Guild Wars 2

Okay, so after my initial posts I have come to a conclusion: I need to ask the question differently, by making an observation and seeing if it is feasible by peer review.

If I have deduced correctly, if I want to run my sb/a+wh condition build in a regular speed explorable dungeon I should be okay. I won’t be top DPS but I won’t reeeeally drag anyone behind. I should bring a couple of high damage pets (such as a bird or feline) and be sure to switch them regularly. I need to make sure that I drop my spirit, warhorn 5, and springs close to melee so that the most people can benefit. There is a condition cap of 25 stacks on bosses which will hinder me but not destroy my DPS. Fractals may not be possible with this build, but for the most part I can enjoy my Ranger the way I want to play him with a little bit of consideration for my group and having the correct spirits and pets with me…Right?

Please some notes before you reply:

1. I am not interested in speed runs.
2. I am not interested in PVP.
3. I am not a competitive gamer, I play this game for simple enjoyment.
4. I understand the merits of Melee. I just cannot stand the playstyle. With that in mind, I would be interested in ANY ranged build that you have had success with regardless of class.

Thank you for your time and input.

EDIT 10/17/2013: So I wanted to let you all know I truly appreciate the constructive advice and I’ve made changes accordingly. I’ve given up the search for a pure ranged build ankitten ow playing with the Greatsword/Longbow Power Build and Am starting to get the hang of it. Also, I really appreciate the Flame Trap/Frost Spirit/Spotter recommendation. Thank you all very much!

I don’t understand why you would force conditions in pve. I’m really confused. In dungeons, if you need more toughness, add some knight pieces into berserker gear. Please, don’t take a condition ranger with, ew, axe mainhand? Seriously? You’re asking for trouble in my opinion.

It’s not about speed runs. It’s about doing enough damage to kill the boss before the boss kills you. Especially for a new player (I’m assuming based on your question that you’re new), the last thing you need is a lack of personal DPS. You probably don’t want to be full glass because you still need to learn how to approach dungeon content, so beserker armor with knights trinkets is probably a good way to go.

So long as you bring spotter and a traited frost spirit with vigorous spirits, you’re doing most of the work already. Now bring a sword/axe offhand and warhorn offhand on secondary. Or, if you don’t like that, go with shortbow and greatsword. But I’d say if you want enjoyment and you like doing condition damage, use rampager gear with rampager trinkets and something like 30/x/30/x/x.

The thing about melee is you have to be in melee ranger to give/take boons. There really is no other choice. That’s how gw2 is played. If you want, you can take shortbow and stand slightly behind people, in between melee and mid-range.

You’ll get killed alone at range though. The best thing about being in melee range is that if you go down, your allies can rez you very easily without walking across the room vulnerable to attacks.

I’m sorry if this isn’t the advice you wanted to hear but pick up groups won’t usually take kindly to your proposed playstyles. In fact, I would say it’s more difficult to play in the way you propose, believe it or not.

Actually no, this was great advice and exactly want I wanted. It is very hard to get a consensus. I have also heard GS/LB is feasible. Would that be recommended for a zerker build (which I understand is a power/precision build)? Now forgive me – you are correct, I am relatively new – but what is “spotter”? I’ve seen it mentioned alot without explanation. Thank you for your response.

It increases your precision and others in range of you. It’s a group buff.

Also, if you prefer sb or axe …. use it. Don’t let others define your play style. This game is not as hard as people like to pretend it is. You seem like a smart person …. you’ll do fine in a dungeon.

Spotter gives +150 precision aoe to nearby allies (up to 5 allies; also, note that keyword: nearby which is easiest to attain at melee range). It’s a master marksmanship trait. GS and LB is okay, but I’m not a huge fan of LB due to the slow attack speed. You’re better off with GS/SB.

For you, since you seem to like bows, I would recommend the following:
30 (signet mastery/spotter/signet of the beastmaster) / 20 (companion’s might and quickdraw) / 5 (+50% endurance regen) / 15 (vigorous spirits) / 0

Note: Signet of the Beastmaster is a grandmaster in marksmanship, it is not a signet like the other signets you’re used to.

Ok so a few things about this build setup. Why 15 in Nature magic? That’s for fortifying bond (boon sharing with pet…otherwise, due to 5 person cap on boons, pet would really get few boons). Why signet of the beastmaster? Because new players can benefit from using signet of stone utility being traited, which then makes the ranger invulnerable for 6s as well as the pet (normally it’s just the pet). The additional toughness from the signet of stone will help you survive too. Make sure you equip a frost spirit. The other utilities are up to you although I prefer the spirit elite in dungeons to instantly resurrect downies.

Once you improve your play, you can drop signet of stone for piercing arrows and instead take the [Protect Me] shout for a 12s diversion of damage from you to the pet. I’d say after tomorrow’s buff to pet health, protect me will be very nice for PvE and WvW in place of signet of stone and signet of the beastmaster.

Pendleton.6385:

Also, if you prefer sb or axe …. use it. Don’t let others define your play style. This game is not as hard as people like to pretend it is. You seem like a smart person …. you’ll do fine in a dungeon.

Ahem, I use mainhand axe (my dungeon loadout is sword/axe and axe/warhorn). I just don’t think it’s a wise choice to fight mobs in PvE with mainhand axe and a condition build. It just takes too long. And if it’s a single target, well, forget about it. You’ll be throwing axes all day.

Mainhand axe is only good against mobs. Besides, OP wants to use bows. I know it by reading his posts.

Chopps.5047:

I don’t understand why you would force conditions in pve. I’m really confused. In dungeons, if you need more toughness, add some knight pieces into berserker gear. Please, don’t take a condition ranger with, ew, axe mainhand? Seriously? You’re asking for trouble in my opinion.

Chopps gets a lot of crap in the dungeon forum but he’s dead on here and you should take it to heart, sam …. consider this a consensus

…Regarding Axe mainhand: I’ll run it myself one day when Anet gets their <adolescent feline here> together and actually makes it bounce off the walls behind the boss (and duh… hit the boss 2 or 3 times like a “ricochet” should)

Shortbow: only time I ever use this is when stacking with Grast to kill Colossus … or killing Scarlet’s Foreman. Greatsword or LB is always better in every other dungeon path.

Everyone who is not rT gets a lot of crap in the dungeon forum lol

Don’t you kind of think a glass canon build of no less than three separate entities is kind of pushing it for a guy whose not even really sure what his traits do yet? o.o

Chopps.5047:

Pendleton.6385:

Also, if you prefer sb or axe …. use it. Don’t let others define your play style. This game is not as hard as people like to pretend it is. You seem like a smart person …. you’ll do fine in a dungeon.

Ahem, I use mainhand axe (my dungeon loadout is sword/axe and axe/warhorn). I just don’t think it’s a wise choice to fight mobs in PvE with mainhand axe and a condition build. It just takes too long. And if it’s a single target, well, forget about it. You’ll be throwing axes all day.

Mainhand axe is only good against mobs. Besides, OP wants to use bows. I know it by reading his posts.

I said axe and sb because that’s what he wrote in his post. Don’t get so defensive. I didn’t even quote you.

That said …. my point stands.

goodcannedsam.9841:

Thank you for your time and input.

That’s very close to my build and I have no real difficulty in getting through dungeons happily. One nice thing about SB/Axe is they have the same range, so you’ll get very used to the precise orbit you can skirt while still pouring your damage in. Just remember to use the right tool for each job – SB-auto for single targets (and flank!), Axe-auto for groups, swap as needed to bring your other 8 weapon skills to bear when they offer advantage.

A few more bits you could add for effective dungeon running, but they apply to all players, not just the Ranger class.

• Know the content. And if you don’t know the content, be sure to say so and ask that strategy be outlined before each boss fight starts.
• If you are an experienced runner of the current path, try to be aware of sections that have multiple effective strategies, and ASK the group which way they are going to do things. Just by raising the question you can typically get the whole goup on the same page and in step for the coming fight.
• Keep an eye out for perfect fit opportunities. Sometimes you will be the one training the whole pug on how to get through an encounter. Make any suggestions positive ones and not demands. It doesn’t matter what class I’m on, if we’re about to do a fight that some specialized skill with just tear in half and someone with that class is present, just say “[skill X] is awesome right here.” The person playing that class may be more comfortable with their current loadout, but at least you’ve got them thinking about it.
• Lift the team up, don’t pull it down. This is both an in combat and a social behavior. In combat: don’t die, and keep a sharp eye out to rez others if it won’t get you killed in the process. But it also means don’t sit there and kvetch in chat. Share a positive attitude. Recognize and point out that even if your team wipes, they can improve with what they learned just now.

Just about any casual run will go faster than 5 speed-runners who get so wound up that somebody rage quits (twice!!) and end up sitting there looking for a body to fill the resulting hole(s).

Vox Hollow.2736:

Don’t you kind of think a glass canon build of no less than three separate entities is kind of pushing it for a guy whose not even really sure what his traits do yet? o.o

Well, yes and no. I’ll explain my thinking.

First, I wasn’t advocating glass cannon. I suggested knights trinkets, signet of the beastmaster, and signet of stone, and 5 in Wilderness Survival for the extra dodge. That’s not glass cannon in my book but you might have different criteria for that term.

Second, it won’t take too long to get good experience with some dungeons. Eventually he’ll be at a level where he understands the mechanics of the game well enough to drop the knights trinkets. By then, he’ll want berserker gear anyways if he’s into PvE.

That all being said, you can defeat dungeons without armor or trinkets as has been shown recently by popular players. So this means that in reality, what armor you wear doesn’t matter so long as you’re capping out might, fury, frost spirit, spotter, and vulnerability.

That’s just my opinion though. For me, I like lots of critical hits in PvE. In wvw it’s a different story. Rangers are sort of pigeonholed into a narrow niche of playstyles in wvw and tpvp. Hopefully tomorrows balance change fixes that.

I hope I didn’t sound too critical.
I do want to say that I think you nicely covered the general stepping stones he should know about. Which is more than I can say about most people doling out meta flavored advice on forums.

Really, the thing I’ve got beef with is less what the Ranger himself is wearing, and more that I tend to think having to mind a cat/bird pet and a spirit in addition to yourself is what pushes the effective skill level of that build into ‘maybe not okay for a newbie’ territory.

Cats and Birds are pretty high maintenance with their low defenses and (in the case of Birds) low F2 cooldowns. I think SoS is a big help, but it’s no substitute for attentiveness. Add a Spirit on top of that, whose best chance for survival is specific placement. Well, there’s nothing that can really replace having enough foreknowledge of the fight to know where the safe spots are.

In the very least I’d suggest selecting less high maintenance pets that do something to mind themselves*, if not forgoing the Spirit entirely until OP has a handle of what to expect. Ideally, the updates tomorrow will bring down the maintenance level of all pets, so the former is probably the most effective place to start.

/* (ex: Drakes who have decent toughness, heal themselves and have a blast finisher for ranger’s healing skill water field. Or, Devourers who attack from a range, and dig into the ground and retreat if an enemy gets too close.)

Yeah, I agree, Vox Hollow. OP will want to take red moa and a devourer. Why red moa? Aoe heal and fury. Drakes are good options too.

Vox Hollow.2736:

I hope I didn’t sound too critical.
I do want to say that I think you nicely covered the general stepping stones he should know about. Which is more than I can say about most people doling out meta flavored advice on forums.

Really, the thing I’ve got beef with is less what the Ranger himself is wearing, and more that I tend to think having to mind a cat/bird pet and a spirit in addition to yourself is what pushes the effective skill level of that build into ‘maybe not okay for a newbie’ territory.

Cats and Birds are pretty high maintenance with their low defenses and (in the case of Birds) low F2 cooldowns. I think SoS is a big help, but it’s no substitute for attentiveness. Add a Spirit on top of that, whose best chance for survival is specific placement. Well, there’s nothing that can really replace having enough foreknowledge of the fight to know where the safe spots are.

In the very least I’d suggest selecting less high maintenance pets that do something to mind themselves*, if not forgoing the Spirit entirely until OP has a handle of what to expect. Ideally, the updates tomorrow will bring down the maintenance level of all pets, so the former is probably the most effective place to start.

/* (ex: Drakes who have decent toughness, heal themselves and have a blast finisher for ranger’s healing skill water field. Or, Devourers who attack from a range, and dig into the ground and retreat if an enemy gets too close.)

Ive found birds to be able to take quite a bit of damage before they go down and their slow rate of attack seems to make it easier to call them back without getting buggy action queue problems that can sometimes happen.

So I wanted to let you all know I truly appreciate the constructive advice and I’ve made changes accordingly. I’ve given up the search for a pure ranged build ankitten ow playing with the Greatsword/Longbow Power Build and Am starting to get the hang of it. Also, I really appreciate the Flame Trap/Frost Spirit/Spotter recommendation. Thank you all very much!

dungeon running? go 10/25/20/15/0 or 10/25/15/20/0
Gear;
Total Newbie – Assassin’s weapons (Shortbow and Sword + Warhorn), Assassin’s Shoulders, Gloves and Boots, Valkyrie Helmet, Torso and Legs. Knights amulet, rings, Valkyrie Earrings, Berserker Backpiece.

Pro’s: More tanky in terms of HP and armor then full glass, but dishes out a LOT of crits.
Con’s: It’s pretty glassy either way. just a tad less so.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoqvuyyri1SAsKsX/gmcGGyoTRpjeyH2xK-jgCBYOCyE1wEBBK9RQMRSZtOqIasqFYKTJVdSQ2noIa1SBExwI-e

More hardcore build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoKyuyyvi1Og0PwJcGGCj8eELsnIeyd+yK-jACBYLCyEFBioGO5pIaslVFRjVtATViIq2noIa1SBExwI-e

The second build relies heavily on quickness, its a variation of my “Beast Cannon” Build. Which basically means, you got almost zero survivability, trading off for maximum damage output