Guild Wars 2

So I’ve just reached level 80 and trying to get some decent rare gear. I’m pretty unsure which path to go, and which items to get and would love some advice.

Talking about pve/dungeons.

Should I bother getting toughness/vitality? if so which of them?

And are both cond build and power build considered viable?

So far I’ve been going for a mix of berserker and knight items, and would like to hear some opinions of items and builds.

Both are viable and both have pros and cons. Most people go apothecary for condis or Cleric (some mix it with knight or soldier) for power. Every ranger build that does good vs good players (which is not your average player) has a good amount of heal power 800-1000 and runs signet of the wild. 30 BM is common also.

Ranger makes very little use of non toughness gear like berserker or rampager btw. The reason is that rangers do about 50% damage other classes do the other 50% comes from pets. So adding dps gear only boosts your dps and not your pets.

Don’t take me too seriously since I don’t play much PvP or WvW or anything like that.

I enjoy both Condition/Crits and Full Power/Crit builds

With Rampager Armor or Berserker Armor.

Berserker will give you a lot of damage by itself so you can trait to be a little more tanky and/or depending on the weapons you use. (Like if you use bows to get trait to pierce targets, etc)

If you go condition, Rampager’s is really good since it gives you both power with Crits and the Condition Damage. For this, I believe going Axe/Torch and Shortbow is the best. Again, build survivability, mainly for your pet, on traits

I’d go with something with healing, so you can keep regeneration at all times and make your pet survive stuff.

Thanks for the replies! Keep in mind I was talking about pve. Also, which weapon sigils are considered good for shortbow and longbow?

Nexorian.5342:

Thanks for the replies! Keep in mind I was talking about pve. Also, which weapon sigils are considered good for shortbow and longbow?

If you are going PvE i suggest a jaguar for ST dps a Marsh Drake fof AoE. 30 BM and 15 Nature Magic. Sword/warhorn with SB or Greatsword depending on the dungeon. Full berserk gear if you can dodge properly or add some pieces of knight if you feel squishy.

I got a piggy back question. If you went the power route how much should you have assuming you have 1k healing power?

TheGuy.3568:

I got a piggy back question. If you went the power route how much should you have assuming you have 1k healing power?

Depends how tanky you want to be. Soldier vs Knight.

Knight does more dps even if it has less power due to the precision. Its also imho harder to die in due to more toughness but requires you do play well.

Soldier is less dps but you are harder to burst down.

Im assuming this is for PvP since Healing Power is bad for PvE so i dont recommend berserker gear.

This just my opinion but Toughness > Vitality except for Ele/Thief/Guard. You usually want enough to avoid being 1-Shot (like backstab) by pure zerk players. 15K HP is what i aim for on those classes with about 2,500 armor. Thats my baseline minimum atm for a balanced build. Ranger has medium health so i dont use vitality gear if i can avoid it.

Puandro.3245:

TheGuy.3568:

I got a piggy back question. If you went the power route how much should you have assuming you have 1k healing power?

Depends how tanky you want to be. Soldier vs Knight.

Knight does more dps even if it has less power due to the precision. Its also imho harder to die in due to more toughness but requires you do play well.

Soldier is less dps but you are harder to burst down.

Im assuming this is for PvP since Healing Power is bad for PvE so i dont recommend berserker gear.

This just my opinion but Toughness > Vitality except for Ele/Thief/Guard. You usually want enough to avoid being 1-Shot (like backstab) by pure zerk players. 15K HP is what i aim for on those classes with about 2,500 armor. Thats my baseline minimum atm for a balanced build. Ranger has medium health so i dont use vitality gear if i can avoid it.

In PvE I just stick to my warrior or ele. This is for Wv3 roaming/zerg etc. Sounds good I’ll look into min/maxing the stats soon. Thanks.

Puandro.3245:

Both are viable and both have pros and cons. Most people go apothecary for condis or Cleric (some mix it with knight or soldier) for power. Every ranger build that does good vs good players (which is not your average player) has a good amount of heal power 800-1000 and runs signet of the wild. 30 BM is common also.

Ranger makes very little use of non toughness gear like berserker or rampager btw. The reason is that rangers do about 50% damage other classes do the other 50% comes from pets. So adding dps gear only boosts your dps and not your pets.

He’s asking for dungeons though I say got more or less full berserker then aslong as he doesn’t want to make some kind of support spec with alot of healing and little spirits and kitten.

Berserker is best for group dps kill kitten faster is good, go berserk. /nod

Manekk.6981:

Puandro.3245:

Both are viable and both have pros and cons. Most people go apothecary for condis or Cleric (some mix it with knight or soldier) for power. Every ranger build that does good vs good players (which is not your average player) has a good amount of heal power 800-1000 and runs signet of the wild. 30 BM is common also.

Ranger makes very little use of non toughness gear like berserker or rampager btw. The reason is that rangers do about 50% damage other classes do the other 50% comes from pets. So adding dps gear only boosts your dps and not your pets.

He’s asking for dungeons though I say got more or less full berserker then aslong as he doesn’t want to make some kind of support spec with alot of healing and little spirits and kitten.

Berserker is best for group dps kill kitten faster is good, go berserk. /nod

Yes i replied to go with zerk below my 1st reply fof PvE.

Berserker and rampager are both good options for PvE, I would just choose based on your preferred playstyle. Would you rather run signets or traps? Longbow or shortbow, sword/torch or greatsword?

definitely signets, I don’t like traps. So far I’ve been running longbow/shortbow. I find hunter’s shot, barrage and sometimes rapid fire pretty worthy. But I like shortbow more.

I guess I will have to try sword/torch and greatsword.

If you’re running shortbow, rampager is good for either/a hybrid spec. You get power and condi and with higher crit chance, you have your pick of on crit sigils: Earth for more condi or Air/Fire for more power.

ChillyChinaman.6057:

If you’re running shortbow, rampager is good for either/a hybrid spec. You get power and condi and with higher crit chance, you have your pick of on crit sigils: Earth for more condi or Air/Fire for more power.

i would definatley listen to this advice, currently im running rampager as well, and its pretty good, you have to know when to move and when to stay still, and you also have to know the fights so it will come with practice, because you have to get behind the boss in order to bleed, and if you go some talents you get a damage boost from flanking “side or behind”

Puandro.3245:

Both are viable and both have pros and cons. Most people go apothecary for condis or Cleric (some mix it with knight or soldier) for power. Every ranger build that does good vs good players (which is not your average player) has a good amount of heal power 800-1000 and runs signet of the wild. 30 BM is common also.

Ranger makes very little use of non toughness gear like berserker or rampager btw. The reason is that rangers do about 50% damage other classes do the other 50% comes from pets. So adding dps gear only boosts your dps and not your pets.

QFT

I’ve been campaigning against berserker gear on these forums for months for this exact reason. Both power and condi are pretty fun. I swap between the two all the time.

BTW, I realize OP is talking about dungeons as well. While I agree berserker is viable in most instances, if he’s specifically talking about higher level fractals, then he’s going to want something more defensive. Other than that, he should be fine with zerker and pressing the same two buttons from now on.

Thank you for the replies guys! I have 2 more questions if I may:

1. Why is longbow considered so bad? I find using it for 3+5 periodically, and sometimes 2 with RAO and then switching back to SB is pretty good.

2. Would I do more damage with melee than I would with a bow?

Nexorian.5342:

Thank you for the replies guys! I have 2 more questions if I may:

1. Why is longbow considered so bad? I find using it for 3+5 periodically, and sometimes 2 with RAO and then switching back to SB is pretty good.

2. Would I do more damage with melee than I would with a bow?

1. Because it does poor damage on it’s own if you cannot stay at max range and even then the shortbow will outdamage it, some do use it in the way you say though for the vulnerability and barrage.

2. Sword would do higher single target damage, greatsword would do higher aoe damage both would be at a more or less higher risk to yourself depending on fight.

For my condition build I use carrion armor with runes of the undead.

For the bunker build I use Apothecary armor and as close to it as I can find jewelry and follow Fauxs RRR build.

I think you should go for finding a good balance between Power and Condition damage, as much as you want to see big numbers you cannot leave yourself too open to low toughness or vitality. Choose one more than the other depending on your approach and learn to value toughness. A ranger can be good but a ranger that is far too squishy is of no use to anyone, not even your pet. There are equipment and accessories out there that will boost power and condition damage while granting toughness or vitality or healing power. Those last ones are pretty valuable in group play especially PvE and dungeons.

Since you can go out there and experiment, getting dungeon gear and karma gear is wise. Play around using this website (copy/paste the link: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/), put in there exactly what you use now, then change it to better optimize that you are looking for from your current build.

awge.3852:

I think you should go for finding a good balance between Power and Condition damage, as much as you want to see big numbers you cannot leave yourself too open to low toughness or vitality. Choose one more than the other depending on your approach and learn to value toughness. A ranger can be good but a ranger that is far too squishy is of no use to anyone, not even your pet. There are equipment and accessories out there that will boost power and condition damage while granting toughness or vitality or healing power. Those last ones are pretty valuable in group play especially PvE and dungeons.

Why would you ever build power and condition? If you’re going S/H like you should be, you’re getting almost no benefit from condition. I can see going S/T on trash packs for the AoE, but you can’t build for trash without gimping boss fights. S/T would be stupid for boss fights because you should be 1 spamming with boons up anyway. Power builds allow you to use GS on trash for the cleave (still no benefit for condition here).

Your damage is going to be insufficient if you build any more toughness/vit/healing than 2 pieces of gear, and even that is stretching it. Healing is also useless without either toughness or vitality because if you’re taking enough damage to warrant extra healing, you’re going to be one shotted without either of those; if damage is too low to one shot you, you can just heal through it with the regen signet or healing abilities.

For dungeons never take anything that’s not Berserker Power/Prec/Critdmg. You’re just hurting your team if you do. Condition builds are garbage in PvE.

For pvp it’s the opposite. Get rabid gear for trap ranger or apothecary gear for BM bunker. Power builds on ranger for pvp are garbage unless you’re running in a wvw zerg and are protected.

Zenith.7301:

Power builds on ranger for pvp are garbage unless you’re running in a wvw zerg and are protected.

That’s not true you can build yourself solid as a truck with a power/crit/toughness spec in wvw and don’t need a zerg at all for protection.

If you say spvp I can agree it’s less than optimal because it’s impossible to retain the proper traits and stats in powerspecs there, it still works it’s just not as effective as in wvw but I wouldn’t call it garbage.

for dungeons go zerk or rampagers (with a bit of knights/apothecary mixed in if you want a bit more durability)

a mixture of zerk and knights is the best imo; but a trapper could get away with condition damage

I’m working on a full set of Rampager gear because I suspect you can actually do more damage with a power/precision/cond trap build than a berserker build. My guess is that a 30/30/5/0/5 trapper can take down bosses and other tougher mobs faster than a 30/30/5/0/5 berserker, while the berserker might be faster at burning down trash mobs. I’m curious to see how much damage I can do with a sigil of fire longbow on a full rampager build.

Zenith.7301:

For dungeons never take anything that’s not Berserker Power/Prec/Critdmg. You’re just hurting your team if you do. Condition builds are garbage in PvE.

Bullkitten. Conditions are amazing in dungeons, because each fight isn’t going to be done in less than 10 seconds, they’re going to take at least 20-30 seconds to go through. Conditions do a lot of damage in that time, especially heavy hitters like bleed and burn. Hell, add in Chill and you can keep your party from getting hit too often, and annoy the hell out of the enemy. Our traps are our most powerful weapon in dungeons, simply because they are AoE and can crowd control quite well. While Power/Prec/Critdmg can do wonders, this is only if you’re taking on an enemy that has no gimmicks and isn’t going to completely wipe you easily or is focusing on somebody else. Which in dungeons rarely happens, especially with a ranger.

Conditions will always be > power until some form of immunity timers are present in game. Power will only take you so far, theres no sustained, continous damage.

Let me stack 7 different condis on you at once while you try to power me down with sb, gs etc, we’ll see who melts quicker.

I run this in dungeons and do very well. Still high regen, lots of condition.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|c.1f.h1k.f.1f.h5|7.1f.h1k.8.1f.h6|1f.71d.1f.71d.1f.71d.1f.71d.1f.71d.1f.71d|31m.0.31m.0.31m.0.31m.0.31m.0.2u.0|0.u18b.u47c.a3.0|0.0|4j.52.50.4r.0|e

Leetsaws.2108:

awge.3852:

I think you should go for finding a good balance between Power and Condition damage, as much as you want to see big numbers you cannot leave yourself too open to low toughness or vitality. Choose one more than the other depending on your approach and learn to value toughness. A ranger can be good but a ranger that is far too squishy is of no use to anyone, not even your pet. There are equipment and accessories out there that will boost power and condition damage while granting toughness or vitality or healing power. Those last ones are pretty valuable in group play especially PvE and dungeons.

Why would you ever build power and condition? If you’re going S/H like you should be, you’re getting almost no benefit from condition. I can see going S/T on trash packs for the AoE, but you can’t build for trash without gimping boss fights. S/T would be stupid for boss fights because you should be 1 spamming with boons up anyway. Power builds allow you to use GS on trash for the cleave (still no benefit for condition here).

Your damage is going to be insufficient if you build any more toughness/vit/healing than 2 pieces of gear, and even that is stretching it. Healing is also useless without either toughness or vitality because if you’re taking enough damage to warrant extra healing, you’re going to be one shotted without either of those; if damage is too low to one shot you, you can just heal through it with the regen signet or healing abilities.

Sorry I don’t know what S/T and S/H mean :-( can’t really tell much from there, but from what I can understand from what you said I can see why any ranger would go against the approach of balance over focusing in Power or Condition build independently. If you notice that most focus on maximizing their ability to heal/toughness or power/crit or condition damage + whatever else and apply themselves according to the situation; which is the trade off that we all take during game play and it’s not a bad idea. However I did manage to find a healthy balance between power + condition damage while sustaining a comfortable level of space for my own toughness and survival. You are right in suggesting that it’s stretching it, anyone would that’s why I the build I use stems from hundreds of hours of testing to find a successful balance, hence my suggestions above come from my own success.

Now to keep things simple, I believe that your choice of condition or power is solely dependent on what you think your party really needs and in dungeons, more often than not that is power. At the same time a certain level of toughness or vitality comes into play, or simply gearing yourself up to dish out big damage and trait yourself to give your party lots of heals. It all depends on your approach but I vote for power over condition damage.
EDIT: In my own personal case I know that sometimes power is not enough, so I use both decent power + decent condition damage, using at the same time high toughness so I don’t die on boss fights or overwhelming situations easily, which is namely a hybrid BM build, it works for me.

S/T is Sword/Torch weapon combo, S/H is Sword/Horn weapon combo.

RyuDragnier.9476:

S/T is Sword/Torch weapon combo, S/H is Sword/Horn weapon combo.

I don’t see how S/T and S/T affect your decision between Power or Condition. I mean, if you are going to use torch you need to know how to use your evades or trust in your toughness. As a ranger you sometimes have to be the melee person for the group, but that is something you can plan for prior to entering dungeon fights and such. In the case you do not then you consider your own play style. I moved away from S/T and S/H a long time ago, I prefer SB and GS for dungeons, switching the GS for A/T since axe has a very good aoe which you can easily combine with a good condition build or a smart power build. In the end Power is always good, but conditions allow you to throw all that extra power into places that benefit you and your party (healing power… etc). The only place where you can go wrong is in choosing the wrong weapon set for your build and keeping your toughness too low if you know you will be dealing with taking heavy damage, which is the case in almost every dungeon run.

awge.3852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

S/T is Sword/Torch weapon combo, S/H is Sword/Horn weapon combo.

I don’t see how S/T and S/T affect your decision between Power or Condition. I mean, if you are going to use torch you need to know how to use your evades or trust in your toughness. As a ranger you sometimes have to be the melee person for the group, but that is something you can plan for prior to entering dungeon fights and such. In the case you do not then you consider your own play style. I moved away from S/T and S/H a long time ago, I prefer SB and GS for dungeons, switching the GS for A/T since axe has a very good aoe which you can easily combine with a good condition build or a smart power build. In the end Power is always good, but conditions allow you to throw all that extra power into places that benefit you and your party (healing power… etc). The only place where you can go wrong is in choosing the wrong weapon set for your build and keeping your toughness too low if you know you will be dealing with taking heavy damage, which is the case in almost every dungeon run.

Torch is all condition damage. Sword is all power damage, aside from 3 but that’s only used as an evade. Building condition when 99% of your damage is power is stupid.

S/H is the most synergistic weapon combination in the game for rangers. Horn buffs your party, your pet, and your 1 attacks. 4 allows for some off target damage in case of PBAoEs. Sword also grants might to your pet on rotation.

All SB has going for it is its range, which allows for easier dodging. You can use whatever build you want, but it’s not optimal. S/H outdamages all other combinations for the ranger right now. If you disagree, consult spreadsheets.

Leetsaws.2108:

awge.3852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

S/T is Sword/Torch weapon combo, S/H is Sword/Horn weapon combo.

I don’t see how S/T and S/T affect your decision between Power or Condition. I mean, if you are going to use torch you need to know how to use your evades or trust in your toughness. As a ranger you sometimes have to be the melee person for the group, but that is something you can plan for prior to entering dungeon fights and such. In the case you do not then you consider your own play style. I moved away from S/T and S/H a long time ago, I prefer SB and GS for dungeons, switching the GS for A/T since axe has a very good aoe which you can easily combine with a good condition build or a smart power build. In the end Power is always good, but conditions allow you to throw all that extra power into places that benefit you and your party (healing power… etc). The only place where you can go wrong is in choosing the wrong weapon set for your build and keeping your toughness too low if you know you will be dealing with taking heavy damage, which is the case in almost every dungeon run.

Torch is all condition damage. Sword is all power damage, aside from 3 but that’s only used as an evade. Building condition when 99% of your damage is power is stupid.

S/H is the most synergistic weapon combination in the game for rangers. Horn buffs your party, your pet, and your 1 attacks. 4 allows for some off target damage in case of PBAoEs. Sword also grants might to your pet on rotation.

All SB has going for it is its range, which allows for easier dodging. You can use whatever build you want, but it’s not optimal. S/H outdamages all other combinations for the ranger right now. If you disagree, consult spreadsheets.

I disagree, but I will pass on the spreadsheets for now. Here’s why:

• Leap finisher through fire field gives flame aura which gives me several stacks of might each time (35 condition per stack)
• S3 poisons, and condition builds utilize longer poisons
• S1 roots and cripples. Condition builds generally focus on short-range combat, so an enemy that can’t get away is at your mercy
• S2 for the reasons of its awesome mobility, a cripple, and leap finisher as described above

S/T gives a lot to a condition build. It’s not so clear cut as power versus condition damage. Having that kind of tunnel vision really limits your ability as a ranger.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Leetsaws.2108:

awge.3852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

S/T is Sword/Torch weapon combo, S/H is Sword/Horn weapon combo.

I don’t see how S/T and S/T affect your decision between Power or Condition. I mean, if you are going to use torch you need to know how to use your evades or trust in your toughness. As a ranger you sometimes have to be the melee person for the group, but that is something you can plan for prior to entering dungeon fights and such. In the case you do not then you consider your own play style. I moved away from S/T and S/H a long time ago, I prefer SB and GS for dungeons, switching the GS for A/T since axe has a very good aoe which you can easily combine with a good condition build or a smart power build. In the end Power is always good, but conditions allow you to throw all that extra power into places that benefit you and your party (healing power… etc). The only place where you can go wrong is in choosing the wrong weapon set for your build and keeping your toughness too low if you know you will be dealing with taking heavy damage, which is the case in almost every dungeon run.

Torch is all condition damage. Sword is all power damage, aside from 3 but that’s only used as an evade. Building condition when 99% of your damage is power is stupid.

S/H is the most synergistic weapon combination in the game for rangers. Horn buffs your party, your pet, and your 1 attacks. 4 allows for some off target damage in case of PBAoEs. Sword also grants might to your pet on rotation.

All SB has going for it is its range, which allows for easier dodging. You can use whatever build you want, but it’s not optimal. S/H outdamages all other combinations for the ranger right now. If you disagree, consult spreadsheets.

I disagree, but I will pass on the spreadsheets for now. Here’s why:

• Leap finisher through fire field gives flame aura which gives me several stacks of might each time (35 condition per stack)
• S3 poisons, and condition builds utilize longer poisons
• S1 roots and cripples. Condition builds generally focus on short-range combat, so an enemy that can’t get away is at your mercy
• S2 for the reasons of its awesome mobility, a cripple, and leap finisher as described above

S/T gives a lot to a condition build. It’s not so clear cut as power versus condition damage. Having that kind of tunnel vision really limits your ability as a ranger.

Note: I’m talking about organized PvE. This means dungeons and fractals. You can use whatever build you want in solo PvE, it doesn’t matter. To an extent, this is true of most dungeons as well. In [high level] fractals, each player is expected to perform to a certain degree of ability for the group to succeed.

• S2 is useless aside from PBAoE dodging because you will be off target for too long for it to be of any use for damage. The Leap combo finisher is only useful if you’re taking damage to proc its boon. If you take more than 2 hits (which would begin to make it effective), you will probably die anyway.

• S3 is used for evasion in PvE. The damage is negligible on its own accord; compared to the number of 1s you could have gotten off in the time it takes to execute, it is dwarfed. You mentioned the duration as well: condition duration rounds down, unless you stack +duration very meticulously, you will either have too much or too little. This makes it inefficient to build with gear.

• In dungeons and fractals you will never have any mobs running away from you. Roots and snares are irrelevant. Regardless, how does this make condition builds superior to zerker builds? The highest damage ranger build is zerker S/H, they would have the same snare available.

• Once again, if you’re using S2 at all in combat you’re probably doing less damage than is optimal. S2 isn’t even a condition damage attack. I don’t understand your argument at all; zerker rangers still have a sword, they can still use it if needed.

I’ve been using a Power build throughout my leveling (I’m at 79 right now, almost there!) and, frankly, I feel like my dmg isn’t enough. Whenever I used a shortbow for condition ddmg, it seemed to be more powerful. So I’d say condition.

lol

Quite the data sample there.

Leetsaws.2108:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Leetsaws.2108:

awge.3852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

S/T is Sword/Torch weapon combo, S/H is Sword/Horn weapon combo.

I don’t see how S/T and S/T affect your decision between Power or Condition. I mean, if you are going to use torch you need to know how to use your evades or trust in your toughness. As a ranger you sometimes have to be the melee person for the group, but that is something you can plan for prior to entering dungeon fights and such. In the case you do not then you consider your own play style. I moved away from S/T and S/H a long time ago, I prefer SB and GS for dungeons, switching the GS for A/T since axe has a very good aoe which you can easily combine with a good condition build or a smart power build. In the end Power is always good, but conditions allow you to throw all that extra power into places that benefit you and your party (healing power… etc). The only place where you can go wrong is in choosing the wrong weapon set for your build and keeping your toughness too low if you know you will be dealing with taking heavy damage, which is the case in almost every dungeon run.

Torch is all condition damage. Sword is all power damage, aside from 3 but that’s only used as an evade. Building condition when 99% of your damage is power is stupid.

S/H is the most synergistic weapon combination in the game for rangers. Horn buffs your party, your pet, and your 1 attacks. 4 allows for some off target damage in case of PBAoEs. Sword also grants might to your pet on rotation.

All SB has going for it is its range, which allows for easier dodging. You can use whatever build you want, but it’s not optimal. S/H outdamages all other combinations for the ranger right now. If you disagree, consult spreadsheets.

I disagree, but I will pass on the spreadsheets for now. Here’s why:

• Leap finisher through fire field gives flame aura which gives me several stacks of might each time (35 condition per stack)
• S3 poisons, and condition builds utilize longer poisons
• S1 roots and cripples. Condition builds generally focus on short-range combat, so an enemy that can’t get away is at your mercy
• S2 for the reasons of its awesome mobility, a cripple, and leap finisher as described above

S/T gives a lot to a condition build. It’s not so clear cut as power versus condition damage. Having that kind of tunnel vision really limits your ability as a ranger.

Note: I’m talking about organized PvE. This means dungeons and fractals. You can use whatever build you want in solo PvE, it doesn’t matter. To an extent, this is true of most dungeons as well. In [high level] fractals, each player is expected to perform to a certain degree of ability for the group to succeed.

• S2 is useless aside from PBAoE dodging because you will be off target for too long for it to be of any use for damage. The Leap combo finisher is only useful if you’re taking damage to proc its boon. If you take more than 2 hits (which would begin to make it effective), you will probably die anyway.

• S3 is used for evasion in PvE. The damage is negligible on its own accord; compared to the number of 1s you could have gotten off in the time it takes to execute, it is dwarfed. You mentioned the duration as well: condition duration rounds down, unless you stack +duration very meticulously, you will either have too much or too little. This makes it inefficient to build with gear.

• In dungeons and fractals you will never have any mobs running away from you. Roots and snares are irrelevant. Regardless, how does this make condition builds superior to zerker builds? The highest damage ranger build is zerker S/H, they would have the same snare available.

• Once again, if you’re using S2 at all in combat you’re probably doing less damage than is optimal. S2 isn’t even a condition damage attack. I don’t understand your argument at all; zerker rangers still have a sword, they can still use it if needed.

Pretty much this is true for optimized PvE.

I feel bad for people who dare feed others the lie that anything is better than berserker. Obviously they don’t understand the scaling of power/prec/crit per stat point investment.

If conditions were as strong as some suggest in PvE, you’d see more groups asking for necromancers or engineers. As it stands, both of those are the least desired in groups.

Zenith.7301:

I feel bad for people who dare feed others the lie that anything is better than berserker. Obviously they don’t understand the scaling of power/prec/crit per stat point investment.

If conditions were as strong as some suggest in PvE, you’d see more groups asking for necromancers or engineers. As it stands, both of those are the least desired in groups.

Scaling is one thing, and 100b another

Personally, I prefer direct dmg. Idk what is better. I just think power based damage is more interesting – it can be affected with funny things (I use +10% when above 90%hp, +10% when full endu, +10% when flanking = +30% dmg). It just seems more interesting for me.

In pve frac or dungeons zerker. Go for conditions will slow your party. Why ?
Most classes get condis passiv on a target even as bersi full dmg. With guild mates we have no conditioner and get burning, bleed 25 stacks, poison and co all time up..so for what you want a conditioner in pve, its dmg that get losted.
and in high frac..its just movment. If you play with def eq you neee so long hf

One thing to keep in mind is A) conditions aren’t affected by Vulnerability and conditions REALLY don’t shine unless you run at least Fire and Poison trap.

If you run Axe+WH/T or S+T and one or two traps, though, conditions are quite nice. Traiting into Trap Potency in Skirmishing is absurdly powerful.

If conditions weren’t limited on big targets in pve they would be much more viable. It doesn’t matter on trash, but on any boss, champion, world event target, or veteran karka it would be nice if the cap was higher. As it is if you don’t stack condition dmg then adding any is counter-productive on these targets.

I always tell time/gold limited people who just need one ranger build to do this: Experiment with greens and rares for about two weeks during your normal play time and then decide. Patience is the key. I had 56 laurels the other day until something happened and I knew what I wanted. Maybe that will happen with your armor?

Ideally, you want to do this before you hit 80 because you scale up in WvW better when underleveled ven when wearing rares afaik. Someone who’s done the math, can you respond here? I can’t remember for sure.

Chopps.5047:

I always tell time/gold limited people who just need one ranger build to do this: Experiment with greens and rares for about two weeks during your normal play time and then decide. Patience is the key. I had 56 laurels the other day until something happened and I knew what I wanted. Maybe that will happen with your armor?

Ideally, you want to do this before you hit 80 because you scale up in WvW better when underleveled ven when wearing rares afaik. Someone who’s done the math, can you respond here? I can’t remember for sure.

Totally agreed and it’s what I did in order to obtain my Power+Condition build, I like the best of both worlds and I think it works, especially because us rangers have a pet to add onto our damage already.

What you guys aren’t grasping is that there is a hierarchy when it comes to builds. One build is better than the others, and the rest are mediocre. If you want to compete in high level PvE, you have to select the best build, or you are hurting your group.

ANet preached against min/maxing in their design, but it was inevitable to happen. There is a superior build, and it’s zerker S/H.

I’m a little surprised that S/H is the top damage dealing in high end dung/frac. Isn’t the self-rooting a little bit dangerous with such a glass cannon build? Or do things just die so fast that it’s a non-issue?

You only self-root if you dont turn off auto-attack.

lLobo.7960:

You only self-root if you dont turn off auto-attack.

You’re still “rooted” during the leap animations though and there’s no way around that, but sure you can cancel the chain much faster of course I’m just wondering how much dps you loose by attacking manually might even be a greatsword or shortbow becomes better? atleast they should close the distance.

Manekk.6981:

lLobo.7960:

You only self-root if you dont turn off auto-attack.

You’re still “rooted” during the leap animations though and there’s no way around that, but sure you can cancel the chain much faster of course I’m just wondering how much dps you loose by attacking manually might even be a greatsword or shortbow becomes better? atleast they should close the distance.

No dps loss because you can que attacks.

Eliteseraph.4970:

I’m a little surprised that S/H is the top damage dealing in high end dung/frac. Isn’t the self-rooting a little bit dangerous with such a glass cannon build? Or do things just die so fast that it’s a non-issue?

I don’t understand how players use the sword successfully in PvE dungeons that aren’t CoF path one easy. Every time I’ve pushed the point with players who claim to use the sword in dungeons the response usually ends up being they only use it when it’s safe and they won’t need to dodge or move around too much. Most of the content is completed with a great sword until it’s safe to use the sword.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the game was balanced with a balanced group wearing exotics (not ascended) in mind. The devs didn’t design Lupicus thinking he should be able to be killed in 42 seconds. Mobs are supposed to live longer (and thus be more threatening for a longer period of time) and I’d be amazed if they thought projectiles would be as worthless as they are (both enemy projectiles because they are always easily reflected by high end groups and allied projectiles because melee DPS was decided to be superior under the false notion that it is more dangerous). The amount of crit damage and reflects a cookie cutter groups can put out is considerable. These kinds of scenarios make risky weapons like the sword viable because mobs melt too fast.

Puandro.3245:

Manekk.6981:

lLobo.7960:

You only self-root if you dont turn off auto-attack.

You’re still “rooted” during the leap animations though and there’s no way around that, but sure you can cancel the chain much faster of course I’m just wondering how much dps you loose by attacking manually might even be a greatsword or shortbow becomes better? atleast they should close the distance.

No dps loss because you can que attacks.

I’m not fully understanding this I think, so if you then manually attack as fast as the autoattack wouldn’t that mean you are atleast nearly as negatively affected by the leap “root”? correct me if I’m missing something but the only way I see manually attacking being at all times safer is by attacking more slowly.

I’m not arguing against it just to be clear but I think there must be atleast some dps loss from it, it simply doesn’t make sense for it not to, now that may be minor enough to just be completely disregarded from but it must still be there on some level.