Guild Wars 2

What’s everyone’s opinions on running high-level FoTM (31-38) WITHOUT Frost Spirit?

Generally when I see people looking for Ranger, they’re usually looking for a Ranger with Spotter+Frost Spirit… But is Frost Spirit really worth it?

Frost Spirit, while traited, only activates 70% of the time. In other words, it only increases overall damage by an average of 7.5%, which isn’t all that big. Furthermore, it is incredibly frustrating to move around because in order to put it onto cooldown and “recast” it, I have to swap the utility and back… Which means I cannot use its active, or the team will have to wait 40s for Frost Spirit to be cast again. Not to mention the fact it can be destroyed… And the #1 reason why I’m so unsure about Frost Spirit, is because it forces us to invest in the Nature Magic line, when we could’ve invested into beast Mastery or Skirmishing and have more “oomph” to our damage.

Currently my build is 20/30/0/10/10. My utilities and weapon/pet choices are focused on stacking Chill on foes, largely thanks to the Skirmishing grandmaster trait, “Trap Potency” and the amazing capabilities of Frost Trap.

However, without 15 into Beast Mastery, my pet’s survivability takes a huge hit because I lack quick-swapping (Loud Whistle). Not only does the lack of Loud Whistle mean a higher likelyhood of my pet dying, but also means less spamming of their “special” skills (Like Tail Swipe on drakes for weakness+blast finisher, Harmonic Cry on moas for heal, etc…)

Would it make such a huge loss in efficiency to run 20/30/0/0/20 instead of 20/30/0/10/10? (In other words, no Frost Spirit?)

One advantage of 20 Beast Mastery over 10 Nature Magic, is the trait “Vigorous Training”, which grants all allies 5 seconds of Vigor whenever swapping pets. It also means more flexibility for overall pet potential, such as Mighty Swap and Rending Attacks when we need to DPS race, and Shout Master (reduced shout CD) for more Guard-spam and pet survivability during powerful boss attacks.

Would all that versatility not be more useful than Frost Spirit? Or am I underrating the 7.5% damage increase during stack fights?

I mean I run 0/0/20/20/30 in fractals and have literally had no issues in fractals, at all, I also run a brown bear (so broken in PvE) and Fern Hound, i do use Healing Spring and Nature spirit normally paired with SoTH and QZ and LR with Mercy Rubes and healers celerity

Frostspirit is about 7,5% partyDPS.
A Ranger without spotter/Spirit is like a warrior without Banners or a guardians without Wall of Reflection and Blinds.
No benefit (compared to any other classes, even necromancers are better then a ranger without support) for your party.

I hate to say it but one of the ways you can tell you have a good or bad ranger in your FotM group is this. No Spotter/Frost, no group. Everyone has to contribute, hate it or not and this is how we do it. I frequent 40s/50s fractals and if you don’t have these two then you’re out.

Why would you want to use the frost spirit active? For a measly 5s chill?

Here’s a protip: if your party is moving from where you casted frost onto another area then switch your frost skill to anything else then re-equip frost spirit. This kills the spirit and puts it on a ~20s cooldown and lets you cast it again at the new location.

Most of the time, depending on the fractal, your party is dpsing something or a mob of some sort and they’re fairly stationary. Killing your spirit and re-equiping it will almost guarantee it to be recharged to recast in the new location.

Especially with the upcoming crit damage 10% damage reduction, I think frost spirit would be pretty essential for any high-level fractals group given its ~7.5% party dps.

If you don’t mind being a DPS leech, sure.

So Frost Spirit is pretty staple, then?

What about the Chill condition as a whole? Wouldn’t causing bosses to attack and move 66% slower be a HUGE help to the team? For example, Mossman throws his axe less often, Lornarr (Ice fractal boss) uses his icicle attack less (the one where he warps), and Archdiviner wont be as big an kitten?

It’s not worth using the Frost Spirit’s chill, because you wont’ be able to kill it on command if it’s active is on CD, and the spirit’s positioning will make it more likely to get killed.

Chill is a niche condtion, it’s great in some scenarios and useless in others.

Kain Francois.4328:

What about the Chill condition as a whole?

That’s up to you to make the final judgement.

Wouldn’t causing bosses to attack and move 66% slower be a HUGE help to the team? For example, Mossman throws his axe less often, Lornarr (Ice fractal boss) uses his icicle attack less (the one where he warps), and Archdiviner wont be as big an kitten?

So what’s stopping you from using chill then along with providing a party-wide buff? If anything you’re making a stronger (but very miniscule) case for bringing frost. You’re fairly stationary with these bosses and you don’t have to move. This is one of the counterpoints that you gave, that your spirit is on cooldown and you have a long recharge time because you decide to use its active, yet, the combat scenarios that you gave here all involve stationary interactions.

If you want to plop your frost spirit right on top of the boss then go for it, just be prepared to have it 1-2 shotted fairly quickly to try to get chill to go off. Also, a 5~ second chill on a 40 second cooldown is terrible. Chill in general isn’t that useful in PvE.

Chill does indeed help with kiting bosses like Archdiviner (pugs tend to kite) but I’m not sure about the skill recharge portion.

Like the others say though, a 5 second chill on such a long cooldown won’t help much.

Lindbur.2537:

Chill does indeed help with kiting bosses like Archdiviner, but I’m not sure about the skill recharge portion.

It does, one of the bosses I tested it on was Ginva. It’d delay his whirling defense by from 15s cd to 25s cd if you keep him chilled the entire time. It doesn’t affect auto attacks though, or skills without recharges.

Good to know. Thanks!

Frostspirit active does chill too.

What’s stopping me from using chill: Trait points.

In order to achieve 13s of chill in one Utility on a short CD, I need to spec 30 in Skirmishing for Trap Potency. Because I have to manage Frost Spirit, Spotter, AND Beast Mastery, my options are incredibly tight.

Ice drake and Axe #3 can chill as well.

Lordy, lordy, lordy, lord, have pity on those who swap to MH axe in a boss fight. A 3s chill from Axe #3 is simply too pitiful to use, besides

Compare: Frost Trap, which = 13s chill on a 24s cooldown when traited with Trap Potency.

Just for clarification, 30 Skirmishing for Trap Potency is what is causing all the issues in this thread! :P

I don’t get it, how does axe 5 chill?

Idk, whirl finisher and ice combo field maybe?

TurtleDragon.3108:

Idk, whirl finisher and ice combo field maybe?

He’s talking about Main Hand Axe, skill 3 (Winters Bite). It has a 3s chill.

The Chosen Link.3247:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Idk, whirl finisher and ice combo field maybe?

He’s talking about Main Hand Axe, skill 3 (Winters Bite). It has a 3s chill.

Yeah but Lindblur said Axe 5

:(