Guild Wars 2

Yes
No

Condi dmg is 1 stat. You can spec heal and toughness while doing max condi dmg.
Direct damage is 3 stat. Loss of any one of them causes exponentially less damage.

Wouldn’t say it’s bad, I’ve already seen it around around here and it worked.

A 0/0/30/10/30 BM build is one of my favorite builds, but you need settler’s or apothecary or even dire equippement.

Healing power goes hand in hand with regen, regen is from wilderness survival, Nature magic and beast mastery traits.

A cleric equipe is good for power shout build like 30/0/0/30/10, good dmg, perma swiftness and perma regen, a GS + S/W are awesome if you use healing spring ( amazing healings ), but this is more for roaming with your buddies.

For solo I would sugges condi bm build.

It puzzles me why people say condition damage is a single stat damage spec. Bleed procs are a big part of condition spec and they requires precision.

That aside, I think ranger has one of the weakest condition specs in the game. I really don’t see it as a choice, players should aim for high power if nothing else. I think a hybrid damage/bunker setup augmented with defensive traits is a good compromise. Whether or not a chunk of healing power would help is iffy—I don’t think you get much of a return on your investment.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsYRjEVV2JWCWs2Bi2jJZJM9UEL27UMK/nxRf8KC-ToAgzE3ouxdj5GpXWvGhsCZ2A

BM clerics with knights/cavelier’s trinkets are good. I liked mine, i was able to have passive regen of up to 150-250 per second like the apothecary but did good DPS, 3.5k-4k mauls, and 700-1000 dps with S/D. you’ll have crazy evade capabilities with S/D and GS weapon sets, not to mention being able to run away from just about everything with chain skills (LF, Sword 2- sword 2, to GS#3). This chain is by far, the fastest and clears the most ground on any build or class. link to build is below:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBMhFaEoqyuxSxi1OQ0ekJzjp3jYt+27KMqCW9A-jkyA4OBRCCIRAgKAlFLiGbxsIasKGM1pgsSNp+kioVLFgZKjA-w

I just found this hard to fight against, guardians, warriors, and BM spec conditons because you have to fight in close quarters. With proper evades and use, you should be able to sustain enough damage to take them down of course.

I’ve had good results using a 0/20/20/0/30 hybrid build mixing celestial, Knights cleric with travelers runes (melandreus would be good too)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJAVRjEVZ2JW+Vs2BimiJZJmiEdo3j0z+2XhSkA-jUCBYjBiCEgiAhsAKBqIaslhFRjVNbR16kYaXASBwuwI-w

i have had fair results in fights and gets around the map quick

You could always roam in full melee as a power build. If anybody remembers Puandro, this build is an adaptation of his. It has very decent crit ability, as long as the weapon swaps are being utilized.

I left the weapon sigils out, but you’ll want some “on swap” types. Battle is always good, or you could try to put the health steal ones to good effect, or even Hydromancy.

Link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAR8YjAVV2BWKWsWCg2jMtET+hD/Hi1VY0LWqKJ-jUyAYMB5knyaWUQsuVENWFDmqEQfmUlak9GFRrGA-w

If you run into someone like me you’d have a good time as i’m terrible at fighting BM’s but you wont catch me running from a good 1v1 but really, it’s not hard to turn around and just walk away once you find out it’s a BM.

This is what I use. I’ve been called OP before, but I guess that expression gets thrown around a lot.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-F;5FFx-r2kDV-0-3JEkx-g27Fk2Ro16;0T9T;459A4;049B6-k0-Rk019cV19cV50kW0-y6-cYN8h-l0p1vY0_5505WKs050;9;9;9;9;9;9-V3-6e

Power bm? bad? hardly… im a critical damage based BM build and my pet does crits of 2k to 6k quite easily. I run longbow/axe-horn and stack criticals hits like crazy. Keep in mind your pet direct physical damage is related to power and as such if you realy want to run an actualy pet damaging BM build you should also have power in your build. Now now of course you could run rampager that has both power condition damage and critical rate (cats do bleed on critical strike after all) But since shortbow realy wont do that many hit per second like longbow or axe can i dont recommand stacking condition damage. In average i do minimum 4k dps from both my pet and my own damage when actualy not using skills to begin with. if i start stacking might then i can easily do serious concurence to any other critical damage based build. Dont even get me the excuse of pet dying easily its all about controling your pets and knowing when to witraw/switch it in order to prevent its death. Red circles? just swap and its just as if it dodged the blow.

I must admit im having a hard time with bosses like alpha who spam red circles of doom that one shot players every 3 second but as a general rule pet will hardly ever die if played right, you just got to actualy care and manage it.

kyubi.3620:

Keep in mind your pet direct physical damage is related to power and as such if you realy want to run an actualy pet damaging BM build you should also have power in your build.

New patchnotes or something?

kyubi.3620:

Power bm? bad? hardly… im a critical damage based BM build and my pet does crits of 2k to 6k quite easily. I run longbow/axe-horn and stack criticals hits like crazy. Keep in mind your pet direct physical damage is related to power and as such if you realy want to run an actualy pet damaging BM build you should also have power in your build.

and you’re out..

Bambula.3649:

kyubi.3620:

Power bm? bad? hardly… im a critical damage based BM build and my pet does crits of 2k to 6k quite easily. I run longbow/axe-horn and stack criticals hits like crazy. Keep in mind your pet direct physical damage is related to power and as such if you realy want to run an actualy pet damaging BM build you should also have power in your build.

and you’re out..

Someday he’ll visit the wiki

BM build is good but i wouldnt use it on pvp mainly because of its somewhat weak crowd control resiliance. I run that in pve zone such as high level fractal of the mist because lets face it you wont hit over 10 target per second in pvp.

kyubi.3620:

you wont hit over 10 target per second in pvp.

Huh?

Kyubi linked his build on a differen thread, but he is referring this to PVE only. His build while it would seem fun in PVE would utterly get destroyed in WvW or PvP.

Keep in mind that not everyone on the forums play WvW or PvP

Noobie.1073:

Kyubi linked his build on a differen thread, but he is referring this to PVE only. His build while it would seem fun in PVE would utterly get destroyed in WvW or PvP.

Keep in mind that not everyone on the forums play WvW or PvP

Dont get us wrong, we’re just wondering about some facts being not soooo.. uhhmm… accurate…

I have heard tell that this power/healing build can be done!

Idk what these people are talking about. 0 0 30 10 30 bm with s/t and a/d is still a very strong spec. Massive regen, tons of evades, good cd damage, and good mobility all followed by a pet that can deal strong damage and is extra tanky due to regen and increased stats. Only drawback really is weakness to condition bursts and a low hp pool.

Soilder.3607:

Idk what these people are talking about. 0 0 30 10 30 bm with s/t and a/d is still a very strong spec. Massive regen, tons of evades, good cd damage, and good mobility all followed by a pet that can deal strong damage and is extra tanky due to regen and increased stats. Only drawback really is weakness to condition bursts and a low hp pool.

Which is kinda the issue with a BM build -condition bursts and a low hp pool are the meta, if not its competing with very high damage. None of which the ranger has in anyway to create a good counter to the blows they get and recover from. Rangers lack stability except for one elite on a really long cooldown. A stank from a guardian hammer offers you immobilization plus mighty aoe damage, that no amount of regen can give you a comeback. Regen can be good in certain areas, PVE and places such as the toxic tower were ok, but it suffered from a lack of dealing any damage. And in the tower you really need it.
Pets are also not 100% accurate – take spider poison cloud for one. The attack is far too slow to hit or affect anything, as soon as it lands the target has moved out of that small field so it is of little use. A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios. Even then though , traps are no where GTFO as say engineer grenades – its a fact that most Ranger damage = poor compared to the rest sadly.

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Jackums.3496:

How viable is a power/healing BM build for WvW roaming?

OP: I strongly recommend for you to ignore the people telling you power isnt a viable roaming spec. Condi is better right now for dueling, but its also a lot worse in terms of mobility, which is basically a roamers “quality of life.” Here is by far my favorite Ranger WvW video, its Exploits BM power ranger (gs+s/wh). It proves flat out what you can do with the spec youre thinking of in the right hands (though i might opt for vigor on petswap instead): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEWpvAlu68&feature=share&list=UUusZTm3ghTzw5NlotflM2Ew&index=1

Personally, I roam very effectively with a boon duration Natures Voice (0/0/30/30/10) spec, power based; using GS and s/d. I do very, very well. Most of my evenings look a lot like the Exploits vid above. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAR8YnAV0FclFKWwaZAp9YSsEM5VI9cP8vOJELYVC-jkCBoNCykIBiIAOLqIaslhht6KIlXRTvATdiIq2boIa1yAYOGA-w

This build maintains about 9 stacks of might from Sigils for most of the fight. Rampage adds about another 10-14. Not shown is 25 stacks of bloodlust from an alternate s/d swap. Dec 10th, mighty swap will effect the ranger, for another 3-6 stacks of might. Dec 10th also greatly increases fury uptime with 2h training buff. Build currently has huge stability/vigor/protection uptime, and perma aoe regen/swiftness.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Rofl…I said the same thing when I read that.

Xsorus.2507:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Rofl…I said the same thing when I read that.

Facepalm, it’s the only build you can use in WvW to survive.

Anyways I know that we all have respect for the condition BM build and to each their own tweaks to it, but in terms of the changes that the devs have been tweaking into the ranger class over the year, have other new builds opened up that I have not heard about? I remember when the death of the power based build occurred a while back with the nerf to the GS. Spirits seem to be a viable choice now, but I heard only in PvP. What do you all have to contribute to this question? I am aiming to add new solid builds to my kitten nal, currently running a solid fire-condition BM build, I just hate to think it could be outdated by now.

Xsorus.2507:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Rofl…I said the same thing when I read that.

Generated a chuckle here as well =D

Xsorus.2507:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Rofl…I said the same thing when I read that.

I fail to see the funny side. have you actually tried a trap build to actually see what it can offer? Out of all ranger builds with PVT as part of your armor set, the trap build is not bad. It just suffers from in your face damage. Chill for example lends itself as both an early warning system plus slows them down. In a zerg it offers you the chance to stand back and throw traps as a bit of support. yes its not perfect, yes its a bit clunky and not as good as a lot of AOE out there. Until Anet realizes and sorts out something for rangers , its a bandaid to allow you to interact in WvW both in support and as a defense to yourself. Rangers have to know how their class works other than say a warrior, which really is easy to play due to the " in your face ", bang and stun with a hammer = faceroll damage. Sure its not a 100% solution to what is out there, yes I know that ranger is in a poor state. However I have tried it, it works for me and I come out of most things and enjoying playing WvW with my ranger with this set up. Try it a few times, you might just be presently surprised. :P
However perhaps offering a reason to your critique may help, simply ROLFING on a forum without a reasonable counter -debate is useless and makes you out as a troll. be useful and state why :P

I dont think the trap statement was the reason, more the bunker build being no good in wvw.

mzt.3270:

Soilder.3607:

Idk what these people are talking about. 0 0 30 10 30 bm with s/t and a/d is still a very strong spec. Massive regen, tons of evades, good cd damage, and good mobility all followed by a pet that can deal strong damage and is extra tanky due to regen and increased stats. Only drawback really is weakness to condition bursts and a low hp pool.

Which is kinda the issue with a BM build -condition bursts and a low hp pool are the meta, if not its competing with very high damage. None of which the ranger has in anyway to create a good counter to the blows they get and recover from. Rangers lack stability except for one elite on a really long cooldown. A stank from a guardian hammer offers you immobilization plus mighty aoe damage, that no amount of regen can give you a comeback. Regen can be good in certain areas, PVE and places such as the toxic tower were ok, but it suffered from a lack of dealing any damage. And in the tower you really need it.
Pets are also not 100% accurate – take spider poison cloud for one. The attack is far too slow to hit or affect anything, as soon as it lands the target has moved out of that small field so it is of little use. A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW(lol?), it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios. Even then though , traps are no where GTFO as say engineer grenades – its a fact that most Ranger damage = poor compared to the rest sadly.

If you’re playing BM without a bird or feline, you are doing it completely wrong. I know other pets offer superior control, but since you give the dps pets the survivability they need, you should always take them.

BM may be weak to condition builds, but don’t forget about how strong bm is in itself. You have massive amounts of regen and evades. Simply tank attack if you must and focus on pinning your opponent to ensure your pet mauls them apart. I think it’s even safe to make the claim that bm is our strongest dueling spec.

Stability is really only important for stun wars and fear spam necros, and having limited access to it is a downside shared by all ranger builds apart from signets.

mzt.3270:

Xsorus.2507:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Rofl…I said the same thing when I read that.

I fail to see the funny side. -debate is useless and makes you out as a troll. be useful and state why :P

hey man, hold on a sec.

first, look at the guys you are quoting. look at their sigs. both of them are long time ranger forum guys, and both of them have done a nice job sharing with the community their builds and approaches. they have been far more useful to the ranger community than 99% of rangers out there and they arent trolling you. if you follow the link in xsorus sig and watch his natures tank videos (#5 came out this week), you can see pretty quickly that almost everything youve said about BM in wvw is wrong.

second, per devs intention, rangers are balanced around sources of hp regen and evasion. its what we do, its how they expect us to defend ourselves. that stuff you are saying about regen not bringing you back from a big guardian hit, thats bogus. you can easily hit 300-400+ hp/sec without even including your main healing skill as a ranger. that is huge, and almost every single successful wvw roaming spec is built around regen, either through BM or NM.

third, everyone loves traps. they are the only real iconic thing about rangers in GW1 that anet implemented in GW2. but traps in general are 30 pts deep into a line that doesnt statistically improve condition damage, and taking them prevents you from taking stun breaks, or signet of renewal/wild. not to mention, spike trap is the only trap that isnt made irrelevant by other skills (torch, sun spirit > flame trap, muddy terrain > frost trap, anything > viper’s nest). it IS the condi meta, but that isnt enough to make traps a competitive choice.

Noobie.1073:

Kyubi linked his build on a differen thread, but he is referring this to PVE only. His build while it would seem fun in PVE would utterly get destroyed in WvW or PvP.

Keep in mind that not everyone on the forums play WvW or PvP

If you’re using a bunker build in PvE you are doing it wrong anyways. Anything that isn’t berzerkers is dragging the group down.

Zenith.7301:

Noobie.1073:

Kyubi linked his build on a differen thread, but he is referring this to PVE only. His build while it would seem fun in PVE would utterly get destroyed in WvW or PvP.

Keep in mind that not everyone on the forums play WvW or PvP

If you’re using a bunker build in PvE you are doing it wrong anyways. Anything that isn’t berzerkers is dragging the group down.

But that’s only because most PvE in this game is faceroll easy/

mzt.3270:

Xsorus.2507:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

mzt.3270:

A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW, it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios.

Uhhh

Rofl…I said the same thing when I read that.

I fail to see the funny side. have you actually tried a trap build to actually see what it can offer? Out of all ranger builds with PVT as part of your armor set, the trap build is not bad. It just suffers from in your face damage. Chill for example lends itself as both an early warning system plus slows them down. In a zerg it offers you the chance to stand back and throw traps as a bit of support. yes its not perfect, yes its a bit clunky and not as good as a lot of AOE out there. Until Anet realizes and sorts out something for rangers , its a bandaid to allow you to interact in WvW both in support and as a defense to yourself. Rangers have to know how their class works other than say a warrior, which really is easy to play due to the " in your face ", bang and stun with a hammer = faceroll damage. Sure its not a 100% solution to what is out there, yes I know that ranger is in a poor state. However I have tried it, it works for me and I come out of most things and enjoying playing WvW with my ranger with this set up. Try it a few times, you might just be presently surprised. :P
However perhaps offering a reason to your critique may help, simply ROLFING on a forum without a reasonable counter -debate is useless and makes you out as a troll. be useful and state why :P

Rofl.

Yea i have tried traps, and traps are very very nasty… I was laughing more at your statement about BM being weak in defense and having trouble with “Perma Stealth” Thieves.

Soilder.3607:

mzt.3270:

Soilder.3607:

Idk what these people are talking about. 0 0 30 10 30 bm with s/t and a/d is still a very strong spec. Massive regen, tons of evades, good cd damage, and good mobility all followed by a pet that can deal strong damage and is extra tanky due to regen and increased stats. Only drawback really is weakness to condition bursts and a low hp pool.

Which is kinda the issue with a BM build -condition bursts and a low hp pool are the meta, if not its competing with very high damage. None of which the ranger has in anyway to create a good counter to the blows they get and recover from. Rangers lack stability except for one elite on a really long cooldown. A stank from a guardian hammer offers you immobilization plus mighty aoe damage, that no amount of regen can give you a comeback. Regen can be good in certain areas, PVE and places such as the toxic tower were ok, but it suffered from a lack of dealing any damage. And in the tower you really need it.
Pets are also not 100% accurate – take spider poison cloud for one. The attack is far too slow to hit or affect anything, as soon as it lands the target has moved out of that small field so it is of little use. A bunker ranger has no defense in WvW(lol?), it is easy meat for many classes. It would offer little defense from a perm stealth thief with massive crit , however a trap build might save your bacon in many scenarios. Even then though , traps are no where GTFO as say engineer grenades – its a fact that most Ranger damage = poor compared to the rest sadly.

If you’re playing BM without a bird or feline, you are doing it completely wrong. I know other pets offer superior control, but since you give the dps pets the survivability they need, you should always take them.

BM may be weak to condition builds, but don’t forget about how strong bm is in itself. You have massive amounts of regen and evades. Simply tank attack if you must and focus on pinning your opponent to ensure your pet mauls them apart. I think it’s even safe to make the claim that bm is our strongest dueling spec.

Stability is really only important for stun wars and fear spam necros, and having limited access to it is a downside shared by all ranger builds apart from signets.

I play BM without Birds and Cats, Spiders are incredibly strong and I recommend them over both of those pets any day of the week.

Yeah I am almost exclusively canines myself for the CCs.

Soilder.3607:

Zenith.7301:

Noobie.1073:

Kyubi linked his build on a differen thread, but he is referring this to PVE only. His build while it would seem fun in PVE would utterly get destroyed in WvW or PvP.

Keep in mind that not everyone on the forums play WvW or PvP

If you’re using a bunker build in PvE you are doing it wrong anyways. Anything that isn’t berzerkers is dragging the group down.

But that’s only because most PvE in this game is faceroll easy/

No…..it’s the core design of combat. You can stack toughness but most bosses and high level fractal mobs will 2-shot you regardless. So you use damage to shorten the time window for someone possibly dying because with the damage bosses do, you really are not in a position to outlast them — they’ll wear your cooldowns down first.

Anyone having much luck with the trait that allows cats to bleed on their basic attack? Wondering if it stacks fast enough to make a difference for a condi/BM.

Considering I can go 20 BM AND have spirits in the next patch, it seemed interesting.

The pet’s bleeds have little condi damage base. It’s a garbage trait. Just play a power toon and use condi attacks — that’s what those 3-4 bleeds the pet may stack on a stationary target may do.

Right now rangers just have builds that are mediocre. You’ve got some decent duel builds, but dueling builds don’t make roaming builds.

Roaming builds for one need good counters against getting zerged. Take a thief or PU mesmer or a warrior. They either have invincibility and strong gap creators in the same build they can kill most classes.

A single root on your ranger will gut you because your condi clear goes as far as random removal from signet/empathetic trait. It’s not a good roaming class, and CC in particular counters rangers.

A good hammer/bow or hammer/axe+mace will crap all over a ranger because stunbreakers for rangers are crap with long cd’s and nowhere near the potency of other stunbreakers.

Most importantly, the ranger has nothing of value to offer to skirmish teams compared to a warrior or guardian, even mesmer or necro (a team taking care of their necro, and that necro is by far the most destructive force on the field).

Bombsaway.7198:

Anyone having much luck with the trait that allows cats to bleed on their basic attack? Wondering if it stacks fast enough to make a difference for a condi/BM.

Considering I can go 20 BM AND have spirits in the next patch, it seemed interesting.

I wouldn’t go more than 15 in BM personally, unless the Vigor on swap ends up being super valuable after the patch.

More interestingly, a condi build can do something like 10/10/30/20/0 with a decent amount of crit (around 25-30% minimum) and Sharpened Edges and the gaining Sharpening Stone with opponent at 50% health and with a minimum of a sun spirit and a shortbow just become a pressure machine.

Alternatively with no crit chance (or even with it), you can go 10/0/30/20/10 for Mighty Swap and either the 50% Sharpening Stones trait or, if you’ve taken a liking to spiders for the immobilize with the new immobilize stacking mechanic, pick up Malicious Training, and then just lockdown and pressure away.

But really these four will be your best bet for working spirits into a build:
0/0/30/20/20
10/10/30/20/0
10/0/30/20/10
0/10/30/20/10

And for Power Builds:

20/0/30/20/0
or even 0/0/30/20/20

Now only if we could get both of the trap traits each moved down a tier (at the very least). That would make for some interesting hybrid builds.