Guild Wars 2

I ran across a ranger in WvW, and much to my pleasant surprise, put up quite a fight. I’m very interested in finding out what setup they were probably using.

1. They had a longbow and sword/x – he/she kept mostly to the longbow, so I didn’t see what was their offhand when they did swap weapons. The pets were a krytan drakehound, and black widow spider.

2. They were pretty tanky, but still did decent damage. 1v1 we couldn’t down each other. We both got to critical a few times, but he recovered quickly, before I could burst him down. He also had a nice array of escapes. It ended up taking 2 thieves to down him.

Ah, he/she has an elegant choice of pets. Not sure what it is but it could be BM bunker if it took 3 thieves to down. I would be more certain if you can confirm the off hand was warhorn.

gawker.8340:

Ah, he/she has an elegant choice of pets. Not sure what it is but it could be BM bunker if it took 3 thieves to down. I would be more certain if you can confirm the off hand was warhorn.

It took two thieves. Our fight had turned into a 2v2, but the other opponent was a warrior whom we dispatched quickly. I do remember the ranger had very good escape, even through water, and I had to shadowstep quite a lot to catch up to him.

I also do not believe they had any signets on them, if that helps narrow down the setup.

well, you said what weapons and pets he ran, what about heals? utility? elite?

1. could u tell if he had empathic bond?
2. cooldown on pet swap?
3. swiftness and/or fury when he swapped weapons?
4. any automatic sharpened edges that procced when u were at 75% health?
5. protection when he dodged?
6. regen when he reached 75% health?
7. how much regen uptime did he have?
8. vigor uptime?
9. piercing arrows?
10. cleansing poison/blind on dodge?
11. might application?
12. cleansing conditions and gaining fury on using a survival skill?
13. very fast moving arrows?

etc. etc.

give me something to work with here. I can figure out most people’s builds just by watching them play but I need something to look at, some details.

Let’s see…I’m not as familiar with rangers, but I’ll give what I do recall.

1. Can’t say what condi removals they used, but would quickly get rid of blinds. I focused more on the ranger than the pet.
2. What is the cooldown for pet swapping, both traited and non-traited? He mostly kept to the drakehound for our fight.
3. Likely swiftness for weapon swap.
4. Had cripples and immobilize, used them often
5. Uptime on boon protection was pretty consistent.
6. sharpening stones – I’m trying to remember if they popped up in lieu with my health. I want to say they did.
7. What do you mean by fast moving arrows? Rapid fire skill?
8. Piercing arrows, yes
9. Opening strikes in the middle of fights, gained from stealth.
10. I think he had decent boon regeneration, and did not use healing spring.

this probably isn’t exact, but you could try this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjEq0ya/Kesw1ag/ga9BUABQrdw9/2DldJXqB-TlCEABaq+zTKpI4iA0lSQmUqYwTAQKlBdobIn9HA4ABQKgBWGB-w

Well that seems interesting. Opening strikes gained from stealth is 6 deep in skirmishing (crit chance and damage), while piercing arrows is 4 deep into marksmanship (power, con.damage). Soooo, how was he tanky? Did he have high toughness, hp, heals? I cannot for the life of me imagine a tanky ranger dealing good damage with longbow. Or did you mean that he was elisive?

No, its 6 deep in Marksmanship. Its called “Remorseless”.

And the build I posted is both tanky and deals good damage.

You are right. I shouldn’t comment on the forums before 8 am it seems.

shadowpass.4236:

this probably isn’t exact, but you could try this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjEq0ya/Kesw1ag/ga9BUABQrdw9/2DldJXqB-TlCEABaq+zTKpI4iA0lSQmUqYwTAQKlBdobIn9HA4ABQKgBWGB-w

That is quite an interesting build, thank you. I do remember that his/her damage was fairly consistent, and lacked burst. It was safe for me to keep the fight going and stave off heals.

If the damage from the LB was consistent and safe for you, it was the Survival of the Fittest build. Probably with a bunch of defensive gear.

Longbow has one big strength, and that is big ranged damage. Making it tanky makes it useless. A well played glassy ranger is 1 in a 100, but you kill thieves.

Doesn’t this sound to all of you like that ranger was deep into the nature magic tree using survival of the fittest? Throw in 2 in wilderness survival for quick uptime on survival skills, that would explain the constant cripple/immobilizes via muddy terrain, unless the OP suggests they were not using muddy terrain, it would have been simpler to identify cripples from short sword 1 attacks and longbow 5 arrow shower. If the secondary weapon was a dagger then extra cripple there. Then the hunter could have traited 6 in to Marksmanship for sharpenning edges, piercing arrows and I’m not 100% sure about the final trait they could have chosen… it makes me thing of predator’s instinct for the cripple too. All they need is to have high toughness armor (at the very least) with condi reduction runes or something to benefit them (hard to say). Not to mention that the ranger is experienced enough not to die easily, I wonder if OP can say whether or not they used troll unguent (healing skill you can see this when they use it next to their boons).