A little primer on traditional bow and arrow play :D
As a pet class, Rangers in Guild Wars 2 have a lot of ways to maintain distance from a target and nuke enemies from long range, using short bow, long bow and axe to attack from afar,
They can however get in close with other weapons including a great sword, sword and axe in offhand to pile on damage at close range, should you want to play it another way!
Compared to more complicated professions like the Mesmer, rangers are more straightforward. That's not to say it's a simple profession, because there is plenty of depth in each play style,
Ranger is a good choice for newer players. because you can send in a pet to occupy an enemy's attention, thus making your survival less directly tied to your skill use, consequently making it a little easier to recover from mistakes.
Although the Ranger is skilled at long-range damage, that doesn't mean you have to stand still in one place, firing arrows like an MMO automaton, as nearly all the skills in Guild Wars 2 can be used while moving around, even during channelled 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.
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 arrow shots, and has the added bonus of doing increased damage the further you are away from a target. To maintain this distance, with the long bow you can fire a Point Blank Shot that knocks a target back quite a distance, pushing it out of melee range and giving you an opportunity to loose a few higher damage long range shots. The Point Blank Shot also pushes back targets further if they're closer to you, so this skill isn't as effective against targets already far away.
After knocking a target back, it's a good idea to follow up with Hunter's Shot, which deals damage and also lowers the target's defense. A couple of long range shots will then do higher damage, or better yet you could use Rapid Fire, which launches a sustained volley of arrows at the target for a few seconds. The individual shots don't do as much damage individually as the long range auto-attack, but can be a great way to get in some free, fast damage as the opponent is trying to close back in after getting knocked away.
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. 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.
As a pet class, Rangers in Guild Wars 2 have a lot of ways to maintain distance from a target and nuke enemies from long range, using short bow, long bow and axe to attack from afar,
They can however get in close with other weapons including a great sword, sword and axe in offhand to pile on damage at close range, should you want to play it another way!
Compared to more complicated professions like the Mesmer, rangers are more straightforward. That's not to say it's a simple profession, because there is plenty of depth in each play style,
Ranger is a good choice for newer players. because you can send in a pet to occupy an enemy's attention, thus making your survival less directly tied to your skill use, consequently making it a little easier to recover from mistakes.
Although the Ranger is skilled at long-range damage, that doesn't mean you have to stand still in one place, firing arrows like an MMO automaton, as nearly all the skills in Guild Wars 2 can be used while moving around, even during channelled 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.
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 arrow shots, and has the added bonus of doing increased damage the further you are away from a target. To maintain this distance, with the long bow you can fire a Point Blank Shot that knocks a target back quite a distance, pushing it out of melee range and giving you an opportunity to loose a few higher damage long range shots. The Point Blank Shot also pushes back targets further if they're closer to you, so this skill isn't as effective against targets already far away.
After knocking a target back, it's a good idea to follow up with Hunter's Shot, which deals damage and also lowers the target's defense. A couple of long range shots will then do higher damage, or better yet you could use Rapid Fire, which launches a sustained volley of arrows at the target for a few seconds. The individual shots don't do as much damage individually as the long range auto-attack, but can be a great way to get in some free, fast damage as the opponent is trying to close back in after getting knocked away.
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. 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.