Guild Wars 2

Been playing my ranger again after the patch and loving it. Trying to be a power ranger since i did the condi thing for a while. Tried the long bow survival of the fittest build and its great!! Anyways looking for something new I have been messing around with the idea of a full melee build while messing with the pet in a WvW small skirmish/ roaming setting.

I ended up theory crafting this build and just wanted some thoughts on it.

The idea behind it was might stacking. So the pet will have between 10~25stacks at all times and the player maybe 7~15. Fortifying bond is great. This means pets will hit hard. Spider will auto over 1k birds and cats will hit hard, dogs will do huge leap damage and even pets that sucks won’t be as bad damage wise so you can use them for more utility. Lightning drake will hit for huge amounts potentially hitting a target for around 10k and signet of the hunt on the tail swipe for huge aoe.

For defense there is the around 2.8k armour, protection on dodge, natural protection and bark skin. Under 25% health that’s up to a 66% damage reduction (assuming they are not addative ) so a boost to effective health against direct damage. Evades on sword #2 and #3 on lower cooldowns and GS auto evade. 2 stun breakers in shared anguish and the signet.

Healing I have healing spring with a potential 3 leaps and 1 blast.

Elite skill I have no idea on…just put RoA as a filler.

Only problem I see is conditions and sustain. with only healing spring and the signet to rely on. Unless I throw in a brown bear for its pretty OK f2 skill. Have the innate -20% duration and can run lemmon grass if need be.

Any thought on a build like this?

You have a great build going for you. You will easily achieve a 15+ might stack at all times. Your description is spot on on how this build will play out. As for the condition removal, you’ll learn when to disengage and reengage during battles. My WvW roaming and tPvP is based on might stacking along with conditions and lots of healing. I only use SoR and have no problems dealing with conditions. It’s just a matter of practice, and learning other classes telegraphed skills etc. With Swoop, Hornet’s Sting and Monarchs Leap you should be able to dictate any fight you come across except for the sneak up behind you catching you off guard kind of fights.

Now, if you ever get ganked by two people and you lose, chances are it wasn’t due to lack of condi removal.

Nice idea, based on this I went ahead and theory crafted the following:
- Signets-survival approach:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhYD7kRFaZxaBxhF4axADC16BIeDgWzg779G66LW5kJ-TFDEABJcBAeS5gTKxSUtCmUSYwDAQijAQb6GA4gA0oqKxs/ghKBJEwoJA-w

- Your approach but with survival of the fittest:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhYD7kRF6YxWWwWQ4aBBJCVzTYDYFAvCW3r7KE1XsyJTA-TlCEABJcBAWUtinU+ZwDAQijAQb6GA4gA0oqKxs/ghKBJFQETAA-w

Give them a shot, but in each I replaced your accessory choice I think it works better with the one I selected.

awge.3852:

snip

The second build keeps the trait sets is the one I am quoting. The gear choice while losing some stats makes room for a utility so I guess that’s good. Wouldn’t protect me be bad seeing as your pet is the labour damage source? Also its roaming and isn’t the move speed signet needed for mobility around the map? How would the alteration deal with condition bombing without then signet? Also with pets that have single hard hitting skills like dogs and drakes wouldn’t the active be awesome since you are trying to bring people down with the lack of sustain ?

Just want to iron this out to something solid before I run it.

Also pet choices is another thing? What are people thinking? Jungle stalker for 5 might on you and 10 on itself resting at 19stacks after mighty swap and weapon swap? Drake for burts? Bear for condi removal? Moas for more heals and daze/protection? Spiders for lock down? Bird/cat burst?

Feel like this build has potential and want to replace my condi set with it since I’m not a fan of condi damage anymore so I’m trying to get this to work.

Thanks for the help everyone. Appreciate it. Also if it’s effective and decent I’ll make a video of how it runs when I am happy with it.

Interesting… Very interesting. I’ve been theorising with something simular myself.

This is what I have at the moment:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQNBhYDbkRlCWLZxlFuWEcIUtWBmBQB8qYdPEtQVnyCOxbSA-T1RGwAAeCAJuIAnU/B0+DGV+hW3QflgkBQfBA-w

I was trying to achieve the same thing as you really.. I’ve gone down the road of less ferocity but completely taking the kitten with crit chance. My build should have 100% fury uptime without problem, and with 70% crit chance naturally.. crits will be everywhere.

From that comes unending 25 might for my pet, as well at 15-20 stacks for me (when taking into acount both sigils, runes, pet, pet F2).

Pet wise.. I wanted to keep the stalker for its F2, but went with a bird as the other because of the bleeding on the F2. Just remember, might increases condition damage too.. so a bird with 20+ might stacks is going to be packing some serious condition damage as well.

On that topic.. I had a variation with didnt use pet as a damage source which is this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQNAV8fjMqUwaJLusw1aADhqdLEsVNrAwdR8CXdKL4EvJB-T1RFABEcFAA4hAsi6Pks/gSK/YT3QgKBJDg+CA-w

The idea here is that the pet isnt a primary damage source (though it will still have a fair chunk of might) and instead I am trying to capitalise on my own inflated condition damage from all the might.

I’m not sure which I prefer. Survivabilty wise they are pretty much the same. The first BM varient will have slightly more might and a terrifying monster of a pet, the other will have constant condition pressure from huge bleed application (since I still have the rediculously high crit chance), as well as burning and Posion Master trait. If only I had the money to try them

See I’m trying to work with anets philosophy that the player and the pet must work as one so hence why the might stack split. I can only imagine with a full 25stacks a burst combo you can pull on point is drake lightning breath for 15k+ between 3 targets, then use signet on tailswipe for between 3 and 5k non crit, swap to reef drake, build stacks as it uses breath then hilt bash its tail swipe. In under 10s wouldn’t that be around…say somewhere around 50-70k aoe between 5 targets under perfect conditions? That’s not counting your own hits.

My build was working on what i already had gear wise so with cash and fine tuning I feel it would be a powerful contender.

I forgot to explain my sigil choices. Fire and strength since the great sword doesn’t stack might on your pet like sword auto does. Coupled with fire so every maul has the chance to hit for around 6k on a single target. Battle and bloodlust on sword. Can change bloodlust to something else after stacks but I don’t know what. But sword builds enough might with horn #5 then #4.

Also wondering why note people done take bark skin? In theory its amazing? With guard stacks and high base HP as soon as you reach about 6k you take half damage and can provide yourself with so much protection. Its like a 66% HP boost brining you to Like an effective full health again against direct damage right? Or am I missing something?

Also can this build zerg surf with the right pets ( ranged ) and an axe with a potential 3 might to your pet every auto.

Bark skin is good. Its usually not taken because the majority of people prefer EB, myself included.

In my experience it works best with regen builds, ad on other builds it can feel a lot like you’re just delaying the inevitable. Also I think conditions are more commonly peoples weakness. But if you have enough condition removal then no, you havent missed anything. bark skin is as good as it looks, and since the theme here is BM builds then bark skin is definately the better choice between the two.