Guild Wars 2

Before the big balance patch i used to run a power build with some condition application that was good enough for any game mode.
Post-patch i found that build lacking, too many dmg modifiers lost being the most infamous of all the missing trait that convert some of your vitality in power stat.
So i was really unhappy about the changes i could NOT find a suitable build to use with the ranger, or you get a too glassy or that hit like a wet noodle.

Also the builds shown in this forums they seems so lacklustre, the number are really bad. Yes most of them very tanky but with no power output, what leaves out of PvE if you want to tag the foe when 50 players more in zerker gear are hitting like crazy.

So at last, after a lot of experimentation and gold wasted i could get this build to work and i feel very happy and accomplished for get in there.

This build is all-round build to play with it in any game mode, it gets the advantages of the new conditions buff but also uses the power oriented Longbow to hit like a truck. I’ll explain my points here of why it is like it is.

• Longbow is the only ranged weapon that ranger has. Shortbow does very little damage and Axe MH is too slow period. Also and most importantly the Longbow is the only weapon that ranger has that can apply ranged AoE with no need to direct line of sight, very useful for pressure in walls in WvW.
• Sword is a pain in the kitten. But is our best DPS weapon in game although the Sword#1 AA chain gets you killed every kittening single time. I hope the devs fracking fix it any time soon.
• Torch is our weapon of mass destruction. It is very weak compared to any other condi weapon in any other class but is the best we have. With this build without any food buff you can get 300 burning dmg per tick. Axe OH is just lacklustre compared to torch and the damage is very low even in full zerker.
• Although it has 2 skills to clear conditions i like to have that signet as well. Another stun break it always handy.
• It has unlimited combinations within the weapon rotation to get advantage of CD reduction. If there are many enemies LB can use Barrage(the CD get down to 8 secs). Single foe LB can use RF (CD down to 3 secs).
  In the melee instance if you need to evade a lot you can begin with Serpent strike, otherwise Throw Torch or Bonfire, it depends in the foe moves a lot or if there are some bear-bows around that use the Longbow like they would be playing a piano sonata.

• The Signet skill can be swapped for Lighting Reflexes is you feel like it or for SoS if you need the ‘Oh kitten’ button.
• You will have 13 seconds swiftness in a 12 seconds CD skill. No need to use any other mobility enhancement.
• Our pets are going to be really hard y their hits will almost be same powerful as our LB. The jaguar hit for 1.5K crits the basic attack, Bite is going to do more than 3K.
  Keep them alive at all moments.
• If you like more GS, you only need to change the trait in BM accordingly. Just have to keep in mind our pets are going to be more squishy though.
• Quickness you get the most of it with Barrage or Sword AA. Don’t use it in RF, you wont get almost any improvement and you risk to die because any Reflect.
• Sword AA benefits greatly from any form of quickness. The weapon become almost responsive and you can dodge and cast any other skill like you would do with any other weapon.
• Remember you have Quickness on pet swap.

So basically with this build before any food you’ll end up with a :

• Almost 2.3K power
• Almost 2.5K armor
• Almost 19K HP. In my case with the WvW buff it becomes more that 20K hp.
• Almost 1.1K condition damage
• More than 50% crit chance.
• More than 150% crit damage. (+50% damage on crit).
• Excellent group support with permanent regeneration and swiftness up to 5 allies (130 hp/sec) and Spotter.

Now those number seems really fine to me.
Any thoughts of how great this build is?

Resounding timber without any healing power is cringe-worthy in my opinion given that you suggest this has party support. I’m not really sure how you would get any as running hybrid dmg is leaving the build thin.

Running thin in all departments I would suggest using celestial gear. You wouldn’t be amazing in dungeons naturally but would be solid in wvw perhaps.

I would suggest a stacking sigil of choice on torch. As you are thin on some stats. I would also suggest sigil of strength. With longbow multi-ticking skills (rf/barrage) and torch (bonfire) with a decent crit chance you shouldn’t have too many issues meeting the 1 icd of the sigil for a cool 5stacks. Why I suggest this is condi/power on a hybrid dmg build.

Justine.6351:

Resounding timber without any healing power is cringe-worthy in my opinion given that you suggest this has party support. I’m not really sure how you would get any as running hybrid dmg is leaving the build thin.

Running thin in all departments I would suggest using celestial gear. You wouldn’t be amazing in dungeons naturally but would be solid in wvw perhaps.

I would suggest a stacking sigil of choice on torch. As you are thin on some stats. I would also suggest sigil of strength. With longbow multi-ticking skills (rf/barrage) and torch (bonfire) with a decent crit chance you shouldn’t have too many issues meeting the 1 icd of the sigil for a cool 5stacks. Why I suggest this is condi/power on a hybrid dmg build.

Mmm… I tested it with full cleric gear and the regeneration doesn’t get much better, around 200hp/sec. At the cost of hit with really low damage.
Actually the regen we provide is better than a guardian can provide by Virtue of Resolve, the truth is that healing scales very poorly so it’s not worth the trouble of investing in that stat.

I find this build to run very smoothly in dungeons although of course there is always space for improvement. Because of the permanent swiftness + regen it is perfect for speed runs and you hit like truck being in LB with pure power (you apply bleeds aswell) or being condi with Sword/torch.
In WvW i miss more cleanses as there is never enough cleanses. I would have love some resistance with the last trait changes.

Celestial gear is great suggestion though. I’ll look if i can get any recipe for it so i can test the new build.

Looks like a fun Hybrid build, but it’s in no way comparable to what i run like you said O_O
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8XjUqQDL2yCesAXLG4EK/vHgD/fhFPx7htvDgCWdA-T1CEABWp0IKlIxpbggLAQiq/slSQmUGVz+DG8AAA4IA8wBBIAwBglXe5lXe5IFgZatA-w
this build is neither glassy (nearly 3k armor and lots of protection + 250 hp/sec reg) NM/BM/WS offer a lot of survivability on their own (try it, your build will feel squishy as hell in comparison :P), nor do i try to get in “some conditions”, it’s a pure power build. it’s just refined Toxins to reduce my enemies healing .

Hepatolith.6389:

Looks like a fun Hybrid build, but it’s in no way comparable to what i run like you said O_O
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8XjUqQDL2yCesAXLG4EK/vHgD/fhFPx7htvDgCWdA-T1CEABWp0IKlIxpbggLAQiq/slSQmUGVz+DG8AAA4IA8wBBIAwBglXe5lXe5IFgZatA-w
this build is neither glassy (nearly 3k armor and lots of protection + 250 hp/sec reg) NM/BM/WS offer a lot of survivability on their own (try it, your build will feel squishy as hell in comparison :P), nor do i try to get in “some conditions”, it’s a pure power build. it’s just refined Toxins to reduce my enemies healing .

No, you don’t get 250hp/sec with regen, you get 160. That is not far away from what you can get with mine (130hp/sec). Just read the tool tips at the bottom that gives you an accurate numbers per stack. Indeed not talking about food, my build don’t have any applied.
If we get off the food of your build because my numbers are without any food or boon, you end up with 2.8K amor against my 2.6K armor. Crit damage 185% against mine of 164%. Even with that you have like 150 points of power less than mine so i think the difference is even less. And more than 2K hp less. And no condition damage.

With 16K hp your margin of 90% is 1.6K hp to get the advantage of the Refined toxins, so mostly you only will be able to use it once because of the 8 seconds ICD.
Bark skin will not save you in any case because of the low hp pool.

Nature Magic trait line is simply bad. The only trait worth mentioning is Evasive Purity, but the others are simply very useless. The 10 seconds ICD does not help that trait neither when you can only have two of those.

Same with Taunt. I don’t understand the fuzz about that skill when is clearly just an stomp stopper. You are downed, swap pets and cast F2 so you can recover for 2 more seconds. The range is really small and the duration is too short to be of any other utility.
The runes are not going to save you most of the times, cleaning 5 conditions at once in a 50 seconds CD it’s not really help. Can save you in a tight spot, but you had to sacrifice so much HP, power and precision that i think is not worth it.

I tried a full glass cannon in zerker before begin to use Sinister. I found it very lacking and the damage too low for all the stats you have to sacrifice.

Indeed i know to test my build is not easy, after all you have to craft it. But believe me, you won’t be disappointed when you drop the bonfire and see your foes melt away.
If your are fleeing drop it after you and you will feel it.

Axe OH it is really really bad that most of the times get’s you killed. And it’s a shame because i love that animation, i brought the chain wip skin just because of that skill.

i’m talking with Food obviously… but without you only get 650 condi dmg either… 1.1 on S/t but you lose power and ferocity on that.
with guard stacks and mango pie i get ~20k hp which is totally fine for me. and refined Toxins works seperate for pet and ranger so pet swap -> attack inflicts poison anyways.

Call me Stupid but 2266-2192 = 74 so… not 150 power, and because of a Minimum of 3 (mostly 5 tho) boons up it’s 2192*1.03= 2257 effective power Minimum…
And you clearly underestimate Protective Warden, it’s a really really strong trait, 33% prtection and Weakness uptime. and 200 armor is a bigger difference than you might think.
Taunt is great… Interrupts blocks (and thus guard shelter -)

This rune saved me SO MANY TIMES (ty Sae ^-^) it’s totally worth it.

And honestly… People that are stupid enough to STAY in bonfire deserve to die…
Axe offhand is fine (except the not able to mve part on WD obviously), PoS is either a good hit with a pull or a dodge bait, i don’t know what you are doing with it that it kills you tbh :> i’m doing just fine wih it. I mean of course WD is situational but it definatly has it’s uses and you shouldn’t cast it just cause it is off CD…. that will get you killed probably.
And by all means, your build is the more offensive, that’s for sure, but don’t even try to argue that your build is able to take more than mine does because that’s just not true