Guild Wars 2

Alright, before i begin i want to say that i haven’t necessarily found any OP ranger builds, nor am i saying that rangers are the best class ever…far from it really. For the most part, I’m not really going to present any information that you couldn’t come up with enough time and effort put into playing ranger. (I really would like to see this read by a dev…a post from a dev would just make all of this worth it)

(What makes me a master ranger)
They say putting 10k hours into something makes you master it, well thats a load of crap honestly…but i believe i have put that much time into the ranger class as i have almost been playing him exclusively for over a year now. (That is unless you want to count my lv 30 ele and my new lv 21 warrior).
Furthermore i have come up with 3 builds that i find viable, and effective. A condition trap build, a super tank meat shield boontastic support build (make everyone love you for dungeons/wvw/FOTM 40+) and my GS zerker/knights build. Ill be posting each below here in a sec.

1st build, Trap ranger
(uses)
I find this build useful for AOE damage since were lacking in that department. I ran this a lot and quite frankly i would still run it since it is really quite good. This might be the easiest to play and the most fun to play for rangers out there. Great for dungeons, and PvE.

+survivalist build
+high condition damage
+Provides a low cool down fire AOE

-Traps are avoidable
-provides little for your team besides fields
-No upfront burst damage

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoKuOwyuC1OAsKIY7BlZKJ7hhM+4JL4JNA-jExA59ioxWwKiGrSmIqWdjJFwkKjA-w

OPTIONS
Feel free to switch out the S/wh for an Ax/Torch , this build is really loose and you can explore with it. (which is why its a good all around build. Also feel free to take out toughness for vitality if your feeling too squishy. You can have up to 23k health and do a crap ton of condition damage.
PLAYING TIPS
keep your distance, SPAM EAGLE F2! (DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR PET!) SB is your main damage source along with traps, so basically spam your 1/2, use your 3 to evade often instead of actually evading, 4 to cripple, 5 to stun, easy easy easy. Your sword will get you out of trouble, just switch to it and 2 out of there. Ill get into the sword mechanics later, but for all these builds i assume you have auto target OFF so you can use your sword 2 (and Gs3) for movement.
(any heal is optional)

Build 2, Support Tank ranger (EVERYBODY LOVE U <3)
(uses)
I gata say, this makes people like rangers…almost like they love guards but what ya gana do. Obviously this is a spirit build, and pretty well has 0 damage coming from you…but boosts your parties damage by basically 30-40% (Now THAT’S OP…sort of….) You can use this in WvW no problem in an organized group, or zerg but i don’t recommend it as you may not get very much rewards.
+Godly in groups
+keep people up forever, along with yourself
+you can soak up damage, surprisingly enough
+you can provide healing if you want, or don’t and soak damage and people still love you : D

-Little/no damage coming from you, per say
-Guardians can do your job, better if their good, worse if their not good.
-Spirits … well… are easy to kill…clumsy…basically the AI on them is not good…ill get into that in a sec

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhODbkoqqurysC0OA0UkplPFxSr7Rpke6Bre0A-jUBBIjCy5cFRjtquIasKZER1qbYSBMpyI-w

OPTIONS
I think the first thing you will notice is that you are doing very little damage in your group, but you might also be laughing alot as everything that hits you will tickle you. With a whopping 26k-28k health pool, you SHOULD never go down…at least go down first. This build is DESIGNED TO SOAK DAMAGE and provide help to your team, basically nothing else falls on your shoulders.

TIPS
Keep your spirits up, activate your F2 on wolf and fern hounds when you need a fear and a heal. Quick WvW tip, if you go down, use your #2 AOE stun, use your wolf Fear (pray to god they don’t have stability on) and you can rez off this. Your the front line, don’t be afraid to get right on in there. Use your Spirit of nature to self rez by pressing the button right before you go down.

I’m not going to lie, going to set a high skill-cap on this build. Its hard to play, hard to get used to, and very hard to do right. Really effective when done right, and can be abused in pvp if you have 2 of these rangers just to eat damage.

TLDR, your gana have to practice with this build.

Lastly, The Zerker/Soldiers GS hybrid build.

Woh Woh Woh…i know you just read Zerker in that title, and yes that means it has zerker armor…but before you start nailing me to the cross…hear me out…i did say these were 3 VIABLE builds….and i meant it.

This build is my personal favorite…mainly because its interchangeable…and it does all jobs of the ranger, but not the extent of say a tank support ranger or as much condition damage as a trap ranger, but it is my build and i have found it really rather effective all around.

10k crits on maul : )
+You can heal, you can survive, you can dish out damage
+Can easily solo champs/WvW camps Ect.
+High mobility

-You cant take as much damage as a tank, or do as much condition damage as a condi ranger
-Kind of squishy if your caught off guard (By that i mean if your AFK)
-People might hate you because you have zerkers on… (i ran out of Cons…)

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJATRjEVF2JW+Vs2Bi1j9s/B1KkJ2jDxoFdyGeSD-jUzAYrARigICAJPhssXUTfgVyioxqWwUlo6TE1bgVxQeDl1ogyI-w

(uses)
You can use this build for anything, Works in fotm 40+, no complaints, Every dungeon, (Arah + the new path in TA) WvW, PvP even, though that build ill post another day.

OPTIONS
Note that i left no room for you to mess around with. (I left things out like Sigils and weapon choices on the other builds) This is my build, and i find it very effective. This build is expensive. (Divinity ruins…) You can replace them with traveler or ranger runes.
Why celestial? …. must you ask? they give you a good amount of everything, (me like)

TIPS
your not the first one in, you fit into the mid-line in a fight, if not the back line. You have a new stealth on #3, use it often…moderately low CD, you have a knock back on 4. You have a leap on GS3 and a block on GS4. Use the block to knock away 1 melee person, or to deflect everything for 4 seconds…Lets be honest, i don’t use this in melee range unless its a 1v1.

A good combo would be to hit them with an opening LB4 followed up with a LB2 for stacks of vulnerability. Follow up by switching to great-sword and hit them with a #3, then a #5 daze followed by a finishing maul. Most of the time this combo is 20k + damage no factoring in dodges, blocks toughness ect.

NOW FOR THE CRITICISM! (DEVS….FOR THE LOVE OF RANGERS READ THIS!)
Maybe post so i know someone cares i took the time to post this (other than the 50 people that asked me for my builds… <3 u guys)

We all know about the Pet Ai (That i really dont find too annoying) The root on the sword auto attack, the lack of damage on LB1 Blah Blah Blah, not gana talk about it…as far as I’m concerned this keeps rangers in check. I mean imagne if our Pet AI actually was OP…we could use Sik em, with a feline and watch a Blackgate Zerg run in fear from our Kitty >: D And it still manages to kill everyone in the zerg…Fun stuff.

So anyway, here is what i would like to see…..

GS
1 Does not do enough damage, it should do 1.5x the damage currently, or give it a faster swing. Why? because it wont makes us over powder because of the lack of attack speed on that GS swing.
2 maul should be MAUL!!!! i mean it does enough damage but…remember that combo…ill be honest 50% o f the time Maul does not land. To fix this problem…add an AOE cone? Make the cone cripple? or bleed? or both? Nerf the damage slightly to adjust for buff? Use your imagination : )
3 Good as is, maybe give it a knockdown at the end of the swoop? Too Op? well its my opinion…would be so awesome with a knockdown…
4 Somehow remove the root when you knock a Mesmer clone (lol) away…or better yet…no root at all
5 More range plz ty, NEXT

Sword
1 This attack is fancy, but functionality is … not good. Make it a more free attack like the Warrior sword 1 (i tested this) throw in a bit of dodges at the end (Like the GS) or no dodges and provide a more effective cripple
2 Good as is, if i could tweak it it would be leaping toward the target first, then backing off (Srsly why not?)
3 Keep it, i like it as is

AX

1 Good, more damage…10% increase would help, or better yet give it a bleed like SB at a 50% rate
2 The spread is ineffective, so unless you can blast them in the face your not going to do much damage with it. Why not make this attack bounce with the multiple axes where they hit? Like an auto attack x5 … nerf the bleed if you need to balance it.
3 We have a chill here…Ok…why do i get the feeling this is an afterthought? I mean it works but its kinda thrown in here…

Warhorn

GOOOOOOOOOOD

Torch

BAAAAD lol jk unless your going for condition damage, no use, unless you want to be creative and keep a torch on hand, put down a fire AOE, switch to warhorn for a AOE might blast, then do it.

-Case in point, good for conditions, and support

Dagger

Very conditional, a duelist may want this, but good as is

SB

1 Why nerf the range on this…well ok 1500 was too much but 900 is too little…re buff it…id like to see a bleed every hit
2 more venom damage .. i mean its a spread ….
3 good
4 good
5 longer daze

LB

1 not enough damage, remove the scaling or make scaling favorable
2 … 2 dodges and they take no damage…i say this skill needs an over haul…make the ability hold charges, and fire as fast as it does normally, but only when you press #2
3 I LOVE STEALTH : D …1 second longer plox? : )
4 I LOVE KNOCKING PEOPLE TO THEIR DEATH >: D Stand near the edge, go on…i dare you
5 … just replace this with an arrow cart #3, just for the same amount of time and ill be happy…allow us to move as we cast…50% reduction in speed

Conclusion, i have carpel tunnel, but i really hope you A net takes these tweaks into consideration. Some are long shots, but hey a guy can dream. This was an overall what i want build, if i get enough requests, ill do a super in death trait rework on what i would like to see.

Thank you for your time
GeoZ, Legendary GS ranger of Kaining

Reserved : )

With the rise of dogged march / hoelbrak rune / lemongrass warriors in wvw, why not invest in marksmanship for condition duration on your traps build? For me, I have found greater returns when going deep into marksmanship these days as opposed to deep into wilderness survival.

Cool, used to have a signet build like your #3. Moved to a survival based build after much spvp. Fought enough stunlock warriors and guardians to consider hide in plain site with lighting reflexes a must, with generous helpings of muddy terrain. It still works fine in wvw but has the slick moves I need to get out when I need to.

Wow,
What can I say, I have run all three of these builds. Pretty much exact traits.

Trapper was my first and favorite build, great for pve dungeons and mobs, still a good go to roaming build.

Spirits, I had my run with spirits and its my best dueling build. I don’t use anymore outside of Spvp.

Build number 3 is my favorite right now as well. I did tweak it to go 30/25/15 instead of the extra 5 in skrimish.

This build is fantastic, In some situations, instead of long bow i use Axe/WH for group support. I easily get 75% crit chance with spotter and fury. I crit often and LOVE that I am still able to bring something reliable to the group with spotter. when I am in a situation for Long bow, the build is flexible and I sometimes switch spotter out for Piercing arrows when the situation calls for it. #3 has a lot of flexibility and I also recommend.

rpfohr.7048:

Wow,
What can I say, I have run all three of these builds. Pretty much exact traits.

Trapper was my first and favorite build, great for pve dungeons and mobs, still a good go to roaming build.

Spirits, I had my run with spirits and its my best dueling build. I don’t use anymore outside of Spvp.

Build number 3 is my favorite right now as well. I did tweak it to go 30/25/15 instead of the extra 5 in skrimish.

This build is fantastic, In some situations, instead of long bow i use Axe/WH for group support. I easily get 75% crit chance with spotter and fury. I crit often and LOVE that I am still able to bring something reliable to the group with spotter. when I am in a situation for Long bow, the build is flexible and I sometimes switch spotter out for Piercing arrows when the situation calls for it. #3 has a lot of flexibility and I also recommend.

Glad you liked the builds and that you’ve had the same experience. Though i wanted to take 25 points into skirmishing as well, i figured that id rather have the extra 20% CD reduction on GS instead of the 10% flanking damage. If you math it out, the 20% CD actually gives you more damage in the long run.

Chopps.5047:

With the rise of dogged march / hoelbrak rune / lemongrass warriors in wvw, why not invest in marksmanship for condition duration on your traps build? For me, I have found greater returns when going deep into marksmanship these days as opposed to deep into wilderness survival.

Well the spirit build is only for support really…i toyed alot with the runes and eventually figured out that investing into power helps more than just being unable to deal any damage what so ever. So i guess i kinda lied, you do a little damage, lol. It comes down to personal preference in the end.

Wow, well said. I pretty much agree with everything here. Wise words from this man. None of these suggestions feel OP bias towards our own profession and would be balanced imo.