cost melee--not that big of a deal since melee is already dirt cheap.

Necro- Again not my first choice, but does make a nice combo for PvE and Damage over time combinations. I feel this is too easy to counter, but there are many successful necros out there. Nec/Ranger could be fun for PvE, but I don't think this is how you should start into the game.

You can do a ton with just ranger stuff, so the secondary for a ranger s just gravy. Marksmanship and a bow can provide some nice bonus damage on a character with another focus. Things NOT to do: El/R, W/R these are really useless for anything but a specialty build. Create to your playing style and learn to use a variety of skills within your character. Play around within your character until you find something that works for you, but some strats can become outdated as new skills become available (to you and your opponents).

At some point you should really learn to heal in PvP, something everyone should try to understand the flow of the game.

DarX · Jul 01, 2005, 09:57 AM // 09:57

Ranger/Monk is good. Ranger/Mesmer

Myodato · Jul 01, 2005, 10:19 AM // 10:19

Welcome to Guild Wars

Firstly, you should know that the Ranger isn't simply the ranged damage dealer that you might expect from other games. In Guild Wars, the ranger is primarily dedicated to abilities that negatively effect the enemy, such as interupting spellcasting, causing bleeding or poison etc. For this reason, it is often best to take a secondary that focuses on disruptive abilities, rather than damage dealing, to further focus the role of the Ranger.

Secondly, Ranger is probably one of the best classes in the game to take as a 'pure' class, i.e. using little to none of your secondary classes abilities. Most good builds rely on focusing on just 3 or 4 attributes, and most archer Rangers will take 3 Ranger attributes, leaving little room for their secondary. If you do want a 'pure' ranger, Monk is a very good choice of secondary, as there are a number of good Monk skills, such as res, and hex/condition removal, that require no points being placed into Monk attributes.

As for Ranger as secondary, I don't recommend it for using a bow. Bows don't do great damage without the use of skills, and those skills are very expensive without Expertise, a Ranger's primary attribute. The primary use of a Ranger secondary is Wilderness Survival, which has many good utility skills such as heals, traps, and evasive abilities. It is a good choice to give a primary caster good defensive/utility options.

Overall, I assume you want to go Ranger for the bow. R/E or R/Mo would be the simplest options (R/E for max damage, R/Mo for ressing & hex/condition removal.), but I would recommend you try R/N or R/Me for a more interesting and versatile approach.

Last of all, have fun

toast07 · Jul 01, 2005, 12:48 PM // 12:48

Ok thanks to all of you for your help, I think im going to pick Ranger/Elemntalist