Guild Wars 2

Sebrent.3625:

Durzlla, that does not take full advantage of the +100% condition duration we have. Since we have +100% condition duration, it seems optimal do rely on conditions to inflict our damage.

I haven’t looked at the build in a while, was thinking they were just maxing out the Chill duration (like my build did), but yeah if you have 100% CONDI duration then totally ignore what I said and go all out condi outlast build!

I will say one thing, if you can have even 80% uptime on Chill, your enemy only gets one shot at their burst and/or heal before you’ll take them down, 66% longer recharge REALLY hurts.

Not on my Ranger :-/ Most of my gear has been hoarded by my Mesmer, but I’m slowly trickling stuff over to the Ranger now since my Mesmer is pretty much just “out of space” for more stuff.

Sebrent.3625:

Not on my Ranger :-/ Most of my gear has been hoarded by my Mesmer, but I’m slowly trickling stuff over to the Ranger now since my Mesmer is pretty much just “out of space” for more stuff.

I pretty much only play ranger (have an ele and engi I also play in sPvP), but I’m not one for multiple gear sets… I’ve just got my Magi Gear because I wanted to be the “healer” in PvE/WvW and as such built my build around the gear set instead of the other way around xD.

ANET should make a Wardrobe section for Town Clothing and Armor so I can keep multiple sets of armor though, I’d love to make a more offensive build in PvE…

I agree about the “Wardrobe”. I have all 20 slot bags (from fractals) on my 80s with all bag slots unlocked and I’m still pretty full from assorted sets of gear.

Why Magi for a Ranger, btw? I’m not a big fan of vitality and it gives precision which Ranger’s don’t benefit from nearly as much as other classes.

Sebrent.3625:

I agree about the “Wardrobe”. I have all 20 slot bags (from fractals) on my 80s with all bag slots unlocked and I’m still pretty full from assorted sets of gear.

Why Magi for a Ranger, btw? I’m not a big fan of vitality and it gives precision which Ranger’s don’t benefit from nearly as much as other classes.

I could buy it for karma and spent all my gold (and thus karka shells) on minis instead of a set of exotic armor lol?

There’s a reason I only see PvE as a “play for fun” area and PvP as the competive scene xD.

Been doin’ some ice sculpting with my chainsaw and it’s pretty awesome. As any build, it destroyes some classes and builds instantly, but then there are the ones that just laughs at you and roflstomps you. Eitherway, I recorded some of the fights & would love to get some constructive feedback! The quality isn’t exactly eyegasmic, you can only do so much with a cereal box.

P.S. I know I’m wasting dodges! Trying to get rid off that :<

Thanks for making the video FrouFrou. You did well, especially seeing as how the build is very new.

A few things I’d like to highlight:

• Dagger off-hand with the Axe gives you more bleeds and a cripple (dagger #5). The cripple is especially useful if your enemy cleanses your chill.
• The chill on axe #3 is not just for the chill. The weakness your pet applies from it lasts 15 seconds in this build. 15 second weakness on a 10 second cooldown is murder for an enemy running a power build … especially with their skills recharging 66% slower.
• Try to ‘shotgun’ axe #2 more.
• I try to stay in Axe + Dagger most of the time as the cooldowns are low, it gives me bleed, chill, cripple, poison, and weakness I can inflict on my opponent on low cooldowns and let’s me do so from 900 range on all but the poison … which is a lovely evade :-)
• Stay the heck out of melee range of the dagger+dagger elementalist. Keep them chasing you while you range and let your pet chase them
  • Yes, elementalists and thieves make me want to quit and uninstall as well. There is some serious oversight on balance issues in this game … more so with the ele … I’ve been tempted to jump back on mine, but I find it too easy.

I realized last night that I only needed to get the runes and craft the giver weapons (very cheap … snowflakes don’t cost much) so made this armor set on my Ranger last night.

While playing it, I realized I like to have signet of the hunt (since we don’t have easily accessible perma-swiftness :-/ ) and would like more than one stunbreaker and condition remover. I also realized that a condition damage ranger does not benefit much from crit chance and crit damage (certainly not like a cond mesmer). As such, if you’re not using traps, there isn’t much reason to put points into Skirmishing for a cond Ranger (aside from pet crit).

As such, I switched my traits around last night from the initial 15/30/10/0/15 and went with 15/10/30/0/15. This gave me more 200 more toughness, 200 more condition damage, protection on dodge roll, and access to wilderness survival’s 2 awesome grandmaster traits.

I also noticed that I was able to keep chill up on my targets without using the +40% duration from pizza. This now has me wondering if I should go with the pizza (more offense) or go with lemongrass (more defense … -40% condition to me). Some nice options there.

Lastly, I realized that I wasn’t using the sword+torch that much. As such, I swapped it out for the Greatsword. This allowed me to chase and escape much better than better.

The only other trait point changes I’m thinking about is taking 5 from Marksmanship to put into Nature Magic for the Regen at 75% hp. I think I can survive without 5% cond duration.

That said, traps makes it very easy to escape from a large enemy zerg and help protect your own forces as an enemy force running through your chill trap is hamstringing theirself. It’s wonderful at chokepoints. Outside of chokepoints, traps’ usefulness diminishes.

One last thing, this build is far more powerful against melee foes than ranged foes due to the ability to easily kite a melee enemy with all of your chills, cripple, and mobility.

Ranged enemies are something I need to get more practice with the build against. I was having good success with them but would come across a few that forced me to run for my life with my greatsword swoop + block and pet running interception.

All-in-all, I like this build as did a Ranger guildie of mine who actually jumped off his Necro to try this out again (he’d given up on his Ranger months ago … it was his first char).

The Snow Leopard is superb with the +50% condition duration as not only does it have the chill but it has bleeds and vulnerability as well.

The Owl’s vulnerability also benefits and the little bird provides some much appreciated swiftness.

Both pets are great for supplementing your

Last point … when your pet acts like a moron (i.e. doesn’t do what you say, bugs out, etc.), the build is diminished (as most Ranger builds are). You rely on most of your non-condition damage coming from your Bird/Cat, 2 chills from them, weakness from axe #3, and even some bleeds and vulnerability.

As with most ranger builds, when your pet is acting dumb, you’re going to feel it.

Thankfully, if your foe is already chilled/crippled, you can swap to greatsword to gain some space.

I’m really enjoying this build. I think with better pet AI and any other fixes, it will only get better :-)

I’m running 30/0/30/10/0 for now with maintenance oil and veggie pizza, might give a go for some other setup later. Even tho I use lots of traps, I don’t want to go with the regular trapper build either so didn’t see any reason to put points into skirmishing since the first trait line gives a nice amount of condition duration. The messyness of our traitlines makes me sadface a lot tho, the things I want comes with things I don’t want!

I’m not sure what you mean by shotgunning axes? Gave me a very weird mental image! I have mainly been using this build for the duels but also gave it a try while I was out with the guild doing some roaming. It’s semi okay, I can easily slow down the people who fall behind of the main zerg or try to flee from us.

As for the weapons, I guess it also depends on one’s playstyle. I prefer torch over dagger for the fire fields and the huge amount of condition damage it does. I also can’t live without my trusty warhorn as I usually drop SoH out for duels. Greatsword feels very clumsy for me, I never get the WOAHH I OWN-feeling when I’m using it. It’s just too slow. Suppose if I practised more with it, I might get that feeling one day :> Been dueling some amazing GS rangers and kudos to you guys for mastering it. However I swap the sword out for shortbow time to time, depending on whom I’m fighting. Against rangers and some warriors the shortbow + axe/torch combo works awesomely.

Yeah, your video and my experience so far with the initial build has me moving away from traps.

I’m curious about your 30 in marksmanship. Care to elaborate on that?

The lack of at least 10 in Beastmastery is lowering your ability to maintain chill on foes. 15 in Beastmastery would increase it a bit more.

I’ve found that in 1v1s, my pet being strong is nice since I can generally outmaneuver people due to my chills/cripples and greatsword mobility when needed. This allows me to load them up with conditions, stick around while I’m comfortable, then jump out while my pet maintains pressure … go back in when comfortable again.

I only get the “whoa” feeling on Greatsword with my full set of Knight’s gear. I’m curious if I’d get even more of a “whoa” feeling with Soldier’s.

The greatsword is wonderful with the +20% recharge. Maul is hitting hard now and has nice bleeding damage. Swoop is wonderful for escape and closing. The block is great, though crippling throw sucks. Hilt Bash is wonderful. Lastly, though, the auto-attack has you evading for over 50% of the auto-attack chain duration. That is awesome. Over 50% evasion just from auto-attacking (assuming you keep landing those hits). This coupled with steady damage (why I’m interested in Soldiers higher power isntead of Knight’s precision) and tankiness (hence Soldier’s/Knight’s) makes you one tough puppy.

When facing trap builds with it, you need to get your pet to trigger the trap though, else you’ve gotta dive into it like a thief and you don’t want to do that.

I understand the desire for the torch over the dagger with axe. It’s nice to get flaming projectiles and have burning. However, I like having more control over the fight (dagger cripple) and reducing my opponent’s healing (dagger poison), especially against tanks. The evasion is quite the lifesaver at times as well.

I usually stay in Axe+Dagger with this chill build though, so the Dagger’s extra survivability and control are appreciated. I’m using my other weapon set as the situation warrants.

You still didn’t explain the shotgun thing!

Here’s a link to my traits and gears. Trinkets are a bit silly but can’t get my hands on rabid trinkets, the spots are never open in my server so I sort of gave up with those. I’m still working on my ascended rings as well. In the calculator the backbag and 1 accessory aren’t right, as the generator is missing karka shell and some random back item I’m using. I’m only running 90% condition duration with the build even when I have food buffs on.

Added a screenie of my real stats as the calculator is a bit inaccurate.

Ninjaedit: How does it lack with missing the 10 points in BM? I don’t see any traits in beastmastery that would increase it in any way, unless it’s some hidden thing? Malicious training which increases conditions applied by pets is in Marksman.

FrouFrou.4958:

You still didn’t explain the shotgun thing!

Use Splitblade at point blank range (aka shotgun range) so all 5 axes hit the enemy (resulting in 5 bleeds).

FrouFrou.4958:

Ninjaedit: How does it lack with missing the 10 points in BM? I don’t see any traits in beastmastery that would increase it in any way, unless it’s some hidden thing? Malicious training which increases conditions applied by pets is in Marksman.

NinjaEditReply: He mentioned 15 BM, which is Loud Whistle. I’m assuming he’s talking about being able to swap more often so you can use the F2 skills more. (Not totally sure what the cooldowns on the F2 skills of the Owl and the Snow Leopard are though)

Shotgun = move in close range so that all 5 projectiles hit. Both the Ranger Axe #2 and Shortbow #2 are best if you can “shotgun” your opponent to get the max bleeds/poison on them possible with the cast.

For getting Rabid trinkets, I guest on Jade Quarry. It has a huge population, and, every time I’ve guested there, they have had it open. You can guest twice every 24 hours, so you should be able to go to the karma merchant pretty easily. If JQ doesn’t have it, pick another server with a large PvE population. If that fails, try the next day. No reason to give up. Heck, you’ve stuck with ranger this long, lol ;-)

10 points in BM allows you to reduce pet skills (F2) by 20%. Hence, it reduces the cooldown on the chills inflicted by your pets. With 15 points in BM you can use owl chill (16s cd if traited), swap to snow leopard, use its chill (24s cd if traited) and swap back to the owl with 0-1s left on its chill’s cooldown. This nets your target 9 + 12 + 9 seconds of total chill = 30s … in ~16s. It’s mean.

Ohoo, now that makes more sense, thanks for the tips! JQ is US server tho and I’m from EU so sadly that’s not going to be possible. Gandara is supposedly pve heavy server as well, our peeps just seem to ignore Cursed Shore for whatever reason.

FrouFrou.4958:

Ohoo, now that makes more sense, thanks for the tips! JQ is US server tho and I’m from EU so sadly that’s not going to be possible. Gandara is supposedly pve heavy server as well, our peeps just seem to ignore Cursed Shore for whatever reason.

Well then guest on some other EU servers :-) I’m sure there’s at least one that’s good about keeping Cursed Shore uncontested.

Yarly, just pointing out that large pve population doesn’t always help :>

Well stop pointing it out and go get some Rabid trinkets!

Don’t make me cross the “big pond” and get mean :-p

Chill bro, don’t be so agro! Bada bum tss!

Anywho, was doing some duels again last night and started to pay more attention on “shotgunning” and boy, did it help! I got this warrior down I haven’t been able to take before because I always lacked the tiny bit of of damage. Muchos thanksus for that tip :>

off-topic but anyone dare to duel with me in the mists? Always been curious as to how forum rangers actually perform outside of the forums.

haxi, if you catch me online after my kids are in bed (8pm eastern) and I’ve finished my daily (usually 1-2 hours after that depending on numerous variables), then I’m up for it. I try to always get dailies out of the way before I do anything else.

I’ll even jump on my Mesmer, Thief, Elementalist, etc. if you want a comparison of me at each. Just don’t be demanding. I work full-time and have a wife and two kids so what I feel like doing when I game is what I will be doing. Sometime the kids grate my nerves and I won’t be in the mood to be “tested” or “checked out” :-p I hope you understand.

I’m on US Servers btw (see my sig: Ehmry Bay)

haxi.9038:

off-topic but anyone dare to duel with me in the mists? Always been curious as to how forum rangers actually perform outside of the forums.

Want to make a forum setting up Ranger Fight Club? Only rangers allowed xD, because i’d -love- to duel with people on the ranger forums, win or lose it’d still be fun =D!

That and it seems every ranger community event seems to just be fun and it’s a lot better to see some stuff in action than on paper and not all of us are blessed with free time for vids xD.

Make a separate thread and make it happen.

People do need to realize that these events are more for “socialization and sharing of knowledge” and not “I’m the best Ranger here!”. The latter puts a huge stink on the event.

haxi.9038:

Sebrent.3625:

haxi, if you catch me online after my kids are in bed (8pm eastern) and I’ve finished my daily (usually 1-2 hours after that depending on numerous variables), then I’m up for it. I try to always get dailies out of the way before I do anything else.

I’ll even jump on my Mesmer, Thief, Elementalist, etc. if you want a comparison of me at each. Just don’t be demanding. I work full-time and have a wife and two kids so what I feel like doing when I game is what I will be doing. Sometime the kids grate my nerves and I won’t be in the mood to be “tested” or “checked out” :-p I hope you understand.

<edit>
I’m on US Servers btw (see my sig: Ehmry Bay)
</edit>

Yea sure thing! Kids sure are troublesome at that age eh? They are angels when asleep but when they wake up… :<

Durzlla.6295:

haxi.9038:

off-topic but anyone dare to duel with me in the mists? Always been curious as to how forum rangers actually perform outside of the forums.

Want to make a forum setting up Ranger Fight Club? Only rangers allowed xD, because i’d -love- to duel with people on the ranger forums, win or lose it’d still be fun =D!

That and it seems every ranger community event seems to just be fun and it’s a lot better to see some stuff in action than on paper and not all of us are blessed with free time for vids xD.

Yup my sentiments exactly, would be great hanging out with each other and testing new builds etc. Sounds like an interesting idea!

Omg just realized this but if you look closely at krytan drakehound’s collar, it reads C.A.T

hey does anyone know why frozen duration doesnt increase the chill time of axe mh #3?

It does increase it. However, the icon doesn’t show fractions and you need at least +33% just to see a 1s increase.

Sebrent.3625:

It does increase it. However, the icon doesn’t show fractions and you need at least +33% just to see a 1s increase.

Boom right on the money.

Does anyone know if skills still apply fractions of a second durations? My friend thinks they do but i’ve never tested it to confirm this.

Skills do provide fraction of a second duration … however, 4.0 seconds of burning does the same amount of damage as 4.99999 seconds of burning.

Fractions of a second are only useful for chilled, crippled, confusion, immobilized, etc.. Skills that aren’t ticking per second.

Sebrent.3625:

Skills do provide fraction of a second duration … however, 4.0 seconds of burning does the same amount of damage as 4.99999 seconds of burning.

Fractions of a second are only useful for chilled, crippled, confusion, immobilized, etc.. Skills that aren’t ticking per second.

yup

Sebrent.3625:

Skills do provide fraction of a second duration … however, 4.0 seconds of burning does the same amount of damage as 4.99999 seconds of burning.

Fractions of a second are only useful for chilled, crippled, confusion, immobilized, etc.. Skills that aren’t ticking per second.

So if my friend were using a 7s bleed and i cut its duration by 25% i’ve effectively removed 2 full ticks of his damage?

There’s a better way of getting to 100% condition duration. 4 Runes of the Nightmare actually give a total of 20% condition duration instead of the indicated 10%. To get to 100% I would use the 40% food, 20% from 4 Runes of the Nightmare, 10% from 2 Runes of Lyssa and 10-30 points in Marksmanship (10 points+2 giver weapons, 20 points + 1 giver weapon or 30 points with no giver weapons.)

Edit: Never mind I just tested this and it no longer works they fixed the Rune of Nightmare 4 piece bonus :\

So what’s the best build for this? Apothecary the bet armor? What about trinkets and signals?

Really sweet idea. I am leveling my ranger and will eventually try it. I also decided to use some of these ideas on my retired rifle warrior. I think it will be crazy good. Can’t wait to get home and try. Thanks.

I’d say Rabid or Apothecary.

Rabid is going to give you more condition damage and give you more direct damage and options with precision.

Apothecary is going to give you the most healing power out of any set (tied with the other 2 +healing prefixes)

If you think Apoth gives enough condition damage and you have more sources of healing than uses of precision, then I’d go with Apothecary. Otherwise, I’d go with Rabid. You can always mix the two as well to get some balance in between that is right for you.

I can pump out numbers and ideas, but in the end people have to feel it out for what is right for them. It also takes practice.

don’t forget to bring out the icebow skin.

well it’s an interesting idea. (these days, i consider anything “interesting” which is not full zerk…)
should make solo-champion killing too easy, if they aren’t immune to chill. (playing 7 months now and dunno if champions can be chilled or not lol.)
should also be nice/annyoing against melee classes. :P

jubskie.3152:

Semi off-topic:
Do you have the gear for this? Since you’re at 100%, can you help me out and see if 100% bleeds works on Sharpened Edges (1s bleed on crit trait) to make it 2 seconds? It’s impossible to get 100% condition duration in the mists so I’ve never been able to test if it works on Sharpened Edges.

I know you’re trying to stay away from criticals, but it’s FOR SCIENCE! :P (also, having a quasi sigil of earth with no cooldown is pretty cool)

You can test food in the mists, just eat the food and use whatever oil you want before going there it is still active on you to be tested on the golems or class trial npcs and doesn’t get removed unless you enter a spvp match.

Durzlla.6295:

Sebrent.3625:

Skills do provide fraction of a second duration … however, 4.0 seconds of burning does the same amount of damage as 4.99999 seconds of burning.

Fractions of a second are only useful for chilled, crippled, confusion, immobilized, etc.. Skills that aren’t ticking per second.

So if my friend were using a 7s bleed and i cut its duration by 25% i’ve effectively removed 2 full ticks of his damage?

Yes.

I have not found any champions that were immune to conditions. Chill, cripple, and immobilize are conditions.

Sebrent.3625:

I have not found any champions that were immune to conditions. Chill, cripple, and immobilize are conditions.

They often have that unskakable buff that makes them either immune and/or the conditions last only a 10th of it’s duration I think it is.

Unshakable: Gains defiant when targeted by crowd control skills. Blind is 10% effective. Weakness and vulnerability last 50% less time.

It does not affect chill / cripple / immobilize.

So, if you want to control a melee opponent, here’s your clue :-)

Blind is counted as a crowd control skil? Weakness and vulnerability? None of those do what I would consider “crowd control”. That usually means slow, stun, fear, knockback, knockdown, etc.

I suppose its just a bad tooltip unless chill/cripple/immobilize are counted as crowd control, and those cause the mob to gain Unshakable, which reduces the effectiveness of blind, weakness, and vulnerability?

I think the point of it affecting those is more gameplay-oriented.

If you have several people blinding a champion who hits slow, he’s not a threat.
If you have several people keeping weakness on a champion, making his few hits that land only do so for 50%, he’s not much of a threat.

Sebrent.3625:

Unshakable: Gains defiant when targeted by crowd control skills. Blind is 10% effective. Weakness and vulnerability last 50% less time.

It does not affect chill / cripple / immobilize.

So, if you want to control a melee opponent, here’s your clue :-)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiant

“Defiant is an effect that grants immunity to crowd control skills. It is caused by Unshakable, an ability possessed by most champion and legendary rank creatures”

“When a creature with Unshakable spawns, it will have Unshakable and no Defiant. The first crowd control skill that hits it will CC the creature and cause Defiant. It will cause a minimum of 3 stacks of Defiant, but potentially many more depending on how many players are nearby, based on event scaling. Those Defiant stacks can only be removed with additional CC, after which this cycle repeats.”

So you can apply it once and then they become immune, I don’t know if this applies to all champs though just quoting wiki.

I found this build works really well if you mix it with fire damage, as you can both chill/slow down your opponent and land a fire AoE on them for massive burst damage. I would suggest keeping your weapon choice flexible, as axe can hinder you more than help you… depending on the situation.

awge, what were you replacing your axe with? I’m curious what people have been using as I’ve been taking this initial build and moving points around a bit here and there and trying different weapon set combinations.

So are you still liking this direction for your ranger? How do you think it compares to Xorus’s build, Nerva’s build, a trap build or the catmaster build for solo roaming in wvw? Gear costs so much, I don’t want to make a mistake on the direction I go. Thx for your help on the boards. I know I’m not alone in appreciation.

You PM’d me this too so I’ll just copy my answer here as well I guess:

So far I’ve been running it with Rabid gear and it’s very nice. When it comes to 1v1, I think condition Ranger is the way to go. Our pets supply the direct damage pressure while we supply the condition pressure (which isn’t reduced to compensate for pet damage) and the chill CC is killer for enemy mobility.
I have been moving traits around here and there though, so I suggest tweaking it to suit yourself a bit. Just keep your goals in mind.
When it comes to larger fights, I find that going back to a power build is more suitable as there is an abundance of condition removal and I can’t really do conditions from 1,200 range like I can do power. I can also get piercing arrows to help with that.
For saving yourself cash on Rabid gear, I did runs of Honor of the Waves. There are usually enough people doing runs of it, it isn’t too difficult, it’s fun, you’ll make gold, and you can get all your armor and weapons from there which leaves getting the trinkets which you can get with karma or from doing fractals/guild missions/dailies.

This is another way to setup the traits for if you aren’t wanting to make use of traps:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQBogYpAQCqfgSsCH6fIWuC+H

Obviously, the more Survival utilities (and elite, i.e. Entangle) you take, the more you’ll get out of +20% Survival skill recharge rate.

Since there is apparently no cooldown on Keen Edge and Rejuvenation, dancing around 75% hp could be quite effective.

awge.3852:

I found this build works really well if you mix it with fire damage, as you can both chill/slow down your opponent and land a fire AoE on them for massive burst damage. I would suggest keeping your weapon choice flexible, as axe can hinder you more than help you… depending on the situation.

It really depends on how you use it. You have pvp/pve/wvw so for example, axe is clearly a great choice for pve, but not because of the chill factor, but because of the riccochet + Superior Sigil of Ice which really helps deal with the predictable moving mobs. I try my best to stay away from main hand axe in pvp and wvw as it attacks too slowly and you can lose a lot of DPS unless you happen to land your attacks without being noticed. I would keep such a sigil on a short bow since it attacks much faster + it helps keep your enemy at bay and your pet on the enemy better. Of course your weapon choice will depend on your build and your preference, but clearly axe is not the best choice for pvp/wvw environments, at least compared to other weapons.

Now mind you, I am a fire ranger not a chilly ranger, I like to burn foes and with my high condition damage those numbers tick really brightly. But I totally relate to the chilly version… just switching the sigils basically.

Inspired by this chill control ranger post, I’ve made a new www build.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|7.1g.ha.7.1g.h1l|5.1g.ha|1n.7u.1n.7u.1c.7u.1n.7w.1c.7w.1n.7w|1c.67.1n.67.1n.67.1n.67.1n.67.1c.67|0.u48b.u367.a6.0|30.1|4i.4x.51.52.54|e

Pets: Owl & Alpine Wolf

Are there any rooms for improvements?

My “role” will be enemy controlling primary by chill (and cripple). I’m not interested in big damage numbers, but what decent alternatives are there?

If I want to be a tanky chill ranger, and let the others in group deal the damage, what gear should I use then?

(would Shaman or Apothecary be a decent alternative?)

The most important thing for me is to have 100% chill duration (eg. 60% chill duration + 40% condition duration) and survive as loong as possible.