Guild Wars 2

I’m not a big writer, so I’ll keep this fairly short.

What with druid coming (eventually…) and my desire to get good at every aspect of the ranger (I recently started running dungeons!) I decided to try some new builds and such, instead of just taking the meta and suiting it to my needs.

Thus, I came up with this build. I have no clue how decent it is compared to the meta, but I definitely enjoy playing it, and in my MMR, I think it fairs pretty decently (especially compared to my last build, which was a tankier version of the Read the Wind build)

Anyways, here’s the build. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAsf3YnUqA9CitCCWsActgBMhyX8F4x/bYyj8eZ70AokddA-TJxHwAOLDY4JAob/BAnEAA

Pros

• A buttload of healing. a near-constant 358 HP/s (as well as providing a near constant 242 HP/s to allies in teamfights)
• Lots of evades as well. that, mixed with the healing adds up to good survivability
• Very good sustainability. Personally, in my MMR, i’m able to knock bunker builds like D/D ele, Bunker and Medi guards, etc. off points relatively easy
• Also, while not necessarily a pro, I’d like to point out that the pet does pretty awesome damage. It easily makes up for 50% of my damage, even with poor pathing and such.
• You can evade the entire damage output of the warriors “Rampage” elite, and then win the fight afterwards (which is pretty helpful in todays meta, at least in my MMR)
• I’m not exactly sure how weakness, protection, and bark skin stack, but let’s say the game just adds up the percentages (I don’t think it works that way though) it would add up to a potential 91% reduced damage while at max health (25% from weakness, 33% from protection, and 33% from barkskin)

Cons

• No stunbreaks. in 1v1s you can easily make up for this with evades, but in group fights, it can be a problem, especially if rampage as one is on cooldown (I like to keep SoTW for specific situations, mostly securing stomps.)
• Can have trouble against condi-heavy builds, especially if your pet is dead. (however I’d like to point out that against something like burn guards, you’ll have no problem, as the shouts are more than enough to be near-constantly cleansing a single condition (burn))
• While not exactly a con, this build requires you to manage your pet, and a lot of your dps is reliant on your pet. this doesn’t bother me, but i know a lot of rangers hate their pet (poor pets )
• Not many CC’s. it doesn’t matter too much, and the other things this build provides makes up for it in my opinion. just added for the sake of pointing it out.

With that in mind, from personal experience, I’ve found that this build does well against certain builds/professions, and against others… not so much. Keep in mind that I in no way consider myself a “pro mlg esports” kind of player, and I have no clue what my MMR puts me against, so your mileage may vary (also this is with 1v1 trying to hold/cap a point in mind, which isn’t always the case in pvp)

Is really good against

• Warriors. while they have a lot of CC, and you don’t have much when it comes to stunbreaks, their CC’s are heavily telegraphed and easily evaded. and if worst comes to worth, rampage as one is always there as well. Their damage is also typically easily evaded.

• D/D elementalist. This is a big one for me. as of me starting to use this build, I’ve never had a hard time against D/D elementalists. with your shouts you can easily out-cleanse their burning, and evade most of their major tells. In my personal experience, it feels like this build actually has better attrition, and I can typically decap a point an ele is on within 30-60 seconds it feels.

• Thiefs. Sic’ Em OP. but seriously, you can easily cap a point and hold it against a thief without worries. with Sic ‘Em and this builds conditions, this build can easily force them off point, and in some cases, kill them when they try to run away (it’s especially funny when they hide behind a nearby rock and try to stealth, just to have your pet kill them.) Taunt also works fairly well for forcing them out of shadow refuge (and you can use “Gaurd!” to force your pet to stand in the SR. who’dathunkit!)

• 1v2 scenarios. As previously mentioned, I have no clue what my MMR is, so your mileage may vary. However, in my experience, I’ve found 1v2 to be fairly easy in most cases. Multiple times in a single day, I’m able to effectively hold a point 1v2 for minutes on end, without worry of dying.

Isn’t great against

• Necros. the pure amount of different conditions they apply are quite a pain to cleanse, and your pet can easily die if you aren’t careful. I find myself generally being on the defense against them, and I rarely try to contest a point a necro is on, if it’s 1v1

• Mesmers. the daze-lock is real. they can be pretty challenging to fight, however it’s not the end of the world, and you can decap enemy points 1v1. my advice would be to focus on evading and let your pet attack them. if you do that, their confusion is MUCH less painful.

• Engineers. I haven’t really faced too many of them 1v1 for some reason, but when I do, they’re generally difficult to kill, and if you aren’t careful, they can decap a point your holding pretty quickly. I recommend playing defensively, being prudent with your shouts(cleanses), and popping RaO if you think they want to decap.

Wow, that went on a lot longer than I expected. Anyways, as a disclaimer, by no means do I consider myself a super good theory-crafter, nor am I saying this competes with meta builds or is something to run anything other than solo-queue. It’s just something I’ve been running that I’ve had relative success with and I wanted to share with you guys. If anyone has any suggestions for improving the build or has any constructive criticism, feel free

P.S. attached is about the stats that you can normally see in a game. note that you can definitely get more/less damage/healing, it varies quite a bit depending on where you are in a particular match (more damage if you aren’t being focused, more healing in teamfights, etc.) note that the match I attached was a match I actually lost, 500:425. so it was a fairly even fight, so in no means is it the stats of a faceroll kind of match.