Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

Most of you probably know that I have a great fondness for zerker ranger. With 6/6/2/0/0 as my build of choice. Coming into the trait changes I was confident I would be running 6/6/0/0/6. That being said, I thought this without giving any heed of other profession’s trait changes. Having spent several days amidst the chaos, checking out what people are running, what other classes trait changes have been, going to see why that grenade barrage just one shot me, etc. I have been sporadic with my builds, always trying to figure out where could ranger fit in this puzzle? There has to be a small hole somewhere…

As a consequence I have had a lot of failures and nothing really seemed to feel right. Until I came up with this (PRE 7/7):
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1wEFx-e2gEF-0;9V2E;1Zab;0236237046;4INW6U;1jzyvjzyva0M

Like all things, there are still some tweaks to be made, whether or not I prefer LR or Protect Me has yet to be determined, as well as rune choice, and amulet.

The rest of it is pretty straight forward. Since the patch, healing spring is our strongest option imo. It can be precast as a trap so you can get the condi clear when you need it + with quick draw you can get anywhere from 2 – 4 leaps through it. Without counting regen thats 1k less that TU and potentially 2k higher than TU with the added benefits of condi clear and regen. Spike trap is great, it is a no fear peel that you can use for your self. You can lay it down in a team fight so when that thief does decide to jump on you they get launched… The CD is pretty long but since you can precast it its not that bad. Moreover, you can use the trap to chain you CC’s together if you are in a 1 v 1, this has allowed me to go toe to toe with d/d eles for awhile which is something that wasn’t possible before patch.

For traits:
Nature magic, I really only picked this because of evasive purity. I often feel that when I die its because I got hit with a blind and missed my hunter’s shot or point blank shot and am consequently screwed. The prot and weakness on hit is a nice plus though.

As for Beastmastery, the blind and the taunt can be used on the F2 and then you can skill cancel the F2. That means a blind every 5s if you want it + 3 CCs for your dogs. If you don’t want to cancel it then the taunt just leads right into a fear or immobilize that really helps string together CC. The best part is that the taunt is pretty much instant! Finally we have an on demand CC! It’s super clutch for interrupts, peels, etc.

Anyway, just thought I’d share my thoughts since I have been silent for awhile. Let me know what you guys think.

POST 7/7: CURRENT: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;2FFx-e2gEV-0;9V2E;1Z_b;0236157046;4INW6U;1jzyvjzyva0K

Either with troll unguent or HS… Rampage and Shared anguish are needed because mesmers are stronger than thieves atm so evasive purity (to cleanse blinds) isn’t needed as much but those stunbreaks/stab for the insta cast no tell CC from daze mantra is needed. Debating whether or not spike trap is worth it with all the mesmers running around.

Interesting that with all the complaining about traps being worthless they’ve found their way into the preferred build of the only competitive ranger. I’ll definitely give this set up a go, it looks interesting.

I love that Healing Spring functions like a trap like we were hoping a while back. Looking at this build it’s your only source of condition removal beyond Evasive Purity, which is pretty cool. Healing Spring was always such a strong condition cleanse that I wonder if it might be too good now that it can be pre-cast.

Have you thought about using other pets with Beastly Warden at all? The way you described it dogs have amazing synergy with this trait, but I was wondering if you thought we were gonna be looking at another “all dog” meta.

Ehecatl.9172:

Interesting that with all the complaining about traps being worthless they’ve found their way into the preferred build of the only competitive ranger.

Traps are a pooh. Spike trap is friggen awesome. Subtle but important distinction.

You need melee pets with Beastly Warden… so no more spiders if you want to use it. It pulls the target towards the pet when they are right next to it… that makes it really easy for them to dodge river drake (since you can’t really kite them away from it) that means you either lose taunt or possibly mess up your drake burst. You could time it right but that sounds icky. Cats have leap skills so its a little counter intuitive to have them run up to the target and point blank leap. That leaves moas, dogs, birds, and bears. This is PvP, so no bears. Moa… could be good and I’ll try it later, I think moas have a lot of potential and taunt could be just what they need to give them that little extra bit of utility to be worthwhile. Birds… albeit good damage, the survivability is too low for my taste and the only “utility” is some swiftness that I don’t really want. That leaves dogs, the pets with the most utility… now with an added on demand CC! It’s just too good. I can’t really imagine giving up dogs, especially on a DPS power build.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;2FFx-r2gEF-0;9V2E;1Ya_;0257237147;4IN06U;1jzyvjzyv5m

This is what I am running. I also found traverler runes to be most optimal. And I also realized the same thing about spike trap. I wish the direct damage portion would matter a bit but I also like that additional MoC source. However my build seems less defensive to direct damage but a bit more defensive to condis.

I didn’t really test it that much but I just hate having to count the ICD of beastly warden. I refuse running it until they add a freaking icon for it.

I wouldn’t use travelers with clarion bond. Stow pet -> leap out of spawn -> fall damage -> swap pets = swiftness!

Refined toxins is an interesting choice, one I had not considered. I can see its allure nonetheless.

I also like the boon duration with QZ though. 35% (with nature magic) is just what I need for 8 sec quickness. Also helps with those other boons. Also GS leap does no longer work with swiftness but DOES get enhanced by those 25%.

Like your answer Eura, was waiting for someone do make use of the HS+quickdraw + swoop combo. You managed to get a solid balance build for 1v1 with most of our best support skills and traits for team fights(spotter/HS/aoe weaknees/aoe blind/ 2 AOE cc/ allies aid) pair with mbility from traveler and 100% regen uptime from traited HS.
I’m impressed, waiting to c you in action.

I have to ask, though – why Entangle over RaO (or however it’s called now)? I’ve always been an advocate for Entangle, but since that RaO has become a Shout, I can’t give up on it.

I find it really interesting that you aren’t running with Wilderness Survival. Actually, after Talgo and I (and others as well) came to the conclusion of Remorseless/Wilderness Knowledge/Protective Ward (6/0/6/6/0) utilizing Clarion with Windborne notes and pretty much maintaining perma fury/swiftness through traits alone for both yourself and your team within range, I was almost positive you’d come to a similar conclusion, with either that, or with 6/0/6/0/6, 0/6/6/0/6, or 0/6/6/6/0 for power.

I understand the choice of Skirmishing though, it’s a variant with a few changes (Windborne Notes to Evasive Purity) that I’ve personally run (0/6/6/6/0), and outside of the fact that Healing Spring is bugged and not healing the pet (which once it’s fixed will make it my go to PvP choice), I completely understand the utility choices.

I guess I just think that Wilderness Survival is too invaluable to pass up, even ignoring the cleansing traits. Outside from the lowest tier selection where either Oakheart or Expertise Training (depending on whether or not Beastly Warden is being run), the other traits are just too amazing to not bring to a build imo. Refined Toxins and Shared Anguish are both great trait choices, protection on dodge, and built in Bark Skin, before we ever even talk about cleansing.

In your particular build, I’d probably take Wilderness Survival before Nature Magic every time, but that could just be me.

Besides that I think that you and I have just built for different things lol. I was looking more for team fight potential while having the ability to small skirmish/duel, and I get a very “primarily duely” vibe from your build, with the potential to help out in team fights.

You’re the one who makes things “meta” though, not me lol.

For me, my choice was… I want to help out in a team fight. The way I did that was through pet CC, my own damage, and condi clear with SoR. I still have some team condi clear with HS potentially. Sure, clarions bond is good, I love MoC, and the GMs are ok but I think the utility of quickdraw is just too good. That extra mobility with swoop, the nearly back to back stealth ability, and others just make it too good for me to give up. Personally, I think WS is one of the worst traitlines that we have. I just don’t really like the traits. I don’t need the extra condi clear or the fury from WS. Sure, refined toxins is cool but I’m not gonna be at 90% hp for long (retal) and i’m not the only one throwing out poison.

I’d almost argue that WS is more of a dueling traitline than the others I have chosen. You guys are giving me things to think about. I am in no way the end all be all of ranger builds, I just thought I would share something that I was having a good time with and I enjoyed playing because it felt effective.

Rym.1469:

I have to ask, though – why Entangle over RaO (or however it’s called now)? I’ve always been an advocate for Entangle, but since that RaO has become a Shout, I can’t give up on it.

My guss is that entangle is more team fight orianted, when timed right it can realy change the outcome of the fight. Also notice he didnt take the shout trait.

Rym.1469:

I have to ask, though – why Entangle over RaO (or however it’s called now)? I’ve always been an advocate for Entangle, but since that RaO has become a Shout, I can’t give up on it.

What I took away from all those stability skills is that they ironically just help your biggest nemesis (thief) by letting them steal it. Any CC is super useful for power ranger both offensively and defensively. Eura doesn’t even run remorseless so it really would come down just to the stability which gets ripped easy and maybe fury which you can get cheaper.

Eurantien.4632:

For me, my choice was… I want to help out in a team fight. The way I did that was through pet CC, my own damage, and condi clear with SoR. I still have some team condi clear with HS potentially. Sure, clarions bond is good, I love MoC, and the GMs are ok but I think the utility of quickdraw is just too good. That extra mobility with swoop, the nearly back to back stealth ability, and others just make it too good for me to give up. Personally, I think WS is one of the worst traitlines that we have. I just don’t really like the traits. I don’t need the extra condi clear or the fury from WS. Sure, refined toxins is cool but I’m not gonna be at 90% hp for long (retal) and i’m not the only one throwing out poison.

I’d almost argue that WS is more of a dueling traitline than the others I have chosen. You guys are giving me things to think about. I am in no way the end all be all of ranger builds, I just thought I would share something that I was having a good time with and I enjoyed playing because it felt effective.

Well I personally have a harder time giving up Shared Anguish and usually pick it over Refined Toxins lol, I just meant to make the point that both were good.

Right now I haven’t really seen anybody come up with any wrong builds, the traits kind of all just mesh really well together. I’m pretty positive though that whatever build any of us end up running is going to revolve entirely around where the other classes builds land, and the shaves ANet will be doing over the course of the next few weeks (burning will probably get hit, as well mesmer, either in the burst or the steath category).

It’s hard for me to justify remorseless because it sounds near impossible to really optimize.. that being said when it works IT WORK! Turning around and getting a 7k maul with a 7k crippling strike from your dog is awesome. I’ll give it a shot with RaO, I hadn’t considered that combo… maybe it will just flow together with my combos perfectly? Mainly I use entangle because it can help lock a target down and that means a kill. It can also make people waste CDs. Given the strength of rampage, if they have a lot of warriors I will swap in RaO.

You need to consider that refined toxins will pretty much always do work due to also applying to every newly swapped in pet.

For me I was especially glad about the traverlers runes for my specific build because of the 35% boon duration for all that protection you get out of WS (on dodge) and NM (that GM does some work imo). Then there is the fact that they made quickness a boon and QZ better in general and also all that small fury gains.

I guess what makes Euras build better in the right hands is skilled usage of taunt and reduced key skill cooldowns like hunters shot. I can see that being very relevant in the right hands. But personally I like MoC too much and also Remorseless adds a lot of additional damage and vulnerability (aka damage).

Eurantien.4632:

It’s hard for me to justify remorseless because it sounds near impossible to really optimize.. that being said when it works IT WORK! Turning around and getting a 7k maul with a 7k crippling strike from your dog is awesome. I’ll give it a shot with RaO, I hadn’t considered that combo… maybe it will just flow together with my combos perfectly? Mainly I use entangle because it can help lock a target down and that means a kill. It can also make people waste CDs. Given the strength of rampage, if they have a lot of warriors I will swap in RaO.

Well even for that first hit remorseless does some work with a mini MoC and vulnerability. If you run a lot of survival skills you also can plan rather well with it (remember that entangle wont proc opening strikes so you can entangle into maul). I also tried versions with skirmishing where I have it after every weapon swap. Just like quick draw you have to make it work with your playstyle I guess.

Interesting, I’ve not even considered the new spike trap so far.
To latch onto what jcbroe said, in my eyes, out of all our traitlines, the two that synergize best are Nature Magic and Wilderness Survival. Reduced damage during regen and a pretty frequent protection boon + weakness to add onto Bark Skin and easily perma fury sounds pretty decent at least on paper.
Marksmanship I think is too situational for organized PvP and then there is that ever so awkward clarion bond (talk about “synergy”, lets latch a 30 second skill onto a 20 second skill and call it synergy!!)
After that it is really just a question of Skirmishing or Beastmastery. Taunt or Quick draw etc and I am very hopeful that team comps could even be built around a taunt ranger.

I somewhat agree that for organized pvp marksmanship is propably the line with the least consistent gain. I will keep monitoring how spike trap performs and if I should drop the MoC synergy.

Ideally I would take moment of clarity. I just think there is too much utility from quickdraw, evasive purity, and beastly warden at the moment that I can’t give up in order to stay “viable” in the current “meta”

My ideas forr changes :
1) Rune of the Pack over traveler (with this rune you can even take the marauder amulet and have almost the same offensive stats than you have now) with 55% swiftness druration, rune bonus(4) and the new tail wind(9 sec base), you have swiftess almost always. And ofc more fury for you and your team.

2) Like you saied moas, make use of “lingering magic” – its 100% boon duration bonus to pets ATM. red moa -prema fury to all, blue moa – 8sec protection to all), moas also survive better in team fights and you can consider to take natural regeneration(moas heal) or wilting strike over 2H training(underwhelming trait if you dont go for remorsless build).

@Lugh,

Do to the amount of times I cancel the F2 I don’t think I would be making as efficient use of wilting strike as it triggers at the end of the F2. Sooo might as well go for some reduced cool downs on the great sword

ouch, zerker amulet. I don’t see this being manageable in certain situations. condi cleanses?

I do like that youre going for a lot of CC though. I guess the major problem I see here is how easily you can get 1-shot once SoS is down.

mistsim.2748:

ouch, zerker amulet. I don’t see this being effective or viable, no matter how good you are. good luck with it. I cant get past the amulet choice to offer any other ideas.

Actually zerker amulet seems to be the best choice. The survivability is based around your skills like hunters shot or GS stuff anyway and that health gain is thus not worth the damage loss.

^ I thought about it a bit more, and edited my response. when it works, it really works. but due to limited condi cleansing and dependence on SoS and landing a Hunter’s Shot to live, im not convinced.

the thing to consider about Remorseless is that if you can optimize it, the damage is quite consistent. you just need lots of sources of fury, and you need to rotate through them accurately. i use this http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1Y_b;0257157246;4LB06U;1bRm8bRm84C and it’s strong in just about every situation. you can even handle a lot of 1v1’s and contest points for a while. i just don’t feel the need to go zerker, or even marauder because im so happy with the damage output. so naturally, i’ll bolster the survivability with a different ammy choice.

btw Eura, Protect Me is extremely good but you have to have a bear out to use it. i would go brown bear for the 2 condi cleanse (it’s instant),the innate Endure Pain, and overall resilience for Protect Me.

also when myself and a few others said traps were strong, we were ridiculed. so maybe now that Eura is recommending them to a limited degree, other rangers can learn to think outside the box a little bit or at least copy someone else’s example.

Out of curiosity, does the spike trap seem to peel off more than one attacker at a time? Like if a thief and mesmer combo would try to jump you and both teleport at almost the same time but one slightly after the other, would it interrupt both of them or just the first to get there?

If they are both within the trap radius then yes. I would say this is likely because the trap has a slight cast time, so if they were to both port at you near the same time (which they would want to) they would both get launched.

@Mistism

If pressured by like 3 people I would agree a drake or bear would be better than a wolf for protect me. With just 1 or 2 people, the amount of HP a wolf has is often enough to last that LITTLE bit of extra time for your cds to be ready so you can get out. It’s riskier than bear or drake, sure but what you get out of the pet otherwise is worth it imo.

I tried using 6/6/0/0/6 with remoreseless and cavalier. It hit hard, but it just didn’t have that inherent survivability. So i dropped marksmanship for NM and moved to a more DPS oriented amulet. Which has been serving me a lot better. I will keep looking at remorseless though, it is quite strong.

mistsim.2748:

ouch, zerker amulet. I don’t see this being manageable in certain situations. condi cleanses?

I do like that youre going for a lot of CC though. I guess the major problem I see here is how easily you can get 1-shot once SoS is down.

I’m surprised you are surprised! He’s always run zerk and we’re now in a burst meta!

Looks like a nice, active build. Great utility and none of it is passive (except for fire/air of course).

I was expecting to see spike trap end up in a build like this. I just don’t know why they didn’t add similar utility to all traps.

I might try similar runes/traits in double melee build just for lulz. I think QuickDraw and the extra cc makes that significantly stronger than what it was.

EURANTIEN WILL DELIVER US TO THE PROMISE LAND! PRAISE BE TO EURA!

Sube Dai.8496:

I’m surprised you are surprised! He’s always run zerk and we’re now in a burst meta!

sure, but the zerker ranger was never effective competitively. post patch, we have new toys but at 17k hp and no toughness you can get 1-shot by other zerkers now.

Eurantien.4632:

It’s hard for me to justify remorseless because it sounds near impossible to really optimize.. that being said when it works IT WORK! Turning around and getting a 7k maul with a 7k crippling strike from your dog is awesome. I’ll give it a shot with RaO, I hadn’t considered that combo… maybe it will just flow together with my combos perfectly? Mainly I use entangle because it can help lock a target down and that means a kill. It can also make people waste CDs. Given the strength of rampage, if they have a lot of warriors I will swap in RaO.

I was playing around a style of Valkyrie build (but I didn’t give it much of an attention) and I based it solely on those High Maul damage spikes. I was thinking of running it a full melee build with disruptive properties.

Remorseless works amazing with Wilderness Knowledge. And if I managed to land my Muddy Terrain, I could just as well use path of scars for huge numbers – use entangle – swap and maul.

But I didn’t like it that really much since much of the opportunities are situational, but the possibility of that synergy is something you might try to consider. It was, sadly, not my play-style.

^bah i just cant convince anyone with words alone. Remorseless isn’t situational! if you have like 4 instances of fury and two-handed training, youre good to go =)

Eurantien.4632:

I tried using 6/6/0/0/6 with remoreseless and cavalier. It hit hard, but it just didn’t have that inherent survivability. So i dropped marksmanship for NM and moved to a more DPS oriented amulet. Which has been serving me a lot better. I will keep looking at remorseless though, it is quite strong.

cavalier is just no good right now =( we need a ton of HP, otherwise condis will destroy us in a few seconds. with remorseless, i think valk is the best way to go. perhaps the only way.

oh, the other thing is…WK is probably needed as well. so we are pigeon-holed in thatw way. but it works out because QZ is our most efficient utility right now. and it can go offensive or defensive.

mistsim.2748:

^bah i just cant convince anyone with words alone. Remorseless isn’t situational! if you have like 4 instances of fury and two-handed training, youre good to go =)

What I meant is rather that if I wasn’t able to land muddy terrain – I rarely hit Path of Scars. Which means a lot of wasted potential if I didn’t.

But if I managed to land that MT > PoS > Swap > Maul > Entangle > Swoop > Hilt Bash > Maul, sequence
I was pretty much good to call it a game.

The problem was that the build was all about this and couldn’t do anything else. That was the problem I’m talking about. All the access to fury was weapon swaps (very cool and reliable – yet – very easy to read and counter) and basically muddy terrain. Everyone expects Entangle theses days.

It’s not like Remorseless is situational. It’s just that ways to obtain it basically shout for counter-play by skilled players.

but u cant really counterplay Remorseless because u can obtain fury whenever you want. /done derailing Eura’s thread

What about SB/GS, I was thinking more of a celestial build, with shouts + survival skills, or just shouts and rune of the mad king. Pressure with mixed damage and more sustain. Sort of like this: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-JV-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1_Zb;0147056246;4LJ06U;1oHAhoHAh0M

Pets could be dogs as well, probably better if they are.

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Interesting, I’ve not even considered the new spike trap so far.
To latch onto what jcbroe said, in my eyes, out of all our traitlines, the two that synergize best are Nature Magic and Wilderness Survival. Reduced damage during regen and a pretty frequent protection boon + weakness to add onto Bark Skin and easily perma fury sounds pretty decent at least on paper.
Marksmanship I think is too situational for organized PvP and then there is that ever so awkward clarion bond (talk about “synergy”, lets latch a 30 second skill onto a 20 second skill and call it synergy!!)
After that it is really just a question of Skirmishing or Beastmastery. Taunt or Quick draw etc and I am very hopeful that team comps could even be built around a taunt ranger.

I just want to echo this. I think that the Wilderness Survival/Nature Magic combination is super strong and I’m really unwilling to pass it up on most builds (the only two builds I don’t think I take it are 0/6/6/0/6 and 6/0/6/0/6).

Also that yes, Marksmanship, ESPECIALLY without Remorseless, is one of the weaker link traitlines, and pretty much gets carried by Remorseless (with Moment of Clarity being a nice pickup), at least in PvP (I personally like Lead the Wind and Brutal Seals for my WvW build with Clarion of course, but WvW is a completely different beast).

My personal preference at this point would be Quickdraw over Beastly Warden though, even though it wouldn’t even be a dispute between the power of the two, because I think Beastly Warden is the more powerful effect, but Quickdraw, on the other hand, seems less situational, aka more applicable to more situations.

Either way, I don’t see either option carrying the build to a point of being “meta” alone, but I can see how a team could play around a ranger with Beastly Warden for organized play, and honestly even though the traitline isn’t the greatest, I think the only other build that brings any sort of team utility would have to be a Clarion Bond/Windborne Notes for maintaining perma-fury on damage dealers, which could also be built around.

Besides that, everything else starts to come off as more dueling oriented than team oriented, and at that point we have to go back and examine them, again, against the other builds that end up meta to see where our builds lie versus theirs.

Particularly, while Eles, warriors, and thieves are pretty settled in already, engis are in flux state awaiting grenadier changes and build testing, guardians are in flux state as well, and mesmers are currently strong but are almost definitely awaiting how hard the nerfbat hits them before the meta ends up entirely setting, whereas necros are stronger but they are where they were; a team has to be built around having a necro on it, or else the necro plays downstate all game.

Been waiting to hear from Eura!
My issue now is strangely not thieves but mez now. So I am concerned that a spike trap is easily negated by a izerker especially once they know u play traps. I have been playing with with 6/0/6/0/6 for piercing and reduced lb recharge . I find that I am camping mostly in lb anyway to make full use of QuickDraw. This allows me to take SOS , QZ and LR for invulnerable and shared anguish for 3 stun breaks. A well placed tuant plus f2 from dogs should be able to take care of nearby thieves and piecing allows me to land rf and knock backs on mez.
Anyway let me know your thoughts on mez!

Haha, it is true that QD is good, but the whole Skirmishing line is bad in itself.

Wilderness, NM and BM for power builds all the way baby.

Ehecatl.9172:

Interesting that with all the complaining about traps being worthless they’ve found their way into the preferred build of the only competitive ranger.

People are complaining about them in WvW where your opponents aren’t forced to run onto a small node. Very different situation.

jcbroe.4329:

Right now I haven’t really seen anybody come up with any wrong builds, the traits kind of all just mesh really well together. I’m pretty positive though that whatever build any of us end up running is going to revolve entirely around where the other classes builds land, and the shaves ANet will be doing over the course of the next few weeks (burning will probably get hit, as well mesmer, either in the burst or the steath category).

I love this quote. And the “wrong” builds that are possible are so bad no one in their right mind would run them.

As a Ranger power spec the no1 concern of mine is how to not die in 1s. The only reliable way to accomplish that is by taking WS and NM together. The third line is debatable but as far as PvP goes, nothing beats evasive purity, protective ward, companions defense and bark skin with the cleansing offered by WS.

Puck.9612:

Ehecatl.9172:

Interesting that with all the complaining about traps being worthless they’ve found their way into the preferred build of the only competitive ranger.

People are complaining about them in WvW where your opponents aren’t forced to run onto a small node. Very different situation.

Actually on the power build we talk about you don’t really want to place spike trap on the node.

In my experience marauder is a huge dmg drop. You can keep high ferocity with valkyrie but even with 10 fury procs in your rotation it kind of forces you into a specific playstyle and especially lb will still lose a ton of damage because you can not remorseless stuff like barrage or rapid fire. In the end berserker seems to be the winner. Pick NM and WS lines for defense and the last line is up to you with BM offering CC, MMS offering more damage and Skirmishing offering flexibility with QD.

jcbroe.4329:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Interesting, I’ve not even considered the new spike trap so far.
To latch onto what jcbroe said, in my eyes, out of all our traitlines, the two that synergize best are Nature Magic and Wilderness Survival. Reduced damage during regen and a pretty frequent protection boon + weakness to add onto Bark Skin and easily perma fury sounds pretty decent at least on paper.
Marksmanship I think is too situational for organized PvP and then there is that ever so awkward clarion bond (talk about “synergy”, lets latch a 30 second skill onto a 20 second skill and call it synergy!!)
After that it is really just a question of Skirmishing or Beastmastery. Taunt or Quick draw etc and I am very hopeful that team comps could even be built around a taunt ranger.

My personal preference at this point would be Quickdraw over Beastly Warden though, even though it wouldn’t even be a dispute between the power of the two, because I think Beastly Warden is the more powerful effect, but Quickdraw, on the other hand, seems less situational, aka more applicable to more situations.

Either way, I don’t see either option carrying the build to a point of being “meta” alone, but I can see how a team could play around a ranger with Beastly Warden for organized play, and honestly even though the traitline isn’t the greatest, I think the only other build that brings any sort of team utility would have to be a Clarion Bond/Windborne Notes for maintaining perma-fury on damage dealers, which could also be built around.

Dojo.1867:

In my experience marauder is a huge dmg drop. You can keep high ferocity with valkyrie but even with 10 fury procs in your rotation it kind of forces you into a specific playstyle and especially lb will still lose a ton of damage because you can not remorseless stuff like barrage or rapid fire. In the end berserker seems to be the winner. Pick NM and WS lines for defense and the last line is up to you with BM offering CC, MMS offering more damage and Skirmishing offering flexibility with QD.

@jcbroe, yea my personal Preference at the Moment is skirmishing aswell. 0 6 6 6 0 right now is my absolute favorite build for solo Queue (!)
We will have to wait and see though how These upcoming nerfs affect us and organized pvp to really gauge any effect.

@Dojo, I kinda get what you are saying, although I think IF any class can pull off a valk power build it would be ranger I reckon. And for this, funnily enough, skirmishing is THE traitline. 150 precision + 10% flat if hitting from behind or the side. Take less “burst” and swap fire for the precision Bonus (+7%) on Longbow. Now just take a precision based rune (Lyssa comeback, yes pls xD) and you should sit at somewhere around 46% crit Chance (56% from behind or the side) without taking into consideration the 100% crits from remorseless. That sounds pretty good if you ask me…
I took some of my precious study time to quickly type this up in a build calculator. Dogs/Spiders/Pigs/Drakes could all work pretty well in this case.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;2FFx-r2NDV-0;9k1O;1Y_Z;0257157136;44B06U;1LNW4LNW44s

honestly any ranger not taking BW is gimping himself and his team. without it we literally have no utility, and we’re not exactly a dps powerhouse that can spike people constantly like thief, mes or zerker warrior. so why bring ranger? well, BW is a start. I cant imagine rolling without it.

I think you guys are overestimating BW

It’s an on demand interrupt with no tell! We finally have low counter play!

BW is a high skill-cap ability (meaning you can always improve more). its usefulness is limitless, unless they gut it which would be insanely stupid. you can switch pets and taunt while in midair or swooping for example. not to toot my own horn, but ive had some crazy good plays with it. cant gush over it enough. also, it kitten s glass specs like the zerker warrior, Mesmer, and thief. ive survived thief + Mesmer burst by taunting at the right second and gtfo’ing.

No its not an on demand interrupt as it has a ICD

It’s on-demand as in “100% instant”. You can’t miss with taunt (unless you use it stupidly, like with your pet out of position or something.) It’s absolutely fantastic. A++

And then you still have the other CC your pets used to get (I pretty much only use wolf and dog.)

I will never use BW for the simple reason that it gives an ICD even though it traits an active ability

Chokolata.1870:

I will never use BW for the simple reason that it gives an ICD even though it traits an active ability

Sounds like you’re being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. BW is probably the strongest of the rangers new toys. Heck, it’s one of the strongest new toys across all classes.