Guild Wars 2

Howdy folks!

First of all, I don’t take credit for this build event though I’ve changed it some to better suit PvP. As someone who never played a melee ranger before, this was a completely new concept that I figured I would give a try. I’m wondering though, have any of you either played as a melee trapper in PvP or fought against one? While I’m clearly no expert, I’ve found that against most folks, this build just overwhelms them with tons of conditions and raw damage.

Anyways, here is the build: Trapper Ranger

I’m sorry I don’t have any vids of this yet but I’ll try to get some recorded this weekend. In the meantime, what do you all think of this? I’ve found it to be much more fun and effective than my bunker guard/warrior.

While trapper Ranger works well as a roaming WvW build or in low-mid tier sPvP, it falls off in effectiveness dramatically the higher you go up in MMR. The reason for this is that you simply start meeting more direct counters to the build, as well as more coordinated burst and CC, which easily takes advantage of your lack of defensive utilities.

For example, Celestial Necro, SA Thief and Mesmers should all be able to kill trap Rangers, or at the very least never, ever die to them. Trap Ranger’s effectiveness is also negated a lot of the time in team fights if the enemy team has good support cleansing classes like Shoutbow, Staff Ele or Bunker Guardian.

As for your build, it’s decent, but you would probably need to take Signet of Stone over Flame Trap the more rating you gain, Carrion is a pretty squishy amulet now and good teams will CC you very easily between evade frames. It would also be worth it to put an energy sigil on one of your weapon sets. Settlers is also a good option for traps if you find yourself vs mostly power based burst damage.

what i have found funny is that p/p thief is hard counter to thus build
just pew pew and you dead unless you dont want to contest the point
but basically every other range class dmg is hard-counter to trap ranger

Full traps are not really viable at the moment. All your utilities go to waste if someone just refuses to fight you on point, and why would they if you have it full-capped?

I think 1 trap is pretty much the limit. Spike is nice for the KD, and flame is nice for the high damage.

At the moment the “trap bomb” ranger might catch me off guard 1 time in a match. After that I simply type on team chat that ranger is trapper and they are shut down quickly the rest of the match because people know to range them.

I started playing trapper ranger a couple of weeks ago. I also use 3 traps but axe+torch and shortbow to deal with the ranged. You would be surprised how many people just keep running towards a trapper even if they already died 3 times. Pew pew rangers can be a little tricky but if you manage to get near them by dodging their longbow 2 they are as good as dead. All you need is good movement. But yes, changing 1 trap for signet of stone might be a good idea if you have trouble with ranged, however I wouldn’t wanna go with only 1 trap because then it’s not really a trapper anymore

Trapper is a certainly a nasty surprise the first time around, but once you see the ranger pretty much remaining static inside the boundaries of the point, you know when their traps are ready. Like a lot of people have said, heavy range pressure (p/p teef, lb ranger/DH, mesmer, cele signet necro) will make the ranger’s day a lot harder. TBH, I’m scared of the trappers who realize that getting creative with their traps instead of squatting on the point all day would increase their effectiveness 10fold.

It’ll be better tomorrow once you can use trapper runes to help you rotate quicker. I’d probably drop poison trap for lighting reflexes, HS for TU, and switch EB to wilderness knowledge.

You could also bump up your damage by swapping NM to BM. If you run an eagle instead of the drake you can spam blinds and weakness, and use the taunt to help lock them down in the traps.

It won’t be prefect but it will be a lot more versatile than it is right now.

Trapper has it’s advantages in PvP for sure… But it’s extremely easy to counter if the player isn’t totally stupid. The only thing it’s particularly strong against is strictly melee builds. I have trouble with them on my Warrior sometimes just because I can’t get near them without taking a metric ton of condition damage from their traps (this is assuming zerk stance is on cooldown).

All you have to do is watch for them to do the trap dropping animation and you know exactly where NOT to step next. And if you have decent ranged options or good condition pressure that Ranger is gonna die real quick… Trappers have terrible mobility and condition cleanse, it’s very easy to just kite them or condi nuke them by counting the seconds between their Empathetic Bond cleanses.

I usually roll Survival Ranger personally both in WvW and PvP. If I take traps it’s only ever Flame Trap.

Of course again trapper has it’s advantages but it’s still not great against anyone with half a brain.

Trapper rangers with 3 traps are good for trolls…

When I’m bored I run a rabid/carrion 3 trap ranger, drop 3 traps, by the time someone hits them your CDs are done so drop the next 3 traps and a Bonfire for double burn stacking and lol as your pet does the rest

By mid game, some players figure out to activate traps or range you though so it becomes useless as the game progresses

Try this in spvp if you like traps:

• marks “use remorseless” – skirm “use sharpened edges” – wild “wilderness knowledge”
• troll/LR/fire trap/zephyr/entangle
• shortbow air & blood – axe/axe energy & leeching
• cele for engager, rampager for peeler – rune of pack

Still toats high phys damage, plenty of condi, hard to counter, peels great
Closest thing you’ll get to d/d cele on point presence as a ranger
Don’t use torch, it’s a lie
Axe #4 & #5 are vitally important for the survival of yourself and teammates

Mediocre sustained dmg, low burst, bad survability, zero mobility, zero support. I can’t think of much worse ranger builds …