Guild Wars 2

While we’re waiting for a response, why not discuss some alternatives to take instead of Frost Spirit?

Sic ’Em- +40% damage and Speed to your pet for 10 seconds on a 40s cooldown. Good in fights where the pet doesn’t get oneshotted.

Signet of the Wild + Signet of the Beastmaster- +25% damage and stability for you and the pet for 8 seconds, 60 second cooldown. Not terrible, but the cast time and requiring the use of Signet of the Beastmaster sets things back quite a bit.

Flame Trap- Some extra damage and a fire field on 15s cooldown. Not bad, but the damage is kind of miserable.

Storm Spirit + Call Lightning- A pretty nice burst on active with 20s cooldown. Best against single targets- passive is almost entirely useless though. Also, since you’re using the active ability, forcing cooldown (by swapping skills) can take up to twice as long if the spirit does not get killed.

Quickening Zephyr- 6 seconds of quickness to self and pet, 60s cooldown. Typical quickness skill, so about +50% damage for 6s. Other than long cooldown, can be a solid choice.

None of the skills really stand out for adding damage to self or team. Maybe some cultural skills?

As a note, Signet of the Beastmaster is about to become nonexistant, so all Signets will be masively improved in functionality.

The thing about frost spirit isn’t only the damage boost the player gets, it is about the damage boost the player gives to the rest of the party.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

As a note, Signet of the Beastmaster is about to become nonexistant, so all Signets will be masively improved in functionality.

In which case, Signet of the Wild becomes the clear choice. However, until then, there’s a bit of a dilemma.

Flame trap and quickening zephyr are great alternatives and a little more fun than frosty in many cases. That being said, frosty really made sense to use in a few fights, this coming from someone who loathes the whole stand in a corner mechanic. I am secretly hoping they nerf-bat warrior banners, as well. :-)

If you’re in a decently organized group a good option for asura rangers is technobabble, which can be traited with moment of clarity to lock down most dungeon bosses for 6s (it’s effectively an instant cast ice bow 5 on your utility bar). Your list really highlights just how awful ranger utilities are for dungeons btw. I don’t think any other class would even consider taking a ranger utility over one of their own.

Post patch I would imagine signet of stone and signet of the wild being pretty standard. Muddy terrain is an interesting option to proc the +10% damage from predator’s onslaught if you prefer gs over the sword.

Kaldrys.1978:

If you’re in a decently organized group a good option for asura rangers is technobabble, which can be traited with moment of clarity to lock down most dungeon bosses for 6s (it’s effectively an instant cast ice bow 5 on your utility bar).

I’ve always been curious how a full party of asura MoC rangers chaining technobabble and other dazes would do. 5*6s = 30 sec vs technobabble’s 45 sec cooldown. Between that and hilt bash and concussive shot (2 sec, 25 sec cooldown each), daze duration exceeds cooldown.

Solandri.9640:

I’ve always been curious how a full party of asura MoC rangers chaining technobabble and other dazes would do. 5*6s = 30 sec vs technobabble’s 45 sec cooldown. Between that and hilt bash and concussive shot (2 sec, 25 sec cooldown each), daze duration exceeds cooldown.

Unfortunately the defiant mechanic gets in the way for champion mobs so you would really have to coordinate cc well to pull that off. I’ve also tried running with rune of the mesmer to increase the daze time on technobabble to 7 seconds but the damage trade off isn’t worth it. It would be funny though to bring that set-up to wvw and completely lock down an enemy player.