Guild Wars 2

I’m having a hard time deciding on which stats to get for my Ranger.

I like the shortbow, but with the current bleed implementation (stack limit), condition builds don’t seem to excel in PvE nor WvW. Positioning to apply bleeds with the shortbow is also very important, maybe annoyingly so. You can’t always flank people.

Some Rangers seem to choose the typical glass cannon gear (power, precision, crit dmg) in combination with bleed on crit and some (but not much) condition damage. Is this viable using a shortbow? Are bleeds even useful without much extra cond dmg?

What about survivability? I’m thinking about a build with crits and toughness, but without condition damage.

In short: Is the usability of a shortbow dependent on condition damage? Is a non-glass-cannon, non-condition-damage build possible?

My build might be what you are looking for. (Pve/wvw)

I do 10 / 30 / 30

for my skills I use spike trap/quickening zypher/poison trap then either entangle or rampage as one.

Weapon set, Shortbow and Axe/Warhorn (mainly for the 15 sec buff/eagle attack)

I am going to use the TA Explore gear (nightmare set, which is +condition duration and condition damage).

Then I am probably going to stack power precision crit damage rings/amulet/earring. or a mix of both.

That way my survibility will be high because of traps, my aoe damage will be good, my burst will be good (with quickening zypher), and am not TOO reliable on either bleeds or traps because it is a mix of both.

I typed this up really fast so sorry for the unorginization. Let me know what you think or if you want to know anything else.

i’ve been crit shortbow since a few days after release.

30/30/5/0/5

sb/lb (barrage is insane), piercing arrows/eagle eye (sometimes swap for sigil active), 30% pet crit, bow cd’s and trap durations. pretty much our glass cannon build.

i’ve stopped using melee pets in pve altogether. with gear, devourers auto attack extremely hard and often. they also stack might faster while under rampage as one.

30/25/5/5/5 for me.
I have like 50 % criti rate and almost 100 criti damage( glass cannon build)
I gain 2 sec of quickness every time I swap pet in combat so with QZ , I can have 4 sec of quickness if I time nicely . But it’s hard to watch pets Health sometimes in Zerg fights . So I use the moa( red 1 I think lol) that grant me def buff with f2. And keep pets next to me on most Zerg fights.

if you like condition, try spirit ranger build. WS-30 NM-30 BM-10.

for traits, make the spirit have twice health, better chance applying buff, and follow you

for utility skills take the spirit that give burning, better damage, and protection… entangle for elite…

use shortbow….