Guild Wars 2

I play a ranger and mostly go for a tanking/survival build leaving the dmg to the cats. This has been fun to play on overland PvE and WvW but there is that problem with dungeons.

In dungeons its not so worth it to stack so much survivability as most of the dmg come on big hits that you can time your dodges well after some practice. But the pet dont dodge, ever…

So yea, there is tons of topics with possible solutions for this (pet mimics your dodges are my fav. so far, aoe immuity would be too OP and easy), but while nothing comes out I want to try to change my build and playstile to be “effective” on those dungeon runs.

I thought maybe going full archery and staying at max range with a ranged or buffing pet might work. If I go with 30(I,VIII,XII)/30(II,V,X)/x/x/x (last 10 pts are optional – more dodges, quickness on pet swap, etc). Using spiders and/or devourers for debuffs and/or combo fields. The healing spring water field can be used to remove conditions from allies on the frontlines or as a back-up spot for people in need of a heal (BYOB mind you, bring-your-own-blast combo.)

My doubt, before going on full zerker gear for those dungeon runs is, can this work?
Is the pet “safer” at his distance (900) in most fights?
Can a full zerker archer, survive those “Stack” fights using his GS and a moa pet for heals?
Would warriors be mean to me?

Honestly, as I have almost every class level 80 and fully exotic, I simply don’t bother with Rangers in dungeons… Much like I don’t bother with Thieves in dungeons. I just take out my Warrior or Guardian.

That said, back when I didn’t have those two, or for those times I’m just feeling “kitten it, let’s do this”, I prefer to use my signature “AD carry/WvW” build. All in ranged damage. 30/30/5/0/5 with 70% berserkers (all trinkets and weapons, little bit of soldiers and knights in armour just to prevent one shots in case of an error), shortbow and longbow. The pet is just an addendum. Most of the time it sits in passive mode so it doesn’t die, so I can use their F2 and switch them for quickness.

If you do wanna have your pet in, I recommend tanky pets – bear types and, since the buff, drakes hold themselves somewhat decently for pets.

lLobo.7960:

My doubt, before going on full zerker gear for those dungeon runs is, can this work?
Is the pet “safer” at his distance (900) in most fights?

Full zerker gear works, ranged pets are just a tad safer, but to be honest they seem to like facetanking anyway.

lLobo.7960:

Can a full zerker archer, survive those “Stack” fights using his GS and a moa pet for heals?

I do that all the time in a zerk-archery build, if you know when to dodge it’s all good.

lLobo.7960:

Would warriors be mean to me?

They’d always be mean, so no difference really.

I find success with it…Can’t say if you will

What ProxyDamage said …

Stopped bringing my ranger into dungeons a few months ago, I do dungeons only on my guardian now.

And when I did use my ranger in dungeons it was with a 30/30/10/0/0 build with p/v/t armour and runes of melandru. All weapons were berserker, trinkets were a mix of knight and valkyrie. For pets, I used 2 devourers on passive mode

My ranger uses full zerk gear.
10/10/5/15/30 build.
healing spring, most of the time signet of stone and this with regen + sick’em.
greatsword / sword + warhorn. Bows sucks, period.
Jaguar + river drake most of the time, jaguar as main pet.

I’ve done with this setup all paths on coe, hotw, se p1, p3, cof p1 p2, some arah p3, molten, twilight all paths and ascalon all paths. Pet died maybe 3 times (molten mostly)
Jaguar for bosses, on trash you use drake because of drakes cleave and aoe. Main weapon is a greatsword, you switch to a sword when nothing targets you.
I don’t have problem with pet staying alive. Changed ai with pets going on boss “back” works greatly, 30 in bm + at least 3 sources of regen makes even cat quite hard to kill.
You need to only really watch your jaguar. Drake is just a tank, he need to stand in aoe for ages to really die.

I stick with a trap build for dungeons, mostly because it guarantees that I’m useful. They hit the trap, they get hit with an AoE. God knows how much I saved people’s lives during the Molten Facility runs.

That is the question.

Generally speaking, I don’t think you’re going to experience a drastic difference in pet survivability with a Ranged pet versus a Melee pet.

In an odd sort of way Melee or Ranged Pet vs. Cleave kind of balances itself out in the end. A Ranged pet naturally gets surprisingly close to the action compared to it’s potential range limit, and unlike the recent addition to melee pets they don’t have any AI to tell them to get out of harm’s way when being cleaved.

Melee or Ranged Pet vs. AOE still favors Ranged a bit, but not as much as you might think. AOE in this game operates on bullet hell shooter logic; it’s not so much about dodging a small dangerous area in a wide expanse of safe area, it’s a wide expanse of dangerous area and you have to find the small bit of safe area or dodge it entirely. So a ranged pet isn’t much safer from AOE, because nowhere is safe from AOE.

So I kind of think you should choose your pets to supplement your build or to suit the specific fight, and don’t take ranged or melee on the basis of general pet survivability.

I think you’re alright when it comes to Stacking, though. Part of the logic of Stacking is that somebody is always nearby to resurrect you. So while it’s standard assumption in dungeons that your own survivability is on your shoulders, that tactic in particular doesn’t require much of it.