wha6t would make a good combo ranger and???

Cody222

hello i was thinking ranger and necro but could i summon necro pets and my pet? i havent played in awhile any other suggestions would also be good

Taera

GW did a great job with class balancing - I don't think there's really a "bad" combo to go with ranger.  I'm not sure on the pet question, but overall I'd just think: what do you want to concentrate on?  Are you a bigtime meleer? Do you enjoy ranged attacks?  Remember, that if you go monk or mesmer you're going to be a bigger target in PVP, but not as large as monk/mesmer primaries. 

Praor

Agreed, Back in the day I went with Ranger/Monk and really enjoyed it. Didn't try pvp to much but would imagine effective

LordZon

Yes sir, you can have both your pet and necro pets.

Ranger Necros are very popular. 

On a slightly diffrent twist, I think the Assassin/Ranger is very cool, lots of crits with a bow.

Originally posted by Cody222

hello i was thinking ranger and necro but could i summon necro pets and my pet? i havent played in awhile any other suggestions would also be good

GregPorter

I have a Ranger with a focus on pets and it is a lot of fun. I sometimes mix it up and change it into a trapper but the pet skills can be good.



I don't think you should go R/A at all. If you want crits with a bow go A/R. There is a build, maybe you've heard of it, it called Critical Barrage. You use the elite Barrage with a ton of points into critical hits and so you can have mass damage with one ability which you spam.



I haven't captured Barrage yet but I do have an A/R. I can't quite remember the skills exactly but I use enchantments and a few low cost bow attacks.





I don't really know about R/N. I don't suggest you use pets and minions because you should specialize in order to be strong in those areas. Like I said, I have a Pet ranger but I also have a Minion Master. Soul Reaping gives a huge advantage in terms of mana. Without that attribute you will be playing with a big handicap.



If you are talking about being a touch ranger, oye. It is, or was at least, huge in terms of pvp. Those who played it loved it but those who didn't, myself included, hated it beyond everything. I don't suggest you play it because I found it so frustrating to play against. I would try and fight them and they would run, but if I crippled them they would be dead in no time.



Overall, I suggest A/R using a bow or a Pet Ranger. Good Luck

Serling

My very first character (almost 2 years ago) was a Ranger/Elementalist. Being new to the game, I didn't realize how good a Ranger's bows were at doing damage, and so equipped my Ranger with full Druid's armor (best energy), a Flame Wand and Artifact, and tried to create an Elementalist with better armor than an Elementalist and high attribute points in Expertise and Fire Magic.

I got to about level 16 and realized this build wasn't going to work and so when I could, I changed his secondary to Monk, picked up the bow and played him as an R/Mo until fairly recently (more than 1.2 million XP later).

(Mind you, I don't read web boards about builds and don't socialize much, so no one could set me straight about how crappy my first R/E build really was).

Recently, I decided to revisit the R/E build but by this time I've already played a couple of Elementalists through the game, so I was fully aware of the skills most useful to a Ranger with an Elementalist secondary. Now I play both my Rangers (and all my Hero Rangers, too) as "Conjure Barrager" builds: Barrage + Elemental Bow (Firey, Icy, Shocking) + Conjure (Flame, Water, Lightning) and throw in Favorable Winds. (Because Conjures are Enchantments and not Preparations, Barrage doesn't remove them).

The amount of damage you can get with this build is truly remarkable, almost rivaling that of an Elementalist, but because you're using a bow, you can keep hammering foes without waiting for skills to fire off and recharge the way an Elementalist must.

I use this build with pets because I use it in Tombs of the Primeval Kings, where I Hero/Hench my way through that PvE zone.

I use 14 aps on Marksmanship, 10 on Fire, Water, or Air (depending on bow mod), 10 on Expertise (so I can spam Barrage) and 5 on Beast Mastery (because I'm usually teamed with a Minion Master Necro).

As far as Ranger builds go, I think this is one of the best. R/Mo is what I fall back on when I team with others and need the potential for unlimited resurrects.

"Touch Rangers" (Ranger/Curse Necro) builds were popular in PvP for awhile, but seem to have fallen somewhat off the map since A-Net made Expertise affect only Ranger skills.

Anyway, just a plug for R/Es. It's fun playing a Ranger again.

P.S. Most frustrating build was R/Rt (Ranger/Ritualist) because although good, people kept insisting on buffing me with enchantments, (despite me asking them not to) which negated Brutal Weapon, though Weapon of Warding and Vital Weapon are still both very good Ranger (defensive) buffs.

Secrom

Originally posted by Taera

GW did a great job with class balancing - I don't think there's really a "bad" combo to go with ranger.

Exactly, and the same applies to any profession. Take anything, learn to know your strengths and weaknesses. That's what the game is about.

You can change secondary profession later on anyway. Can't go wrong.

BattleFelon

For a minion/beastmaster build, the primary profession you choose all depends on what you want to focus on.

If you want a  live pet AND lots of undead minions or a big nasty flesh golem, go Necromancer primary/ ranger secondary.

If you want a kickass live pet that gets some help from a few low level undead minions, go Ranger primary/necromancer secondary.

A necromancer will always have higher death magic potential than a ranger, and by the same token a ranger will always have higher beast mastery potential due to runes.

Some other general ideas for ranger secondary:

Ranger/dervish - take some of the dervish's earth skills that cause blindness and spam them using a bow.

Ranger/paragon - there's a cool barrage build that allows you to use the paragon's shouts to do massive damage to several mobs at once. The best part is the paragon shouts also affect your teammate's damage dealing. This is the build I'm exploring Nightfall with.

Personally, I've found rangers to be the most versatile profession in the game - and I've had a lot of fun running ranger-only skills. You can be a sniper, beastmaster, barrage nuker (not quite as powerful as elementalist but more survivability), or trapper.

Check out GuildWiki for the exact build loadouts or more ideas.

GregPorter

Originally posted by Serling


My very first character (almost 2 years ago) was a Ranger/Elementalist. Being new to the game, I didn't realize how good a Ranger's bows were at doing damage, and so equipped my Ranger with full Druid's armor (best energy), a Flame Wand and Artifact, and tried to create an Elementalist with better armor than an Elementalist and high attribute points in Expertise and Fire Magic.
I got to about level 16 and realized this build wasn't going to work and so when I could, I changed his secondary to Monk, picked up the bow and played him as an R/Mo until fairly recently (more than 1.2 million XP later).
(Mind you, I don't read web boards about builds and don't socialize much, so no one could set me straight about how crappy my first R/E build really was).
Recently, I decided to revisit the R/E build but by this time I've already played a couple of Elementalists through the game, so I was fully aware of the skills most useful to a Ranger with an Elementalist secondary. Now I play both my Rangers (and all my Hero Rangers, too) as "Conjure Barrager" builds: Barrage + Elemental Bow (Firey, Icy, Shocking) + Conjure (Flame, Water, Lightning) and throw in Favorable Winds. (Because Conjures are Enchantments and not Preparations, Barrage doesn't remove them).
The amount of damage you can get with this build is truly remarkable, almost rivaling that of an Elementalist, but because you're using a bow, you can keep hammering foes without waiting for skills to fire off and recharge the way an Elementalist must.
I use this build with pets because I use it in Tombs of the Primeval Kings, where I Hero/Hench my way through that PvE zone.
I use 14 aps on Marksmanship, 10 on Fire, Water, or Air (depending on bow mod), 10 on Expertise (so I can spam Barrage) and 5 on Beast Mastery (because I'm usually teamed with a Minion Master Necro).
As far as Ranger builds go, I think this is one of the best. R/Mo is what I fall back on when I team with others and need the potential for unlimited resurrects.
"Touch Rangers" (Ranger/Curse Necro) builds were popular in PvP for awhile, but seem to have fallen somewhat off the map since A-Net made Expertise affect only Ranger skills.
Anyway, just a plug for R/Es. It's fun playing a Ranger again.
P.S. Most frustrating build was R/Rt (Ranger/Ritualist) because although good, people kept insisting on buffing me with enchantments, (despite me asking them not to) which negated Brutal Weapon, though Weapon of Warding and Vital Weapon are still both very good Ranger (defensive) buffs.

That sounds like a lot of fun. I mean the R/E using barrage with the enchantments, I think I might try that

VGJustice

Yep, the Conjure Barrage is an old trick, but it does wonders. And yeah, pets are quite literally the cheapest extra damage in the game, but they do suffer from poor AI pathing.

And as long as you stay out of the PvP scene, any class combination can and will work. It's just a matter of finding the greatest strengths of the combined classes and using them.

My first and favorite character is a Ranger/Warrior Sword Ranger. At first, it was very difficult to find what would make this combination stand apart, but I finally got my best inspiration from the Thumper Rangers in HA and some GvG (they use high Beast Mastery with their pets and the Prophecies elite skill Ferocious Strike for extra damage and energy). I took that skill setup and adapted it for use with a Sword instead. The upside is the amount of damage I can generate over a period of time and that it is exceedingly difficult to completely drain my energy (massively energy efficient, even with energy skill spam). I also have some mild spike ability, which is never a bad thing (I use the adrenaline skills Final Thrust and Standing Slash while under the stance Tiger's Fury. I can drop enemies very quickly if both are charged, and Ferocious Strike gives adrenaline as well as energy). The downside is that I have to be very attribute specialized (only 3, which is good for PvP but can be a bit limiting in PvE) and I lack any kind of self heal (which is the bad thing about being attribute limited in PvE, I absolutely have to rely on my healers to keep me alive). There's also the small matter of my pet being a target sometimes. If she falls, I'm out of the fight until I can bring her back. There's also the matter of aggro management, which some players take way too seriously. This style of play requires that you keep a very close eye on it, but it's not impossible to keep aggro under control even if there's multiple melee characters (it depends mostly on the order that the melee characters engage. In this case, the Ranger should move in slightly behind the Warrior or Dirvish, but ahead of an Assassin, and tanking is out of the question).

If you'd like to try this build out, you can download it here: Guild Wars Gamependium - template code ASMBlt6FndTgh8lL1N0mNjAA

But, my general advice for any player just starting out is to play the PvE game a bit first, and just pick whatever primary class looks cool to you and then take whatever secondary. Only the primary class is permanent and nothing can't be fixed. Besides, it's best to just play the game to see how things work rather than trying to learn everything first.

Serling

"...there's a cool barrage build that allows you to use the paragon's shouts to do massive damage to several mobs at once."

Leadership is the Paragon's unique attribute. If you're talking about Anthem of Flame (shout that causes burning when a skill is used), you only get 1 second of burning because an R/P can't get Leadership.

However, there are good damage shouts in Command ("Go For the Eyes" and "Find Their Weakness") that increase the likelyhood of a critical hit and deep wound (use GFTE first, because you need a crit with FTW to cause the deep wound).

I tried playing my Paragon with Ranger secondary once and found his attack speed to be too slow with the bow.