Secondary professions for a Ranger

Ranger/Warrior
A Warrior secondary profession combines well with a Ranger main. Warrior attack skills that use energy can benefit from the Ranger's primary attribute, Expertise. Ranger armor also provides more energy regeneration and elemental protection than Warrior armor. Adrenaline-based Warrior skills give the Ranger a way to deal damage when energy is low and these skills may be charged by additional adrenaline build-up provided by speed increasing stances. Bonetti's Defense can add a useful energy management skill. Additionally, there are good skill synergies between the two professions, and several effective builds exist for this combination.

Rangers have a lower base armor value than warriors (70 vs. 80) and receive no bonus against physical damage, but they receive higher armor bonus against elemental damage (+30).

As Rangers work naturally at the middle and back row of a party, several Tactics skills can be strategically placed to augment teammates' abilities. There are also a few skills ("Fear Me!" and "Watch Yourself!") that use adrenaline rather than energy, allowing the R/W to benefit its team even while the target of energy denial tactics. However, with the slower attack speed of a bow, the R/W will not build-up adrenaline as fast as a melee fighter, consider taking Frenzy, Barrage or Tiger's Fury.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/W Choking Gas Ranger
 * Build:R/W Lightning Hammer

Ranger/Elementalist
Ranger/Elementalists (R/E) can take advantage of the conjure spells to enhance their damage output. This technique is usually employed for use with Barrage. Since Barrage will remove any preparations upon use, relying on Ignite Arrows or Kindle Arrows for extra damage is a waste. However, since spells like Conjure Flame or Conjure Frost are enchantments the bonus damage is not removed upon activating Barrage. Enchantments have the additional advantage of lasting longer than preparations.

A R/E can be a decent runner, making use of a variety of spells from each element.

Water Magic Spells: Armor of Frost, Frigid Armor, Mirror of Ice, Armor of Mist, Mist Form, and Swirling Aura

Air Magic Spells: Storm Djinn's Haste and Windborne Speed

Earth Magic Spells: Magnetic Aura, Stoneflesh Aura, possibly Obsidian Flesh and Sliver Armor

Fire Magic Spells: Burning Speed and Flame Djinn's Haste

This is not the best runner, but for those Ranger/Elementalists out there who want to make simple runs, these enchantments mixed with Ranger stances could provide great speed and protection combinations.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/E Fire Barrage Ranger
 * Build:R/E Tainted Flames

Ranger/Mesmer
The Ranger/Mesmer (R/Me) combines two of the best interrupting professions in the game. R/Mes can shut down casters with bow-attack and Domination/Inspiration magic interrupts. Usually incapable of providing significant damage on its own, the R/Me requires a group that can take advantage of the build's capabilities.

Use of Read the Wind, Favorable Winds, Distracting Shot, Savage Shot and/or Concussion Shot along with inconvenience-causing Illusion skills like Migraine and Arcane Conundrum is popular with the R/Me, making even the fastest skills potential targets for interrupts.

R/Me is a very common profession combination in PvP. It is used for the Ranger spike teams (using the Mesmer skills Drain Enchantment and Hex Breaker) and trapping teams (using Mantra of Resolve to avoid interruptions while setting traps).

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/Me Fissure Forest Farmer

Ranger/Monk
The Ranger/Monk (R/Mo) is a very flexible profession combination. It is often used as a trapper in The Underworld, usually concentrating on Expertise and Wilderness Survival attributes.

Beastmasters also benefit from a Monk secondary. This gives them the ability to provide extra protection as well as damage boosts for their pet. Skills of note for this strategy are Judge's Insight and Strength of Honor. Since enchantments and spells are not affected by Expertise, Ferocious Strike is a good skill choice for energy management and bonus damage. Another potentially useful skill combination is Life Bond (on your pet) and Balthazar's Spirit (on yourself) with Symbiotic Bond. This will give you 2 energy each time your pet takes damage and makes your pet an enduring tank.

When equipped with a running skill (e.g. Escape) and Rebirth, the R/Mo is among the best equipped to help a group recover from a near-wipe.

The R/Mo is also one of the best runner builds, combining the speed skills of the Ranger and the healing and protection skills of the Monk.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/Mo Vigorous Barrager

Ranger/Necromancer
The 'Touch Ranger', an infamous Ranger/Necromancer (R/N), is a popular PvP build. Since most of the Necromancer abilities that require touching the opponent (Vile Touch, Vampiric Bite, Vampiric Touch and Touch of Agony) are classified as skills (not spells), their energy cost can be reduced by the primary Ranger attribute, Expertise. This allows the R/N to spam these skills nearly continuously without draining their energy pool, provided some measure is used for energy management (usually Offering of Blood). Because these skills are not considered attacks, they cannot be blocked, evaded, reduced or caused to miss due to blindness, weakness, slowing effects, armor level, etc. and are safe to use even if the character is hexed by spells such as Backfire or Empathy, which normally punish skill spammers. This build is further strengthened by use of the Ranger's Expertise-linked defensive skills like Dodge, Throw Dirt and Whirling Defense, allowing the player to remain in melee range without taking significant damage. They can also use Plague Touch to provide some protection from conditions. However, Diversion, Spiteful Spirit, Degeneration and general energy denial techniques can counter this otherwise powerful build easily.

Other R/N builds combine the ranged abilities of the Ranger and the Death Magic spells of the Necromancer.

One combination of these two professions uses a high level of Beast Mastery and Death Magic to create an army consisting of a pet and multiple undead minions. This build would be significantly better as a Necromancer/Ranger, gaining benefit from higher energy regeneration and Soul Reaping, but some minion masters favor the higher armor and survivability of the ranger.

Other possibilities include using Price of Failure and Reckless Haste with Ranger defensive stances to produce a somewhat effective melee tank. Mark of Pain is an effective Necromancer skill for PvE, dealing damage in an AoE whenever a foe is struck with physical damage. Skirmisher rangers can use some Blood Magic skills for their otherwise wilderness survival influenced techniques.

The R/N can be an effective interrupter, combining bow attacks such as Savage Shot with powerful hexes like Mark of Subversion. For continuous interruption, using Spinal Shivers with a cold damage bowstring is a more reliable (but more energy-intensive) alternative to Concussion Shot. Energy denial, which can be achieved with a combination of skills like Malaise, Wither and Debilitating Shot, is another viable option for characters with an anti-caster focus.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/N Touch Ranger

Ranger/Assassin
Defensively, the armor differences between the Ranger and Assassin primary professions extend as far as their effects. Assassins tend to have armor well suited against conditions, lowering their duration, but ranger armor increases elemental protection. Both are identical in respect to armor level. Rangers have several stances within their skill list, such as Lightning Reflexes, Tiger's Fury or Whirling Defense which increase attack speed and/or evasion. Utilizing similiar assassin skills makes the R/A hard to hit even at close range.

Numerous ranger skills, such as Throw Dirt and Apply Poison, bestow conditions upon foes, and conditions are required to trigger the full effect of many dagger attack skills.

Alternatively, an archery-focused Ranger can employ Shadow Arts skills, particularly reactive teleports such as Viper's Defense, to keep out of melee range of enemy Warriors and Assassins.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/A Burning Arrow Ganksman

Ranger/Ritualist
Oath Shot could be used to quickly recharge Ritualist and Ranger spirits. Note that PvE characters would need to go to Tyria to learn Oath Shot. Ritualist Binding Rituals energy cost IS reduced by Expertise. Ritualist weapon spells go well with Barrage since they are not preparations and are not removed by activating Barrage, Splinter Weapon works especially well with this.

The combination Ranger/Ritualist may be a useful combination for trapping builds because item spells like Mighty Was Vorizun and binding rituals like Shadowsong can benefit a trapper.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/Rt Brutal Bombardier

Ranger/Paragon
Ranger/Paragon are mostly used as damage dealers as Expertise reduces the cost of Paragon attack skills

R/P builds do not automatically gain energy upon using shouts and chants, as Paragon primaries do, but they do have the capacity to spend less energy than other primaries do on Paragon attack skills. In addition, Ranger primaries have one more pip of energy regeneration - when compared with Paragon primaries.

As with other Ranger primary profession combinations, the skill Serpent's Quickness (Wilderness Survival) temporarily reduces the cooldown of all skills by 33% (on a calculator, the reduced cooldown may be found by multiplying the standard value listed for the skill's cooldown by the value 0.66); it should be noted that this bonus includes skills which are also of type Signet. Combined with 4-8 ranks in Expertise, this skill allows R/P builds to use Paragon skills both for less energy and more often than Paragon primaries, not to mention any other combination of professions.

Beast Mastery-major builds, such as the Pack Hunter build displayed in the Nightfall expansion preview events, potentially gain the benefit of extra damage in the form of a pet. In fact, by switching in Enraged Lunge for its default elite pet attack and changing all energy-cost spear attacks to adrenal-only spear attacks, this standard build may be converted into something truly devastating. Either personal attack speed buffing stance in Beast Mastery will black out Charm Animal and Comfort Animal making those skills more than just filler in the skill bar while enabling the pet attack to do something on the order of 80 damage to a soft target. In AB play, where a resurrection skill is not required, the build gains some healing in the form of Predatory Bond while providing another skill to buff Enraged Lunge; in this case, even when other skills are not blacked out, this skill will be as one will always use it when it becomes available; this translates into a steady bonus to Enraged Lunge instead of a spike bonus, making both skills that much more worthwhile in cunjunction.

Generally speaking, Spear Mastery and Marksmanship are mutually exclusive: in most builds, one chooses one, the other, neither, but not both. In any Marksmanship-major build, Paragon skills are likely to only play a supporting role.

Example Builds:
 * Build:R/P Envious Barrage