Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to build a bm/power ranger for wvw similar to the bm/condi/healing but I have problems with weapon choice. Sword seems the most obvious choice but I’m forced to use autoattack to do damage with a power build and even with the autoattack off I can’t dodge during the animation wich is the key component to survive with this kind of build. The greatsword seems to do just less damage with auto but doesn’t have the evading power of a sword+dagger.
Ideas?

On my BM/power ranger I use melee, Sword/Dagger and Greatsword, and it works fine. Sword/dagger is not only strong on autoattack, but it comes with 3 extra evades, 2 extra poison skills that will let you outheal your opponent, and 2 sources of effective cripple to help your pet along with might stacking for it. Greatsword is a very defensive weapon that can still do adequate damage. It has an evade built into its autoattack, so it actually has more evade than a sword, just less controllable. It has good damage attacks in swoop and maul, swoop also being a leap finisher and an excellent space closer. It also has a 3 second block that can turn into a knockdown, and an interrupt that also gives your pet a damage boost. Using both of these weapon sets gives you two leap finishers during healing spring, which is an extra 4k health depending on healing power. This build does plenty of damage, with boosts I am able to get up to 3000 attack power with full clerics gear. The numbers might not look pretty, but they add up, seeing as they are direct and quick damage as compared to the time it takes conditions to finish out. You also get a chance to burst effectively.

Axe/Axe is another possibility in the power build that I haven’t tried really, its highlight being its ability to multitarget and Whirling Defense, which in a power build can get maybe 3k damage on a full channel.

I prefer Greatsword/shortbow. I’m trying out a power heavy build for my BM at the moment. Anyway short bow is nice because it lets you shoot runners in the back and has a ranged cripple….

Oh, and GS damage comes from its 2 and 3 skills. Auto is just filler. Also its auto has a evade on the third attack. With quickness the ‘evade period’ remains the same even though the evade animation has passed, meaning the protection overlaps into the next chain. GS is very tanky; my current build goes toe to toe with guards. We can’t kill each other, but it sure is fun!

I posted this in another thread, but it applies here as well

Hmm..

What you trying to do as for as damage? Condition or Power?

Generally speaking you don’t wanna go past 15 Points in Nature, Certain Power Builds work really well with 15 Points with nature, Generally Sword/Horn with Shortbow for example work well with that type of setup (Your pet ends up with close to 30 seconds of Fury/Swiftness which makes Dogs for example a pretty good filler on a DPS pet as Birds/Cats already crit a ton, though Jungle Stalker becomes viable with that setup as you can stack Might on him very quickly)

Anything past those 15 points though is pure Meh as the line is concerned, Its designed around Spirits, and Spirit currently are just awful all around.

The Last talent for example, Remove Blind/Poison on dodge every 10 seconds, Why get that vs Empathetic Bond which removes ALL Conditions every 10 seconds off of you. I notice you went Barkskin as well, Which while it is a great ability, It doesn’t compare to Empathetic Bond…

picking up some healing gear would allow you to also drop SoR and pick up Signet of the Wild instead.

If you’re wanting a More Power based build something like this would probably work better.

You’d end up using Knights Gear for it

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoM0VmzMoharMMho0M0axffzoaqMc08khA707khA7khT7khA70z7kuW70V7owY70m

You’d either way to use Wolves or Jungle Stalker, and you’d not want to swap Pets a whole lot (as you’re wanting to Maintain high Might/Fury/Swiftness on the Pet)

You could also forgo using Signet of the Hunt, Swap on some Power/Toughness/Healing Power Gear, and instead rely on Swiftness as your movement speed buff, and instead using Signet of the Wild..

You’d still be missing the Natural Healing Regen from Beastmaster line, But you could possibly get by with out it.

Personally though with a setup like that I’d run something similar to this though

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmozzVmzMogarMMho0M0axffzokqMc08khA707khA7khT7khA70z7kuW70V7owY70m

Axe is a good Mid Range weapon and you could use Whirling Defense as an advantage for people who jump on ya.

GS/sword/dagger is the typical setup for a high sustain beastmaster. ive been experimenting with SB/sword/dagger, and there are a few notable advantages and disadvantages:

advantage SB:
- spammable cripple, gives you almost perma cripple with dagger and sword.
- long range stun/daze
- additional poison, allowing for good poison uptime on a target
- has an evade

advantage GS:
- #3 is leap finisher, gap closer and escape
- #4 = damage immunity
- auto-evade every once in a while (works better with quickness)

overall, GS will give you more sustain, and SB will give you more dps and control.

MH axe imo only works for condition builds. OH axe is miserable and needs a major buff. #4 is useless and #5 needs to be cast while moving.

i use LR, SoH, SoW, and SoN on my beastmaster.