Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

I’m wondering if anyone perhaps knows what the current stand is on Celestial build rangers? I’ve seen some comments here and there, and it looks interesting, I love my ranger, but often like switching up skills depending on my scenario. I’m wanting to craft my ascended armor soon, and not having to craft 2 full sets would really be great…

So thoughts? and any builds anyone perhaps knows?

Thanks in advance!

Oh and also I don’t care for MetaZerker only builds…I’m not looking for speed running, just a viable build.

1) If you want to craft only one set, I would wait for expansion.

2) Zerk is probably the best choice for ascen first set, cus even if your wvw build is not always zerk based, your PVE build probably is.

3)Not many ranger builds support full celec. Celec gear relay on might stacking to compensate for the missing damage and ranger might stacking is meha.
You can always go celec trinkets(easy to get) and MixMax with other stats(like your zerk armor/weapons or condi stats).

Ranger has a lot of builds that work with celestial. Since celestial has all stats, don’t forget to take advantage of them all when you make a build. You can swap a few traits from “meta” builds to add in some conditions and it will work fine. I’d be looking at using traveller runes or power orientated ones. If you only want to make one set of Ascended armor, I would go ahead and make the celestial because you can pretty much take any build with the same armor and be viable, however, you can make some very nice hybrid builds specifically for celestial and those are just fun.

Keep in mind that you are making yourself a jack of all trades with celestial and not specialising in anything.

You mentioned speed running so I assume you’re talking about dungeons. In that case, the only armor anyone uses is berserker; everything else is extremely subpar.

Celestial gets used sometimes in competitive. The standard condi survival build, or the LB trapper build. And I’m sure there are tons more people running their own builds with cele.

Fluffball.8307:

You mentioned speed running so I assume you’re talking about dungeons. In that case, the only armor anyone uses is berserker; everything else is extremely subpar.

He actually said he didn’t care about speed runs… How about that!?

While I also do not care about meta or speed runs, I do like efficiency. That in mind, it would seem that celestial should not take my fancy, but ranger can take advantage of all the stats at once for a nice builds imo.

Ya I know he said he doesn’t care about speed runs, but he should know that nobody runs dungeons in celestial so asking for advice about it going to get answers like “do whatever the hell you want since you’re just making things up at this point.” It’s like asking what the best wooden clogs for rock climbing are.

He mentioned he’s heard a lot about cele lately, and that’s only for competitive.

You could probably roam effectively in WvW with Celestial, and I’d imagine it wouldn’t be the most inefficient PvE setup a person has ever attempted.

The honest truth is that you are going to want multiple sets of gear for different parts of the game. It’s pretty much inescapable.

The good news is that if you aren’t mixing and matching, you can at least try out how most of the stat setups “feel” on ranger builds in PvP since PvP is normalized, giving you immediate access to almost every stat setup in the game (you’ll have to buy some of them with a few gold).

The main reason to get ascended gear is the Agony Resist for high level fractals (40+). The stat increase from Exotic to so miniscule that Ascended is not worth it for that alone. For this reason, I’d take whatever stats you would want to use in fractals … possibly thinking what you would also use on any alts (if you have them) that can wear that same armor set (ascended is account-bound)

Celestial can be quite potent for pvp / wvw. For WvW you can modify your stats a bit by selecting weapon stats that boost that weapon’s strengths. For example…

I run the stealth trapper Celestial LB/SB build. I Run Zerker on My LB to boost direct damage and run rampager on my SB to boost its condition damage. Works surprisingly well. Rapid fire can still hit for a round 6K after guard stacks and can be enough vs players running anti coni builds or visa versa when someone pops an invuln like endure pain i switch to SB and pop off some condi pressure.

In my opinion tho. i would just settle on Exotic Celestial. The stats are really just not too much better to go through all the trouble of crafting Ascended. I recommend doing zerker bc you can always switch out weapons and trinkets to fill other stats alot easier than armor.

GL with w/e you decide

This is one reason why I’ve never leaped to craft ascended anything Not for my ranger nor my guardian believe it or not. Not even weapons…

I have 4 sets of gear for my guardian, 3 sets for my ranger. Multiple weapons. Accessories are mostly ascended though because they are cheap with the exception of those that also require ecto’s.

Personally I dislike swapping armor based on my mood At least on my ranger I’m down to only running two trait set ups and that is LB/zerk or Trapper/condi. Then I come into threads like these, which are good by the way, and still run into yes celestial will or can work whereas others suggest no, it wont and just use it for fractals

/bangs head on wall

I mostly just do WvW Solo roam, troll a bit for fun and good spirits, and havoc when serious. Join zergs when the wind is at my back and direction takes me with them…

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

While I also do not care about meta or speed runs, I do like efficiency. That in mind, it would seem that celestial should not take my fancy, but ranger….

If you care about efficiency then you should be running the meta. If not, it’ll take much longer.

A note about Meta … in PvE, if you are running the Meta Build (6/5/0/3/0 with Longbow/Sword+Axe) … if your group is not also running the same, you will find it is more difficult for you to survive?

Why is this? Because those builds are designed to maximize dps and survive long enough to down a boss in under a minute. When that boss is still alive after the first, second, and third minute, you will feel “a bit more pressure”.

Efficiency is outputting good damage and not wiping. Focus on whatever you need to do to do that.

Celestial is fine for some sPvP builds, but t I can’t see it as worthwhile for an ascended set. It’s really subpar for PvE and even if you run it in a WvW build, that’s a big investment that may be a waste if you later decide your build needs more toughness/power/whatever.

I think the main benefit Celestial gear provides is, that it just carries more stats.

The trade is: You get an equal share of each stat and will hence always end up with something you dont need (i.e.: some 500 odd condition damage on a power- build), but in return you gain more stats per piece of armor.

(I am mostly a WvW Zerg/small scale/solo and casual sPvP player)

I used to be a big fan of the 0/0/6/2/6 beastermaster-regen-condition bunker builds and since they aren’t meta anymore ran something like this on my ranger:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQNBhYDbkQlOWbZxiFqWDwJUtCg3jwmOquzgCYlLYyB-T1BBABScRAwT9HAeCAmp8zOdDOqEUm9HCAcAwv/+7v/+bpAMTkF-w

I am aware that it is far from anything you will find on metabattle.com.
Yet, through the celestial gear I can make good use of all the Regen I get from Signet of the Wild, Troll Unguent and Natural Healing (Mango Pie and Dolyak Runes do not scale of Healing power),
all while maintaining a high amount of toughness and HP to give me the time to actually live to regenerate anything

Additionally you get a nice 30% odd crit + 180% crit damage + a very hard hitting pet.
I personally love the birds one for style and because they are often just being ignored by people, even though they are the hardest hitting land pets Rangers have access to, as far as I am informed?

So to answer your question: everything said here is very true:
For PvE I’d just go full Zerker, and since the only place where you will really need ascended armor is high level Fractals of the Mist, you might as well go with a full Berserker set.

In WvW the step from Exotic to Ascended is minute when it comes to armor. (well worth it for weapons and trinkets though! Weapons: higher base damage= higher multiplier; trinkets= get better stat compositions)

correct me if my impressions are wrong, of course.

Just to play devil’s advocat, Gorath, but as far as using Celestial goes that’s not the best.

You have to use all or all but one stat to make Celestial worth it, and in that build you make no use of Condition Damage and pretty much no use of Healing Power.

Mango Pies and Natural Healing don’t scale at all with HP, and Dolyak Runes and TU scale so poorly that they might as well not scale at all. SotW scales OK-ish but that’s about it.

You don’t lose anything particlarly by using Celestial… but it’s really not making any use of it either. Now if you took HS over TU and used some condition apply weapons, then you’d be talking since Regeneration scales really well with Healing Power and some putting that 600 condition damage to even a tiny bit of work would go a long way.

I actually run celestial on my ranger currently (except weapons). I mostly do WvW as far as where gear matters a lot (my PvE farming doesn’t really count).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjMq0ta7KmrQ1ag+gY9SSQrW2TjlZ8zIyeA-TVCFABFcIAkb/h2OCA+pEkS1fA4BAIwkittenlfppLgUAmL0C-w

That’s the build I use for roaming/camp flipping. That is exactly what I use, not necessarily my goal (which is why no infusions). I’m also unsure about the sigils on my GS but that’s what is there right now.

My power based dps is about 80% of a full zerk build but I have way more durability and some condi pressure as well.

I’m not going to sit here and claim my build is great, but I will defend to the end that it works for me. If I pull a camp properly I can clear all the NPCs before the swords pop and I win most 1v1 fights I encounter.

That build also does well in zerg fighting and traps can apply pressure to either the inside or outside of a tower. I don’t usually follow zergs but I meet up with them every so often and it’s nice be able to just jump right in without mucking around with traits/weapons to feel useful.

Cufufalating.8479:

Just to play devil’s advocat, Gorath

that is exactly what I am doing here
to be fair: I ofc switch Sword for Axe frequently cause even after 2 years I still haven’t mastered the sword auto attack … and will get some bleeds here.

but apart from that, that was exactly my point:
you get a stat you don’t need, but get an over all plus in stats.
For arguments sake,
If I was aiming for:

• 1600 Power
• 2700 Armor
• 22+k health
• 30 Crit
• 180% crit damage
• 700 healing power

Is there any other way than using celestial gear? I have tried and could not make it work!
And if the OP is planning to run a build that makes use of more than 4 stats, i think from a WvW perspective, celestial gear will actually make sense.

60% cele / 20% zerkers / 20 % assassins + sigil of Crultiy + Furocious sharpening stones for a major Crit damage buff this takes some condi+healing power away for higher Crit hits + damage making better use of power scaling without sacrificing too much of that Flexability.
though when going into this method its all Trait dependant 6,2,6,0,0 doing this makes the build tanky , great damage on crits and keeps the Bleeds on crits effective allowing the use of spike trap + poison trap and Signet of the wild + Rampage as one for stability uses.

then if doing that above you’ll need a weapon set that supports the hybrid use like LB , Sword+dagger or Gs >swoop dat healing spring + S+T from there choose your pets to support your weapons and where your traits are lacking.

I know 132healing power boosts Signet of the wild to a 70hp per sec so i’d guess at 400-500 it’ll be around 85-105mark .

this is just an example
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8fjUqUuaBLWsw1ag9gadAEwFArL4dbMuPNA-TFDFAB6pDw6HAwdaE2+IA4nSQb1EQpKOAcBAKUdgHVJwKlf1s/QAAEAu5Nv5Nv5NLFwiatA-w

Craft zerk. Ultimately the best for pve and you can still mix/match it for wvw builds.

Celestial is weaker than dire/rabid for roaming too.

I would think Celestial would work better with weapons more favorable to hybrid setups such as shortbow, sword, or main hand axe. While sword itself offers only some poison, offhands such as torch and dagger are potent in a condition build.

For WvW, celestial addresses the weak damage on the sword in a condition build but at a cost of condition damage, toughness and either vitality or precision when compared to a dire or rabid build. I’m not sure it is worth it.

Even if you dont like speedruns zerker longbow ranger is pretty strong. Also ascended weapons benefit zerker more than condi.
As for celestial I could imagine a trapper build of sorts working to a certain extent.