I had no idea

My ranger is running a combo of Assassins and Zerker gear.  I feel assassins gear may give me a slight edge when I run into other zerker rangers out there, but I could be wrong and just running into people with less experience on them.  As far as running into thieves, I usually don't have that hard of a time if they are zerker... Zerker thieves usually depend on stealth so with a skill like "Sic 'Em" and longbow #2 ready to roll they don't stand much of a chance.  Don'e expect to live after encountering a condi thief though.  I also like to run Entangle to stop people from running, and of course "Signet of the Hunt" for passive speed.  The last optional skill I use is Signet of Renewal just to aid in condi removal.  For a heal I run "Heal as One"  Reason for this is that it is a Heal that heals for a lot, and heals the pet, in addition I can easily control when it is used.  I use this build to gank, and solo camps most of the time, and once in a while solo towers.  I use a greatsword and longbow.  I have heard axe is great if you are always running into thieves? But I have not tried it.  This build and class in general though is not very zerg friendly, if you want to run with the zerg consider a different build or class.  For pets, I run a spider for the imob, and dog for the knockdown.  But I think I could make almost any pet work with me...

Mistress Collisto|Molly Oakenheart|Lena Andersdotter|Heather Jones
Guild Leader of [JADE] www.Immortalizedin.enjin.com

Ok, so this has eaten my kitten reply twice now, but:

Collisto:  I would run Troll Unguent over Heal as One. Not a spike heal, but it does ~20% more healing over the 10secs.  Even with the slightly longer cooldown, you average out to more healing/sec.  Also, try switching out the dog for the wolf.  Wolf still does a lunge, and the fear makes people burn stunbreaks.

Krustydog:  You shouldn't have a problem soloing a camp with any class at 80, I've either done it, or have guildies who have soloed with all classes and a pile of different builds.  Generally, you want to aggro everything in the camp, use los to get them all grouped up on you, DPS until health is low, use one of the invulns, rinse and repeat.  On a ranger, I use healing spring with camps, and 2 drakes.  You get them to help blast the water field and keeps the amount of blind down.  Rangers are the 2nd (or 3rd, I see the argument that engi is easier than ranger) easiest class to solo a tower with.  If you rolled a sylvari, it's even easier (the cultural elite skill gives you another 3 seconds of invuln).  Generally, towers are easier if you run sword/axe and GS.

In general, if the group is over 10, I don't bring my ranger.  There are other classes with more utility to the group, and they will increase the group DPS and condi clear by much, much more than my ranger.  

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Archangels Haven [HALO] - WvW Command Team. Purchaser of the Golems. TS Administrator.

I kind of like it running with the zerg. Great for holding choke points, awesome tower defense, and zerg v zerg puts out some serious withering fire. Oh, and clearing cannons on walls. That's the utility you bring-massive burst dps.

Honestly I enjoy playing my ranger in small groups, but:

Clearing cannons/siege:  An ele is going to reach further in with Meteor Shower, and do higher DPS with lava font + ice bow.  Engineer has a theoretical 2300 range with supply crate (1200 range to place the supply crate + 1100 range on the rifle turret), which can reach further into a tower than barrage.  In addition engineer grenades are an aoe, so you can splash damage siege beyond the 1,500 max range of a ranger.

Tower defense:  Ice bow is going to outdamage barrage, lava font will out dps you on destroying rams (equal if 1, double damage if you can hit 2 because of aoe). Engineer has a ranged aoe stun on supply crate.  As a warrior you have more mobility to get into their siege to drop a disabler, and better survivability. 

Holding choke points:  A warrior has better survivability in contesting the ring, in addition to bringing warbanner to get a few friends to help hold the circle.  Providing you dont choke to condis, you (as a ranger) have a theoretical 12 seconds of invuln that won't let them tick the circle, but it will take your entire skill bar (one to get your pet out of dodge, one for 6 secs of your pet eating all damage, one for you to take no damage for 6 secs, and your elite to give you stability to not get punted like an asuraball).  If you are firing into a choke point, as an ele, ice bow 4 will match barrage, and you can convert another person into a second extra barrage that otherwise doesn't have that much ranged dps.  

Zerg vs. Zerg:  If you are running frontline in the zerg, a warrior is going to out-dps you, and if you are running backline, an ele will outdps you.  A ranger does better in the frontline because their damage is single-target heavy at range, but if using a GS has at least some cleave in melee.  

In small groups, you don't have enough people to bring various specializations, so a ranger can jack of all trades, master of none several of them.  Once you get to a certain size, while you aren't hurting the zerg by playing a ranger, you can bring more to the table by playing other classes.  

The most effective WvW player is going to cycle through several classes for different tasks.  My ranger will eat zerglings for breakfast when they are trying to get back to their blob, but my ele will rain icy death on a zerg vs. zerg fight on a level that ranger can't.  I'll use my warrior when I want to facetank all the things, and my necro to make hammer trains cry.  The more classes you know, the better you are in all situations.

Not saying don't play a ranger, but if you have multiple classes, bring different classes depending on what you see on the field.

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Archangels Haven [HALO] - WvW Command Team. Purchaser of the Golems. TS Administrator.

You forgot about all the things where rangers outstrip other professions.  That is understandable, since "bash rangers" has been something of a MMO motto since EQ.  Also, given the difficulty in playing a ranger well, most people aren't familiar with what they can really bring to the table.

Healing spring has the best duty cycle (1/3) of any water field.  In larger groups where it is hard to control everyone and keep them from overlapping fields, duration especially counts for a lot when you're looking for water blasts.

A zerker thief will generally die to a stack of traps + whirling defense.  In solo/small group content, this is invaluable as thieves are a favorite for harassing havoks.  In larger content, those traps reach through doors and provide area control in chokepoints without the conspicuousness of a necro's marks.  Better still, use the marks to bait the enemy into wasting endurance only to land in a nest of traps.

"Search and Rescue" has (I believe--too lazy to check all, but it is 85s cooldown base) the shortest cooldown of any rez skill.  Their other rez skill can often be triggered twice per cooldown (180s).

Whirling defense has a 20% duty cycle on projectile reflection.  That tops other classes.

Point Blank Shot has a 15s cooldown.  For a ranged knockback, this is pretty much as good as it gets.

Yes, a ranger's strength is single-target damage; this is still an asset in larger combats.  Area damage is great at putting pressure on a zerg, however spike damage is what drops people.  While they're jumping out of AoE rings rangers can still be peppering them at 1500 range (and much more easily and accurately than a grenadier) and spike them down.

Rangers have a lot of incredible strengths.  Like all classes that have a strong support line, it is hard to play a good ranger.  Like all classes in Guild Wars 2, it is quite easy to play a passable ranger.  The learning curve is certainly longer, if not steeper, than it is for a lot of other classes.  There is also no single build that brings all the ranger's strengths to bear (pun intended).  I'm not that good at playing a ranger; I can handle PvE on a ranger just fine, but for PvP and WvW, I take my lessons from Sylver.

Guild Wars (original) was balanced not around the individual, but the team.  This was a huge deviation from the MMO norm of every-class-is-interchangeable.  Guild Wars 2 is no different than its predecessor.  A well-balanced team is capable of handling more situations than a spekittent team.  Support classes that can fill multiple roles keep the scales balanced when control effects (or death) start landing. 

Every class has something to offer a group, even one so large and unwieldy as a zerg.  I find that groups perform the best when everyone defines their own role according to their own strengths--as a player as well as the character's strengths.  When you try to fit the group to the mold, you end up with disenfranchised minions seeking loot.  The ability to excel as an individual is lost in the kittengenization process.  When you fit the mold to the team, the members are far more invested and have, in my experience, a greatly increased capacity to overcome incredible challenges.

"spekittent"
"kittengenization"

...  And this is why regular expressions do not make competent chat filters.  A clbuttic mistake.

Stealth/trapper SB Axe/horn is fun roaming/small scale. And a bit less predictable. Im not saying its better though, just what is fun for me. I like the hound,spider, or wolf for pets. But I have too much fun on thief and engi, and my ranger is a dust collector ATM.  But I gotta say, with the state of power ranger, pew pew zerk, assassins build with LB is a quick death if you come across an experienced one and don't mitigate that burst somehow. I ran by Ogrewatch last week, didn't see anyone when I was just running past it, got by the front and thought a guard was shooting me, I'm like whatever, no biggie, next thing  i went from 26k health to a couple hundred. And im far from squishy on my engi. Was juat a single ranger in the tower, surprising thing is he didn't chase me to finish me off. 

*Xeero Cool-Mez,Admiral Wiggin-Engi,Arya Sinfelle-Teef,Dirtyfilthyrotten-Necro,Ender Tha Xenocide-Rev
Filthydirtyrotten-Warrior

just tested it-zerk power ranger can solo camp no problamo. I really enjoy the raw damage this build/class can put out. Even got jumped by a gold thief and still managed to redline him before he got me. I really need to make room for sic'em. would switching to travelers runes be that much of a dps loss (using rangers runes now)? Either way theres really not that many roaming thieves these days and the occasional death is something I can live with. On a side note-leveling Guardian in WvW sux because theres no perma speed boost.

Trust me on this, Fildy and the rest of FBB that play rangers know how to play them.  ;)

Mistress Collisto|Molly Oakenheart|Lena Andersdotter|Heather Jones
Guild Leader of [JADE] www.Immortalizedin.enjin.com

Yeah, if roaming or in a havok group I kill condi  necro and power ranger first. Not particularly in that order, matters a bit if I have -condi duration food, and if I can LOS the ranger. Roaming, a condi necro with an engi or ranger are a tough fight. 

*Xeero Cool-Mez,Admiral Wiggin-Engi,Arya Sinfelle-Teef,Dirtyfilthyrotten-Necro,Ender Tha Xenocide-Rev
Filthydirtyrotten-Warrior

While we appreciate the compliment, Collisto, I feel compelled to point out that every active member of FBB has at least one ranger (I'm pretty sure everybody that actively plays has at least one of everything), but skill levels vary tremendously.  With specific regards to rangers, Sylver and I compete for top slot in different forms of content (Sylver usually wins) while the lower end of the spectrum is a 4-year-old.  She's not bad; holds her own in dungeons and has saved the day in WvW a few times, but certainly is not a role model for aspiring rangerlings.

lol at a 4yr old be competent w/Ranger.  That's awesome. It's funny on a couple levels. Picturing that makes me crack up! But man, kids are amazing with computers nowadays, huh? It's like computer knowledge is already in their genetic coding. My 2yr old niece can take any phone and find the ringtones and sound settings really fast, and she uses Mac OS better than I. Maybe she's a future gamer also..

*Xeero Cool-Mez,Admiral Wiggin-Engi,Arya Sinfelle-Teef,Dirtyfilthyrotten-Necro,Ender Tha Xenocide-Rev
Filthydirtyrotten-Warrior

I see a lot of Rangers bagging on the meta LB/GS zerker build on the GW2 forums. Why? It seems to work great for me.

Its in every profession sub forum. With rangers I think its because ppl don't like getting killed fast at long range. 

*Xeero Cool-Mez,Admiral Wiggin-Engi,Arya Sinfelle-Teef,Dirtyfilthyrotten-Necro,Ender Tha Xenocide-Rev
Filthydirtyrotten-Warrior