Guild Wars 2

Hey guys I am trying to get back into gw2 with my ranger and have been getting mixed results in wvw. I have tried full beserker crit build, pet build, and traps build.

I wanted to get some opinions from fellow rangers on what is working well for them right now. I hate rolling with zergs whenever possible as per obvious reasons ankitten ormally in a small group (3-5 people) my impressions of the builds were as follows:

Beserker: really nice single target damage especially bringing down fleeing enemies, at max distance LB#2 and quickening zephyr can bring down a target with one burst, problem is instantly targeted, low health, not a lot of evades. More beneficial in big groups then small where I can hide and pew pew

Pet build: I had heard that pet build was pretty nice at one point but I think its been nerfed since then. It was hard to really get a feel for how much dmg my pet was doing but I was far more survivable with almost 10k more health and pulled out the GS for defensive abilities. Felt like I wasnt contributing to the actual fight and was more so jumping around. It just didnt have the satisfaction of bringing someone down with a fury of arrows lol:)

Traps build: I have only used this is spvp as this was my build for the team I was doing tournaments with a couple months ago where I was side bunker. Its far more survivable and if you get someone stuck in all those traps you can do some nice damage. I am going to get a set of exotics today to try it out not sure if there have been any postitive changes via updates for that build?

Let me know what you guys think:)

You forgot perplexity hybrid ranger. Pure trolling that build, so much fun.

Kakuta.8759:

questions

the few other successful roaming rangers ive run into are running x//x/30/30/x (natures voice) or x/x/30/x/30 (BM). The basic idea is that wilderness is mandatory for solo roaming and some source of HP regen (in addition to SotW) is better than any of the other grandmasters.

for zergs, obviously its more optimal to be less bunker and more damage, and thats where you see a lot of the stereotypical brown-bear longbow baddies running high dps low survivability. It contributes more than a bunker to a ZvZ but is pretty much a free kill if caught away from the zerg.

traps are fun but havent been viable for awhile. the problem is that they require 30 in skirmishing to be good and take up a utility slot. This means you are giving up a lot of survivability just to add some condition’s you couldve otherwise applied with certain weapon choices (torch, axe, sharpening stone). WvW is also fairly open to, so in order to really get alot out of them you would have to camp an area rather than roam (though with the new capture points in the borderlands, there are quite a few high traffic areas for such rangers to camp if they wanted).

If I were going to run zerg with my Ranger, I would probably go with a high healing, some sort of bow with piercing arrow and a pet that takes condition and allows you to move. Add to it Entangle, troll ungent and go have fun.

Benjamin.8237:

You forgot perplexity hybrid ranger. Pure trolling that build, so much fun.

I like the sound of pure trolling:) I havent heard of that one I shall search it, thanks buddy!

Raven.9603:

Kakuta.8759:

questions

the few other successful roaming rangers ive run into are running x//x/30/30/x (natures voice) or x/x/30/x/30 (BM). The basic idea is that wilderness is mandatory for solo roaming and some source of HP regen (in addition to SotW) is better than any of the other grandmasters.

for zergs, obviously its more optimal to be less bunker and more damage, and thats where you see a lot of the stereotypical brown-bear longbow baddies running high dps low survivability. It contributes more than a bunker to a ZvZ but is pretty much a free kill if caught away from the zerg.

traps are fun but havent been viable for awhile. the problem is that they require 30 in skirmishing to be good and take up a utility slot. This means you are giving up a lot of survivability just to add some condition’s you couldve otherwise applied with certain weapon choices (torch, axe, sharpening stone). WvW is also fairly open to, so in order to really get alot out of them you would have to camp an area rather than roam (though with the new capture points in the borderlands, there are quite a few high traffic areas for such rangers to camp if they wanted).

thank you for the well informed response my friend, I haven’t tried a build with 30 in wilderness but the xx3030x sounds interesting. Increasing my survivability I think will be the best bet to help my group, I read somewhere that “its better to out survive your enemy than out dps them” which I def found to be the case when my glass cannon kept being shattered lol

what armour set would you recommend? I picked up soldiers for the increased health and toughness when I was running BM but I think my guildie was recommending Valkyrie possibly?

If you want to go BM take apothecary gear, possibly cleric’s will work to lesser extent with food and 25 stacks of condition boost.

Berserker build(30/10/30/0/0) is more fun but requires more skill to play in small groups. Its survivability is very good if you know what are you doing.

I’d recommend something with high healing power (to complement nature’s voice). If you’re a power build, go cleric’s. If you’re conditions, try a combination of settler’s/apothecary. Personally, I’m a huge advocate against running condition/power hybrids, but others say they make it work so if you can as well then power to you (no pun intended).

I actually started running a power/roaming build using soldier’s gear.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBHhVakoqyOyyvC1OQ0ekJJdemCFxIniRhqCW1A-jkCB4LCiUgAEEgEGQZPFRjtMsIasKGYqTLqWfCwnoIa1SBMqyI-w

I found that using superior rune of speed will increase vit and the extra swiftness really helps when flanking and fighting. Depending on situations, I swap weapons quite often. if taking a camp, I usually swap to S/A and use axe#5 as soon as I entangle the NPCs. I am able to hit consistently for about 800-1100 dps on SB (you can get 3500 attck with guard leech) and pretty mobile with S/A and SB weapon combo. With 21k HP (24.5K with applied fortitude) conditions don’t really stick unless you are fighting two or more condition mesmers/necros/engis/etc.

I find that the DPS and mobility can overwhelm many BM/Apothecary rangers at range (unless they are extremely good at closing distance then you’ve got a nice fight on your hands). Close quarter fighting is a bit rough, but with swiftness, evades, and mobility, you should not have any problems with staying at range and out of AoE. As always, dodge critical skills like Entangle and movement skills like cripple, chill, etc and you’ll be fine.

I’ve tried a Valkyrie armor set, but I found that the Valkyrie set doesn’t offer me enough toughness for the extra crit damage. Given the choice, I will always choose the extra toughness over crit damage. In small group play, I usually swap SB for LB and deal damage from 1200 range. The entangle will not do a great deal of damage on it’s own, but necro’s, rangers, and ele’s that get rooted will mostly likely get downed unless they can break out right away.

I’ve actually started to really enjoy this build over my Condition/Regen ranger because you’ll be dealing direct damage as opposed to conditions where if cleansed right away, you aren’t doing much to help. Though I do miss the passive regen, this build has been far more fun because you can’t be overly reckless since you don’t have the passive regen capabilities of a clerics bunker or Apothecary conditon/regen.

I’m running an weird power build that I’m enjoying A LOT.
Zerzer armor + Zerker/Valk trinkets and weapons, 20/20/20/10/0 build.
Weapons are axe/axe + axe/wh
In the end the stats are 2.3k power (w/o food), 117% crit damage (with honed axe), 60% crit (w/o fury), 18.5k HP

With sigil of blood + SotW + mango pie I have really good survivability even with 0 healing power, in WvW zergs and even better at small groups the axe #1, #4 and #5 are really nice, wh #4 hit stealth targets if you cast it before, also healing spring + wh #5 cures a lot you and people near you.

I only tested this build for 2 days, I’m really enjoying it, and it also works really well at PvE and dungeons, I know that axe isn’t a great power weapon but I really like it.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

I’d recommend something with high healing power (to complement nature’s voice). If you’re a power build, go cleric’s. If you’re conditions, try a combination of settler’s/apothecary. Personally, I’m a huge advocate against running condition/power hybrids, but others say they make it work so if you can as well then power to you (no pun intended).

I agree with you. I’ve never found a rampager’s set too viable for me. Either I did crap damage or i was just too squishy. I don’t like feeling too squsihy, so I never pursued it further than what i invested into it.