Guild Wars 2

Hey Rangers. It’s been a while since I put out any kind of video. Since I got a new video card along with Shadowplay working, I’m constantly recording up to 10 minutes of footage at all times.

So…the last 4 nights I have been running around WvW using the new Defender Runes along with a melee build that I run in tPvP sometimes.

0/0/6/6/2 – Double Melee Defender
The idea behind this build is to utilize the Intel Sigils on your GS for burst damage. Poison uptime from Sigil and Sw/D will help keep your opponents healing at a minimum. Toughness is at 3.8k so people can beat on you while you laugh at them.

Double melee helps you take advantage of the 2 Leap Finishers in your Healing Spring. Also, with the Greatsword you can get 2 Leap finishers out of Swoop if you position yourself just right. That’s 3 leap finishers totaling 4K total HP burst healing. Add the 4K burst proc from the Defender Runes and 5.5K burst heal from Healing Spring to chain a total of 13.5K total health burst and you’ll see why I’m able to stay alive for so long. You’ll see me take advantage of that in the video.

Also, Bowl of Cactus Soup is Account Bound and you have to make yourself. Combine the soup with SotW and you get a steady 178 HP per second. Not sure what the Regen is ticking for but I’m sure the combined healing is around 360-380 per second or so.

Take note I’m using my daughters keyboard as my other one is broken. So I don’t have my utility keybinds setup. The keys are too small that’s why I’m clicking my utilities.

I hope you guys enjoy. Feedback is appreciated.

Since you only have 2 Survival skills, have you thought about moving 4 points from Nature Magic to Beastmastery? This gives you access to Natural Healing or Invigorating Bond which will provide you with more healing.

It will also provide you with a meaner pet ;-)

Why’d you decide on Cavalier gear? With the build you linked, you’re only sporting a 4% critical chance, so I feel like that ferocity from your Cavalier is being wasted.

Have you thought about running this with Knight’s ? You’ll have the same large amount of Toughness, but Precision instead of Ferocity. Precision is fine without Ferocity, but Ferocity is not fine without Precision.

I used to run the 0/0/6/2/6 with full-Knight / Cleric / Apothecary / Dire (depending on mood) back in the day, so it is quite refreshing seeing a Sword+X/Greatsword Ranger.

Kudos to you

Ok, watching now since I believe I actually spoke to you the other night after a scuffle in EBG.

Good map awareness. Avoided several Rapid Fire barrages. Not afraid to reset fight and re-engage when out numbered. You are also an above average player After actually running into you in EBG and seeing how you can get away I’d say you could play in your skivvies and do perfectly fine.

I was going to say something about uptick/scale players but you know, they are there and if left unattended can still do harm. Heck, if I run into a group they are my first target also. Oddly enough that upscale Guardian seem to hold his own. I was expecting him to go down quick but for whatever reason he didn’t.

Good video though and thanks for sharing.

Great video,

I was also wondering about the ferocity / 200% crit damage, and figure that’s purely for the Int Sigil on your greatsword, 100% crit on next 3 attacks would make sense.

Were you running a different gear mix in the first part of the video compared to the 2nd? It looked like 23,299 HP in the first part and around 20,854 HP in the second part? I would imagine with the part1 stats you may do better fighting against a condition type build.

Anyway, really good play video and gameplay by you.

Hi, liked the video, great music ^^
I thnik there is much place to minmax your gear with zerk/kinght, being with 200% crit damage and almost 0 crit chance doesnt make alot of sense. Also taking 2 in marksmanship(from beastmastery) gives more value from keenedges or signet mastery. Play aroud with horn, might be better for this build, extra swiftnees/fury and blast for HS. Dont be afraid to actually activate SOTW.

Leowan.4389:

Great video,

I was also wondering about the ferocity / 200% crit damage, and figure that’s purely for the Int Sigil on your greatsword, 100% crit on next 3 attacks would make sense.

Were you running a different gear mix in the first part of the video compared to the 2nd? It looked like 23,299 HP in the first part and around 20,854 HP in the second part? I would imagine with the part1 stats you may do better fighting against a condition type build.

Anyway, really good play video and gameplay by you.

Regarding health – could be guard stack buff from WvW rank/points. I know that is what I placed mine in first but didn’t pay attention to his food/buffs.

Sebrent.3625:

Since you only have 2 Survival skills, have you thought about moving 4 points from Nature Magic to Beastmastery? This gives you access to Natural Healing or Invigorating Bond which will provide you with more healing.

It will also provide you with a meaner pet ;-)

I have! I used to run that in GASM’s 1v1 server, but with 0/0/2/6/6 taking IB and NH. Even though it was a legal ranger build and didn’t break any of the server rules, people still called it a “cheese build”.

Sebrent.3625:

Why’d you decide on Cavalier gear? With the build you linked, you’re only sporting a 4% critical chance, so I feel like that ferocity from your Cavalier is being wasted.

Have you thought about running this with Knight’s ? You’ll have the same large amount of Toughness, but Precision instead of Ferocity. Precision is fine without Ferocity, but Ferocity is not fine without Precision.

I used to run the 0/0/6/2/6 with full-Knight / Cleric / Apothecary / Dire (depending on mood) back in the day, so it is quite refreshing seeing a Sword+X/Greatsword Ranger.

Kudos to you

I thought about it but wasn’t too concerned about which did more damage. I am getting Fury from Entangle and LR, so 24% is good enough for me. 5 Guard stacks pushes it to 26-27% I think. But maybe Knights does in fact do more damage. Thanks for the feedback.

Crapgame.6519:

Ok, watching now since I believe I actually spoke to you the other night after a scuffle in EBG.

Good map awareness. Avoided several Rapid Fire barrages. Not afraid to reset fight and re-engage when out numbered. You are also an above average player After actually running into you in EBG and seeing how you can get away I’d say you could play in your skivvies and do perfectly fine.

Hey Johnny, I do remember you. When I first saw you and that other group I though oh great, a Ranger running Trapper runes. They are hard to fight running double melee because of the traps. But they gave up chasing me and it was just us. Nice meeting you on the battlefield.
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The health difference was from running out of the Soup cause it needs to be crafted. I was using Mango Pie which adds 70 Vitality.

@Lugh, I do need to use SotW more often for stomps. Good advice.

I love how the ranger at the end sat on you to show off his mad 4v1 skills, definitely a pro player right there.

Puck.9612:

I love how the ranger at the end sat on you to show off his mad 4v1 skills, definitely a pro player right there.

You know what Puck, I thought exactly the same thing.

It is hit or miss when I party up with players out on the field to say they did a good job or it was fun, regardless if I lose or win. That is actually what I did to the OP here just the other night. Then you see these guys who sit or drop siege like they did something wonderful.

The joke is actually on them though because it took them a while to take him out when he could have disengaged at anytime and moved along. I’m not even going to go into he was at a disadvantage from the get two by 2.5 (two 80’s, and a uptick) They should have maned up and either went about his way or partied and said good job.

I guess people struggle when people are just better or have luck on their side.

Side note Arrow – you mentioned shadowplay. Very nice feature with Nvidia GPU’s. I actually run it also but let it go at 20 minutes – manually stop via hot key. I love the rolling window feature and I don’t notice any lag at all.

How are you editing. I have a bunch but so far will need to pre-process since Microsoft Movie Maker doesn’t support mp4.

Crapgame.6519:

Side note Arrow – you mentioned shadowplay. Very nice feature with Nvidia GPU’s. I actually run it also but let it go at 20 minutes – manually stop via hot key. I love the rolling window feature and I don’t notice any lag at all.

How are you editing. I have a bunch but so far will need to pre-process since Microsoft Movie Maker doesn’t support mp4.

I wonder if you need an update to Windows Movie Maker. That’s what I’m using and I just downloaded it last night. It shouldn’t make a difference but I’m on Windows 8.1. I did drag and drop the files onto the timeline and it took forever to post process them but it did finally work.

Thanks Arrow – will try again.

dat sustain tho. Have you tried offhand warhorn slanger? Seems like it would give a lot to this build, extra 2k heal, dps boost to you and your pet, especially when you’re in sword and you have no crit chance.

Puck.9612:

I love how the ranger at the end sat on you to show off his mad 4v1 skills, definitely a pro player right there.

Ikr, met so many guild small team like that. I killed 1 or 2 of them some times, and then they charged me with 5 and finally got me, and jump around/ dancing/ troll cancel stomping me like they’re so pro on owning me with 4~5.

ItIsFinished.9462:

I thought about it but wasn’t too concerned about which did more damage. I am getting Fury from Entangle and LR, so 24% is good enough for me. 5 Guard stacks pushes it to 26-27% I think. But maybe Knights does in fact do more damage. Thanks for the feedback.

It ’s still bad considered. And all the surplus of toughness is quiet useless since the effectiveness is not exponential. A good ranger can already kite 2 or 3 lower players without such a tank build wich have finally the same limit (last fight). That being said, thanks for sharing.

Without to betray the spirit of the build you could take a look for something like this :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YnMqQLL2vC+CCVLGwSoa3ABQB8aHcXCRwFXwkD-TVDHABFcQAI4IAAwDAQOdDDpUoIlF9pSQUKBPUNFjUih9+DBqKRAXAgAAHAzPfyX+glXe5lXe5We5lXe5lLFQXDtA-w

Some more precision, better access to fury (more logical i would say), perma switness (you really need this) and perma regen, possibly even more than your actual HP/sec (well, need to test) and both benefit to your pets, more cleans (you can clean a second condi burst outside the heal) and wayyy enough toughness to fight any 1 vs 2, the stab will go while swapping elite or the signet if you want, depending of the type of build you’ll face.

*Guard stacks doesn’t affect precision.

law.9410:

dat sustain tho. Have you tried offhand warhorn slanger? Seems like it would give a lot to this build, extra 2k heal, dps boost to you and your pet, especially when you’re in sword and you have no crit chance.

Great suggestion. Although. I haven’t tried it yet. I have this pet peeve that whenever I run Torch, Axe Offhand or Warhorn, I have to take Off-Hand training. Otherwise they are just bleh without it and I don’t want to give up Martial Mastery.

I will definitely give it a try though and see how it goes.

borya.2964:

ItIsFinished.9462:

I thought about it but wasn’t too concerned about which did more damage. I am getting Fury from Entangle and LR, so 24% is good enough for me. 5 Guard stacks pushes it to 26-27% I think. But maybe Knights does in fact do more damage. Thanks for the feedback.

It ’s still bad considered. And all the surplus of toughness is quiet useless since the effectiveness is not exponential. A good ranger can already kite 2 or 3 lower players without such a tank build wich have finally the same limit (last fight). That being said, thanks for sharing.

Without to betray the spirit of the build you could take a look for something like this :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YnMqQLL2vC+CCVLGwSoa3ABQB8aHcXCRwFXwkD-TVDHABFcQAI4IAAwDAQOdDDpUoIlF9pSQUKBPUNFjUih9+DBqKRAXAgAAHAzPfyX+glXe5lXe5We5lXe5lLFQXDtA-w

Some more precision, better access to fury (more logical i would say), perma switness (you really need this) and perma regen, possibly even more than your actual HP/sec (well, need to test) and both benefit to your pets, more cleans (you can clean a second condi burst outside the heal) and wayyy enough toughness to fight any 1 vs 2, the stab will go while swapping elite or the signet if you want, depending of the type of build you’ll face.

I appreciate your suggestions. I don’t disagree regarding having more precision. It makes sense since I have so much Ferocity.

With that being said, I went ahead and tested the same build on the training Golems in sPvP using Knight’s ammy and Cavalier ammy. The Golems died at the same rate. Actually, with the Knights ammy, it was hit and miss on whether my Maul was going to crit. When it did crit, it was only 2k damage(Knights ammy) rather than a guaranteed 3.5k damage(Cavalier ammy) using Intel Sigil.

One thing regarding the build you linked is the change to RNG Condi removal. It’s imperative for my build to have Evasive Purity slotted. It’s crazy to rely on Empathic Bond’s RNG to remove the Poison condition before your burst heals. Remember you are capable of getting 13.5k in total burst healing. If you have Poison on you, that 13.5k burst heal turns into 6.75k burst heals, which is a lot of lost healing potential. Also the Swiftness from Guard is nice, but the Regen from it is redundant since I get Regen from my Runes and Healing Spring. My birds give me Swiftness and Sword Leap, Swoop and Lightning Reflexes allow me to get away from almost every situation.

borya.2964:

*Guard stacks doesn’t affect precision.

Yeah, I said Guard stacks but I meant Borderland Bloodlust buff which gives up to 60 Precision.

Thanks for your suggestions.

ItIsFinished.9462:

One thing regarding the build you linked is the change to RNG Condi removal. It’s imperative for my build to have Evasive Purity slotted. It’s crazy to rely on Empathic Bond’s RNG to remove the Poison condition before your burst heals. Remember you are capable of getting 13.5k in total burst healing. If you have Poison on you, that 13.5k burst heal turns into 6.75k burst heals, which is a lot of lost healing potential. Also the Swiftness from Guard is nice, but the Regen from it is redundant since I get Regen from my Runes and Healing Spring. My birds give me Swiftness and Sword Leap, Swoop and Lightning Reflexes allow me to get away from almost every situation.

You have a good point for evasive purity indeed, keep it. Like someone said above you could try the warhorn. When i said perma swiftness, it’s perma swiftness, inside and outside of combat (comdined with GS, sword and LR, it’s kittened crazy) wich profit also to your pets who get protection in the same time, since they can die realy fast. And i don’t see why perma regen is redundant, you talked about “178 HP per second”. It’s nothing, I’m a Guard user and i have already 148 HP/sec without healing power, signet or food.

i’m not sure i understand your choice of armor. having no precision, high ferocity doesn’t really serve a place(even with an intelligence sigil). on that note, your particular choice of gear is a toughness main, when you have a trait designed to give you power based on your vitality – wouldn’t it make more sense to choose a vitality set(sentinel)? moreover, being that you have so many signets(and such fragile pets), i think you may benefit more from 2 points into marksmanship for the signet mastery

i might also suggest a torment sigil to punish those who try to kite you

i like your use of healing spring here, having two leaps must make it very effective even in a solo environment

my changes:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjMq0yaFLOsQ1aAChaVA0OGKhUwdSMDbdBTOA-TVCHABFcQAI4IAAwDAQIlfEq+DUKBxe/B40NEwFAIAwBw8zn8lPApAYSoF-w

also, grats on the random hoelbrak rune you get during the video at 10:20~

If I didn’t already have 3 sets of armor and weapons I’d probably try and give either of these builds/armor sets a try. I know I could do sPvP but I’m more of a outside kind of guy who likes the wide open wilderness of WvW

Nice. I’ll have to try this out.

Crapgame.6519:

If I didn’t already have 3 sets of armor and weapons I’d probably try and give either of these builds/armor sets a try. I know I could do sPvP but I’m more of a outside kind of guy who likes the wide open wilderness of WvW

That build doesn’t really work in sPvP.

Tried out a long time ago =)
That build is good for dueling, but does not bring any objectives to the table. You’ll simply get outshined.
Regarding the WvW – almost everyone goes for mobility and utility. Of course a build that connects (as the only build actually) those two with dueling capabilities will have the upper hand in there. But in sPvP where everyone goes for contesting – that’s another story.

Crapgame.6519:

Ok, watching now since I believe I actually spoke to you the other night after a scuffle in EBG.

Good map awareness. Avoided several Rapid Fire barrages. Not afraid to reset fight and re-engage when out numbered. You are also an above average player After actually running into you in EBG and seeing how you can get away I’d say you could play in your skivvies and do perfectly fine.

I was going to say something about uptick/scale players but you know, they are there and if left unattended can still do harm. Heck, if I run into a group they are my first target also. Oddly enough that upscale Guardian seem to hold his own. I was expecting him to go down quick but for whatever reason he didn’t.

Good video though and thanks for sharing.

What????? No offense but he is not an above average player! He is one of the best rangers I know! so he is really good…

StickerHappy.8052:

Crapgame.6519:

Ok, watching now since I believe I actually spoke to you the other night after a scuffle in EBG.

Good map awareness. Avoided several Rapid Fire barrages. Not afraid to reset fight and re-engage when out numbered. You are also an above average player After actually running into you in EBG and seeing how you can get away I’d say you could play in your skivvies and do perfectly fine.

I was going to say something about uptick/scale players but you know, they are there and if left unattended can still do harm. Heck, if I run into a group they are my first target also. Oddly enough that upscale Guardian seem to hold his own. I was expecting him to go down quick but for whatever reason he didn’t.

Good video though and thanks for sharing.

What????? No offense but he is not an above average player! He is one of the best rangers I know! so he is really good…

Lol! He is a very good player and I didn’t mean anything negative by it. Like I said we actually meet up in EBG not knowing who he was. I was intrigued by his ability to escape a few people harassing him. So I decided to follow once they gave up to see what it was all about After getting killed I partied up to jibber jabber a bit and say he did a good job

I’ve been running a variation of this for a little bit after the big thread we had here about the defender runes. Changes are having a little over 3000 armor and 30% crit chance, muddy terrain over signet of stone in most situations. I run dagger or warhorn offhand depending on the mood, although I think I’m starting to prefer warhorn even without offhand mastery.

It’s great that rangers have so many good roaming builds right now, although I don’t really know which are most effective anymore.

This build and its variants, survival sotf s/t a/d, trapper ranger, power glassbow, power trapper, and to a slightly lesser extent condigen builds all work really well.

Have you tried running this in Cleric’s? The 0/0/6/2/6 dual melee build I had mentioned before was one I sometimes ran in Cleric. No precision nor ferocity, but now you have both toughness and healing (though less Toughness than Knight’s).

I’d actually played around with that build at separates times in full Cleric’s, full Soldier’s, and full Knight’s … was never quite sure which was most ideal so would love to see you try if you’re ever inclined.

Soldier’s can be nice if you’re converting Vitality to Power though 7% will only get you so much. You’ll have more overall power running Soldier’s with that trait than you will Sentinel.

I don’t think I want to even imagine running a double melee with cleric’s gear. Yes, you can live forever if you want to, but I’m not sure you’ll ever actually kill anything.

@Deepfreeze:
That was what I had thought as well, but I tried it anyways and was quite surprised :-p

One of the beauties of a Ranger is that their damage from their pet is unaffected by their gear. So, my pet doesn’t care I’m in Cleric’s, but it is very happy that I invested 30 points in Beastmastery for it to enjoy all those extra stats (power, precision, ferocity, etc.).

Add to that that my 1H Sword helps me stick to a target like white on rice AND cripples the target (easier for pet to land hits) AND gives my already beefy pet some Might … it’s not a toothless build :-)

Deepfreeze.1048:

I don’t think I want to even imagine running a double melee with cleric’s gear. Yes, you can live forever if you want to, but I’m not sure you’ll ever actually kill anything.

Well this is a ranger forum but I’ll say on my Guardian when I run Clerics that is what happens You live forever, last one killed, never focused because, well, no one can kill you, so you leave the killing to your party members You throw out dodge heals and other things like skittles falling from the sky – lol.

I didn’t even know rangers could do something similar or the sustain/healing format until I read this thread. Then went about doing more reading and learned a few things

A substantial amount of healing per second works wonderfully when you have so many blocks/evades.

• Regeneration: 130 + (0.125 * Healing Power) per sec.
• Troll Unguent: 850 +(0.12 * Healing Power) per sec. … 38.4% up-time (10s every 25s + 1s cast)
• Signet of the Wild: wiki doesn’t have the Healing Power scaling, but I believe I get around 120 or 130 per sec with this.
• Natural Healing : 133 (or 177 w/ Compassion Training) per 3 sec = 44.3 (or 59) per sec.

Invigorating Bond is a possible alternative to Natural Healing. We didn’t have that back when I was running around in Cleric’s.

• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Invigorating_Bond

Look at your pet’s damage capabilities on a crippled/chilled/immobilized target … it’s mean. Much better than what a Guardian in Cleric is going to do :-p

It gets away from the theme of this thread’s all-melee Ranger, but Apothecary is also nice. Condition Rangers don’t need precision/ferocity.