Guild Wars 2

I thought I’d try and write a guide for people looking into running this type of Build. I mostly play a Condition version of it but i’ll try and include the Clerics version and thoughts on it.

BM Bunker:
Currently in my movies I run the following build

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VFF37k;1F-v-f2FxF-0;9k-3;3T9T;456A5;029Ba-X8V;1hoHAhoHA9-Fw

You can change some things up in this build and i’ll list the options currently present.

The Basic idea behind the BM Bunker build is to rely on Regens and Healing to stay alive while using your pets to Burst the Target when needed.

Abilities Present in the build

Signet of the Wild – This ability a Regen, and its effected by your Healing Power.
Entangle – Condition Versions of the build use this Elite usually, though a Root even without condition damage is always welcome
Rampage as one – usually seen in the Cleric Based builds.
Lightning Reflex – Extra Evade, Solid ability to be taken in both types
Signet of the Hunt – You can avoid using this in Cleric Armor Builds (Warhorn instead) and Greatsword.
Sharpening Stones – Can be used as a Damaging Ability on the Condition Versions of the Build.
Sick Em – Not used all the time, but can be substituted in.
Quickening Zypher – Used in the Cleric Armor Builds

Weapon Sets used in the Build.

Condition Version Weapons – Shortbow, Axe, Torch, Sword, Dagger
Power Version Weapons – Shortbow, Axe, Warhorn, Sword,Dagger, Great Sword.

Rune Sets used in the builds currently

Superior Rune of the Forge – (Food Type Veggie or Lemongrass)
Superior Rune of Melandru – (Food Type Lemon Grass)
Superior Rune of the Nightmare (Food Type Veggie)
Superior Rune of the Undead (Food Type Veggie)
Superior Rune of Dywana (Food Type Veggie)

Sigils Currently used
Condition Damage Builds – Superior Sigil of Corruption, Superior Sigil of Geomancy
Power Damage Builds – Superior Sigils of Might, Superior Sigil of Battle.

Current BM Bunker Build Talent Setups

Condition Build, PI, 0/0/30/10/30
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VFF37k;1F-v-f2FxF-0;9k-3;3T9T;456A5;029Ba-X8V;1hoHAhoHA9-Fw

Clerics Armor build, 0/0/20/20/30
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VFF-h;1wE-v-f2JEV-0;9k-3;3JJT;459-52-29B6oG66;1Rk06Rk063-Fv

Alternative Setups for Condition Build is 0/10/30/0/30
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VFF37k;1F-v-f2FxF-0;9k-3;29T-T;10;056A;129Ba-X8V;1hoHAhoHA9-FI

Pets Currently Used in the BM Bunker Builds
Raven/Owl
Wolf/Dogs
Drakes – I recommend only Marsh Drake for this
Cats – Jaguar and such

Which pets to use in which build?

0/0/30/10/30 – Use Birds, The Crit Talent in Skirmishing doesn’t work on the Birds F2 ability, and it is their primary bursting ability.
0/0/20/20/30 – Use Dogs/Drakes
0/10/30/0/30 – Use Cats they get the most benefit out of the 30% crit Talent.

Condition Build Rotation
When using the setup I run which is Axe/Torch with Sword/Dagger i try and follow a Rotation, i don’t always manage to do it but if you’re looking for one..This is generally it.

Axe 1 (If Guardian), Winters Bite, Throw Torch, Bonfire, Splitblade (While in Bonfire), Weapon Swap (Sets off Geomancy), Throw Dagger (while in Bonfire), Hornet Sting (While in Bonfire if not up do Serpents Strike) Monarch’s Leap (Will give Fire Shield), Serpents Strike, Stalkers Strike, Weapon Swap, Repeat.

Following this Rotation will give you the max mount of conditions (11 Bleed Stacks/Burning/Chill/Weakness/Poison)

If using Birds, Swap as much as possible as you’ll be wanting them to apply their burst and such.

If using Dogs with Cleric Builds, you don’t want to swap that often as you’re trying to maintain might stacks on them.

The Heal Currently used in these Builds

This is honestly up to you, I’ve used all 3, they all have their advantages and disadvantages.

Trolls Urgent – Use at the start of the fight before you take damage
Healing Spring – Try and use your Leaps with this as it’ll give you an extra heal with it, and try to stay in this as much as possible. Generally works best with Dywana’s runes
Heal as One – Slow cast time, so can be interrupted easy, good Burst heal though, and low cooldown.

Few Tips
Sharpening Stones with the Condition Build, always use this ability after using Splitblade
Precast Signet of the Hunt – this will give you an extra 50% damage bonus to your pets next hit, it lasts 16 minutes
Leaps – Use these as much as possible with Healing Spring, Frost Trap can also be used for the extra Damage Reduction it gives.

That’s it for right now, I’ll be updating this slowly as i think of more things, if anyone has suggestions i’ll include in this post.

That includes Alternative Version of the build, Weapons, Thoughts ect ect.

Saved for Future Use

Saved for Future Use

Saved for Future Use

I am doing a lot of work to enhance the BM/condition build and take it to the next level. Naturally all your power comes from your pet + the conditions you both apply, but when both your pets are down you’re left a bit too wide open.

I am still testing my own enhancements; but before I get to where I am right now, let me make a few comments on the builds you posted above. Also let me say that there is more than one way to approach this build, so I am giving my opinion on what works for me.

My personal BM/Condition changes:
- XII Bark skin on Wilderness Survival.
- IX Hide in Plain sight on Wilderness Survival.
- III Nature’s Bounty on Wilderness Survival.
- VII Rending attacks on Beastmastery.
- Grandmaster trait on Beastmastery is really a personal choice, I would consider which pets I am focusing on using.

• Side note:
  Let’s say your pet micromanagement skills are not up to par, you struggle to let your pet do the dirty work for you, especially when fighting those pesky mesmers and thiefs, or simply that legendary boss in the dungeon. One option you can do for your ranger is this:
  Set Beastmastery at 25 points, add 5 points into Marksmanship, this will give you more power to dish out yourself from a safe distance. This is due to Nature’s Bounty (trait 25 in Beastmastery line) which gives 10% of healing as a bonus to power. I found it to be particularly helpful if you are geared towards support and condition damage, which means you will have a good amount of healing to give as bonus to power.

To better undestand what Beastmastery does to your pet look here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pet_attributes
*

Weapons? It depends, so keep one exotic of each handy. To further enhance my own condition damage I stick with fire damage and bleeds. Fire will come from your smart use of fire trap. Realize that aside from being rangers, we are also hunters. Learn how to lead your enemy into your traps and how to keep them there for as long as possible. Once they learn the pain that fire trap + your condition damage does, they will try to stay away from it, which gives you the psychological advantage of the battle. You can combine this with spike trap, however I try not to depend on it. Instead I use torch on second hand, which gives me a ranged fire attack (throw torch) and a second fire field (Bonfire). Try to use fire fields the same way you would a Healing Spring, in order to gain fire bubble protection.

Here is a great video of a very well use of fire field in open WvW battle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtYPVrZbeRE&feature=youtu.be

Impressive results knowing the ranger was only level 15! Imagine how effective this would be at level 80. Best takeaway from this video? Learn to dodge towards your enemy, they never see it coming, time it right!

• Note on Fire Trap for BM condition build: I started to use firetrap to help identify cloaked opponents in PvP and WvW, not because of the fire triggering when they tried to backstab me (which helps a lot) but because it does amazing initial damage, which you can quickly reuse. I get excellent results as well in all PvE scenarios.

The BM condition build weapon of choice will always be the shortbow. Mobility paired with Superior Sigil of Earth/Fire/Ice will always keep the pressure on your enemies. I use Superior Sigil of Earth for the bleeds, I find it much more useful than Fire or Ice. Quickshot has a double utility, which not only grants you an evade and leap backwards, but it grants swiftness to your pet, very useful if used properly.

Main hand weapon to pair with my torch: depends on the situation!
PvE will always be axe, I simply enjoy to stack a good Superior Sigil of Precision/Bloodlust/whatever by killing large number of mobs with Ricochet. Furthermore, shortbow will not allow you to kill multiple enemies at once, so axe is a viable option.

PvP and WvW will always be the one handed sword. Lots of good uses: multiple evades, leap finishers, combo field activation via Monarch’s Leap, easy ways to run away from a fight completely (hornet sting, turn around into monarch’s leap).

Currently testing armor with a full set of Superior rune of the Fighter/Adventure in PvE/PvP/WvW, to further enhance my Power as it is something that BM rangers really lack on, especially when the pet goes down. At the same time I am testing variants of the build using different traits… still inconclusive due to the lack of balance that ranger has outside the builds listed by Xsorus, making various builds not very reliable in all gaming scenarios.

@awge: That was just sad on a completely new level…… Beating level 80s with a lvl 15 like that… xD GG.

Hi, great info. I didn’t know this build. Could you specify the armor set you use? Thx.

Apothecary for Condition Build
Clerics for Power build

Xsorus.2507:

Apothecary for Condition Build
Clerics for Power build

Also choose sigils to support your equipment in whichever way you seem fit. Mainly condition/toughness/precision/power/healing sigils help a lot, it all depends on your approach.

Thank you for the guide.

@awge: Don’t you just love it when people give you their back. Free bleed stacks.

awge.3852:

Xsorus.2507:

Apothecary for Condition Build
Clerics for Power build

Also choose sigils to support your equipment in whichever way you seem fit. Mainly condition/toughness/precision/power/healing sigils help a lot, it all depends on your approach.

Yea, Apothecary Gear don’t choose a crit based sigil, cause you’re not going to crit, Power Builds can sort of do it cause of Fury with Warhorn and Rampage as One.

The crit on next weapon swap sigil is good for Power build cause You can do that then pop with with Maul for example.

I run a similar build, 0/0/30/10/30

GS/Sword+torch with fern and wolf

Shared Anguish, EB are must haves. I switch out Hide trait with martial mastery depending on the situation. Usually use hide in plain sight for group play, that second stun ignore makes me a lethal finisher(lol what guardian bubble?)

Also use regen duration increase trait, with dwayna runes my regen uptime is even further increased. Regen auto procs when I get to 75% HP, then I pop Troll as sort of a buff(short CD so use it early, your dodges will keep you alive until its back)

BM tree I aim to max my pet heals and shorten cooldowns on the f2.

Yes, I know a Ranger without a ranged weapon sounds funny. This is an in your face build, takes some good sword work to keep close with your enemy. Honestly the build works just fine with SB, I’ve just been insanely outnumbered lately so I’ve been using GS as well for the block/KD and escape.

This build will not hit big numbers, it will however apply very good sustained damage. You can easily chain knock downs with the canines, along with the stun and block knock down on GS you can keep an enemy locked down for awhile.

Really this build for me has been my favorite for fighting outnumbered. Had a few guys tell me recently that I’m just unkillable 1v1.

I passive regen my HP for about 400 a tick with no skills being used at all, and substantially more when I get into combat. Most players just panic when they realize my HP is always full.

Warriors are easy mode, dodge the burst and break them down.

Thieves also aren’t a problem, stealth plays right into my game. Everytime you pop stealth my HP is just flying back to full. Eventually you will learn to time your wolfs fear to prevent back stabs.

DD Ele is usually a stalemate vs a bunker, any other build its just win by attrition.

Mesmers are tricky and require good pet management. In order for EB to work the pet needs to be alive and close to you, so to get rid of confusion be cautious with your pet. Once you learn to dodge the scepter confusion bomb,its game over. Just follow the pet.

If I was running GS+Sword/Torch i’d run Martial Mastery

that’s 8 abilities that get their cooldowns dropped.

Shared Anguish can replace the 20% drop on Entangle timer if you want (if you’re power based you can run it for sure)

i wish they’d swap Hide in Plain Sight and Shared Anguish though.

just cause I find Shared Anguish is never up by the time I down someone.

Movie showing how fast i can take out a camp in World vs World (and i did this one fairly slow in my opinion as I didn’t gather the mobs all completely up)

Yeah usually when a guard pops his bubble when downed its Hide in Plain Sight that keeps me upright. I’ve been running martial mastery just because it puts my sword evades and CCs on a crazy low cooldown.

I don’t usually ever take the entangle cooldown reduction, mainly because its still on a crazy long cool down.

I have a love/hate relationship with Entangle btw. In small group play it can just end the fight if you time everyones AoEs right.

I’ve been running RAO when solo for the stability and swiftness. Instead of a thief just walking out of it he’s dealing with steroid ranger.

Entangle can win fights, and it can not do anything in fights.

I’ve died a lot to entangle, mainly cause i’ll get caught on the edge and for some reason I can’t hit it with sword if that happens (I have to switch to axe)

i tend to use it for Bombing which is why I run it.

Entangle/Bonfire on top of them/PI (They start damaging the roots to get away, and take confusion damage)

It can kill groups of people fairly quickly. You don’t need to run the Entangle cooldown talent though, most of those first 10 point talents can be ran and you’ll be fine…I only run it for kittens and giggles, and only time I consider it absolutely mandatory is if you run Lightning Reflex and Entangle. (this is how I generally rate talents, the more abilities they have effect on, the more likely i am to run the talent)

Lucky asura, I wish I had PI.

I’m the same as you with the bombing. We tend to call target in the center mass of a group, I’ll swoop in and hit Entangle…watch as the bodies drop.

But on the flip side like you said it can also completely whiff in certain situations.

Its absolutely hilarious in sieges, half the time you can tell people don’t understand why they can’t move.

Is your condition cleanse only from 30 WS major? I’ve been finding that lack of condi removal screws me over a lot, especially against engineers and good necromancers that strip stability.

That is my main concern with using troll unguent. On the other hand, healing spring feels like it takes forever to recharge and you need to stay in it to get the most use out of it.

I wish we had more active control over our condi removal than random passive condi removal from 30 in WS and a long cd signet. I quite miss my ele and mesmer’s activated condition clears on low cd’s.

You finally made a guide Also, glad to see you’re still hanging around here

Adding to the compilation thread!

Zenith.7301:

Is your condition cleanse only from 30 WS major? I’ve been finding that lack of condi removal screws me over a lot, especially against engineers and good necromancers that strip stability.

That is my main concern with using troll unguent. On the other hand, healing spring feels like it takes forever to recharge and you need to stay in it to get the most use out of it.

I wish we had more active control over our condi removal than random passive condi removal from 30 in WS and a long cd signet. I quite miss my ele and mesmer’s activated condition clears on low cd’s.

i switch between the heals all the time…Healing Spring is pretty nice for the condition removal but god I hate the cooldown on it.

That extra 5-10 seconds (if you use Heal as One) can be the difference between life and death in a 2v1 or 3v1

Great stuff, Xsorus. After watching one of your videos, I guess my question is really how much do you think Pain Inverter does for your build? Is the build worth it without it? No doubt that retaliation and confusion helps a lot. =P

I don’t think otherwise, mind. Just wondering your thoughts on it.

Oolune.4357:

Great stuff, Xsorus. After watching one of your videos, I guess my question is really how much do you think Pain Inverter does for your build? Is the build worth it without it? No doubt that retaliation and confusion helps a lot. =P

I don’t think otherwise, mind. Just wondering your thoughts on it.

I would say that Battosai pretty much runs the spvp version of this build. I wouldn’t feel right copying and pasting his build without permission though, so I’ll do this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Battosai-5620/showposts

Oolune.4357:

Great stuff, Xsorus. After watching one of your videos, I guess my question is really how much do you think Pain Inverter does for your build? Is the build worth it without it? No doubt that retaliation and confusion helps a lot. =P

I don’t think otherwise, mind. Just wondering your thoughts on it.

You can check out a couple of my videos on youtube or somewhere buried in these forums. Turkish Krul is my Ranger. I ran the same condition BM bunker build, but Turkish is a Norn. So, when I ran in and caught someone in roots, I would still drop a bonfire on their face, but instead of being able to use PI I would use Sick ‘Em and watch murder ensue. Seeing my Jag hit someone for 6k almost makes me feel bad seeing as how they can’t run from it…

Oolune.4357:

Great stuff, Xsorus. After watching one of your videos, I guess my question is really how much do you think Pain Inverter does for your build? Is the build worth it without it? No doubt that retaliation and confusion helps a lot. =P

I don’t think otherwise, mind. Just wondering your thoughts on it.

Pain Inverter isn’t required for BM Bunker (Cleric Armor version wouldn’t use it for example) I just use it because it is absolutely one of the best abilities in the game for the build.

I mean really, I could use other abilities but none hold a candle to it.

Im a fan of this build, used it alot when roaming solo and in small group pvp. My question is, how do you fare playing it in larger scale fights (15/20+)? Entangle/PI are very nice AoE but besides that the rest seems kind of 1 target focus.

Also quick question, why Vigorous Training (AoE Vigor 5s) and not Mighty Swap (3x Might 10s)? Is there any synergy with Vigor that i’m missing or just wanna dodge more often?

Large Scale its not amazing, you can do the bombing, but that’s about it.

I prefer the Vigor cause it works on everyone nearby, including myself..

Mighty Swap isn’t going to make a huge difference

I care what no one says.

In zerg fights, large scale WvW type of massive battles:

30/20/20 full zerker with a splash of Valk and a longbow worked just fine…

Oolune.4357:

Great stuff, Xsorus. After watching one of your videos, I guess my question is really how much do you think Pain Inverter does for your build? Is the build worth it without it? No doubt that retaliation and confusion helps a lot. =P

I don’t think otherwise, mind. Just wondering your thoughts on it.

I run similar condition build and my ranger is human yet it still works amazingly. I also run it in Wv3 for duels but in bigger scale it’s pretty bad as your pet is dead most of the time.

Thanks for posting this. I had planned to start a Ranger and this definitely helps as I quite fancy playing at a closer range.

Would this style of play also work quite well for general levelling/PVE? I’d like to spend time learning this in both PVE/WvW. I would probably lean more towards the clerics version as my gold funds are not great, so would struggle with the Apothecary gear.

alexparris.3754:

Thanks for posting this. I had planned to start a Ranger and this definitely helps as I quite fancy playing at a closer range.

Would this style of play also work quite well for general levelling/PVE? I’d like to spend time learning this in both PVE/WvW. I would probably lean more towards the clerics version as my gold funds are not great, so would struggle with the Apothecary gear.

Yes it’d work fine..

I lvled up pretty much running a setup similar to this (back then I ran skirmishing instead of wilderness but that’d work fine)

General Pveing is easy, I generally don’t change my spec (I only switch to magic find gear) while i’m out PVEing.

alexparris.3754:

Thanks for posting this. I had planned to start a Ranger and this definitely helps as I quite fancy playing at a closer range.

Would this style of play also work quite well for general levelling/PVE? I’d like to spend time learning this in both PVE/WvW. I would probably lean more towards the clerics version as my gold funds are not great, so would struggle with the Apothecary gear.

Here’s a short video demonstrating an apothecary build in PvE. As you can see, it’s pretty viable, and has crazy survivability while still maintaining decent damage.

Don’t run apothecary/conditions in pve — you’re just being a kitten to your group if you do. A berserker set is not hard to get at all. Hell, you can get your ascended apothecary stuff but still keep a berserker exotic set for pve.

Condition damage is vastly inferior vs. full berserker at 110% crit damage in PvE and WvW large scale. Keep condition sets for skirmishing/1v1.

Survivability in PvE is about vigor uptime and learning what to dodge and where to position/identify patterns. You are not meant to tank hits and it’s largely the reason why high toughness builds hold a group back in PvE and delay fights while squishier members of the team have to endure larger time windows of error due to the lower killing speed. There is not a single encounter in PvE outside mossman lv40+ fractal that you can’t brute force with berserker quickly and efficiently.

Except Zenith, bruting as a ranger requires a lot of skill in dungeons and WvW. Trying to be a glassy ranger while running a cookie cutter build you read off the forums without a whole lot of foresight as to what’s going into the build, how to use the weapons to their fullest potential, etc is not as good. That’s telling him to run a build that works great for other people even if it’s uncomfortable to him. Since bunker builds can be any weaponset, he can learn each weapon as he feels like and choose where to develop from there as a player.

Alex admitted he doesn’t know ranger very well. New ranger + berserker build = rally material in WvW. New ranger + berserker build = dead in two hits in dungeon. New ranger + berserker build = running around Tyria learning to play on a build that is severely limiting in a ranger’s capabilities.

It’s not a good way to start him. Rangers who start here end up complaining on the forums after they hit 80 about how terrible the class is because they don’t know how to use it.

Admittedly, berserker ranger is a viable way to play and I’ve seen others play it really well. But I still have to disagree with you. I advise completely against running a berserker build as a ranger – if you want to be any use to your team at least – until AFTER you’ve been playing it for a while.

He’s better off learning the hard way in dungeons. By fractal 40+ not even toughness specced guardians can afford to tank much.

It’s very important that people learn that in this game, dodging is your main mitigation tool first and foremost.

I know it’s not easy. I remember when I tried a full 12k hp berserker d/d ele for the first few times I thought it was a completely nonviable spec in pve. And then you learn why you’re wrong in time. Fractals were really good for me at 40+ because prior to the release of ascended earrings, you simply had to know how to dodge agony or you were going to go down and could cause a wipe. And it teaches you a lot about starting to pay attention to animations and patterns as opposed to tunnel visioning things and pressing buttons without much thought just because you want to keep them on cooldown (like blowing your burning speed and putting fire attunement or earth attunement on cd during phase change in Grawl Shaman, big mistake you learn to avoid).

Same thing applies to Lupicus. At first you think meleeing is insane, because that kick nearly killed you and it seemed sudden. But then you notice that he does a unique pause that telegraphs it, or the animation for the projectile storm he does that used to seem sudden to you becomes easy to detect and react to.

I’d just hate it if he went and spent over 50g per earring in apothecary accessories to find himself not doing much in dungeons or large scale WvW when he finally grasps his ranger. Because a berserker ranger is considerably more useful in 25+ zerg fights than a condi bunker spec will ever be (and quite frankly this is sadly the crap format that WvW has devolved into, where running huge zergs is so stupidly profitable over smaller skirmish groups where burst aoe damage is not the king it is in large scale battles).

You don’t have to go apothecary to be bunker. He asked about apothecary specifically and how well it plays in PvE. My response was direct and truthful. If he wants to save money on trinkets, he can easily roll a cleric alternative.

However this is a bunker ranger thread, not a berserker ranger thread. People who are posting here are interested in bunker builds, not berserker builds. So while I really do agree with you, you’re derailing the thread by trying to convince someone not to play bunker when they have posted in a thread on the subject specifically asking questions about that subject.

You’re not wrong, but you’re preaching to the wrong crowd friend.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

You don’t have to go apothecary to be bunker. He asked about apothecary specifically and how well it plays in PvE. My response was direct and truthful. If he wants to save money on trinkets, he can easily roll a cleric alternative.

However this is a bunker ranger thread, not a berserker ranger thread. People who are posting here are interested in bunker builds, not berserker builds. So while I really do agree with you, you’re derailing the thread by trying to convince someone not to play bunker when they have posted in a thread on the subject specifically asking questions about that subject.

You’re not wrong, but you’re preaching to the wrong crowd friend.

Well, I answered his question on whether apothecary would work in PvE. Everything can work in PvE, but I’m sure he’s interested as a new player on learning to play efficiently, and coming across a pve group that might vote kick him as soon as they realize he’s a condition build in a dungeon.

I love condition specs; I don’t want to come off like I hate them. Axe is by far my favorite ranger weapon thematically, even if it’s autoattack is absolutely terrible. I just don’t want him to have a rude awakening with PuGs if he decides to try condition builds in PvE, because I assure you he will.

Thanks for the overwhelming replies I had a little go at this in spvp last night and had a blast. I tried the conditions variation first and seemed to do reasonably well, even though I had no real idea what I was doing. I then tried clerics with a Greatsword (as this is what I will end up with unless I can make some gold!) and while I didn’t feel I did quite as much damage, I felt I could survive a little longer.

I suppose my question really was how the spec itself plays outside of WvW/PvP. I would probably be able to throw some knights/zerker gear in when just out in Tyria to kill quicker. I generally play with my partner and we aren’t hardcore/great players, so won’t be doing massive amounts of explores/fractals. I also generally dislike running in zergs/massive groups in WvW, as it generally bores me, so I prefer to roam and this spec/gameplay looks great for it, so I wanted to get a good feel for it before taking it out to WvW.

Again, thank you for the advice and any more would be most appreciated!

Great guide Xsorus, happy you represented the power build in addition to the Condi one.

Apothecary in Dungeons, I’ve ran this build in dungeons, and it does alright…..I mean it is quite a few conditions you can throw out very quickly. You won’t compete with Berserker Warriors in CoF though…No one does…So building a Berserker build for that is waste in my opinion.

Now if you intend on going very high in Fotm’s, yea you can build a berserker build…I’ve only done like level 10 in those and I never bothered afterward.

This is mainly a WvW/SPvP build.

Honestly, I often favor direct damage in dungeons over conditions for the following reasons:

• There is no “stack limit” on direct damage … there is for conditions so this can limit your usefulness if the group is hitting this (i.e. 25 stacks of bleed, someone else already applying burning and poison)
• There are targets that need to be DPS’d that are immune to condition damage
• There are targets that need to be burst down quickly

Soldier’s is a good set to start with. Knight’s as well, but because of the way aggro works, Knight’s will mean you have more toughness than most (if not all) of your group and land you more aggro. Knight’s toughness will also not help you against conditions.

Cleric can work well too, but you’ll do less damage than with Soldier’s/Knight’s. However, you’ll lend better heals to your group (via Healing Spring and Runes of Dwayna if you take it).

I have run a few dungeons and even fractals as a condition build and it works well. Just not in the cases I mentioned above. When I did run as a condition build, I was using Rabid though for a bit more damage.

The ranger can’t provide that much healing to a group aside from regen from healing spring and their pet (who doesn’t use your +healing), so I’m not a big fan of wearing my +healing gear in dungeons.

I hope this made sense and was clear. I feel like I’m rambling a bit now, so stopping ;-)

All makes sense to me. My main reason for running the clerics version over apothercary is the gold issue, but I also quite like the look of the GS

In the end, I will just have to see how things go. I have 80 levels ahead of me so plenty of time to figure it out!

GS builds really favor power/critdmg based gear. Cleric is fun, but the weakness in them is that you don’t do damage when your opponent disengages. That’s the power of conditions in pvp, that you can keep pressure even when the opponent goes defensive, and conditions ignore toughness that certain classes like ele like to stack.

Of course, power builds work well against classes like thieves who you need to burst down quick. P/D thieves will win all attrition fights if you don’t bring enough burst to negate their cloack and dagger/stealth healing windows. And with the condi removal on stealth traits plus hide in shadows certain thieves are very resilient to condition builds (while backstab thieves are weak to them because they don’t spec in the lines involving this durability).

As most roamers seem to run bunkers outside of thieves, I would suggest you stick to the condition variant. The power build will do little against a proper duel specced bunker guardian, for example, whereas a condition build will easily chew through them.

Your power variant on the other hand will do better in a group, where CC can hold people down for you and quickly dealing damage is more important.

I’d probably try run with smaller groups so hoping Clerics will be alright. Would you suggest to still use dagger with the sword of switch to say the warhorn? (Sorry for going on about the Clerics version so much!)

Might try grinding the materials for the Apothecary gear at some point. I have a Guardian at 80 so this might make it a little easier.

Made my Ranger last night and ran around with the GS for 10 minutes. Feels pretty good so far, so looking forward to getting some levels!

Dagger or Horn is fine, depends on if you want Fury vs an Evade

Fury on Cleric’s is “meh” for me. 24% crit chance with fury and no increased crit damage. I’d take the evade and poison so that you are tankier and can reduce the healing of your enemies (making you more viable against other bunkers).

Sebrent.3625:

Fury on Cleric’s is “meh” for me. 24% crit chance with fury and no increased crit damage. I’d take the evade and poison so that you are tankier and can reduce the healing of your enemies (making you more viable against other bunkers).

This is probably true.

You could probably make a cast for dropping Signet of the Hunt if you had Horn, but Sword/Dagger would probably still be better with Greatsword or Shortbow as your secondary.

Sword + Dagger goes with anything ;-)

It’s like the Ranger’s little black dress.

Rofl yea… Sword/Dagger is such an amazing combo..I honestly believe our Sword/Dagger is the best weapon set in the game.

Let’s see:

• Auto-attack chain 100% up-time on cripple and pet-might, 400 range leap on 2nd two hits, and hits hard
• 3 evades (sword #2, sword #3, dagger #4)
• 1,200 roll+leap in whatever direction you want (good use of turning and sword #2)
  • On an 8 (6.5 traited) second cooldown! Wowzers! Traited, you can do 3 of these for one ride the lightning an elementalist does or rush a warrior does.
• 100% up-time on poison (sword #3, dagger #4)
• cripple and bleed (dagger #5).

Yeah, that’s pretty hard to beat :-)

So they ended up nerfing my Pain Inverter Ability pretty bad.

I’ve now moved over to a more Defensive Setup

This is not fun to fight against.