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State of the Game - PvP

By Keith Cross on Mar 11, 2008

The Guild Wars official site has been updated with another edition of their State of the Game series of articles, which takes a look at PvP strategies, tips, and tactics.

The previous article covered the role of Mesmers in shutdown. While they typically excel in shutdown at the flag stand, most teams also couple them with a Ranger to greatly increase their versatility. This article briefly discusses how Rangers can become a significant presence in the midline with their shutdown capabilities, as well as how they add tactical flexibility to the team.

Objectives

Rangers' roles are similar to those of Mesmers, but often broader in scale. As a Ranger, you typically have responsibilities to disrupt, pressure, and skirmish.

Disruption: using the skills on your bar to interrupt key opposing skills at appropriate times.

Pressure: applied through spamming conditions, as well as controlling position and movement.

Skirmish: providing solid split capabilities, both offensively and defensively.

The Skills

The discussion in this article uses the currently most popular Ranger template in the metagame: the "Cripshot." The typical Cripshot bar is Apply Poison, Crippling Shot, Distracting Shot, Savage Shot, Troll Unguent, Mending Touch, Natural Stride, and Resurrection Signet. While this group of skills can be broken down and thought of as a couple skills for applying conditions, two for interrupts, and three for self survival, it is important to remember that these skills have multiple uses. For example, players use Savage Shot as both an interrupt and a way to quickly apply conditions. The same goes for Mending Touch; while players tend to use it for self-removal of Blindness or Cripple, it can also be used for cheap, stack condition removal to clean Daze from Monks or Deep Wounds from a split partner.