Playing the Ranger
As a pet class, the Ranger profession in Guild Wars 2 is still very adept at maintaining high amounts of damage from a distance as is to tradition in other previous MMOs. Rangers use a short bow, long bow and axe to attack from afar, but that's not to say they can't get in close with other weapons including a greatsword to pile on damage in case you're looking for a change of pace.
Compared to others professions like the Mesmer, the Ranger seems a little more straightforward. That's not to say it's a simple profession, there still appears to be plenty of depth, but the Ranger seems to be a good choice for newer players. In part, because you can send in the Ranger's pet to occupy an enemy's attention, so your survival isn't as directly tied to your skill use, making it a little easier to recover from mistakes. The Ranger is also a bit comparable to the Guardian profession as well when it comes to buffing. The many spirits and a particular warhorn skill are great for buffing all allies in the vicinity and even changing the tide of a battle. As will all professions, positioning on the battlefield is very important but particularly important for the Ranger. The attacks from his bows are increased depending on distance and height differential to the target. Always keep this in mind when you do battle.
Though the Ranger is skilled at long-range damage, that doesn't mean you have to stand still in one place, firing arrows like a human turret. For the majority of skills in Guild Wars 2 you're able to move around, even during channeled attacks, which keeps combat from feeling too static. With ranged weapons, a lot of combat has to do with establishing separation and maintaining it, which can be achieved by combining evasive rolls, circle strafing and proper skill use.
In Guild Wars 2 your class can have ten active skills at a time, five tied to the weapon currently equipped, one heal, three 'utility skills' and an elite skill. When you first acquire a weapon, only one of its attached skills will be unlocked, so you need to spend a little bit of time until all five associated skills are unlocked. This isn't a grind-like procedure, unlocking weapon skills happens pretty fast, making it feel more like a tutorial where you spend just enough time with each unlocked skill to get comfortable with it and understand its many uses.
With a long bow, a two-handed weapon, the Ranger gets an excellent set of five skills. The basic auto-attack does direct damage with far-reaching shots, and has the added bonus of doing increased damage the further you are away from a target.The Hunter's shot is a great way to open up a fight. It lowers the target's defense which makes all other attacks just that much more effective. Point Blank Shot is a useful skill for keeping distance, it's not recommended until your enemy get's into melee range though. For this skill is most effective when fired 'Point Blank' because it increases the knock back distance the closer the target is. A most gratifying feeling to see when the enemy is about to let loose on you just to have to start the long trek towards you again. Remember you can keep pacing back evening while firing with most skills making kiting an effective negator of damage. There are a few skills that do require you to stay put like 'Barrage' so bare this in mine when chaining skills.
Switching to the short bow opens up another five skills and requires more movement about the battlefield to properly utilize. The auto-attack, for instance, fires arrows a lot faster than the long bow's auto-attack, and triggers a bonus bleeding effect on targets if you're able to hit them from the side or from behind. May not seem all that viable until you consider that it does stack, up to ten times which is considerable DoT if you can maintain flanking shots. In a group fight you can just run around behind the enemy while another player has its attention, and the easiest way to make this happen while questing solo is by sending your pet in first to distract your target.
After triggering a bleeding effect, you can follow up with 'Poison Volley', which sends out a fan of arrows tipped with venom, useful to deal additional damage to larger groups. You'll get cripple and stun effects on two other short bow skills, which let you slow down enemies so you can maintain your distance. In case those don't work, you can also use Quick Shot to fire an arrow while hopping backward. If the shot hits, you gain a movement bonus, ensuring you'll be able to stay away from attackers at least while it lasts.
With a one-handed axe equipped, the Ranger still fights from range with a set of three skills. The standard auto-attack tosses an axe forward that ricochets between nearby enemies, and its 'Splitblade' skill tosses a fan of axes forward, inflicting bleeding, making the axe useful against groups of foes. A particularly cool trick with 'Splitblade' is this 'shotgun effect' it has. If the axes are launched at a target from melee range, each one will deal individual damage to the target and stack bleeding. So with a total of five axes thrown, that's five stacks instantly placed for some crazy DoT placing at your disposal. You also get a single target Winter's Bite attack that slows down its affected target and allows your pet to inflict weakness with it's next attack.
Because an axe is one-handed, you have space to equip an off-hand item to fill out the other two weapon skill slots. With a war horn, you can use 'Call of the Wild', the skill I mentioned earlier, to do a temporary area of effect buff around the Ranger for more damage and a crit bonus. You can also call down an angry flock of birds upon a single target with 'Hunter's Call' to do damage. If you swap the horn out for a dagger in your off-hand, you gain the ability to stab and poison an enemy and toss a crippling blade at them, which also results in a bleeding effect.
And in case you're tired of fighting from a distance, you can equip a two-handed greatsword. The basic slash attack slices up enemies at close range, and with the Swoop skill you can jump at a target and land a big hit -- a great way to open a fight. Maul and Hilt Bash skills allow you to stack bleeding damage and stun targets up close, and in case things get too intense, you can use Counterattack to block an attack and push an enemy away to a safe distance, giving you just enough time to switch over to a bow.
Aside from the weapon skills, the Ranger gets a few different type of utility skills. These skills can be equipped as soon as you unlock them and assign them to your skill bar, and are not related to your currently equipped weapon. The Ranger gets traps that inflict fire, poison and crippling effects on enemies that wander into them. Spirits can also be summoned into a fight – glowing creatures that give any allies nearby beneficial buffs – and the ranger can unlock a number of passive buffs to aid survivability.
