Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I’ve recently came back to play gw2 for reasons unknown. and I’ve realized i do not have a single medium armor profession! So I had decided to play a ranger and created a build on my own, it has yet been tested myself as I had not created my ranger yet (saving up gold to convert to gems to expand char slot!)

So I’m requesting feedback and perhaps some kinds souls that are willing to test out my build. I’m not a very good at creating build and I came up with this from work!. So don’t hate on the build or me if you don’t like it. .

here is my build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjUqUyaLLWsQ1agAha9AEAbdrZg9CEBXQJ+yL-TlCBwAGVixT9HlKPWYeAwlAY6+Dt0FkwEXGlgBeCAECQ3CA-w

P.S. I dont have gold to use ascended, so don’t even suggest that :p also i created this build mainly for wvw.

EDIT

new build 1: changes

1) signet of the wild> utility signet of stone
2) entangle > rampage as one
3) read the wind > spotter

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjUqUyaLLOsw1agAha9AUvBQrZg9CEBXQJ+yL-TlCBwAGVixT9HlKPWYeAwlAY6+Dt0FkwEXGlgBeCAECQ3CA-w

new build 2: changes (more HP less crit rate)

1) heal as one > healing spring
2) signet of the wild > signet of stone
3) entangle > rampage as one
4) read the wind > spotter
5) 2x berserker earring > 2x valkryie earring

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjMqUyaLLOsw1agAha9AUvBQrZg9CEBXQJ+yL-T1CBwA8U/RpyDFmYWYeAwlAY6+Dt0FkwEESlYZUCG4JAQIAdLAA-w

What’s this build going to be for?

I can see your intention.
Some things are really good and some need to be improved.

Traits:
With piercing arrows you don’t need Read the Wind as you will mostly shoot right into the blob. If you have problems to hit your target then choose Read the Wind. Otherwise I would advice to use Eagle Eye for more damage and range increase or Spotter for a crit-support in your backline.
Moment of Clarity grants you more damage than Companions Might as you will have to switch your pet pretty often. Bleeds you will only need when you either increase condition damage or your zerg is in general going for contion. You could go for some more damage and vigor or increase the pets damage with the Adept-Traits.

Skills:
Signet of the Wild for the passive only makes sense with high healing power. In your case Signet of Stone is a better choise for even more toughness and keeping your pet alive. The 2 stunbreakers make sense. One with evade and one for an extra burst is good. For ulti better use Rampage as One for stability in the fight. You will need it. Situationally you can switch to Entangle. In large group play always use the water field as it helps your group as well and gives some condition remove.

What you lack: Condition remove and Healing (or Vitality). Your Runes don’t fit your build as you won’t change your weapon set that often.

What you can use: You have almost 80% crit chance. Combined with Fury this makes 100%. Use it. Use Signets for either condition transfer/healing on critical hits. Use Omnomberry Ghost for healing on critical hits. Use Runes that give you fury.
If you lack survivability you can instead choose Runes of Lyssa for an “Oh kitten”-button on your ulti. Take the bear as a second pet for some condition remove in fight and to grant that your pet survives the fight or use the wolf to fear enemies away from you. Drakhound or devourer are other possibilities for your pet depending on your likes and playstyle. Simply choose what you think fits best and has enough survivability.

The improved build with vigor damage increase:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjMqUyaLLOsw1ag9gadA0AFQrfg9APChQKv6LvtC-T1CBwAGVixT9n+PAAlKPWYeA2+DAuEAt0FQ5IAkwEXGlgECw8CA-w

The improved build with pet damage increased and “Oh kitten”-button on ulti:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjMqUyaLLOsw1aAAhadAMA3brUgdFkBXQKr4LvtC-T1CBwAGVixT9n+PAAlKPWYeA2+DAuEAt0FQ5IAkwEXGlgECw8CA-w

For playing: Group up with someone who can give you healing and condition remove and maybe some Stability. Stay outside the fields and the meleetrain when you fight with the Longbow. If you get low either use your ulti, switch weapon and join the meleetrain, if they are in a good position, so you also get the boons and the fields. Or try to get out of fight by using Lighning Reflexes, your ulti, switch weapons and Swoop away from the enemy.

I think there is even more you can improve. I’m not shure if you will need to imcrease your vitality to a minimum, but your high toughness will grant a good survivability in the backline. This is just what I would make of it. Others can maybe give you more and better advice.

If you are using this build to go to WvW then you need to bump that health pool up to 18000+ or you will be risking too much. This can be achieved by swapping your berserker trinkets for valkyrie, or by using the nature magic trait line to obtain survival of the fittest. Note how you have zero means of dealing with condition damage, you will die from that alone, so survival of the fittest will work quite well. Drop signet of the wild, 62 health per second is a waste since you have zero healing power. You can pick muddy terrain which is very nice for someone using longbow, that’s a smart way to root and cripple enemies that are coming in a predictable direction (works great on big groups).

Jim Hunter.6821:

What’s this build going to be for?

mostly for WvW. sometimes dungeons. depends on what i wanna play. From where I’m going, i want a ranger that will be able to survive ZergvZerg for prolong period. which can be seen from the build that i had linked. Any suggestion? O.o

Oak da Vite.9054:

I can see your intention.
Some things are really good and some need to be improved.

Traits:
With piercing arrows you don’t need Read the Wind as you will mostly shoot right into the blob. If you have problems to hit your target then choose Read the Wind. Otherwise I would advice to use Eagle Eye for more damage and range increase or Spotter for a crit-support in your backline.
Moment of Clarity grants you more damage than Companions Might as you will have to switch your pet pretty often. Bleeds you will only need when you either increase condition damage or your zerg is in general going for contion. You could go for some more damage and vigor or increase the pets damage with the Adept-Traits.

Skills:
Signet of the Wild for the passive only makes sense with high healing power. In your case Signet of Stone is a better choise for even more toughness and keeping your pet alive. The 2 stunbreakers make sense. One with evade and one for an extra burst is good. For ulti better use Rampage as One for stability in the fight. You will need it. Situationally you can switch to Entangle. In large group play always use the water field as it helps your group as well and gives some condition remove.

What you lack: Condition remove and Healing (or Vitality). Your Runes don’t fit your build as you won’t change your weapon set that often.

What you can use: You have almost 80% crit chance. Combined with Fury this makes 100%. Use it. Use Signets for either condition transfer/healing on critical hits. Use Omnomberry Ghost for healing on critical hits. Use Runes that give you fury.
If you lack survivability you can instead choose Runes of Lyssa for an “Oh kitten”-button on your ulti. Take the bear as a second pet for some condition remove in fight and to grant that your pet survives the fight or use the wolf to fear enemies away from you. Drakhound or devourer are other possibilities for your pet depending on your likes and playstyle. Simply choose what you think fits best and has enough survivability.

The improved build with vigor damage increase:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjMqUyaLLOsw1ag9gadA0AFQrfg9APChQKv6LvtC-T1CBwAGVixT9n+PAAlKPWYeA2+DAuEAt0FQ5IAkwEXGlgECw8CA-w

The improved build with pet damage increased and “Oh kitten”-button on ulti:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjMqUyaLLOsw1aAAhadAMA3brUgdFkBXQKr4LvtC-T1CBwAGVixT9n+PAAlKPWYeA2+DAuEAt0FQ5IAkwEXGlgECw8CA-w

For playing: Group up with someone who can give you healing and condition remove and maybe some Stability. Stay outside the fields and the meleetrain when you fight with the Longbow. If you get low either use your ulti, switch weapon and join the meleetrain, if they are in a good position, so you also get the boons and the fields. Or try to get out of fight by using Lighning Reflexes, your ulti, switch weapons and Swoop away from the enemy.

I think there is even more you can improve. I’m not shure if you will need to imcrease your vitality to a minimum, but your high toughness will grant a good survivability in the backline. This is just what I would make of it. Others can maybe give you more and better advice.

WOW! thats a very detailed information you had given me. thanks a lot man! i appreciate it. As I’m focusing more on wvw. situation like zergvzerg will always arise. so i might need some evading skills on hand. i’ll switch around the skills as suggested. might even tweak it abit as more test is done! hahaha! again thanks!

If your tanky enough you can use Lighting reflexes to go in deep into the zerg , when using gs get to the commander ans Lighting back evading and damaging , then swoop back to the front of the zerg to the commander , of course its risky without Rampage as one.
but with gs block its a good get out skill, and only do this if your not being pressured yourself .
with lighting reflexes being a condi removal and a immoblize removal plus damage im at 3.2k with my zerging build and 2.9k armour with 25stack of momentum. it does fine when stacked up with WvW guard stacks taken for your rank bonuses.

when i do lighting reflex backwards through the zerg
it will do about 500-700damage + crits if they prot around 800-900 t0 nearly everything in the path of the back leap from lighting reflexs and evading all damage apart from the condis already stacked on you so be careful, iv only got 170-175% crit damage and 45% crit hit as i run spotter too.

i run survial of the fittest with 20/0/20/30/0
longbow sigil of fire, sigil of momemtum + gs (add proper traits to match) or Sword or axe + warhorn .

fighting from mind frontline 240 yard from the commander avoiding the main Aoe applying cc with barrge first for stacks swap and move onto gs or apply warhorn when needed for heals.
sword i use as a chase down tool not and attacking too , i flit between spotter and peircing arrows (only if i see onther spotter ranger hanging about no point wasting traits)

sharpen edges as adept = 2 condi removals pretty much a auto remove on the first barrge so save the barrge till the front line hits, and do it pretty much right after so them hammer stuns hit even harder.

sigil of fire prots + cripple+ 5 bleeds make sure your pet is of condi type lynx or Marsh drake + a wolf (wolf is your get out card if you can) and escape with sword 2 and turn to leap away.

of course if your in a big zerg fight i never go right onthe front line and hang back about 300 yards just behind the commander with a Gs with PVT gear and runes of the scavenger for the condi boost as them bleeds will be needed to counter the regen of what ever you hit with the pet it’ll be tanky as boons are shared it’ll put your targets regen in to a minus state where it won’t be effective and make sure to apply poison somehow weather its sword 3 or a combo chain from your marsh drake or Murgallow bear with Aoe Poison field because it pulses 7 times it rips people of there condi removals if they use it right away it’ll only get reapplied tons of times. its a great way of weening out the low condi removal guyys from the other zerg.
Poison+sigil of fire + 5 bleeds + pet bleeds or poison its pretty much and path of fire in a line that will counter most regen.
against full bunker regen warroirs if there regen is countered while thay are zerging the Aoes from your allies should be enough to bring these tough guys down don’t expect to take one down yourself and your a mid to front line fighter that supports in soft CC with a muddy terrain/ lighting reflex and traited sharpened edges for condi removal.
3rd slot utility i run sigil of the wild for 89 regen per second and use natures bounty for 5 secs on water field granted to everyone else in the aoe when i blast it.
the utility is a preferance it helps tide me over till my muddy terrain is off cool down, if i get hammered with tons of condi CC, i find the nearest warroir/guardain or healing spring, i don’t trust necros as some don’t always carry condi transfers. only condi heals for them selfs. hope this helps.

Kelfar Son Zenos FPS.

At first I hope you are aware that with this build You have nearly no place in “pro” zergs of guilds that are focused on baing as much “poffesional” as possible – but don’t worry You’d have hard to get into such just because of ranger.

I can see your aims here thought and you should be good enought in pug zergs against “not-so-pro” zergs.

Just need to warn you that it will be quite tricky to make it out alive.

I will not duplicate all good advices above will just add something from me:
at first I have no idea what all folks that are baobling about slow arrows mean – I have never had any issue with hitting targets at 1500 with eagle eye trait. So I’d take it instead of Read the Winds….

but honestly I’d kick out those 2 trait points out of there and would try to find for them better place.

also I’d consider in your place another approach to topic: new grandmaster trait from nature magic seems great for me and would totally fix your lack of condi removal issue on this skill setup (each wilderness survival removes 2 condis and heals a little) while also giving some space for such traits like evasive purity that will for sure help alot with at least poison and blindness.

but honestly I will not agree with Zenos in case of frontline ranger – ofc that build will have hard times to survive that – there are plenty of gs based bunker builds that will make this just right (over 3k armor great hp average dps and tons of evades) – and remember – everyone becomes dps when stacked 25 stacks of might and in every more organised zerg you should have that easylyy by just sticking to commander and being in good place while stacking takes place.

but the greatest advice I can give you is to make that toon, lvl it up and experiment with it yourself – you will get some tough lessons but you will get from them much more than anyone here on forum can teach you.
except the issues with sigils/runes your gear here for WvW is quite good actually imo one of the best you can have on ranger (don’t forget to bring master maintenance oils for greater dps) so going with gear full knights will not hurt too much unless you will decide to go regen bunker – then you will need clerics instead.

and since refunding traits is free issues here are also mininal – only issue with experimenting atm I can see its sp/gold that is rather issue with current trait system but I hope you will not encounter too much issues here……

newly edited build on the 1st post. take a look and let me know your opinion!

Tzhify.2418:

newly edited build on the 1st post. take a look and let me know your opinion!

I don’t understand why you’re wasting traits on bleeding when you only have 100 condition damage. If you are going for power I’d drop some of the knight trinkets/weapons for zerker because right now you won’t be doing enough damage. Plus all that toughness won’t save you from your lack of condition removal. If you are going to build tanky then change your weapons and go with a condition damage build. Also if this is for WvW you will definitely want a speed buff.

Tzhify you are on getting closer to being on the right track.

I would also recommend taking the NM Line like Awge posted.

However, I disagree with what some people have said above.

I only test pwr builds in WvW. I am not the best ranger but i put a lot of effort into creating the best pwr builds i can. I test them against every profession and in every situation.

Everyone knows Rangers are better at smaller skirmishes but if you want to run with the zerg i recommend you play your ranger as a mid line. You can try to run front line but honestly you would have to give up too much and offer less in return. Leave it to the heavies, they are made for that.

Same goes for the other end of spectrum. I don’t recommend playing your ranger as a back line. Rangers are not built for heavy spike damage (aka sniper). Damage coefficients are lower due to the pet. You go glass you will rally the enemy zerg. I don’t care how good you are, it will happen and this is one of the reasons (of several and yes i know the other causes) we have a bad rap from commanders.

Check out the build below for my 2 cents:

Non Ascended 100% Crit Build

Highlights:

1. Multiple sources of fury combined with 80% base crit chance for 100% crit chance

2. Superior sigil of strength becomes a guaranteed stack of might every second (assuming attacks connect). With constant attacks all landing you will hit a 13 stack maximum but will be able to maintain it easier. Works well with channeled skills (aka reason to actually use rapid fire/barrage instead auto boting).

3. Combine #2 with Fortifying Might and Fortifying Bond and you are double stacking might for your pet for each attack that lands. Swap GS or LB for 1HS for even more pet might stacking. RaO will help out pet even more not to mention helping yourself to get closer to 25 stacks.

4. With might stacks and/or fury always present we take advantage of 5% dmg boost from bountiful hunter. This allows dropping the sigil from your version for a more powerful option. Pet also benefits (see #3).

5. 100% crit chance also helps sharpened edges have a 66% chance to proc every attack that lands. This turns it into a chance instead of a chance of a chance (See #2/6). These quick bleeds will benefit from your sigil of strength. Your might stacks will boost your condi damage without you having to spend precious stat points on condi damage. Will your bleeds make your condi brothers jealous? Doubt it. But don’t underestimate short and constantly reapplied condition damage. That is how you beat constant cleansing and like all condi damage it will bypass armor. This boosts dmg on heavies.

6. Sustain via omnomberry pie (warning math bomb incoming). The clear choice here. With 100% crit we remove the crit chance problem and are left with the 66% chance on crit (in other words no more chance of a chance). 325 health when proc occurs with 1s internal cool down. Therefore we have a 66% chance for 325hp/s.

Ex: Over 100s during a fight assuming all attacks land and 1 attack per second/no condis taken into consideration:

66 attacks proc effect x 325 health = 21450 hp

compared to perma regen over 100s:

130 hp/sec (base) x 100 seconds = 13000 hp

with 100% crit you are ahead by a good margin. This comparison is real world due to the fact that you can’t stack healing power to high values with the build i listed above without losing the 100% crit and/or other major stats(power/tough).

But How much healing power until we match the omnom pie being used by our 100% crit build?

Regen formula from wiki: 130 + (0.125 * HP) per sec

Final math is 1560 healing power plus perma regen being required to equal omnom pie being used by a 100% crit build over 100s.

The reason this matters is because you cannot maintain the stats of the build posted above and achieve similar results. You would have to sacrifice in other areas too much (power/toughness).

The crit damage/ferocity changes hurt a build like this. We don’t get as much benefit from stacking ferocity as we used to. I think some of recent updates to ranger help offset this slightly. I don’t think there is any doubt in my mind this is the better path for pwr/crit builds for me.

Rangers are built for applying constant pressure, not spike. A build like this allows you do it but with pwr/crit instead of condi damage. Of course, condi damage does this easier as you can you apply conditions then avoid combat while still doing damage.

I like the synergy with a build like this. Buffs the ranger and pet while maintaining respectable numbers all around going pwr/crit. I have a full ascended version I may try with more sustain and better condi removal (multi-prong approach). It’s in my top three final builds as I finish gathering the last of my ascended materials for a full set (armor, 5 weapons).

@GUFF:
The Problem about your build is:
You are doing single Target damage
Going into a zerg fight with a longbow and without piercing arrows doesn’t make sense in my opinion. You need to hit as many opponents as possible. This increases the possibility that one target gets down early. This increases the awards you get from a fight. This increases the possibility to rally (I am not saying you should use this to become a rallybot, but everyone gets downed sometime in a damagespike). This increases the large amount of damage you do within a fight. This increases hugely the damage at the beginning of the fight.
I’m not saying your build is bad, but it shouldn’t be used with a longbow. Better use an axe for it.

Your calculations about omnomberry pie are interesting. You assume that all your arrows hit the target. There are certain classes that can avoid to be hit critically. Also any block or evade will decrease the amount of your heal. Still it sounds like a good amount of healing for many crit builds. Permanent regeneration is only useful if you gear for it an make group support, so all members of the group can benefit. Or if you run solo vs max 3-4 players. Otherwise healingpower is not worth considering.

Permanent critical damage in your build does not increase your overall damage by much. You can better profit from crit sigils and crit bufffood, but your basic damage is lower wich makes you critstrikes less hard. If you want to trade for survival of the fittest, you could decrease your amount of points in skirmishing and still benefit from piercing arrows and spotter.
Any longbow zerg build should have at least 4 points in marksmanship to increase the efficiency of the bow.

GUFF.5692:

Non Ascended 100% Crit Build

That’s a really interesting build.

I slightly changed it by giving it Runes of Strength (+45% might duration) and ascended Knight amulets (the version with main stat in precision):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjEqUwaLLesw1aADhqVLw+ACgGwdREDXdKPpCvNB-TFCBABVcBEA4JF0iuGeU/pm9H2S5HDHSAJVCSIgyLAA-w

I’d be curious how many stacks of might you can keep going with this.

@ Oak

Indeed, the build i posted was single target focused. Good call about the axe, I do use the axe with my mid line builds. Great for tagging and bagging!

You raise good points about the power/crit chance relationship. I went back and made a spreadsheet to compare different set ups and dropping ferocity for more power is the way to go. I also made a version of the build using spotter to help keep the precision at the minimum while also getting more power. I was able to increase power almost 400 points while also dropping the sigil of accuracy on each weapon freeing up a slot.

Below is a link to the one i’m currently eyeing at trying first.

Ascended 100% Crit Chance Build

I’m always open to viewpoints from a different angle…

@ Holland

You read my mind regarding those runes. I have a set ready and waiting to test. I have seen other professions use them to great effect.