Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been theorycrafting a PvP GS build for my Ranger. I’ve chosen Longbow as my secondary weapon for two reasons; useful in WvW zerg warfare, and physical weapon as opposed to Shortbow which is condition damage.

I’m using full Berserker (glass cannon) and I rely on the GS and my traits as my defense. Bird pets as they are small, burst-crit consistently, and Raven + Owl have decent chill and blind application. I’ve found 30/10/30/0/0 is probably the best trait build for this but I’m still testing it.

Marksmanship: 30 in here for signet of beastmastery. Other traits chosen are signet cooldown and longbow range for obvious reasons.

Skirmishing: 10, Pets crit 30% harder. Again for my bird’s damage.

Wilderness Survival: 30 – Shared Anguish for periodical CC immunity, Wild Knowledge for CD reduction on survival skills, and Empathic Bond which I will explain in a moment.

I’m using Quickening Zephyr (still), Signet of Stone, Signet of Hunt, and Entangle. Now, I used to use Signet of Renewal instead of Hunt but I’ve decided Empathic Bond trait removes 3 conditions periodically. Also since the last patch Quickening Zephyr is a stun-break which means Signet of Renewal’s stunbreak is no longer valuable.

I have a survival cooldowns trait that lessens the CD on Quickening Zephyr and more importantly, Entangle. Signet of Stone benefits from the Signet Mastery trait and I basically gain 6 seconds of immunity to damage which counters other burst builds. Signet of the Hunt grants 25% movement speed to me and my pet, which means my pet can catch people easier and land more hits. Additionally SoH has an active +50% damage that lasts for 1 ability, pairs welll with Maul, that hits hardest after this latest patch.

So far I’ve been very successful against most people. I can usually outdamage faster than an enemy can break through my ability defenses.

Since you do use birds for quick damage, you might as well use Rampage as One instead of Entangle. Entangle is very useful against players that are still learning their trade, and during attacking/defending towers/keeps in wvw. However, experienced players will easily evade, if not strait dodge it. I wish it would apply 5 wines even if there are fewer targets, as sort of AoE immobilize that you can hack down. That would be awesome.

Rampage as one will give you stability so you will get interrupted less using the long LB skill channels, +20% crit chance, and movement speed which might be useful since you’re not using warhorn. It will also give might to you and your pet if one can go by the tooltip.

I usually go with sb/lb when I’m in a zerg, or attacking/defending towers/keeps and only seem to have trouble with immobilize. GS won’t defend against that unfortunately. I’ve also been stainding in a healing spring for a good 2-3 seconds unable to dodge (don’t ask me, I was pretty furious and didn’t understand myself), or use lightning reflexes due to immobilize. But with your trait setup I don’t think you will get rid of QZ, SoT, or SoH for Signet of Renewal. Sounds like a good build. What gear are you useing? What sigils, and runes?

You chose the two worst weapons we rangers have. The shortbow damage alone, without condition, is better than the longbow’s 1000 range shot.

Trust me, it’s not worth it. Same goes for the greatsword, even if you use maul and all the other skills for damage, the sword’s auto attack alone out dpses the greatsword. Imagine if coupled with torch or dagger or warhorn. Not to mention the mobility sword has.

Rangers don’t excel in burst damage, they do however in condition damage. It’s kind of pointless to go into a bursty build with quickness nerfed. Signet of Renewal is still the best stun break because by activating it you clear everyones condition, just be sure to switch your pet afterwards. In a zerg, this could mean victory.

Your pet is already squishy, don’t punish it even more by traiting empathic bond.
If you follow my advice and remove QZ and switch weapons, go ahead and trait hide in plain sight in wilderness survival and do signets 20% less cooldown in marksmanship along with piercing arrows.

wouldn’t 30/10/0/0/30 be the better damage output? if you focus on zerg warfare and dealing damage as a primary output, you should also pay attention to your healing and pet damage as well, and since you’re not relying on conditions.

that being said, the -/-/30/-/- is really only done for empathic bond (that nerf hit us really hard unfortunately, rangers need better condition removals not less…)

If you’re running 30/10/30/0/0 I would focus on conditions.
I’m traited almost the same and I run axe/torch and sword/dagger

Hmmm…

If you want to use those two weapons I would suggest taking points out of Marksman and putting them into skirm to get you up to 30 and trait Moment of Clarity. It would help both weapons, as they each have an interrupt, and you could then also trait Quick Draw for LB (faster vuln stacks and more potential interrupts); something like 10/30/30/0/0 seems like it might work better for you.

I personally run a pretty successful 0/30/30/10/0 build that tends to work well with sword/dagger and GS and switch to a longbow for sieges.