Dungeon build suggestions
IMO get the Carrion CoF set. Gives Power, Malice, and Vitality, all stats a rangers would need in most builds.
I get 24k Health, 2.2k Armor, 2.7 Attack, 35% Crit
What weapons are you using? Carrions is good for shortbow and axe/torch.
If you’re in melee though, you are probably better getting a Soldier set like AC.
I run with about ~2.5k Armor, 2.9k Attack, 21k Health, 25% Crit
(edited by ChillyChinaman.6057)
The general rule of thumb with survivability in dungeons is that everybody has to do it to some degree, but where you draw the line is personal.
This is not only because much of defense is active so how much you need depends on your individual skillset, but also because as time goes on you learn about the fights and need less to begin with. That is to say; your first time fighting subject alpha you’re going to end up kissing the floor, the fifth time you’ll be able to avoid and heal the damage you receive, and sometimes you come across people who don’t even bother moving out of the massive red circles because they can just time the dodge like clockwork and don’t end up taking any damage at all.
Before you go about making any concrete plans, give yourself some time to figure out where you stand on your survivability needs. Grab yourself some disposable level 80 armor off the trading post, and get a taste of each dungeon. Stat-wise while you’re feeling things out, you can grab armor that’s ultimately similar to what you’re after and keep adding survivability until you no longer think your teammates are rolling their eyes about plucking you off the floor for the upteeth time, or you can build tanky and start venturing off into other areas when you find yourself the last man standing in hilariously dangerous situations. I’d recommend the latter, given that you don’t seem to have your heart set on anything.
As for builds, the only ones I seem to hear about are Traps/Conditions builds, Beastmaster builds, and Tanky builds. You might want to wait and see what’s happening on the Sniper build front now that Opening Strike is working.
(edited by Vox Hollow.2736)
I personally don’t like Soldiers gear. Rangers have relatively high base HP pool already. That extra Vit is always nice, but I recommend Rabid gear (Cond Dmg/Precision/Toughness) if you’re going Cond Dmg build or Knights (Toughness/Precision/Power) if you’re going a direct damage build.
Also, you have to learn to be able to adapt to different situations. I carry a sword/warhorn/axe/shortbow/longbow in my inventory. I switch between my utilites of LR/QZ/Bleed Utility/Cond Removal Signet/Muddy Terrain. I also constantly swap between my 3 elites.
If you have any questions about specific dungeons though, feel free to ask!
What Vox Hollow^ said, active defense, especially in the form of dodging is invaluable.
As Rangers we have access to the 5pt trait that gives us +50% endurance regen. Take advantage of the additional dodges and resulting invulnerability it gives. It completely nullifies all damage you’d take. I use it for moving through AoEs and skipping through the wind on the Cliffside Fractal.
Don’t get carrion, especially if you’re not going traps. I made that mistake and had to shell out a lot of gold to buy new gear.
Go berserker for pieces that you want offensive stats on, then get Power/vit/toughness (soldier’s) or Power/Vit/Crit Damage (Valkyrie) for defensive pieces.
It sounds strange to go for precision and crit damage as a class that can easily deal a lot of condition damage, but crit damage is a very powerful stat in this game, so don’t underestimate it.
As for build, you have a good bit of flexibility, but if you don’t have much preference (outside of avoiding trap builds, which is fine), I would suggest something that starts like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQFAVjEVV2RWKWsWCgli9CsVgTOjDB4LA;TEAjMA
Invest the last 10 points as you want. Some good choices are putting them in BM for a faster pet swap and more pet survival or put them in WS for protection on dodge roll and something like Vigorous Renewal for some extra dodges (also gives vigor to people in your healing spring).
There are several good choices for the 20 point skirmishing trait, so go with what you like there.
Your secondary weapon also doesn’t matter too much, so pick what you like best for that.
Ok I see you went 25 in skirmishing, what exactly does deal more damage when flanking mean? Especially if enemy is coming at you? Also, thanks everyone who has posted with help, I’m def taking everyone’s advice and trying to put the puzzle together!
Here’s the definition of flanking if that’s what you mean:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flanking
But you obviously won’t have 100% uptime on this 10% damage increase. However, anytime you’re using the short bow, you’ll want to try to flank as much as possible. This just rewards you even more.
Wow I always forget wiki,lol. Thanks for all the help!
Here’s the definition of flanking if that’s what you mean:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flanking
But you obviously won’t have 100% uptime on this 10% damage increase. However, anytime you’re using the short bow, you’ll want to try to flank as much as possible. This just rewards you even more.
If you don’t have flanking up, you’re either in an odd case (can’t get to boss side/rear) or you’re being attacked by the boss, in which case… you should be focused on not dying first.
Here’s the definition of flanking if that’s what you mean:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flanking
But you obviously won’t have 100% uptime on this 10% damage increase. However, anytime you’re using the short bow, you’ll want to try to flank as much as possible. This just rewards you even more.
If you don’t have flanking up, you’re either in an odd case (can’t get to boss side/rear) or you’re being attacked by the boss, in which case… you should be focused on not dying first.
I almost always do the pulls when I run dungeons since I run with a close group of friends and it does make it a bit tougher to flank at times since I often start with aggro, but even in those cases, I can still get to where I can do a good bit of damage while flanking. If I can’t flank my target, then I’ll at least flank another target that I’m shooting through (piercing arrows ftw).
Here’s the definition of flanking if that’s what you mean:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flanking
But you obviously won’t have 100% uptime on this 10% damage increase. However, anytime you’re using the short bow, you’ll want to try to flank as much as possible. This just rewards you even more.
If you don’t have flanking up, you’re either in an odd case (can’t get to boss side/rear) or you’re being attacked by the boss, in which case… you should be focused on not dying first.
I almost always do the pulls when I run dungeons since I run with a close group of friends and it does make it a bit tougher to flank at times since I often start with aggro, but even in those cases, I can still get to where I can do a good bit of damage while flanking. If I can’t flank my target, then I’ll at least flank another target that I’m shooting through (piercing arrows ftw).
Point still stands – flanking is usually off when dps is not your main focus, and easy to get when it is.