Guild Wars 2

I’ve been running a variant of mistsim’s valk remorseless build and it’s been working fine for me so far. But at the same time I really want to be able to take quickdraw because it just has so much damage/mobility/escape potential.

Since remorseless is the base of the build and taunt is just too good to give up, the only traitline I can really replace is Wilderness survival, but I’d have to give up my only source of condi clear. I’ve been playing around with runes and sigils to see if I can come up with something maybe feasible, and this is what I have so far.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2cDV-0;9-0E;1YZb;0257036246;4Lcl6P;1ZF18ZF184e

It’s kind of a mess right now and I’m not happy with it at all, so feedback would be appreciated. I was trying to maintain some sort of balance between good damage and survivability, but I’m wondering if I’m just crippling myself on both ends…

I chose sigil of purity over generosity since it states it procs on hits, not necessarily crits. I’ve never really used it before so I’m not 100% sure on how it’s supposed to work or how useful it actually is.

bloodpyrope.8630:

I’ve been running a variant of mistsim’s valk remorseless build and it’s been working fine for me so far. But at the same time I really want to be able to take quickdraw because it just has so much damage/mobility/escape potential.

Since remorseless is the base of the build and taunt is just too good to give up, the only traitline I can really replace is Wilderness survival, but I’d have to give up my only source of condi clear. I’ve been playing around with runes and sigils to see if I can come up with something maybe feasible, and this is what I have so far.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2cDV-0;9-0E;1YZb;0257036246;4Lcl6P;1ZF18ZF184e

It’s kind of a mess right now and I’m not happy with it at all, so feedback would be appreciated. I was trying to maintain some sort of balance between good damage and survivability, but I’m wondering if I’m just crippling myself on both ends…

I chose sigil of purity over generosity since it states it procs on hits, not necessarily crits. I’ve never really used it before so I’m not 100% sure on how it’s supposed to work or how useful it actually is.

Tradeoffs, man. You can’t have all 3 dps trees and still have great condi clear.
If you want MM/Skirmishing/BM, i think this is the most realistic choice for condi clearing:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTjMqQLL2wC+rAXLG+Dq91XgA4P+fY45PIf3gTWQDWB-TJBFABxs/g4lBa7SAAwTAAA

downside, you lost some out of combat swiftness and qz. remember to leap through the water field to get another 1300 heal. clarion bond pet swap if available for another 1300 heal.

Personally, i dont think the damage from remorseless is that great and MoC is on a relatively long cd (hilt bashes). MM is a huge tradeoff. Its a tree I only take when: I need to take PO to be optimal in PvE or I will be zerging long enough to need LtW, or you are desperate to make a big crit gimmick build using MoC+remoreless.

You can auto crit with intel sigil, or just have really good odds of critting with furious grip, and the 25% bonus damage can be gotten from other sources.

I knooow, but I want it all!

Yeah I considered taking healing spring since the trap trait was in MM anyways. I had forgotten clarion bond could also be a blast…whoops.

I personally really like remorseless since it’s good for smaller fights and 1v1s. I find if I time things right with my pet, I can land enough of a burst to chase an ele off point. At least enough for a decap and pray for a +1.

MoC also works with PBS, and if I use it with quickdraw that’s either a PBS ever 6ish seconds or a 10 sec hiltbash. I think it also works on counterattack, but that’s super situational. Generally I try to avoid the seal trait since in my opinion, seals shouldn’t really be used that often. If I am forced to use them, I shouldn’t need them again that soon.

Also looked into Lyssa, but it only has 1 burst cleanse on your elite compared to troopers, where I could get a potential cleanse every 16 seconds from HaO. Though I have heard you can proc your elite and then cancel it, and the cleanse will still work. Not sure if it still works…

I guess I’ll just play around with the changes some more. I really wish we had access to Sigil of Cleansing in PvP. It would solve so many problems…and with condis becoming more prevalent/dangerous, it would definitely be useful.

The only ranger I know of making 66006 work is Eurantien. If you can catch him streaming its well worth it. He always puts on a show. Here’s the build he uses. http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnMqANsglrA2CCctghFhabhA4o5DIcHgPKOhV/iLqqC-TpBGABeXGIhjAAAXAgCOEAH8AAsZ/BA

The only condi clear comes from Healing Spring. It can actually end up being quite a bit, especially if you can plan ahead, precast a HS, and then have HS up again early in the fight. The build makes up for a lack of defensive traits with more invuln uptime than you’d normally see in a ranger build. SOS, Protect Me, and the rune proc can end up being quite a bit of time not taking damage.

I personally find playing builds like this, your mistakes will always be punished. You really have to basically always be ahead of the play, knowing what other players will do before they do it.

I have put in a lot of hours on mistsim’s build. I even did a write up of it on meta battle so that it would be somewhere more visible than into the mists. Raven if you haven’t tried remorseless with a max power max ferocity stat set yet, then you have not witnessed the true power. Remorseless procs are very repeatable and can see you landing upwards of 10k on mauls in spvp. Best part is the Remorseless trait effects your pet as well so its a 25% bonus to both of you. I have never felt the need for more mobility in the build. In fact I think when played right it’s actually one the hardest ranger builds to actually lock down. 3 stunbreaks plus stability? And i can turn around at any point and 2 shot you?

As far as trade offs when making a build, here are some questions you should maybe be asking your self bloody.

Are Lightning Reflexes and Quickening Zephyr good enough utilities without traits to keep on your bar?

If you have QZ on your bar, Do you need the extra GS Leap you get from Quickdraw? Or does Super Speed give enough mobility?

How impactful is Quickdraw on your damage? If you can get 2 mauls out after weapon swap, but only one gets a remorseless proc how much more damage are you actually doing? Is that worth losing Wilderness Knowledge AND Oakheart Salve AND Bark Skin?

How much incoming damage will quickdraw allow you to avoid? Will you avoid enough condis in the first place thanks to the extra stealth/cc/block/mobility that you don’t need the cleanse?

i think quickdraw works really well in 6/6/0/0/6 because of LTW. it’s basically a min-max’d LB build that also brings the most utility a ranger can bring (taunt, knockdown, and maxed ranged damage/ranged cleave and kb). condis aren’t really a problem in the current meta, and with this playstyle you can actually be relevant by cleaving and taunting from afar, and using spike trap defensively. this ensures condis from cele necros and eles don’t get applied to you. i wouldn’t run quickdraw otherwise.

so in other words, for a LB-centric build, quickdraw is an efficient single trait that increases utility, survivability and damage. condi pressure is minimal or nonexistent at that range, so you can really go all out with the bow. but you also have to cleave with it. so double RF with piercing arrows is neat for cleaving, double swoop or double hunter’s shot is neat for surviving. double PBS is neat for peeling.

what i don’t like about the build is that you cant freely engage some specs, whereas with valk/WK you can go kitten-deep on anyone at any time and live. and GS with remorseless procs and quickness is often the better cleave. with 6/6/0/0/6 at the very least you have to engage from a very specific location at the right time, so i see it as much less versatile.

i don’t know what’s going to happen with the ranger, but i think a lot of these power builds will become more relevant when the ele gets nerfed in the coming weeks/months. i think it’s really cool how there are 3-4 effective LB/GS builds, but I’m also kittened they haven’t fixed our other weapons. s/a and s/wh should be a thing. a/x should be a thing. SB needs to be reworked to reduce our dependence on spamming high rof AA.

the other thing to note is that the elite specs will turn this game into an even bigger circus. i feel ranger melee builds will be even harder to play with the reaper, rev and daredevil melee powerhouses running around. especially if our other melee weapons don’t get the reworks they desperately needed for 3 years. for these reasons , i fear LB will become the only viable power weapon, with GS remaining in the background in its defensive/skirmishing role.

i appreciate you putting the build up elsewhere, I’m kinda disappointed the valk beastmaster was downvoted on mists after being the top ranger build for a while. i dont even know who tends to frequent intothemists, but i think it wasn’t a very well understood build. at least it got lots of views and u guys are having fun with it.

Lots of good points and advice. Yeah, I have seen Eurantien’s build and I think it’s a bit above my skill level at the moment. It’s just so glassy, and even pre-patch I was never completely comfortable with the 66200 build. I was running 60260 and later on 20660 for an equal share of survivability and ok damage. That’s part of the reason why I instantly gravitated to the 00666 and then the valk build.

Not to mention, I tend to spend an equal amount of time in GS brawling on point as I do in LB sniping off point, so I prefer slightly tankier builds.

@jewishjoyride.4693
The only reason I started looking into quickdraw for more dps was because I had one match were I was fighting a warrior on point and no matter what, I just couldn’t finish him off and he only had just a LITTLE bit of health left. That fight lasted so long I found myself just wishing if I only had just a bit more dps I could’ve ended it earlier before I got +1, so I started looking for ways to add in more damage. Not to mention I had been eyeing the extra fury proc from weapon swap for a while. And the potential for chain stealth/knockbacks…

I did spend a lot of time trying to decide if survival skills were worth taking even though they weren’t traited anymore, and yeah. I think they really aren’t. It’s just QZ and LR have been on my utility bar for so long it feels weird to not have them there anymore.

Either way, I must’ve tested out a ton of different variants of builds today and I can only conclude sigils are not a reliable way to remove condis, and I wish soldiers runes removed condis before the shout and not after. Also, I totally underestimated how much barkskin shaved off burst damage until I had to go without. Never saw my health bar drop so fast before.

I wish I was smart enough to plan out my healing springs ahead of time, but man it is not easy :/

I guess I can’t have it all. Or at least at my current skill level I can’t have it all.

PS: I think we had a few games together, along with a certain thief who uh, had an aversion to us playing ranger :P

@mistsim

I think there’s starting to shape up a sort of divide between ranger builds. If 66006 is the off point powerhouse, then 00666 is a sort of a hybrid for on and off point playing. Your build is more of the latter, but it’s not as team supportive as 00666. It has more survivability and it’s great for uncoordinated solo queues, but if I were to play with an actual group, the pet res trait and the weakness on hits would be too good to give up.

Anyways, I’m also a little disappointed that your build was left out. I think most people saw valk runes and lost interest. Cycling though fury for constant remorseless proc isn’t as intuitive for some people I guess. It’s great for 1v1s and I had a blast with it in duel arenas. A lot of people asked me what build I was running there and I tried to spread it as much as I could. Heck, I liked it so much I even ended up crafting a whole set of valk armor just so I could bring it with me to WvW.

I run this pretty regularly http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9Ci9rAusActgh/gaf9MIA+04HGeefz3N4iLqqC-TpBFABCcEAEvMABXAgi2fIhDBAAPAAA It’s pretty much the same build I use for WvW roaming except there I can min max stats with valk/cav/zerk and asasins gear. (I know that’s not how you spell asasin but I had to work around the filter)

Depending on my team comp I may swap SoR for SoS and I go back and forth between zephyr and BW. Quickdraw makes direct damage very easy to negate, if they have stab up you double up on hunters shot or swoop (don’t have to swoop away, you can just use it for the evade to avoid big hits), if no stab just double up on PBS and counter attack. If they are glassy and you are in a position to burn them down, quickness or BW pretty much guarantees you will land your hit and quickdraw gives you 2 opportunities to do so. Plus furious grip with remorseless is just such a good combo.

You can make it by with just healing spring, you can also make it by with SoR and can always add in shout heal with soldier runes or runes of lyssa.

In fact I find We Heal as One, Strength of the Pack, soldier runes, and Signet of Renewal to be preferable to Healing Spring since the Swoop nerf.

bloodpyrope.8630:

PS: I think we had a few games together, along with a certain thief who uh, had an aversion to us playing ranger :P
.

Hahahaha. Oh Danny. What a classic. I don’t think he liked it much when I stopped taking him seriously. Still though it’s a little embarassing cuz you didn’t catch me at my best as far as play. Oh well.

As far as that warrior goes. This game has always had weird outlier builds that are nearly unkillable. They can’t really do much other than be a nuisance. In fact I think that’s the attraction to the handful of players who choose to play those builds. They can be the ultimate nuisance. At the end of the day though they can’t do much more. They can’t kill you. They aren’t dominating team fights. Basically they just waste your time. I don’t think even double rapid fires get it done.

There are some other ways to introduce more damage into builds though before actually re-traiting. Pet choice is a big one. While locking players out of skills for 3.75 sec is nice (using wolf) I personally feel like taunt has made wolf more or less irrelevant. Right now I prefer either double birds, or even a bird and a river drake. Doubling down on f2s is nasty burst in any ranger build, whatever the trait spread. Plus having shorter cd f2s means taunting more frequently.

Sigil choice is pretty important as well. Sigil of air and fire both got stealth nerfed and don’t hit as hard as they used to. There isn’t much reason to run both anymore. If you want to double down on burst sigils, Air and Blood is a far better combo. Each hits much harder, and Blood has the added benefit of both healing you and ignoring target armor. When i play shouts on my ranger I actually like energy and leeching on my lB, and then Intelligence and Blood on my GS. Leeching will always hit for 975 no matter what. Also augments those weapon swap rapid fires.

Eurantien’s build gets me killed every time I try to play it. I’m a bad.

@Mistsim My impression of intothemists is that it’s mostly a small group of vets that look at it and use it regularly. Obviously it gets up ticks in traffic around balance updates, and I think your posts here on the forums drove a bit of traffic to it. I think Metabattle tends to get steadier traffic though, and sees a much wider variety of user. New players, old players, wvwers wanting to pvp, pvers wanting to pvp, etc… The build is really really good, and more importantly I think really relevant.