Build question from new ranger player
I feel like the stats that berserker sets offer would greatly benefit the weaponsets. However I do not like going full berseker, I’d rather mix it up with a bit of tankyness and healing power((?) worth it?)
Berserkers with a few pieces of Knight’s or Cavalier’s or Soldier’s is usually what people do. Stick with the berserker’s trinkets mostly. Swapping the chest, leggings, maybe amulet tends to give the biggest change for least cost (need to recreate fewer pieces, assuming you have a full set already). I’m trying to put together a chart which shows how overall damage scales with these armor sets, but this week is super-busy (so busy the pet chart is on hold since I can’t devote the hours needed to finish off testing).
Furthermore, since sword stacks might on my pet and i will most likely be using RaO i though a build(e.g. traits) which could help stacking might could work.
RaO + warhorn 4 = 17 stacks of might for your pet.
I like 20 points in marksmanship for the increased range. Also I’d probably put at least 10 points in skirmishing for the might for pets on critical hits.
Consider bumping that up to 15 skirmishing for the 5 sec fury on weapon swap trait. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if you’re in a situation where you can swap weapons as much as possible, it translates into about 7% extra damage. 25 skirmishing for the 10% extra damage when flanking is also a really nice trait, if you can afford the points.
Where my confusion really starts is the beastmastery and the nature magic trait line. Are those worth it? Could this build even benefit from spirits? Important traits in the beastmastery trait line? Are pets even useable( please say yes)? Anything else?
Pets are ok in PvE. In PvP, they’re like any mob – you can avoid most of their attacks simply by moving and strafing. I’ll let you decide if this makes them useless.
Beastmastery is usualy only dipped into by builds which focus more on the pet. They moved the most-used trait to the grandmaster tier so most people just ignore it now.
That leaves the decision between whether to put your remaining trait points into Wilderness Survival or Nature Magic (after Marksmanship and Skirmishing).
NM is mostly defensive. The traits of note are (important ones in bold):
- 5 – Lets you dodge 25% more. Nerfed recently but still a decent 5 point trait.
- 15 – 2 sec protection on dodge for you and the pet. 33% less damage.
- 20 – X Martial Mastery – reduces recharge by 20% on greatsword. Since most of GS’s DPS comes from Maul, reducing its recharge helps tremendously. Also increases mobility since Swoop recycles faster.
- 20 – VII Offhand Training – reduces recharge of off-hand weapon skills and increases their range. Works really well with all the off-hand weapons.
- 25 – 10% extra damage if hp over 90%. Same as you get with 6 scholar runes.
- 30 – XI Empathic Bond – I think this trait sucks, and that it’s only taken because condition removal options for rangers suck.
- 30 – X Bark Skin. Recently buffed. It’s like having 25% more hp against non-condition damage.
NM is kind of a mixed bag. Its strongest traits aren’t as concentrated as with WS, so the decision is a bit tougher:
- 10 – V Strength of Spirit – 7% of your vit is added to power. Works out to about a 3% damage buff for berserker builds.
- 10 – IV Vigorous Spirits – 70% for spirit effect to proc instead of 35%. So a 3.5% increase in damage buff for frost spirit. This is actually more than a 2x buff for the spirits other than frost spirit, since it’s a reduction in chance not to proc from 65% to 30%.
- 15 – Pet gets any boon you get. Since there’s a 5 target limit for group and AOE boons, this is the only way your pet will get a party buff in a full party. Helps a lot with pet DPS and survivability.
- 20 – VII Spirits Unbound – spirits can move and follow you. Needed for the spirit build
- 25 – Do 5% more damage when you have a boon.
If you take 25 NM with the IV, V, and 25 point traits, and cast frost spirit, it ends up doing a fraction of a percent more DPS than 25 WS. Factor in frost spirit downtime and I’d say they’re about equal.
Frost spirit makes it party-friendly. And the 15 point trait really helps your pet. So I’d have to give the edge to NM over WS. But for solo play 25 points into WS is a pretty close match, and is a lot less hassle (don’t have to constantly kill and uproot your spirit).
Thanks a ton. I went theorycrafting for myself a bit and decided to let spirits out of the game. I’m kinda layed out on a might for pet build. It is kind of an overkill with RoA, however it is still really entertaining since it allows me to stack get load of might on my pet even without.
Thanks a ton. I went theorycrafting for myself a bit and decided to let spirits out of the game. I’m kinda layed out on a might for pet build. It is kind of an overkill with RoA, however it is still really entertaining since it allows me to stack get load of might on my pet even without.
That is a good decision. I think your theory crafting started from the wrong direction. The ranger trait lines are pretty contrived. You can’t just pick mechanics willy-nilly. My advice, pick one thing you want to be able to do and trait that out. Then see what other benefits you find in that/those lines and try to maximize those benefits as well.
Might stacking is a lot of fun. And, extra might is always helpful, but you can’t really count on your pet outside of PvE. I find its better to pick a different starting point, and let the pet improvements be a secondary benefit that you may or may not maximize.
- Superior Sigil of Battle on both weapon sets.
- Ten in Beastmastery for Mighty Swap.
- Some runes that do Mighty things.
- 15 in Nature Magic for Fortifying Bond.
- Jungle Stalker
You’ll have a mighty good time.
Saethe — Favorable Winds [Wind] — Maguuma
This sounds very similar to the build im currently running, so id recommend, pow/vit/tough armor berserk trinkets. 10pts marksmanship for 10% damage at full endurance. 20 in skirmishing, pet crit damage, bow 20%cd. 30pts wildernes survival, fall damage, sword cd, bark skin. And the remaining 10 where ever want. If youre might stack your pet id recommend chosing a pet with good conditions as well as damage such as the lynx. If you do chose lynx then put remaining 10 points into marksmanship to get 50% pet coni duration.
Thanks a lot for your answers. Gave me a lot of good imput.
I have been wondering if it is worth it to max out beastmastery, especially “natural healing”. Furthermore id put 15 points in nature magic for the shared boons and the rest split between marksmanship and skirmishing for might/longbow cd/range etc.
The armor choice is still giving me issues though. I’ve been theorycrafting with celestial and berserker armor. Any ideas?
Natural Healing is a 30 point investment for a very small heal. It’s really good at keeping your pet alive, because they heal more with it, but I don’t like taking it just for us unless the whole point of your build is regen.
I see very little reason to go past 20 in the BM line, those extra points are better spent getting Fortifying Bond in the Nature Magic tree, because that trait is better for your pet than anything in the Beast Mastery tree. Go figure.
Saethe — Favorable Winds [Wind] — Maguuma
Natural Healing is a 30 point investment for a very small heal. It’s really good at keeping your pet alive, because they heal more with it, but I don’t like taking it just for us unless the whole point of your build is regen.
I see very little reason to go past 20 in the BM line, those extra points are better spent getting Fortifying Bond in the Nature Magic tree, because that trait is better for your pet than anything in the Beast Mastery tree. Go figure.
If you PvP having the 30 in BM can be invaluable for the faster stomps, not to mention it does increase your pets overall usefulness by quite a bit.
They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
Natural Healing is a 30 point investment for a very small heal. It’s really good at keeping your pet alive, because they heal more with it, but I don’t like taking it just for us unless the whole point of your build is regen.
I see very little reason to go past 20 in the BM line, those extra points are better spent getting Fortifying Bond in the Nature Magic tree, because that trait is better for your pet than anything in the Beast Mastery tree. Go figure.
If you PvP having the 30 in BM can be invaluable for the faster stomps, not to mention it does increase your pets overall usefulness by quite a bit.
The quickness gained from zephyr’s speed is useless for the pet because pets don’t activate until 2 seconds after pet swap while in combat. Least it does this for my on my ranger while in spvp. You can test this out for yourself, reply back if you do i would like to see if this is happening to other people other then myself.
Natural Healing is a 30 point investment for a very small heal. It’s really good at keeping your pet alive, because they heal more with it, but I don’t like taking it just for us unless the whole point of your build is regen.
I see very little reason to go past 20 in the BM line, those extra points are better spent getting Fortifying Bond in the Nature Magic tree, because that trait is better for your pet than anything in the Beast Mastery tree. Go figure.
If you PvP having the 30 in BM can be invaluable for the faster stomps, not to mention it does increase your pets overall usefulness by quite a bit.
The quickness gained from zephyr’s speed is useless for the pet because pets don’t activate until 2 seconds after pet swap while in combat. Least it does this for my on my ranger while in spvp. You can test this out for yourself, reply back if you do i would like to see if this is happening to other people other then myself.
The zephyrs speed is ONLY effective on the pet if you swap and quickly use the F2, I tend to use canines so swapping them in and quickly howling is always beneficial even with the herpa kitten period they get if you try to command them to use F1 first.
They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna