Guild Wars 2

As the title states I am an avid Well’omancer. Naturally I am focused on conditions and AoE damage which has brought me a lot of success in WvW. I can almost always at last my enemies, annoy them and throw conditions all over the place. I’ve noticed that I really excel when it comes to assaulting a tower, camp or keep. The more enemies the better for me!

Where I do feel weak is in the open battle ground when we are roaming between points. Now normally I can fight against a number of different enemies but what really annoys me is when I have to fight a ranger and his/her pet!

If I ignore the pet and focus on the ranger (which I almost always do) the pet gnaws at me and whittles away my endurance. If I attack the pet, I can kill it but by that time the ranger have knocked me senseless with a series of arrows.

What I want to know is this – do you have any great tactics or ways to fight a ranger (with a bow) and his/her pet in an open area where you are almost unable to pin them down to one spot?

This isn’t specific to well builds, which I can’t speak on, but Rangers were especially tough opponents because of their condition clearing and regen. BM rangers that were running Empathic Bond were pretty much hard counters to condition builds because their pet took all conditions off them every 10 seconds and the conditions just disappeared.

However in the recent patch this skill was brought back in line, only takes 3 conditions and I believe the pet actually gets the conditions now. One thing you can do is stack conditions on the pet, where they are more likely to stick, then epidemic them to the ranger.

If they are running the heal aoe that lasts 15 seconds, regens and clears conditions, best to just leave the area or make them chase. Otherwise, obviously you want to cc, chill and immobilize them as best as possible if they are trying to keep distance.

Try not to let them flank while the pet is distracting you or turn your back.

So, I have never played a Well-o-m and am considering moving toward a group Wells power build but I used to have the same issues with Rangers.

Today, I uses Nemesis’s (6x Fear) Terror build and I just LOL at them now. Like any class, if I get caught with my cooldows blown I am going to have a much harder time but, here is what I do…..

See a Ranger (any class I will need to 1v1 really)….get my Elite pet out. Once in range, I send my pet at Ranger which does a sprint / knock down. HINT: This speed/knock down will also interrupt an Ele’s steam charge if timed properly.

While he is on the ground I do a Staff 2 to start him bleeding, then a staff 5 on top of him. Right as he gets up, he is feared (which in my spec causes damage).

As he runs (feared), I place staff 3 down for chill so I can keep close enough to him. Once Fear runs its’ course, they will normally turn to fight. I switch to DS and use DS3 to fear him again. At this point, my pets is on him and psychologically, he is beginning to panic. He has now taken close to 4k famage on fear ticks alone and is ticking from other conditions on him.

When he pops buffs to run or strengthen himself, I will Corrupt Boon and turn those into conditions (situational….have to pick right time). If he uses a skill that grants Stability boon, when corrupted…that turns in Fear,

I switch to scepter and cripple / bleed etc to stay inside my range and he is trying to kite awy from me.

At this point, it is over he just doesn’t knonw it yet

By the time you have used your scepter skills, staff is off Cd. Switch to staff and use as needed. Remember staff 5 (fear) and DS 3 (fear) are likely off CD and read to take him out of the fight, again.

There is more that you will have to consider / react to but I normally have no issues with solo fights anymore.

Here is a link to the thread discussing the build I am using:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Fear-is-my-weapon-6x-fear-WvW-build/first

Hope this helps.