Guild Wars 2

I figure its about time I post the build I’m running. Note that I actually use mango pie and generally not compote, I just couldn’t find it in the list.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAR8XnIV0FciFaBxaZAp9QTsEM5VYWcP8vOJEz4oPeFB-jECB4hERzUFJjAJQUBwpmFRjtyqIasqZER16kYCB0fLA-w

Build purpose: Solo roaming, and group roaming via. Swapping out two traits to support use of spirits or swapping to Healing Spring for water fields. When I built this, I wanted something that, when played skillfully, could give me the ability to fight from 2-3 opponents simultaneously(or more in some scenarios) and if possible, to take them down if I drastically outskilled them, while maintaining the ability to frequently escape combat from unfavorable situations or simply flee entirely if the chance of victory is not to be found.

My build is heavy on tankiness, but offers good enough burst potential when dual drake setups are utilized and well timed(especially pet swaps and used in unison with good interrupt timing.) to take down many foes when played well. As often as possible(which is not always possible) hit bash should be used when anticipating the drake’s tail sweep as the next attack.

The pros: Two-on demand condi removal skills on a 12s and 48s cooldown respectively. Very tanky, Extremely mobile and adept at escaping combat and bloodthirsty chasing roaming groups, Large pool of permanent/near permanent buffs that are all shared with your pet thanks to Nature Magic, medium burst potential, powerful mid-range F2s. Drakes have cleaving attacks which makes sidestepping their attacks slightly more difficult, and axe pull can frequently pull your enemies into the pet’s major attacks when used correctly. Rampage as one offers for some very effective temporary powerups while simultaneously offering a great amount of stability. Forced drop target via stealth and permanent protection and regeneration on already respectfully tough pets means that your pet is MUCH LESS prone to dying compared to many other builds.

The cons: Low base crit rate, damage is not as high as many would like it and lacks the damage levels necessary to defeat other tanky builds on other classes when they are well played, pet attacks can be easily avoided by attentive and skilled players, drake f2 can be difficult to control and easily misfires due to clashes with pet movement commands, Corrupt boons and boon tampering skills are a direct and effective counter to the build.

Particularly noteworthy bad class/build match ups:

Skilled Kiter bomb/nade engis
Above average skill – extremely skilled thieves. Despite the CC and cripple you lack a truly good transition from CC to burst to take them down fast enough when they are played right.
Certain 75%-tanky/fully tanky warriors of any skill level. Be prepared to encounter warriors that can both out tank you AND out damage and Out stun you.. all simultaneously. You can put up a very good fight against them, but you will not be able to to survive unless you kite them, during which periods they will regenerate all the damage difference of what you needed to have a chance to kill them. You will either cause a “This fight won’t end” but as the pressured player who has the harder time in active combat, or die to them if you pursue them with full aggression.

Special notes:

Heal setup: You’ll notice I roll with Heal as One in solo roaming. If you wonder why, it’s for two reasons. One is because I have vigor on heal, so the more often I cast a heal, the more dodges I get. Two is that it’s the only truly good heal in this build. Healing Spring effectiveness is low because already having permanent regeneration means that you get almost nothing out of its regeneration portion, which puts it in raw healing numbers vastly inferior to Heal as One over time, so much so IMO that the combos in the field won’t be able to cover the difference. Furthermore even though the field is good on healing spring, you won’t always be able to get all your combos in a hostile environment like WvW.. sometimes the field will be loaded with aoe circles, sometimes you will be knocked out of it, sometimes you are fleeing enemies and only have the time for 1 leap, etc.

Weaknesses of the ranger class: You WILL be held back against kiting foes due solely to the pet. It’s one thing if someone avoids your attacks, but all too often you will have periods where you catch up the distance easily enough, land 4-5 attacks and your pet hasn’t even caught up yet, and is still on top of that susceptible to sidesteps. Despite that it is not as though you have no chance against such enemies.. although that does happen when they are skilled enough. The periods in which you bring your full power to bear against them will be very short, but with good timed stuns you can make your damage count against any glassy/semi-glassy kiter.

More special notes:

Retaliation. You may not realize this, but on this build the retaliation on your axe 5 is an EXTREMELY powerful mechanic when used right. Because it is shared with your pet, you can pull it into you and do double retaliation against whatever is attacking you if the attacks are of a cleaving or radius(AoE) nature. Any cleaving/radius attack with a high number of low damage-medium damage hits you will be able to effectively retaliate between 2000-5000+ while taking minimal damage. When you see a guardian start swirling with their greatsword for example, you should try to immediately hit your axe 5 and use that against them pile on the retaliation. Countless guardians I have fought have not realized the threat and killed themselves upon retaliation. That goes just as much for the similar skills on warrior and other classes. Anything with a high hit number that is able to hit both you and your pet is has the potential to be used as a retaliation cannon, and this tactic will often catch even skilled and very skilled players off guard.

Increasing your hit ratio on Drake F2. Many people are well aware that your drakes have the potential to hit them for upwards of 5k if all of the f2 lands. Skilled players will keep an eye on the drake and try to dodge that, in addition to the tail sweep. The best way to make use of drakes against such players is to use yourself as a lure and get the player attacking you in such a way that you are in their front and the drake is hitting them from behind. When the drake is behind your enemy, THAT is when you should fire your f2 so they will be less capable of seeing it coming and consequently have a harder time dodging the whole attack.

You might want to try healing spring. You got 2 leap skills (swoop / hornet sting) and 2 pets with explosion finisher ( tail sweep). That’s a nice burst heal, with condi cleaner.