Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

Currently I’m trying to think outside the box on my Ranger, as at heart I’ve always been more of a Melee person. The Idea of the build I’m trying to build is pretty much like tanky “White Lion” (melee pet class from Warhammer Online.)

I’m currently calling this Build The Northern Barbarian Build (and maybe someone else already named it I don’t know.)

So here’s the Current Spec.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoM0VMzMoaohmMaohMa0xx0moabVsb8khA707khA7khT7khA70z7kuW70V7owY70m

I have been contemplating taking the 10 points out of Marksmanship and putting them in Beastmastery

Weapons Used: Great Sword, Sword, Dagger, Long Bow, War Horn.
(i.E. In most PvE I’ll have GS as my primary, S/D as my secondary, in WvW I’ll pick between S/D and GS as Primary, LB as Secondary.. and for lots of Travel I switcher Dagger out for War Horn.)

Swappable Traits: In Dungeons I’ll remove Signet of the Hunt and equip a trap, or Muddy Terrain. The Elite Skill is swappable between Entangle and Rampage As One as needed. (generally I use Entangle, in Seiges, and PvE where I’ll be fighting Swarms. RaO for everything else.)

Pets:
PvE: Brown Bear, Blue Moa, or Fern Hound. The Moa is amazing for group support heals, and Group Protection Buff, The Bear is great for condition Heavy Fights for Shake it off, and the Fern Hound is good dps, and gives group regen.

WvW: Brown Bear, Pink Moa, Wolf, or Fern Hound. Bear is same as PvE, Pink Moa (or black if you have the HoM unlock.) is great for the AoE Daze and Group heal, Wolf for Fear, and Fern Hound same as PvE.

The build holds up pretty well in PvE as I’m able to Melee with almost any boss, and can take quite a few hits well. PvP I can go 1v1 vs almost any class and hold my own quite well. S/D seems to hold better in 1v1’s as long as you can time your evades and learn to break the 1 combo chain to dodge due to it’s Higher Damage. GS However is still no slouch, just does less damage and requires more vital use of the Block (as the evades on S/D are fairly short CDs.) or hoping you got lucky and they hit at you on the third attack of the 1 ability, however GS does have a great on demand daze/stun/interrupt. So Both melee set’s have their advantages and disadvantages.

This is still a work in progress, but I am having a ton of fun with this spec. But any feedback or even insights I may have missed that could make this Build even better would be appreciated.

-Thanks
WS.

Without any healing power your staying power is going to be severely limited. If it works for you go hard, but there are far sturdier bunker builds available.

If you’re going bunker ignoring your pet is also a pretty big mistake. It’s one advantage rangers have. We can go heavy bunker and not completely sack our dps because pets don’t care about gear.

Unspecified.9142:

Without any healing power your staying power is going to be severely limited. If it works for you go hard, but there are far sturdier bunker builds available.

If you’re going bunker ignoring your pet is also a pretty big mistake. It’s one advantage rangers have. We can go heavy bunker and not completely sack our dps because pets don’t care about gear.

That, and the mandatory 30 points in BM for the bunker build actually increases your pet’s damage output.

You’re going to have to explain the Mandatory part pf 30 BM because I see nothing in BM worth sacrificing the traits in Wilderness Survival and nature magic for, yes like I already stated I see the 10 points in Markmanship in BM as I was already thinking, but you sacrafice a lot of toughness Vitality and Possible Power through Vit staking (2k Vit is additional 100 power.)

You’d also give up either the 20% quicker cooldown on your GS and Sword, or your GS doing 5% more damage.

Just not seeing how 30 Beast is mandatory, it seems like you sacrifice way to much and not enough of it is survival to justify.

I def see using 10 points and Dual Moa’s for Healing. This Build is meant more for the Pet to be support and supplementary damage not your main focus.

The generally accepted cookie-cutter bunker build is 0/0/30/10/30, or at least something similar. 30 points in BM provides you with 300 healing and a much stronger pet both survivability-wise and damage-wise. The extra damage your pet will do far outweighs the ‘power through vitality stacking’ and the horrible 5% more damage on the Greatsword.

I agree with Agadar, though the other thing you get from 30 in BM is Natural Healing which doesn’t say it but it also heals you for 133 every 2 seconds (pet is 125 per second).

Personally I run a 0/0/20/20/30 build right now though I’ve also run 30/10/30.

They main goal of a bunker ranger is focus entirely on healing power and toughness (grab either power or condition damage as your 3rd stat) and take all survivability traits. Then let your pet do the heavy lifting while you use your skills to primarily disable targets, buff your pet, and defend yourself.

Unspecified.9142:

I agree with Agadar, though the other thing you get from 30 in BM is Natural Healing which doesn’t say it but it also heals you for 133 every 2 seconds (pet is 125 per second).

Personally I run a 0/0/20/20/30 build right now though I’ve also run 30/10/30.

They main goal of a bunker ranger is focus entirely on healing power and toughness (grab either power or condition damage as your 3rd stat) and take all survivability traits. Then let your pet do the heavy lifting while you use your skills to primarily disable targets, buff your pet, and defend yourself.

Aye, I forgot to mention Natural Healing. That, combined with constant regeneration and Signet of the Wild gives you quite an impressive amount of regen.

I also agree on the third stat. Additional vitality will bring little in terms of survivability and nothing in terms of damage, not to mention toughness/vitality/healing power gear doesn’t even exist at level 80.

Hmmm just tested.. really not to terribly much of a difference. between 0/0/30/10/30 and 0/0/30/30/10.

Base Health in current Gear: 23217
Moa Stats: Pow: 1374 Perc 1374 Tough 1374 Vit: 2748 Moa Heal: 3250 (AoE 1s) 240
Healing Spring with 0 BM 0 Nature magic
4920 base Heal
2340 Regen heal over 3 seconds.

Base Health in Current Gear: 26277
Moa Stats: Pow: 1474 Perc 1474 Tough 1474 Vit 2848 Moa Heal 3270 (AoE 1s) 240
Healing Spring 10 BM 30 Nature
5020 Base
2565 over 4 seconds

Base Health in Current Gear: 24,237
Moa Stats: Pow: 1674 Perc: 1674 Tough: 1674 Vit: 3048 Moa Heal 3310 (AoE Circle 1s) 240
Healing Spring 30 BM 10 Nature
5220 Base
3015 over 3 3/4 seconds.

Over all Power with the Builds In current Gear.
1861 (0 Beast, 0 Nature.)
1960 (10 Beast 30 nature)
1980 (30 Beast 10 Nature)

So while you do gain more power and more healing with the 030/10/30 You have 2k More health, not to shabby Heal and negligible difference in Pet Stats with 0/0/30/30/10

That said though as the class is now, I can see the benefit of 0/0/30/10/30 over 0/0/30/30/10.. However if they ever make GS 2 a Blast finisher like some of us have been requesting (I know a Huge if.) 0/0/30/30/10 will pull ahead of 0/0/30/10/30

Oh I actually didn’t know about the fact that Natural Healing gives you Regen as well.. they really have to clean these tooltips up.

Also with that low of Vitality how are you not getting destroyed by conditions? We have some okay condition removal (every 10 seconds from Signet of Renewal, plus the activation. which is 60 seconds, plus the Bears Shake it off if you have the Bear active, plus the removal from Healing spring.) But even with those does Natural Healing and Signet of the wild really heal enough to counter act them, I mean you should have enough Toughness to counter burst but conditions still concern me, losing all my Vitality by swapping out my gear.

If you focus healing it helps greatly vs conditions. Enough to sustain you and let one of your condition removals to kick in.

War Siren.2346:

You’re going to have to explain the Mandatory part pf 30 BM because I see nothing in BM worth sacrificing the traits in…

Healing power and Natural Healing trait I would say.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmo9hxaxoaboVmb

This is a standard bunker build at the moment. Use shaman’s gear and either sigil of bloodlust/life/battle (for longbow)/blood. You put 30 points in BM for a few reasons.

1.) Natural healing – this is not the best talent but since the 25 point minor is essential in a ranger bunker build having more regeneration is an amazing tool for only 5 more points.

2.) Stat bonus – Every point in BM gives your pet +10 in all base stats (power/pre/tough/vit). That alone is 14% crit at level 80. Not to mention 3k HP, more armor, etc.

3.) Nature’s wrath – 10% of your healing power into power is amazing. On average this nets you another 120 power. Additionally when traiting for a bunker build that is heavy on heals you want to build more for toughness than for vit since as you take less damage from attacks, you healing is still the same and heals for proportionally more.

4.) 16sec pet swap – This minor talent (in addition making you pet safer) gives you 20% more quickness than just taking the first talent. Well worth it and it is the reason rangers have access to so much more quickness than any other class in the game.

The reason you do not spec heavily into nature magic is simple: the return for the trait points you get is terrible past the first 10. All you need is a full set of dwayna’s and you have pretty much 100% regen uptime in an AoE. The condition removal rangers have is terrible beyond healing spring. Coupled with a bit of vigor on every pulse of healing spring and natural 50% increased endurance regen you have insane protection uptime. With sword/dagger equipped is just gets even crazier as that weapon combo has 3 evades on it.

Essentially as a bunker ranger you heal through the damage while keeping your pet alive. With the healing at our disposal and the evasion we have it is difficult to down us and the pet does all the work.

Nature’s wrath is horrible for a bunker build. There are far better traits out there suitable for a bunker build.

Agadar.4931:

Nature’s wrath is horrible for a bunker build. There are far better traits out there suitable for a bunker build.

Nature’s Wrath is the passive 25 pointer on your way up, it’s not spec’d but you get it by default if you go 30BM

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.6.4.3.17.13.13.13.31.31.133.144.141.138.151.8.1.7.0.0.0.0.0.0.409.415.416.0.0.0.436.440.447.0.5.30.5.30

hey been playing around with bunker ranger for abit, and this is what come up with seems solid so far, dodge rolling at right time is a must ! ! ! this builds helps you do so and been able to have good healing + regen and vigor up. while also have strong dps

pets use is snow wolf, chill + good dps, cripple and kd! and normal wolf for ae fear, dps cripple and kd!

I’m not a fan of bunker builds or melee rangers in wvw as i find them less than useful in almost every situation I encounter during my wvw play time. Pets are too easily disabled to be relied upon to hit your target consistently unless they don’t know want they are up against- as soon as you see pet and GS/any melee weapon you know what you are facing and should be able to destroy them before they even reach you. 1v1 I have lost to exactly one 30BM built ranger in wvw, and that was because I was on the phone at the time and mistimed a skill.
Watching rangers using healing spring in an open field battle even 1v1 is just as amusing, although it can be useful in bigger groups and depending on your play style.

I have actually REDUCED my toughness in my wvw build as I have found that running the extra was pointless as in most cases where I die the amount of armor I have on isn’t relevant. Currently running at about 1500 toughness.

The mere notion that Healing Spring in an open field battle is bad is hilarious.

I run a very tanky build (no button pressing for defense, static tankyness)

Some have liked it, check out video in my Sig to see if it’s something you would like to try.

It’s not a FoTM condition based build and uses both bows…and has been pretty fun thus far.

Hmm..

What you trying to do as for as damage? Condition or Power?

Generally speaking you don’t wanna go past 15 Points in Nature, Certain Power Builds work really well with 15 Points with nature, Generally Sword/Horn with Shortbow for example work well with that type of setup (Your pet ends up with close to 30 seconds of Fury/Swiftness which makes Dogs for example a pretty good filler on a DPS pet as Birds/Cats already crit a ton, though Jungle Stalker becomes viable with that setup as you can stack Might on him very quickly)

Anything past those 15 points though is pure Meh as the line is concerned, Its designed around Spirits, and Spirit currently are just awful all around.

The Last talent for example, Remove Blind/Poison on dodge every 10 seconds, Why get that vs Empathetic Bond which removes ALL Conditions every 10 seconds off of you. I notice you went Barkskin as well, Which while it is a great ability, It doesn’t compare to Empathetic Bond…

picking up some healing gear would allow you to also drop SoR and pick up Signet of the Wild instead.

If you’re wanting a More Power based build something like this would probably work better.

You’d end up using Knights Gear for it

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoM0VmzMoharMMho0M0axffzoaqMc08khA707khA7khT7khA70z7kuW70V7owY70m

You’d either way to use Wolves or Jungle Stalker, and you’d not want to swap Pets a whole lot (as you’re wanting to Maintain high Might/Fury/Swiftness on the Pet)

You could also forgo using Signet of the Hunt, Swap on some Power/Toughness/Healing Power Gear, and instead rely on Swiftness as your movement speed buff, and instead using Signet of the Wild..

You’d still be missing the Natural Healing Regen from Beastmaster line, But you could possibly get by with out it.

Personally though with a setup like that I’d run something similar to this though

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmozzVmzMogarMMho0M0axffzokqMc08khA707khA7khT7khA70z7kuW70V7owY70m

Axe is a good Mid Range weapon and you could use Whirling Defense as an advantage for people who jump on ya.

Agadar.4931:

The mere notion that Healing Spring in an open field battle is bad is hilarious.

didn’t see anywhere mention wvwvw.. build i posted is far/ main point defender ^^

there’s only one best bunker build. it was posted before. it goes 0/10/30/10/20. sword/dagger/GS/Dwayna/ravens. high evasion, high healing, high burst. you can attempt a similar condition build with THC gear instead of THP, and cats for bleeding.

healing spring is essential, absolutely no argument needed there. u need it for leap finishers and condition clearance.

hmm yet to try that out but found that gs is great but having that axe/ torch as proved so much better been able to chill and keep wars/ thiefs away without wasting a dodge roll! ravens? strange pet to use for tank they do so much damage but die amazingly fast. used moa’s for healing and vigor but the wolf/ dog dps + kds, fears, roots and cripple are just great.
but if you could link the post or the build on a calculator will deffo look into it. enjoy trying different builds.

So I’m playing around with the 0/0/30/10/30 Build with Wolf/Dog Pets Dwayna Runes in Clerics Gear using GS and Axe/Axe and I have to say it’s actually a lot of fun. I’ll most likely work S/D back in to it somewhere but so far I’m happy with it. I miss having high health but I suppose the constant healing makes up for that.

I want to test out that 0/10/30/10/20 Build at some point too.

I really hope they fix spirits and give GS a Blast finished as I’d love to play a spirit Bunker.. but right now that would be so gimpy and just blah.

High health is irrelevant when you have enough toughness to outlive any burst and enough regeneration to get back and up dampen conditions. Toughness+Healing Power+Power/Condition damage all the way. A solid trio of stats for the 0/0/30/10/30 build.

Agadar.4931:

High health is irrelevant when you have enough toughness to outlive any burst and enough regeneration to get back and up dampen conditions. Toughness+Healing Power+Power/Condition damage all the way. A solid trio of stats for the 0/0/30/10/30 build.

This^^

My ranger runs just over 15k health, and is tough as nails, with huge healing power.