Guild Wars 2

I’ve returned to GW2 after a break to find that my build has been buffed in PvP. Folks on SOAC: Arrow To The Knee mentioned celestial builds so I thought I’d throw mine out there.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHhx+1JhK0yiVsgrgw1iBMEq2pQwWCsHgA4ActDXc1RVA-TpBBwAfOCAcOIAAOBAaeAAgLDMb/BA

Everything that celestial provides is useful for the Ranger because of our hybrid weapon sets. This build takes advantage of the remarkably high ferocity provided by the otherwise good celestial set. The celestial stats also make the build flexible. If one aspect of the build is countered by your opponent, the other aspects probably wont be.

The base damage comes from having a high fury up time (giving upwards of 60% critical chance). Most auto attack hits will land for 500-700 damage. We will land as many crit hits as we can because every one gives our pet might and proc bleeds(60% chance).

Celestial also provides 700+ condition damage. So many of the other attacks apply conditions. The build doesn’t max any one condition, but instead (in the spirit of celestial) consistently applies as many different conditions as possible. At least a couple of them are going to stick.

Celestial also provides us with good healing and toughness. I pair this with Runes of Dwayna, Natures Bounty and Signet of the Wild. You will have regen up most of the time from multiple sources. With SotW that is about 300 hp/s. About a third of the time that gets boosted to 1200 hp/s with TU. Other heals can work, but I find this most useful because we will be moving in and out of melee combat and around our opponent as much as possible. TU heals while you’re evading like a thief heals in stealth.

Some other key concepts for the build:

Swap every 9 seconds for 5 seconds of fury and swiftness and to apply AoE chill/bleeds; auto attack a little bit for some damage; use the rest of your skills when convenient; then swap; repeat.

Pet Burst: stack up the pet might, slow your opponent.
Try torch 5(fire field), swap, wh-5 (blast), wh-4 (17 hits), axe 2 (5 hits), Sic Em, axe 3(chill). Also, try with RaO, using TU preemptively to be able to get in their face and auto attack with the sword. Usually you’ll proc quickness (sigil of rage).

You also have some support in the Call of the Wild, Bonfire, AoE regen(Dwayna’s) for whatever thats worth … really, its worth an AoE Bleed.

Lastly, a note about key bindings. Sword 2 is your mobility. I bind about face on ‘X’. Strike about face: Hornets Sting, use your mouse to turn around in the air and walk forward as you land, Monarchs Leap. Remember to de-select first. You gain about as much ground as with swoop.

That looks like an extremely solid build, have you considered dropping the 7% crit chance Sigil though in favor of sig of earth so you can gain some more bleed per crit on your Axe/Horn set? That’d Synergize really well with the Call of the Wild and Split Blade abilities due to their multi hit nature.

Additionally, you may consider dropping Oakheart Salve in favor of Off Hand Training, it’d increase your throw torch and hunters call abilities to 1200 range, reduce 4 of your stronger abilities CDs by 20%, and increase the radius of your hunters call and Bonefire. I feel like that may be more useful overall than having a bit more regen since it looks like you’ll already have a significant amount of regen uptime.

Also, I really like the use of sig of rage + Bonefire and sword since sword auto not only sticks to the enemy (making it very rare that you’ll NOT be able to utilize the quickness) but also that it’ll make might stacking trivial since you have a high crit chance paired with the 3rd hit on your auto giving might to your pet (Pounce).

You really cover your bases, which really makes the differences between a good and bad celestial build. Just remember that despite how awesome SotWs passive is there is ALWAYS a time to activate it. I’d suggest using it to finish off an especially elusive enemy or to ensure your pet isn’t getting CCed off your target.

I haven’t tried the sigil of earth yet, but I will. My original thinking was that on that set its more important for an attack to crit than to proc additional bleeds. And, I really want Hunter Call to crit for the 17 stacks of might. I’m assuming that anything I apply will be cleansed fairly quickly, but that pet might will just keep stacking.

You’re right about Off Hand Training. Having the bonfire take up almost an entire cap point alone is worth it. It also allows you to keep fury up 100% of the time if you keep casting Call of the Wild and swapping weapons consistently.
I could also see taking Oakheart Salve and dropping natures bounty for natures protection for a little more sustain.

Demus.4218:

I haven’t tried the sigil of earth yet, but I will. My original thinking was that on that set its more important for an attack to crit than to proc additional bleeds. And, I really want Hunter Call to crit for the 17 stacks of might. I’m assuming that anything I apply will be cleansed fairly quickly, but that pet might will just keep stacking.

You’re right about Off Hand Training. Having the bonfire take up almost an entire cap point alone is worth it. It also allows you to keep fury up 100% of the time if you keep casting Call of the Wild and swapping weapons consistently.
I could also see taking Oakheart Salve and dropping natures bounty for natures protection for a little more sustain.

I feel like if you’re going to keep Oakheart Salve you should keep natures Bounty because you’ll have plenty of protection already from dodge rolling + vigor.

And that’s a really good point about the warhorn, didn’t realize quite how much crit chance you had with that set until I checked, I would agree that the night would probably be more useful.

I gotta say, I’m a big fan of Axe/Dagger – Sword/Torch, I wasn’t sure how I was going to like swapping out my dagger for horn but overall I’m in kittening love with this build you got going on.

I’m toatlly in love with this build, altho I found myself more comfortable with shortbow / Sword/warhorn which works out fine as well, it made me less focussing on chills and getting the raven (for blinds) and the jungle stalker (for the might stacking)

Really enjoying this

I’m glad you all are liking it. Its been so long since I’ve used the short bow. I’m going to give that a try too.

Does anybody ever think about the wilderness survival grandmaster minor Peak Strength? Having good regen can often keep you up above 90% or if you’re off to the side not being targeted or something. Then with Hunters Tactics (flanking) that is 20% extra damage. Thats a lot of potential for the short bow.. and with the extra bleeds too. I’ve noticed it with the sword if someone starts to run away from me all of a sudden my sword damage jumps up.

Demus.4218:

I’m glad you all are liking it. Its been so long since I’ve used the short bow. I’m going to give that a try too.

Does anybody ever think about the new wilderness survival grandmaster minor Peak Strength? Having good regen can often keep you up above 90% or if you’re off to the side not being targeted or something. Then with Hunters Tactics (flanking) that is 20% extra damage. Thats a lot of potential for the short bow.. and with the extra bleeds too. I’ve noticed it with the sword if someone starts to run away from me all of a sudden my sword damage jumps up.

My celestial build runs a LB + Sword/Dagger, and I gotta say when people run away the damage jump is actually REALLY high (at least it seems like it) that 10% is a lot more than I thought it’d be, and I’d imagine if you were to run peak strength and maybe even steady focus and scholar runes too you’d absolutely wreck people when given the full damage increases.