Guild Wars 2

Hello lovers! (and friends /awkward silence)

I am thinking of, someday, making an ascended set for my ranger. I run a hybrid spirits/damage build for dungeons and am really enjoying playing support. Plus, spirits are friggin adorable and I love my walking forest.

What is a good armor set that compliments using spirits defensively? I’m a little confused as to how spirits work in terms of stats. I know Stone Spirit and Storm Spirit both give boons while Frost Spirit and Sun Spirit put on conditions. My utilities are USUALLY Water Spirit, Stone Spirit (for protection), Frost Spirit (bonus damage), third slot as needed depending on the situation, and finally Spirit of Nature. So what’s a good set that compliments a hybrid build and plays to the strengths Spirits provide?

Thank you! =D

Allaraina.8614:

Hello lovers! (and friends /awkward silence)

I am thinking of, someday, making an ascended set for my ranger. I run a hybrid spirits/damage build for dungeons and am really enjoying playing support. Plus, spirits are friggin adorable and I love my walking forest.

What is a good armor set that compliments using spirits defensively? I’m a little confused as to how spirits work in terms of stats. I know Stone Spirit and Storm Spirit both give boons while Frost Spirit and Sun Spirit put on conditions. My utilities are USUALLY Water Spirit, Stone Spirit (for protection), Frost Spirit (bonus damage), third slot as needed depending on the situation, and finally Spirit of Nature. So what’s a good set that compliments a hybrid build and plays to the strengths Spirits provide?

Thank you! =D

Alot of rangers run bunker when using spirits, so Soldiers, Knights, or Cavalier set should serve you well. Since you’ll have to spec down nature magic tree which is considered a vital aspect of the ranger bunker so you might as well grab something that complements that.

Never ever use cleric’s as the benefit is simply too marginal to be of use with our water spirit, and the other spirits are not really affected that much by gear.

Hmm, you could maybe try one like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMIQNAV8Yn8ISzK2pC+qARLGAWFEs9ITJx09o0TJ9kX9oVA-zECB4MCyk0AkHQ0HwpQFRjtMsIasKZER1KlYAA-w

It’s much more condi focused, but the carrion gear gives it the ability to put out some direct damage as well. You could probably play around with the specific gear stats to find something more to your taste.

Traveler runes are there mostly for the speed because we can’t take signet of the hunt. However, you might not need that sort of movement speed in PvE all the time, so other rune sets might be more optimal (i.e. rune of the pack, rune of scavenging, rune of the adventure).

This takes defensive utilities in the wilderness survival tree since there is no stun break or condi clears on the build. However, you can always swap those around if you don’t feel you need them in PvE (i.e. take offhand training and martial training).

Marksmanship gives you some vuln for more direct damage and the extra bleeds from keen edge.

I usually recommend using the storm and stone spirit. The former can do a nice little AoE burst and help keeps you mobile (especially if you decide not to use traveler runes), and the stone one gives you the nice protection.

In a more condi-oriented build like this one, I usually use the sun spirit for the third spirit since it provides extra condition damage through burning. The blind can also be somewhat useful. In a more power-oriented build you might want to use the frost spirit as the third one since it will allow you to deal bonus direct damage (frost spirit doesn’t apply condis, just does extra damage).

I just put whatever in for the sigils, those can probably be whatever you prefer. I just chose random pets, although the condi clears from the bear might be handy since the condi clear on this build is limited.

You can also go for rabid gear instead of carrion in order to get a higher precision stat. This opens up possibilities for things like sigil of earth on the shortbow, and the 10 from marksmanship can be put into skirmishing instead so you get the bleed on crit trait.

The torch is also another good possibility instead of the dagger, and might actually work out better in PvE since you can keep mobs in your fire field.

Anyways, I’m pretty sure a more experienced ranger could suggest something better overall. I don’t think the water spirit is a very good skill though, I’d suggest only really bringing that one if you’re with a group and using either troll unguent or healing spring if you’re by yourself.

EDIT: Yes, I’m still using the old trait numbers.

If you are doing it for Dungeons then the answer is always Zerker.

Possibly swap some pieces out for Knights/Soldier if you aren’t speed running and want some extra survivbility.

I’ve been playing around with some of these – thank you so much everyone for your thoughtful responses! I actually cannot stand playing ranger zerk, so I’m avoiding that completely. I love my spirits!

Still experimenting but I’m thinking one of those survival + condition armor sets so that I can jump easily between dungeons and WvW. So far looking at carrion because condi is nice in wvw but the power + vit should be generally all-around helpful.

<3<3 everyone!