Guild Wars 2

So I am doing a PvE (mostly living world, world bosses, silverwastes, but want to do dungeons and maybe WvW later) LB/GS ranger. I think Berserker is gonna be better than Assassin, but not sure yet (mostly because I’m traiting for Opening Strikes as much as possible, and they always crit anyway).

Edit: accidentally posted before finishing my question.

So, First is: Is there a trait set that makes Assassin preferable over Berserker, given how easy it is to get fury?

Second: I’m currently slotting Marksman (Clarion Bond, Steady Focus, and torn between Remorseless and Lead the Wind), Nature Magic (Bountiful Hunter, Windborne Notes, Protective Ward), and Beastmastery (Companion’s Might, Two-Handed Training, Zephyr’s Speed). The idea being gaining lots of boons on pet swap and Opening Strike as much as possible for damage and Vulnerability stacking. Oh and additional F2 effects on pets. How would I make this better?

Third: suggested pets?

Fourth: Rune Sets? Looking at Scholar, Ranger, Strength, Ogre, couple others…

any help appreciated. Just got my ranger to 80.

Fifth: Weapon Sigils?

Lots of builds in the thread in my sig mate, too many options to list everytime

Looked through those a long time ago. None really fit. Thus why I laid out exactly what I am going for/using, and asking for suggestions around that.

Well, you cannot use the same build to do PvE events, dungeons and WvW. Actually you can, but you are less effective. So I suppose I meant shouldn’t.

I won’t suggest anything because it would just be cut/pasting from the build thread for each of those game modes.

Dunno why you are using NM for PvE though, Skirmishing is far better.

Also, there are over 40 builds in that thread, if you cannot find anything that fits from there, you probably need to change your playstyle a bit and or adapt one of those builds to suit your own playstyle. That is really the point of build threads, to give you a good starting point to create something that suits your playstyle.

Also, try using a build editor to present your build as it makes it easy for people to make suggestions. http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

For example; My PvE build which is different to my many wvw builds and dungeon build and pvp build and event farming build. I really cannot stick to one and it would be boring if I did.

I took NM for survivability (regen added to Clarion Bond, regen below 50%, boonsharing with pet). Skirmishing seems too situational with all the “from the side or back”, and I haven’t gotten practiced enough yet to do that consistently. I was wondering why you took the endurance regen over the bleed on crits trait, but it make sense if you are strafing around your target to get the other benefits from Skirmishing.

bearshaman.3421:

I took NM for survivability (regen added to Clarion Bond, regen below 50%, boonsharing with pet). Skirmishing seems too situational with all the “from the side or back”, and I haven’t gotten practiced enough yet to do that consistently. I was wondering why you took the endurance regen over the bleed on crits trait, but it make sense if you are strafing around your target to get the other benefits from Skirmishing.

Equip sword
Stand in front of enemy
Press 3
Now you are behind enemy
If enemy turns, repeat above steps

to answer at least some of your questions:
runes of the ranger are a better choice than scholar for PvE/dungeons. they are simply the most consistantly high dps you are going to get for a power set.

as Ashfiend said, no dungeon build will perform well in WvW and vice versa unless you are either okay with pretty casual dungeon runs or sucking in WvW.

Every meta power based dungeon spec takes: Marksmanship, Skirmishing, and BeastMastery. You simply need to have BM and MM for damage, and Skirmishing adds a little more damage ontop while NM and Survival don’t.

For dungeon DPS, you will want Predators Onslaught to boost 1h sword, not Remorseless or Lead the Wind. You dont go through dungeons with your Longbow out. Melee is where its at unless the situation makes it impossible. GS is far behind 1h sword in damage output unless you are running a double melee setup.

DPS pets are cats and birds. Generally Jungle Stalker is the most DPS worthy because of its might shout, but if the group is might capped anything else from the dps families is better (jaguar, raven).

Take all that with a grain of salt because you don’t need to run a meta dungeon spec unless you want to get the most out of your character (many groups request this of you though, and expect you to run 1h sword, frost spirit, spotter, dps pets).

Nearly all WvW and PvP specs take Survival, as the GM traits there provide a source of condition removal, which is very, very important. Outside of Survival, pretty much anything goes as long as it makes sense.

I probably will for the condi build I plan to craft after this power build. I plan on having the gear for a few different builds; I’m not trying to make a one size fits all.

Your (Heimskarl) PVE build and, ironically, the build that someone posted on your thread in the last 5 hours are pretty close to what I’m going for. Thanks!

Raven, thanks for the insight. WvW is kinda an afterthought for me, its a game type I haven’t messed with yet, and may try at some point. Open world is most of my experience, and I want to try doing dungeons more (only done AC once so far).

I can definitely see Skirmishing being better over Nature Magic, just need to gain more experience/confidence before I take off the training wheels I guess.

The more I look at the traits/skills, the more I think there isn’t ever a reason to take Assassin over Berserker. Thoughts?

bearshaman.3421:

I took NM for survivability (regen added to Clarion Bond, regen below 50%, boonsharing with pet). Skirmishing seems too situational with all the “from the side or back”, and I haven’t gotten practiced enough yet to do that consistently. I was wondering why you took the endurance regen over the bleed on crits trait, but it make sense if you are strafing around your target to get the other benefits from Skirmishing.

For PvE, you really don’t need to pack survivability (you will become a better player if you don’t take it, assuming you learn from mistakes) and because of the Rangers lack of boons in the first place, Fortifying Bond is not all that great unless you are playing with a group of people who do put lots of boons out. BM is better all the way, because you can use Companions Might and the pets get +300 stats, making them do a lot of base damage. They still get the buffs from Clarion Bond/Zephyr’s Speed/Companion’s Might.

Don’t worry about the flanking requirement on Hunter’s Tactics, its not actually the side or back, the angle is quite small and you can trigger it very easily. I took Primal Reflexes because I like Vigor and dodging is my survivability if I need it and bleed on crit does hardly any damage with no condition damage. Mobs die so fast that it is just not needed. Also, Skirmishing is there almost purely for Quick Draw because 3s recharge on Rapid Fire and 2s on Maul ends most encounters.