Guild Wars 2

My wife and I are duoing rangers, and we are about to hit 60. Since we just picked up the game and played it with no other folks for advice, we have asked in game about what to build. Most people say, “STACK CONDITION ZOMGZ!” so since we are still just leveling up, we have focused on that. However, as we start getting towards the higher level tiers, I wanted to ask the ranger community about Power vs Condition and what we should be looking at stacking endgame.

Thank you!

1) Are you doing dungeons or general pve or wvw or structured?
2) What weapon and skills are you using?

The above questions make all the difference in the world to weather or not you should stack condition damage.

We have been using shortbow primarily and we have not engaged in PvP much yet. However, advice on what to build for PvE vs PvP would also be appreciated.

Well, the shortbow is a true condition damage weapon, nearly all of its skills are about bleeding or poison. You’ll most likely be using a Sigil of Earth for additional bleeding or a Signet of Nullification to make up for the Ranger’s mediocre condition removal, so you’ll want Condition Damage and Precision.

Now you can choose to get exotic dungeon or karma gear for Precision/Toughness/Condition Damage for a more resilient build, or you can go Precision/Power/Condition damage, which leaves you a lot more squishy, but gives you higher damage and it’s easier to acquire.

On a side note, having played a Ranger to level 80, I would strongly advise against using a Longbow. Its only use is Barraging off walls in WvW, and even at that it’s rather mediocre.

How releveant is crit %/damage to a condition build? What should be running at level 80?

Thank you!

You want a high crit chance in a Condition build. The best you can get with a Ranger is around 50% with full Rare quality Rampager’s gear, but that makes you a glass cannon, so going for 40% or so is better and allows you to use some gear with better survivability.

Why would you want precision over power when going condition? What good are the crits if you have low power?

There’s too many problems with a ranger condition build that people seem to consistently ignore.

1) Shortbow only bleeds on flanking. This is fine in lower level PvE where enemies actually care about your pet. Once you get to Orr the AI seems to actually understand you get an advantage hitting them in the back and they are NOT okay with it.

2) Traps are necessary for a condition damage build to really shine. That means 30 points in Skirmishing which prevents you from ever really maximizing your conditions which requires wilderness survival and marksman.

3) Bleed/Burning/Poison caps. This is a huge deal. Especially running 2 rangers that should both be able to maintain near 100% burning uptime in a condition build alone. That means with 2 people you have too much burning and it’s just wasted DPS.

I used a condition build right up to around level 75 and then switched to power/precision/Crit% and haven’t looked back. Shortbow can easily get up to ~400 regular hits and ~800 crits which at a fire rate of 2.2 attacks per second is pretty freaking awesome. I still use traps but mostly for the utility they bring (e.g. CC, AoE tagging, poison to hurt healing).

^ I went with a berserker set and thought about going for a rampager’s set instead.

This kinda steered me away from it and now I can focus on some type of defensive set like soldier’s or knight’s, thoughts?

Unspecified.9142:

There’s too many problems with a ranger condition build that people seem to consistently ignore.

1) Shortbow only bleeds on flanking. This is fine in lower level PvE where enemies actually care about your pet. Once you get to Orr the AI seems to actually understand you get an advantage hitting them in the back and they are NOT okay with it.

2) Traps are necessary for a condition damage build to really shine. That means 30 points in Skirmishing which prevents you from ever really maximizing your conditions which requires wilderness survival and marksman.

3) Bleed/Burning/Poison caps. This is a huge deal. Especially running 2 rangers that should both be able to maintain near 100% burning uptime in a condition build alone. That means with 2 people you have too much burning and it’s just wasted DPS.

I used a condition build right up to around level 75 and then switched to power/precision/Crit% and haven’t looked back. Shortbow can easily get up to ~400 regular hits and ~800 crits which at a fire rate of 2.2 attacks per second is pretty freaking awesome. I still use traps but mostly for the utility they bring (e.g. CC, AoE tagging, poison to hurt healing).

What trait set up are you using?
I was planning the same as I am fed up with relying on conditions from my time as a Necromancer. Specially the bleed cap is a horrible annoyance.

I am afraid of being to squishy, so I guess I need to invest quite some points into thoughness or health. (perhaps if I get thoughness from traits, then focus on vitality from gear and v.v.)

This is what I posted for the post your build thread:

This is my PvE oriented build:

10/30/30/0/0

10 MM for Steady Focus
30 SKRM for Sharpened Edges, Trapper’s Expertise, Trap Potency
30 WS for Soften the Fall, Oakheart Salve, Bark Skin

I use Troll Unguent for heal, Spike Trap, Flame Trap, and Frost Trap for utilities, and Rampage as One for Elite.

For pets I use Black Bear for aoe weakness and Carrion Devourer for a sturdy ranged pet with aoe poison.
I use Rampage as One with Carrion Devourer out and hit F2 right after. The aoe poison field that the Carrion Devourer does procs a hit of RAO’s might buff per poison tick. So I can easily get to 15+ stacks of might when using this combo quickly when fighting more than 1 mob. Spike/Frost Trap helps to keep the mobs in the poison field.

For gear I run Rampager’s and for runes I run 6/6 Runes of the Undead. I do this for the extra condition damage and toughness and the 6 piece conversion of toughness into condition damage. I plan to use the Artificer’s consumable crystal for extra condition damage from toughness. For jewelry I plan on using either Carrion or Rampagers, but probably Carrion for some Vitality.

For sigils I use Superior Sigil of Earth in my Axe and Short Bow and a Major Sigil of Earth in my Warhorn. Short Bow of course for single target and Axe/Warhorn for AoE fights.

- Ghaz, Fort Aspenwood
———————-

In reference to this thread,
@Drakken: You need to stack precision in order to increase your crit chance which synergises with your “Sharpened Edges” trait and the Superior Sigil of Earth, both of which apply a stack of Bleeding on Crit.
You wouldn’t stack “Power” because it does not affect condition damage, it only affects the shortbow’s initial flat damage. Power is useful in tandem with the Axe/Warhorn though.

Use Rampager’s mixed with Carrion if you want a more survivable condition damage ranger build imo, but getting the karma/dungeon gear with prec/tough/cnd dmg is always preferred.

@Unspecified: I run a 10/30/30/0/0 trapper build that has 30 points in Wilderness Survival and Skirmishing so I have high toughness, condition damage, and critical chance.
If I am fighting a lot of mobs in Orr, I just pull out my axe/warhorn, toss traps, use 5->2->1 and just stomp em all. I try to avoid using short bow for multiple mob fights unless they were veterans or champions.

If you are stacking power and ignoring condition damage on the short bow then you are doing it wrong >_<

@Beour: Please look at the build I suggested above, it would help you better understand what a PvE Trapper Ranger should aim for. Of course you could modify it to your choosing but that is in my opinion the best Trapper build.

Did not know that bleed damage can crit, thanks.

Edit: I re-read what you wrote and from what I understand now bleeds cannot crit but you cause bleeds when you crit using sharpened edges and sigil of earth.

@Drakken : Bleed cant crit, but crit can bleed lol

Hello, i have a few question about Condition Power :

Anyone have the formula for calculating damage dealt VS condition damage ? I have around 300 CD and i do 40 dmg / bleed ( im lvl 50 actually ) so i’m looking for something like
Bleed = 15%Condition damage
Poison = 60%CD
Burning = 120%* CD
What should be my CD lvl 80? I’ve seen around 900, is that enough ?
Is there any rune with % chance of inflict burning ? Or any other solution to inflict burning except trap / 1hs+Torch ?
Also, is there any statuses who inflict damage like bleed/poison/burning ?

( I might be off topic, sorry for that )

Drakken.3427:

Why would you want precision over power when going condition? What good are the crits if you have low power?

Because you take the trait that inflicts bleeding on critical hits and stack Bleeds regardless of whether you are behind your foe or not, and if you are, you stack even more Bleeds then usual. A condition build isn’t reliant on direct damage, it’s reliant on Condition Damage, which means Precision > Power.

Unspecified.9142:

There’s too many problems with a ranger condition build that people seem to consistently ignore.

1) Shortbow only bleeds on flanking. This is fine in lower level PvE where enemies actually care about your pet. Once you get to Orr the AI seems to actually understand you get an advantage hitting them in the back and they are NOT okay with it.

2) Traps are necessary for a condition damage build to really shine. That means 30 points in Skirmishing which prevents you from ever really maximizing your conditions which requires wilderness survival and marksman.

3) Bleed/Burning/Poison caps. This is a huge deal. Especially running 2 rangers that should both be able to maintain near 100% burning uptime in a condition build alone. That means with 2 people you have too much burning and it’s just wasted DPS.

I used a condition build right up to around level 75 and then switched to power/precision/Crit% and haven’t looked back. Shortbow can easily get up to ~400 regular hits and ~800 crits which at a fire rate of 2.2 attacks per second is pretty freaking awesome. I still use traps but mostly for the utility they bring (e.g. CC, AoE tagging, poison to hurt healing).

1. Due to them both playing Rangers, one of them can swap to a BM based build that makes their pet nigh unkillable while the other maintains conditions and this problem of not being behind the opponent…not a problem.

2. The thought that you need to maximize both Marksmanship and Wilderness Survival is wrong. Condition Duration does NOT increase the damage done by the condition, the condition merely does the same damage over a longer period of time., which is efficient if you’re unable to apply the conditions quickly enough, but is otherwise pointless.

3. Too many people assume that every Ranger is looking for a WvW or Dungeon build where they are running with other people applying conditions simultaneously and thus lowering the viability of a Condition build. And as stated in 1, even though they are running 2 Rangers, the whole “one of them swapping to a BM based build” would also fix this issue for them.

A condition build works just fine in PvE