Guild Wars 2

So I’m about to get a ranger to level 80 and was wondering which weapon choices would be ideal.
I find it really fun to play with traps so i decided to go for conditions, probably 10/30/30/0/0 traits.
Now I’ve been wondering wheather to take shortbow and sword/torch, axe/torch and sword/dagger or maybe even a completely different set ( please suggest)
Thanks in advance, I hope some experienced player can help a new ranger =)

there are quite a few threads with this setup. you could probably get alot of useful information from there.

Also, its nice to see new players still grabbing the ranger class. lots of players love running a trap build its great for newer players who are still learning the ropes.

I already searched the forum, i guess i will continue doing so^^. Thanks for the answer already.
I don’t really mind if ranger is not considered that strong at this moment. As long as i play no tournament noone shall be bothered with me having fun with this class
E: I’m somewhat concerned about what you said about new player picking up traps. Is it not that good at later stages of the game? concerning mostly PvE and some WvW

ok i can give you my mind about this, maybe it helps

bur first, it depends on how you whant play.
your build looks like you whant go offensive trapper.

so you can go rabit or carrion amulet.

if you go rabit amu, its the pew pew way: (crit)
shortbow with earth sigil
sword/torch
needs rly fast gampelay, because you are rly glass canon with this,
condition become a huge problem because the high armor dont help u there.

if you go carrion amulet (no crit)
you can do axe/toch and sword/dagger
or also shortbow and sword/torch,
but there its more hard to bring bleeding on enemeys

for me, i have always prefer the carrion amu on tournys
because as trapper ranger i was first target and with this amu i have surive more easy then with rabit.
i have play axe/torch and sword/dagger,
3 trapps.
for me it worked rly good, it was nice dmg
and good survive when eles and thiefs was going for me,
because rly much dodges and sword 2 is best skill ingame :P
each weaponset with energy sigil.

but this was tourny and trapper have only work rly good some month after release when nearly nobody was use rangers on tournys, because there was the time of “oh ranger, freekill” nearly every one have think this.
but well skill lvl was much more low at this time.

neol.5438:

I already searched the forum, i guess i will continue doing so^^. Thanks for the answer already.
I don’t really mind if ranger is not considered that strong at this moment. As long as i play no tournament noone shall be bothered with me having fun with this class
E: I’m somewhat concerned about what you said about new player picking up traps. Is it not that good at later stages of the game? concerning mostly PvE and some WvW

Well first I have to say I’m kind of new to the forums, and typically tried to avoid reading stuff about builds and whatnot because I wanted to create my own character and not end up just copying a build off some forum or something..So I’m sure there are better builds than mine out there that have been extensively studied and perfected through the use of forums and stuff.

Anyways, I’ve been playing ranger since about October (started on a different character, then switched). I took my time leveling it up, but point is I’ve been playing a ranger as my main for months. And I have been using a trap build for pve at level 80 for a pretty long time. Honestly, it works fine for me..Again I’m sure there are better builds and even better trap builds out there, but I enjoy mine and it works for me. I do dungeons and fractals and stuff a lot and it’s fine. The traps are nice cause you can use them against single targets, some of them provide fields, and they work against groups too.

I don’t have a lot of advice for you about weapons, cause in the end I think it probably just depends on what you like and stuff. The weapons you listed (axe, torch, sword, dagger) all have conditions, so if you’re going with a condition build that’s all good. One thing, though, especially if you have weapons that can do poison or equip a pet that can poison, you may want to not use the poison trap and use something else instead. Same with if you use the torch a lot for burning, the flame trap may not be necessary. (although flame trap can do a lot of damage). Personally I don’t use the poison trap because I have other methods of poisoning and that allows me to use another skill. Normally I run with frost trap/flametrap/spike trap. Or sometimes I switch a trap out for a signet or any specific skill I might need for a certain situation. Normally I switch out the frost trap because it doesn’t do any damage, unless I really need to slow an enemy down or whatever.

Thanks for your answers, it was really inspering. Gave me a lot to think about
On a different note, without wanting to open another thread: I was wondering wheather some sort of supportish healing power build could do any good, while still relying on conditions. I’d mostly use that for WvW and maybe some PvE group play.
I’ll post here a rough summary that i came up with in some minutes time:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAnf8YnEVEYZlFeBhahgofgSsCG69I9zq9+DjC-jwCBINhGxJQUABmqAk8AKFKj5QDRtIsIasaZER1qbYmbFRrGA-e

Can check my sig for a variation, but there are a ton of trap builds as well.

I play a condition ranger myself, so far I have found a very successful build that works for my play style. With this build I can say that I am considered strong, especially being topped #1 ranger in the guild I am in.

So in terms of advice, I have to say a number of things:
1. Conditions can be played in many different ways and that is because a good ranger can adapt to any situation. For world/dungeon/fractals/pvp I like to play as a fire condition ranger. Why fire? well fire does a ton of damage by itself, if you can keep your enemy on fire you will mass a lot of damage in a short period of time very fast. This involves the use of sword/torch OR axe/torch + fire trap. I also like to keep a short bow ready at all times, this is because of the bleed application. I recommend that you practice very well how the short bow applies bleed conditions and to practice it in stressful situations.

2. I have chosen survival + condition + strong pet use as my forte as a ranger. This is what other rangers know as the Condition Beast Master build. My variation on this build is centered around using fire fields. Beast mastery helps with giving me tons of toughness and giving my raw DPS to my pet. Enemies highly underestimate the pet damage during a fight, only those who have died to a ranger pet -alone- can appreciate the danger factor in them. This will force you to really get in tune on how to properly use your pet, which pet to use and how to keep it alive; this is a big key to a strong ranger. Also, since your raw DPS is almost all gone from you (its in your pet though), all you can do is focus on condition damage, and I mean high condition damage. To achieve this you need to get at least 1200 of it, no need to overdo it either, anything around 100 ticks of bleeding condition damage is pretty decent → strong.

3. Gear that compliments condition damage + toughness is easy to come by, however all level 80 gear has at least 3 status bost. That third stat is what is going to define your ranger. You can choose it to be anything you want, but make sure its the right choice for you. Here is where things can get tricky, so do experiment in pvp only to get a feel for the different combinations, then push it to world play.

4. Play the deception game. You gave your pet all that damage, your job is to survive, distract your opponent, get them to be close to your pet at all times without them realizing it cause they will be too busy with your conditions and your play. I love to get pull my enemy into a fire trap → entangle → weapon swap to one that has a sigil that applies condition damage on weapon swap → make sure pet is on my enemy → apply even more conditions while the enemy is trapped in the entangle and throw even more fire damage on them.

4. Play with your guild in pvp matches, to hone your skills there to get a real feel for your ranger, ask them for feedback when you lose, take it to the world and enjoy.