Guild Wars 2

Ok, before you all start ranting and throwing out builds and what class is better and the who what, the when and the how.. let me lay it down for you.

I got a PUG together to run CoF Path 1 with an all ranger class. This was something I’ve always wanted to record and it happened to be with a PUG and not with the guild I’m in. This video I’m going to link shows my first attempt at running CoF Path 1 with a full ranger group.

As many of you know, in the patch they made the pets become aggroless. Bascially, I can make my pet run past any number of enemies without them bothering with my pet. Using this system, I tested it out on the turrets in CoF Path 1. The pet attacks a turret (the turrets still shoot at the pet) and the flame legion guys standing there do absolutely NOTHING!

The video shows the Slave Driver boss being taken down by pets ONLY. This was just a fun test to see how fast / effective 5 pets would be. There was no specific pet setup, but it went pretty good.

The flame acolytes were taken out the same way, pets only.

The part we tested out next was the gate controller. Many of you know that a Hellstorm flamethrower guy is in that room. What we did was have the person going for the controller stand away from the door, ctrl+click the controller to target it, the rest of the party pushes “T” to also target it while in their bubbles, then spams F1 to send their pets into the room attacking the controller at once. So, in the end, 5 pets attack the controller while NOT pulling aggro on the Hellstorm guy.

Finally, the end boss. We decided to just go all out, Pets and Rangers attack him full force. Here is the video of what went down:

http://youtu.be/7SDuoU5EUco

P.S. I’m uploading this video while I sleep tonight. I will adjust the description with timestamps of major points in the video and fix annotations if I need them. Hope you enjoy this fun, hilarious ride that us 5 rangers had.

As of this post, it will be up by 4:15 – 4:45 am Eastern time.

Also, after watching the video let’s discuss how to effectively build the ranger in this type of situation. What pets to bring, what weapons to use, etc.

Let’s discuss ideas to make this run go by faster

I’ll start by suggesting Stalkers as a pet to bring.. they all charge into the fight, once they reach the boss they pop their F2 skill at the same time to grant each other 5 stacks of might, essentially giving all pets 25 stacks of might for 11secs.

Or 2) Hyenas popping their F2 skill at the same time before hitting the boss to have 5 Hyenas and 5 hyena allies attacking one single boss.

Just some thoughts from me to start this off.

Ok, discuss!!

(Edit: The video is up and being updated)

rubs hands together

this should be good.

I gotta admit however, path 1 is not very hard. Once you learn the dance you can do it with almost any group composition, in under 20 minutes. It doesn’t surprise me that it can be done with rangers/ranger pets either. I am however, pleased someone di a video on it.

EDIT: now that I have seen it, I am still not really all that surprised, but I am definitely entertained. Well done. XD

The lazy mans way of doing dungeons :P

While i do see your point and appreaciate the idea as whole

The lazy mans way of doing dungeons :P

^i cant agree more ^^

Ok, its up and I’m updating info on it.

Finally a grouping that doesn’t need Zerker gear.

Nice, that last boss(gogo powerrangers) was that in real time? pretty fast then:) i’ve been many warrior/thief party’s where it went down way slower

Yes, that part is in real time.

That would have gone A LOT faster if everyone had 30pts in BM and had skills that benefited the pets (shouts, signets, RaO). You didn’t use your utility or elite skill once, so this time can be shaved by a lot.

Wow, I’ve wanted to optimize a pet only cof run as well as a fastest time rangers only cof for a long, long time. PM if you’d like to try recreating this. It looked like you fellas had fun. Rock on!

Olaf Soul Can Haz.4689:

That would have gone A LOT faster if everyone had 30pts in BM and had skills that benefited the pets (shouts, signets, RaO). You didn’t use your utility or elite skill once, so this time can be shaved by a lot.

True, this was done on the fly. Just running it without any change to our current builds. Now I have changed up to a beastmaster build with the Elite – Rampage as One.

@Chopps, added you to my friends list.

looks like exploits to me, anet supported exploits!

Another reason why pets need to be reworked completely.

Very impressive – good job! I didn’t realize how big a change that patch made to pet play. I admit I don’t know much about Ranger builds/abilities, but I can definitely see many places where this could be useful in dungeons. What was your build spec by the way?

I hadn’t really considered playing Ranger, but that looked like fun so I might have to roll one. The pet aggro mechanic sort of reminded me of the old Thief stealth aggro mechanic (I still really miss how that was on my Thief…)

stone cold.8609:

What was your build spec by the way?

In the video I was using a sloppy trap build. After making the video, I switched to a beastmaster / precision build and the numbers are really nice

Guild Wars 1 heroes do exactly the same thing. One of the easiest way to cap the shrines in the Gate of Madness was sending heroes capping them since they don’t draw aggro when they are outside of the radar range / outside of you character’s aggro bubble

The power ranger music at the end was epic too lolz, good video

Nay of the Ether.8913:

The power ranger music at the end was epic too lolz, good video

lol thanks.. i just had to.

You are my hero.

Thanks for sharing! I’d love to try this some day. I could see this being a ton of fun in AC because the pets may be able to clear more stuff than players in the spider queen encounter, or maybe even do graveling mounds because they’d only aggro stuff that was hit while they were actually attacking.

Fun Fact: I had the same 5-Ranger-CoF idea, but i would do it a bit different.

5 rangers can easily stack 25 might and fury and have accces to 6-8 sec quickness. Therefore you should be able to kill slavedriver very fast with sword/warhorn.

Same goes for the endboss – he has a knockdown and a heavy burn, you have 20 sec stability and a heal that removes one condition every 3 seconds. No need to dodge = high dps.

In theory, 5 Ranges should be able to do this really fast.

Last boss music MADE MY DAY!

Are you planning to do path 2 and 3 with 5 rangers? These “defend the objective” events could be so funny – never-ending barrage, traps all over the place, 5 pets, maybe some other guys from consumables and runes for additional distraction… it sounds really good!

Sword/dagger + GS or sword/axe + GS melee ranger trains with points put to BM could easily finish the dungeon just as fast as those boring 4 Warrior 1 Mesmer teams. 4 Ranger 1 Mesmer teams, even. Ability to do about the same dps much safer, with access to unpatched "exploits" is just golden. More people should pick up on the idea.

Molch.2078:

Fun Fact: I had the same 5-Ranger-CoF idea, but i would do it a bit different.

5 rangers can easily stack 25 might and fury and have accces to 6-8 sec quickness. Therefore you should be able to kill slavedriver very fast with sword/warhorn.

Same goes for the endboss – he has a knockdown and a heavy burn, you have 20 sec stability and a heal that removes one condition every 3 seconds. No need to dodge = high dps.

In theory, 5 Ranges should be able to do this really fast.

I’ll try anything really. This is along the lines of what is possible that I’m thinking of. This idea will be one I will try out for some runs.

Quam.7218:

Last boss music MADE MY DAY!

lol It makes my day everytime I watch it! I pop on and just turn it to the 10:23 mark.

Ragenall.4530:

Are you planning to do path 2 and 3 with 5 rangers? These “defend the objective” events could be so funny – never-ending barrage, traps all over the place, 5 pets, maybe some other guys from consumables and runes for additional distraction… it sounds really good!

This would be insanely funny! For now, I’m going to focus on ideas for making a 5-ranger path 1 run as fast as the 4 war 1 mes runs. There are so many possibilities.

Demosthene.2195:

Sword/dagger + GS or sword/axe + GS melee ranger trains with points put to BM could easily finish the dungeon just as fast as those boring 4 Warrior 1 Mesmer teams. 4 Ranger 1 Mesmer teams, even. Ability to do about the same dps much safer, with access to unpatched “exploits” is just golden. More people should pick up on the idea.

I would like to use your weapon sets with Molch’s suggestions from above. This is a very good possible fast run for path 1.

An idea I was having from work last night was to run in with 5 jaguars stealthing just before reaching Slave Driver at the same time we all 5 have longbows, we stack 25 weakness, 5 barrages, then finish with 5 rapid fire + quickening zephr.. switching to melee and close in for the final blows. Of course, I’m sure the numbers will crush my thinking stage here and it won’t work so wonderfully as I imagine.

BigMoser.8790:

Molch.2078:

Fun Fact: I had the same 5-Ranger-CoF idea, but i would do it a bit different.

5 rangers can easily stack 25 might and fury and have accces to 6-8 sec quickness. Therefore you should be able to kill slavedriver very fast with sword/warhorn.

Same goes for the endboss – he has a knockdown and a heavy burn, you have 20 sec stability and a heal that removes one condition every 3 seconds. No need to dodge = high dps.

In theory, 5 Ranges should be able to do this really fast.

I’ll try anything really. This is along the lines of what is possible that I’m thinking of. This idea will be one I will try out for some runs.

Quam.7218:

Last boss music MADE MY DAY!

lol It makes my day everytime I watch it! I pop on and just turn it to the 10:23 mark.

Ragenall.4530:

Are you planning to do path 2 and 3 with 5 rangers? These “defend the objective” events could be so funny – never-ending barrage, traps all over the place, 5 pets, maybe some other guys from consumables and runes for additional distraction… it sounds really good!

This would be insanely funny! For now, I’m going to focus on ideas for making a 5-ranger path 1 run as fast as the 4 war 1 mes runs. There are so many possibilities.

Demosthene.2195:

Sword/dagger + GS or sword/axe + GS melee ranger trains with points put to BM could easily finish the dungeon just as fast as those boring 4 Warrior 1 Mesmer teams. 4 Ranger 1 Mesmer teams, even. Ability to do about the same dps much safer, with access to unpatched “exploits” is just golden. More people should pick up on the idea.

I would like to use your weapon sets with Molch’s suggestions from above. This is a very good possible fast run for path 1.

An idea I was having from work last night was to run in with 5 jaguars stealthing just before reaching Slave Driver at the same time we all 5 have longbows, we stack 25 weakness, 5 barrages, then finish with 5 rapid fire + quickening zephr.. switching to melee and close in for the final blows. Of course, I’m sure the numbers will crush my thinking stage here and it won’t work so wonderfully as I imagine.

You will be faster with swords/warhorn timed for perma fury, berserker gear, with the following pets (sword gives pet 3 stack might on auto):

Ranger A) Reef drake confusion / lightening drake
Ranger jag / stalker
Ranger C) jag / stalker
Ranger D) jag / stalker
Ranger E) Red moa / blue moa (vigorous training)

Be sure to blast heal with drakes in perma healing spring. Each ranger should be in melee. The moas burst heal skill is really nice but you have to be in melee range. Run signet of wild and BM for maximum pet longevity, as well as guard. Keep the pets up and healed and protected. Make use of sick em and QZ too. In fact, slot QZ for sure and make sure its traited. Frost spirit and stone spirit could be useful; try to include 30% crit. Dmg. from pets as well (skirmishing) particularly if you have cats.

If pure zerk gear isn’t cutting it, one ranger should try clerics.

I still have no idea where rangers got a bad reputation from, never grouped with a bad one.

Great video :p

emikochan.8504:

I still have no idea where rangers got a bad reputation from, never grouped with a bad one.

Great video :p

It’s because in speedclear teams it takes them zomg! an extra 20 seconds to kill a boss rather than bring another zerker warrior. For speedclear freaks that’s unacceptable and so they blame the ranger for a “bad run”. In reality where the rest of us live though, rangers rock!