Guild Wars 2

Hello Friends,

I’ve spent countless hours trying to come up with a lethal power + condition build.
Below is what I’ve come up with -

Summary:

This is a multifaceted Ranger build. It offers a significant amount of power and condition damage, as well as a 47-60% critical hit chance. Additionally, you’re equipped with a healthy HP bar, and moderate damage reduction (toughness).

There are multiple variations of this build, that I will talk about in the guide itself. Because of this, you’re able to fight any player, with any build. Whether they’re built like a tank, built for power, or built to wither you down – you will have an edge on your opponent using this build.

Toxic Power Ranger – Gameplay V1.2

I also encourage you to take on 2v1, or even 3v1 situations. The build also offers great sustainability, and crowd control.

Here’s a “WvW Roaming Introduction” video I’ve uploaded, although it is not a specific build video, it will give you a glimpse of what you can expect – until I release an official build + guide video.

Toxic Power Ranger V1.2

Ascended “Toxic Power Ranger” V1.2

Exotic “Toxic Power Ranger” V1.2

Current “Toxic Power Ranger” V1.2

“Toxic Power Ranger” Guide:

- First Things First -

• Travel w/ your Axe + Dagger and your Wolf out.
  • I do this because it allows me to catch my opponents w/ Chill from Axe #3, and cripple from dagger #5 (with a 1,200 range).
  • This also allows me to quickly stack might before I engage the fight, with axe #1 auto-attack.
• Make sure your food buffs are active
  • Although food buffs aren’t required, they significantly improve the effectiveness of this build.
• If you’re a high enough WvW rank, obtain guard stacks for additional damage.
• Don’t forget to use your heal before you hit 60% hp, this will keep you from falling too low; your heal is an hp/sec heal, and is not a burst heal. Keep this in mind.

- Traits -

• Removal of 2 conditions from “Wildnerness Survival Skills”
  • Sharpening Stone
  • Lightning Reflexes
  • Entangle
• Fury, from “Wilderness Survival Skills”
• Protection, from dodge rolls.
• Removal of “3” conditions / 10 seconds “Empathetic Bond Trait”
• 20% reduction on 1/2 of your skill bar.
  • This includes off-hand weapons & wilderness survival skills.

- Alternative Traits & Skills -

• Swap Skill “Signet Of Stone” for Signet Of The Wild, or Signet Of Removal
  • Situational, user preference. I prefer “Signet Of The Wild” for stability, when I need to stomp a foe and for additional damage from my burst and pet.
• Swap Trait “Evasive Purity” for “Enlargement”.
  • This will grant you more stability, damage, and movement speed @ 25% hp.
• Swap Trait “Off-Hand Training” for “Vigorous Renewal”
  • This will allow you to dodge more; after using your healing skill.
• Swap Skill “Signet Of Stone” for “Muddy Terrain”
  • This will grant you more crowd control, and condition removal.
• Swap Trait “Empathetic Bond” for “Poison Master”
  • This pretty much just shut downs any healing, especially “Healing Signet” from warriors, or “Troll Unguent” from rangers.
  • Lets your poison damage hit for about 400/tick.
• Swap Trait “Empathetic Bond” for “Bark Skin”
  • This will grant you 50% damage reduction if your health is @ 25% hp, this is a nifty trait to use in 2v1, and 3v1 situations because it allows you to recover more effectively when you’re repositioning and taking on pressure from auto attacks, or the occasional snipe.

Edit: Updated 10/27/2014
Edit: Updated 10/28/2014 – Changed food (condition —> power)

- Guide –

1. Enter with Axe Skill #3, to chill your foe. Continue to attack your foe with your Axe Auto-Attack to stack might. Be aware of “reflect-projectile” skills, this is crucial. If you’re not paying attention, you will end up bleeding yourself out.
   • Do not send your pet yet, keep your pet on “Do-Not-Attack”
   • The “anti-projectile” struggle is real, I like to think this is because of the influx of power rangers that have shown up in WvW & PvP since the balance update.
2. Follow with Dagger skill #5, this will apply bleeding pressure – usually the opponent will clear this off, wasting a condition clear – because it bleeds for about 418/sec.
3. Begin to approach your foe, get within melee distance.
4. Once you’re within melee distance, issue your pet to attack, then immediately apply poison to your foe with dagger #4.
   • This will set you up for your burst; and will keep your opponent from effectively healing.
5. Quickly, use “Entangle” to immobilize your foe, and stack bleed.
6. Immediately use F2, Howl, to keep your enemy in CC, leaving them completely useless.
7. Immediately use “Sharpening Stone” + Axe Skill #2 (within melee distance), this will apply 10 stacks of bleed; you should also be applying another 2-3 stacks of bleed from your critical hits.
8. Switch to your Sword + Torch
9. Initiate with Torch #5, this will apply burning, and will allow you to utilize a fire field (should you decide to use your leap finisher, Sword #2)
10. Follow up with Sword #3, this will poison your foe.
11. Auto-Attack @ your discretion, this could be both beneficial – or – consequential to your combat status.
    • At this point, you will want to have your Drake Hound activated, use F2 to keep your foe immobilized.
12. Follow through with Sword #2 (if you haven’t already), disengage your opponent (reposition), get ready to setup for another rotation if they’re not dead from your first rotation.

• If you’re having a hard time landing this combination (which may be often, depending on what type of foe you’re playing against) utilize the steps #5-#10. This is your main burst.
  • Otherwise kite your opponent, and keep the burning + poison on them.

- Closing Notes -

• Update: 10/27/14 – changed guide to reflect better combat practices.
• I’ll also occasionally use Shortbow for Axe + Dagger (updated)
• If you can’t afford the “Mad King Runes” use the “Krait” runes.
• I’ll also occasionally use Snow Owl, instead of Drake Hound.
  • Or Spiders, for immobilize.
• Practice makes perfect, It’s a difficult build to get accustomed to, but once you get it, you’ll love it.

Questions, Comments? Please share!
The only way to make this build, and guide better is through your personal experience and input.

Thank you, and Enjoy!

Correct me if I’m wrong but this is a pretty common spec post patch, right? So this thread seems rather redundant to me to be honest.

Even then, I can see several questionable choices within the build. But then, I haven’t played this exact spec so maybe they’re just weaknesses on paper.

1. Lack of condi removal, both sustain and burst. You have only the condi removal from survival skills on 36, 36, 32, 48 seconds; and even then, one of those skills you have no control over – two are best used offensively and third is your only stunbreaker. Each one only removes 2 condis. A well played condi spec is going to eat you alive. In the first clip at the end you ate a full 8 or so second burn which is unacceptable.

2. Barkskin. In my opinion your build fails to utilise this trait properly. Barkskin is best used when a. Empathic bond is not required and b. you have enough sustain to maintain your hp at low levels – I.e. if you had access to a reliable source of regeneration and enough heal power to make the passive bonus of signet of the wild effective. So really barkskin just seems to simply delay the inevitable against a tough opponent.

3. I seriously don’t get why you would take enlargement over evasive purity consider your lack of condi removal and the prevalence of poison in this meta.

4. Signet of wild. This seems pointless; you don’t have enough healing power for the passive to be useful. And considering, 60-80% of your damage comes from your conditions – the damage increase from the active doesn’t justify itself. Stability is nice though but you don’t seem to be using it for that.

5. Keen edge. Sorry but, sharpened edges is far more effective especially since you have such high precision. In fact, I can’t see why you’d have that high precision without sharpened edges. With your condition duration that’s an extra 4 second bleed with no cooldown; that turns the splitblade + sharpening stone combo from 10 bleeds to 12-14 which is a disgusting amount of pressure to put on an enemy.

Another advantage you get from going 2 into skirmishing over 2 in marksmanship is the minor trait. The swiftness on weapon swap helps with your kiting and your chasing but most importantly it transfers to your pet with fortifying bond which boosts the pet’s dps immeasurably. Compare this to the garbage minor trait you get in marksmanship.

Suggestions: swap bark skin for empathic bond, swap enlargement for evasive purity, swap keen edge for sharpened edges, and swap signet of the wild for signet of stone. This should net you more dps, more survivability to conditions and more surviability to burst direct damage because of your new 6 sec invulnerability.

As for your play in the video I can only say the following:

1. Stop with the random dodging. You dodged unnecessarily about 90% of the time there. You need to think about what you’re dodging. If you were facing better players they would have waited for you to waste your dodges on their autoattacks and then burst and drop you. It’s that simple.

2. Running sword/dagger, axe/torch is personal preference but please be aware that it creates for you a defensive weapon set and an offensive weapon set. In some situations you’ll be in sword/dagger set and lack the necessary pressure to force the other player on the backfoot and really gain the iniative in a fight or worse, you’ll be stuck in your offensive axe/torch set and without a weapon evade and really susceptible to burst and immobilise and since by then you’d have probably evaded against the thin air and left your self with no dodges so you’d be rather kittened.

3. You’re using hornet’s sting wrong. When you’re using sword, hornet’s sting is an an amazing ability for repositioning, because it’s a two step leap you can be incredibly precise with your positioning with it. Like almost 90% of rangers, apart from when you used to to gain ground on the enemy in the first clip, you seem to just go backwards and then immediately go forwards, gaining no fire shield (from torch 5 + leap), no positional advantage, no evasion of any real damage just quite simply a pointless loss of dps and pressure.

4. If you’re not close enough to hit an enemy with at the least 3 bleeds, then don’t use splitblade.

5. Please take off sword autoattack, although you didn’t use it once in the clip – it’s a death sentence waiting to happen if you leave it on.

Hope this helps.

@Silvio.7082

(Your quote is too long for my reply message)

Quite the detailed response, thank you.

Everything you’ve described about my gameplay is 100% correct, I’m a very… inconsistent player, this is a huge downfall for me.

I’m relatively still new to ranger, since I’ve been playing warrior mainly for the first two years guild wars was out. So I’m still learning in that respect.

If you do look more into my first post, I do specify the different trait changes, and skill changes – for the skill-set in that video isn’t what I always run.

As for traiting into Skirmishing vs. Marksmanship; I’ve played around with this. It’s good, but it doesn’t work the way I want it to specifically with this build.

To answer your first question, yes; it’s a common trait spec for rangers, but the gear and rune choice are not.

This is feedback I always encourage, and look for to improve my game so again – thank you!

Edit: Also, yes – on paper it does look strange, so I would suggest playing around with it in PvP w/ the release of the runes to HOTM, I use Rampager’s amulet w/ those runes.

I probably wouldn’t have said it quite as bluntly as Silvio, but I do agree largely with his points.

That said though, I always like to see a more hybrid style build than a pure condition or pure power. It has many advantages, so I approve of that part ^^

For reference, here is the build I’ve been running recently. It is very heavily inspired by other builds posted here (on the KotH thread) but changed to be hybrid and for WvW rather than PvP.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEqUzaJLusQ1aADhqdLEslArAwdR8CXdBTOA-T1SFwAAeAAqUNI++DoUzhtuBnKFacRAqqkLxRAYpygsKBJFAEbBA-w

It’s very much the same idea as yours just executed differently. There’s more focus of ranged fighting with the SB, and a little more focus on direct damage as well as pet damage. Like I said, it’s obviously not entirely my own design, but I can very highly recommend it with any changed which suit you (A/T over SB, or maybe you want to mix up the utilities, the nicest part of the build is there is a lot that can be changed).

Okay, those were just the reservations I had. At this point I play almost exclusively spvp/tpvp so that colours my opinion significantly. No doubt you’ve looked at and seriously considered a lot of the trait options and went a different direction than I would have. I personally wouldn’t run with that low condi removal but that necessitates running either empathic bond, evasive purity and/or generosity sigils which then further necessitates changing the spec more to compensate for loss in other aspects. I actually ran without empathic bond for a few weeks post patch (using poison master and then bark skin) before turning back to it.

Cufufalating.8479:

I probably wouldn’t have said it quite as bluntly as Silvio, but I do agree largely with his points.

That said though, I always like to see a more hybrid style build than a pure condition or pure power. It has many advantages, so I approve of that part ^^

For reference, here is the build I’ve been running recently. It is very heavily inspired by other builds posted here (on the KotH thread) but changed to be hybrid and for WvW rather than PvP.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEqUzaJLusQ1aADhqdLEslArAwdR8CXdBTOA-T1SFwAAeAAqUNI++DoUzhtuBnKFacRAqqkLxRAYpygsKBJFAEbBA-w

It’s very much the same idea as yours just executed differently. There’s more focus of ranged fighting with the SB, and a little more focus on direct damage as well as pet damage. Like I said, it’s obviously not entirely my own design, but I can very highly recommend it with any changed which suit you (A/T over SB, or maybe you want to mix up the utilities, the nicest part of the build is there is a lot that can be changed).

I enjoyed looking at your build; it looks very effective. Just a little bit “too-ranged” for me,

I’ve tweaked my builds a little bit since my first post. I’m currently testing these tweaks. So far so good. (I’ve revisited the Skirmishing Trait; it does work better, I just lose a little burst damage, but in the long run it’s better for withering my opponents down and maintaining better pressure).

I’ve also released this build publicly that isn’t entirely the “core” build, but rather a variation I’ve put together to compensate for being able to take on large sums of players at a time (and in camps) – so I’ll be updating the links to better reflect what the “core” build should be, and update the alternatives respectfully.

So be sure to revisit my parent post, the links will be updated, and the guide will be adjusted for the “alternative” traits & skills.

Thanks for your feedback guys, it helps make builds better

Build + Guide video to be released, hopefully this week.

Haematic’s Youtube Channel

Edit: Guide updated 10/27/2014
Edit: Build updated 10/27/2014

Your “current” version is very similar to what Ive been running in pvp lately, nice to read your interpretations. Very strong in that setting. If you want a little healing on the side Ive found a fern hound quite nice as an addition to wolf, makes those evades really pay off.

Kilger.5490:

Your “current” version is very similar to what Ive been running in pvp lately, nice to read your interpretations. Very strong in that setting. If you want a little healing on the side Ive found a fern hound quite nice as an addition to wolf, makes those evades really pay off.

Yes, I play with Fern Hound when I’m in an organized team – this way I can help support my team on point with an AOE heal.

Are you also using the Rune Of The Mad King? If you aren’t definitely give it a go, it’s disgusting on point, especially during a team fight – I find players typically panic when they see the birds attacking their screens – lol !

Haematic.4913:

Kilger.5490:

Your “current” version is very similar to what Ive been running in pvp lately, nice to read your interpretations. Very strong in that setting. If you want a little healing on the side Ive found a fern hound quite nice as an addition to wolf, makes those evades really pay off.

Yes, I play with Fern Hound when I’m in an organized team – this way I can help support my team on point with an AOE heal.

Are you also using the Rune Of The Mad King? If you aren’t definitely give it a go, it’s disgusting on point, especially during a team fight – I find players typically panic when they see the birds attacking their screens – lol !

The mad king rune isnt an option in spvp unfortunately. Rune of the krait works simliarly though which is what I use, lots of aoe mayhem on elite. Just means my power is a bit on the low side, use battle runes on both sets to try and up it and switch asap.

Kilger.5490:

Haematic.4913:

Kilger.5490:

Your “current” version is very similar to what Ive been running in pvp lately, nice to read your interpretations. Very strong in that setting. If you want a little healing on the side Ive found a fern hound quite nice as an addition to wolf, makes those evades really pay off.

Yes, I play with Fern Hound when I’m in an organized team – this way I can help support my team on point with an AOE heal.

Are you also using the Rune Of The Mad King? If you aren’t definitely give it a go, it’s disgusting on point, especially during a team fight – I find players typically panic when they see the birds attacking their screens – lol !

The mad king rune isnt an option in spvp unfortunately. Rune of the krait works simliarly though which is what I use, lots of aoe mayhem on elite. Just means my power is a bit on the low side, use battle runes on both sets to try and up it and switch asap.

Hey man, they released the rune to PvP – this is why you should give it a go. They did it for the Halloween event. It’s 5gold, I believe.

Awesome thanx, was not aware! Fits the build way better

Silvio.7082:

2. Running sword/dagger, axe/torch is personal preference but please be aware that it creates for you a defensive weapon set and an offensive weapon set. In some situations you’ll be in sword/dagger set and lack the necessary pressure to force the other player on the backfoot and really gain the iniative in a fight or worse, you’ll be stuck in your offensive axe/torch set and without a weapon evade and really susceptible to burst and immobilise and since by then you’d have probably evaded against the thin air and left your self with no dodges so you’d be rather kittened.

Hope this helps.

I’ve taken your advice, and have applied it to this build.

I had a really hard time adapting to the change, primarily because I couldn’t burst my target as well. As time passed I learned how to apply it to better suit this build, and it works well either way.

I use the Sword / Torch together, and back off to reposition w/ Hornet’s sting, use torch #4 for pressure w/ Doom Sigil. Then I typically kite, rotate my skills, and set my self up for another burst —> then repeat.

Both weapon sets work well with this build, but for longevity – your recommended weapon set is superior in that regard.

New video has been uploaded featuring my latest gameplay.

Check it out ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSNUZez4JaE

HD 1080p will be available shortly! Enjoy ~