Guild Wars 2

I don’t really know how to spec anymore. My damage seems mediocre no matter what. I’m willing to try any weapon combination, different pets, and any type of traits. Also, this is for PvE, dungeons and stuff.

Aurum.8793:

I don’t really know how to spec anymore. My damage seems mediocre no matter what. I’m willing to try any weapon combination, different pets, and any type of traits. Also, this is for PvE, dungeons and stuff.

Reroll a Warrior. Your damage will always be sub-par.

But on the task of a ranger; In open world PvE I recommend cats for their raw damage coupled with a shortbow and traps.

I use a 20/25/10/0/15 build focusing on maximizing quickness. Depending on the situation i change my trait to either get piercing arrows or the bigger range/damage with longbow. My slot skills are quickening zephyr and sharpening stone with the regen signet that helps me stay alive. (i occasionally change those especially for Lupicus) As a second weapon, I have to switch between a number of different ones depending on the fight. Shortbow when it is a ranged boss fight, greatsword in melee(like coe alpha boss) Axe + warhorn when I need more aoe + speed buff.

Skipping the 10 points in the last tree and spending them in 1st could produce higher dps, but without a “meter” it is hard to say. Those 5 seconds of swapping the pet are in my experience many times vital to being able to swap your pet before it dies so you don’t have to wait longer to swap.
P.S. Like the previous guy said, reroll a warrior. They are superior in every way. I already did.

Sword/dagger focusing on quickness puts out a really good amount of damage. For more damage focus on power, precision, crit damage. For more survivability focus on power, toughness, vitality.

The build I use works incredibly well for me. I’ve had more success with it than any other builds I’ve tried.

BM builds are also pretty stellar for most PvE situations.

KerriganGR.2736:

I use a 20/25/10/0/15 build focusing on maximizing quickness. Depending on the situation i change my trait to either get piercing arrows or the bigger range/damage with longbow. My slot skills are quickening zephyr and sharpening stone with the regen signet that helps me stay alive. (i occasionally change those especially for Lupicus) As a second weapon, I have to switch between a number of different ones depending on the fight. Shortbow when it is a ranged boss fight, greatsword in melee(like coe alpha boss) Axe + warhorn when I need more aoe + speed buff.

Skipping the 10 points in the last tree and spending them in 1st could produce higher dps, but without a “meter” it is hard to say. Those 5 seconds of swapping the pet are in my experience many times vital to being able to swap your pet before it dies so you don’t have to wait longer to swap.

This, although a viable alternative is to take 10 out of BM and invest it into Wilderness Survival or Nature Magic for a bit more defense. Personally, I would suggest taking the 10 out and investing into WS since it gives you toughness for defense (along with another trait for a defensive talent) while increasing your condition damage.

For pve rangers are awesome. Masterbond + fortifying bond with traps.

To all the people saying I should reroll a warrior, I agree. I already have a 30 warrior, but leveling is such a pain, and I’ve already invested so much time in my Ranger. It would kill me to see all that go to waste.
@Nldixon, I thought any Sword combo was completely unviable due to the root effect?
@Mamourrir, Builds that rely on Master’s Bond take too much time to start up to be viable. While it works in open world PvE, most pets get obliterated by PvE dungeons. It takes too long to get the stacks, and they are too easily lost for it to be effective.

Aurum.8793:

@Nldixon, I thought any Sword combo was completely unviable due to the root effect?

No, sir. That’s crazy talk! Sword is actually one of the best weapons in the Ranger arsenal. You just have to learn how to adjust to the drastically different play style that sword requires.

Since you can’t dodge roll, you have to rely on the built in evades on the abilities. The most difficult part is timing the dodges and knowing then to use them. Once you get that down, sword/dagger becomes a real powerhouse. Couple that with quickness and you’re like a blender set to PULVERIZE!

Eh, you can get by with sword, but for any damage build, you’ll be better off with the short bow and for a tank build, a greatsword will give you a good balance of utility without requiring you to fly all over the place, which is dangerous in tight spots in dungeons (particularly when there are cliffs around).

But if the sword is fun for you, then go with it.

It completely bums me out when ppl say just roll a warrior… I really like ranger type classes… It is what it is though.

I like focusing on condition damage and using SB and axe and torch I find it effective in pve

Aurum.8793:

I don’t really know how to spec anymore. My damage seems mediocre no matter what. I’m willing to try any weapon combination, different pets, and any type of traits. Also, this is for PvE, dungeons and stuff.

30 Beastmastery, and then either birds like the eagle (single target melee damage) the devourer (single target ranges damage) or drakes (multi-hit in melee, like a greatsword). With Natural Healing, Compassion Training and… something (beyond Natural Healing and Compassion Training the traits are honestly pretty dodgy) the pet will be able to (especially if you bring Signet of the Wild) outheal most damage it’s taking, unless it’s mobbed or it’s the a ‘i keel u’ oneshotter.
Remember to swap the pets when you need so, but also remember your heals will do over half it’s health. It’s much tougher but it’s not a fire-and-forget missile.

For yourself, use whatever. I tend to use greatsword or longsword+dagger when I’m feeling quirky or aggressive as hell-with a drake I can happily chop through most groups in melee in little time.

For your other stats? Well I’m personally using 10 power, 20 crits (for better pet crits and the pet healing on crit traits) and 10 wilderness survival but really, use whatever you want. My most important advice? Don’t expect to see big numbers. Expect lots of not-so-big numbers.

Jay.3284:

Reroll a Warrior. Your damage will always be sub-par.

Because my goodness, God Forbid the class designed to be belt out the most damage with weapons is the best at belting out damage with weapons. and the class designed to use a unique class mechanic to compensate for the disparity do so.

For pets, I wouldn’t recommend a bird since they have a big attack animation that is easily dodged by moving enemies. If you want a glass cannon pet, take a Jaguar.

Drakes would be great pets if they weren’t bugged. I believe they still only use their bite attack, which is a shame since they have some other abilities that would be great to use. That being said, the River Drake has a beast of an F2 ability…as long as your target stands still long enough for it to land, lol.

Honestly, I think canines are your best all around pet. They do better dps than all but birds and felines with a fast, short attack animation that is seldom avoided. They also have a good amount of toughness with some great CC and utility. Just make sure you don’t choose a hyena. They have a F2 ability that makes it look like they would be good for damage, but they have half as much power as other canines, so they end up having less dps.

For fights where pets take a lot of damage, devourers are a great choice since they have a good amount of toughness, attack from range, and have the tunnel ability to escape when they are focused.

Aurum.8793:

To all the people saying I should reroll a warrior, I agree. I already have a 30 warrior, but leveling is such a pain, and I’ve already invested so much time in my Ranger. It would kill me to see all that go to waste.

You should simply ignore the people who tells you to reroll a warrior, even more if the best damage spec they suggest is “traps and shortbow”…that just shows how poorly they play their rangers.

Honestly, the best damage as ranger comes from full berseker (you can mix berseker with some valkyrie pieces if you feel like you need some extra HP at the cost of having less precision).
As for the traits, 15 into BM is a must to keep your pet alive in dungeons thanks to the extra stats for your pet along with the 15/48 seconds swap, 30 into skirmishing is great and 5 into survivality is also a must to gain endurance faster leaving you with another 20 points which i’d put into markmanship for piercing arrows and 10% dmg when full endurance.
As you can see this spec is mainly shortbow/longbow oriented, tho you can switch the longbow with sword/horn in certain situations where you feel going melee is not going to hurt you much. As for pets, you have to use many, i myself use jaguar/hawk a lot, but i switch to devourers if i know the DPS melee pets won’t be able to survive.

I don’t recommend traps/condition builds for PvE and the reason of why not it’s simple, other classes can apply bleeds/burn/poison and since it doesn’t stack (bleed is capped at 25) it will result in a DPS loss for you or your teammates.

Dahkeus.8243:

For pets, I wouldn’t recommend a bird since they have a big attack animation that is easily dodged by moving enemies.

Teeny problem with your statement: the op is talking about PvE; ergo target dodging isn’t really an issue.
Drakes are bugged at the moment, however my point still stands; their auto-attack hits several targets at once, the only one to do this, so they’re usually the best at hacking through numbers.

The nice thing about 30 Beastmastery though is, especially for pve, you can pretty much just pick the one you like and stick with it.

If you want to maximize your damage you really need to utilize the pet to its fullest potential. Your damage is built around it. I tend to favor less squishy pets because they stay up the longest (I love me some hounds). If you want more damage I suggest anything but bears. Devourers, drakes, and wolves tend to be the sturdiest with their higher toughness and if you are traited into healing passive pet and have signet of wild it will last a good long while.

Keep your pet alive and your DPS will stay up. Your pets go down, your DPS goes down with it.

If you want to see your real DPS you need to add pets damage and your damage together. comparing our weapons straight up to other classes is pointless because you are missing a major portion of our damage (yes warrior weapons do more, but they also do not force enemies to fight two targets at once).

Nah, bears are the sturdiest; they’re the tanky ones, with massive toughness and more importantly, a skill that gives them regen and another that lets them ignore damage for 6 seconds.

Drakes are good for clobbering groups
Dogs are good crowd control I find; the howls cripple/fear/ect and they can do a KD pounce

I hope you don’t misunderstand me, I’m not really arguing your point Daisy, I’m just saying if you want something to take a walloping, the bears are definitely the pet to use. The arctodus with it’s bleeding F2 is the more offensive orientated one if you want a bit more damage from them.

Loki.4871:

Nah, bears are the sturdiest; they’re the tanky ones, with massive toughness and more importantly, a skill that gives them regen and another that lets them ignore damage for 6 seconds.

Drakes are good for clobbering groups
Dogs are good crowd control I find; the howls cripple/fear/ect and they can do a KD pounce

I hope you don’t misunderstand me, I’m not really arguing your point Daisy, I’m just saying if you want something to take a walloping, the bears are definitely the pet to use. The arctodus with it’s bleeding F2 is the more offensive orientated one if you want a bit more damage from them.

Good call, I probably should have clarified more, see my above suggestions for a balance between damage and survivability. Bears are straight up beasts for tanks especially when traited. I swapped out bears when I took a more tanky build as I needed to crank out more DPS on the pet end to compensate and bear simply wasn’t dropping targets fast enough. Awesome though when you want to front load damage to your ranger.

Sleepy.2647:

Aurum.8793:

To all the people saying I should reroll a warrior, I agree. I already have a 30 warrior, but leveling is such a pain, and I’ve already invested so much time in my Ranger. It would kill me to see all that go to waste.

You should simply ignore the people who tells you to reroll a warrior, even more if the best damage spec they suggest is “traps and shortbow”…that just shows how poorly they play their rangers.

Honestly, the best damage as ranger comes from full berseker (you can mix berseker with some valkyrie pieces if you feel like you need some extra HP at the cost of having less precision).
As for the traits, 15 into BM is a must to keep your pet alive in dungeons thanks to the extra stats for your pet along with the 15/48 seconds swap, 30 into skirmishing is great and 5 into survivality is also a must to gain endurance faster leaving you with another 20 points which i’d put into markmanship for piercing arrows and 10% dmg when full endurance.
As you can see this spec is mainly shortbow/longbow oriented, tho you can switch the longbow with sword/horn in certain situations where you feel going melee is not going to hurt you much.

I don’t recommend traps/condition builds for PvE and the reason of why not it’s simple, other classes can apply bleeds/burn/poison and since it doesn’t stack (bleed is capped at 25) it will result in a DPS loss for you or your teammates.

15 in BM is viable, but not necessary. You can run 5 in BM and still do fine as long as you’re not running with a bird/feline and pop the extra 10 into WS. This gives you the prot on dodge roll and the ability to pick up vigor on heal. I would recommend this because:
1) More defense from stats means you can wear more berserker gear and less gear with defensive stats
2) More vigor means you’re at full endurance more often and thus get the 10% damage bonus from I in the marks tree. Of course, this also means more potential dodge rolls that grant protection.

Pets are fine with a 5 bm investment as long as you’re aware of what they’re doing, are not glass cannon pets, and as long as you’re not using melee pets on fights where melee gets chewed up.

@ Loki: Enemies move plenty in PvE too. Yes, they move less, but it still happens. With the damage bonus from the Jaguar’s stealth, they’ll also do more damage than a bird anyway. They also synergize very well with Rending Attacks. If you’re attacking a world boss as part of an event, then you might see the bleed cap, making the bird better, but this is pretty rare in dungeon runs.

Dahkeus.8243:

15 in BM is viable, but not necessary. You can run 5 in BM and still do fine as long as you’re not running with a bird/feline and pop the extra 10 into WS. This gives you the prot on dodge roll and the ability to pick up vigor on heal. I would recommend this because:
1) More defense from stats means you can wear more berserker gear and less gear with defensive stats
2) More vigor means you’re at full endurance more often and thus get the 10% damage bonus from I in the marks tree. Of course, this also means more potential dodge rolls that grant protection.

Pets are fine with a 5 bm investment as long as you’re aware of what they’re doing, are not glass cannon pets, and as long as you’re not using melee pets on fights where melee gets chewed up.

15 into BM not only gives your pet better stats but it gives you 2 seconds quickness more often or 12 seconds earlier a dead pet. That of course is my personal opinion.

about the defensive traits…it’s actually worse, putting into defensive traits gives you less offensive and valkyrie gear keeps your power/crit damage it just lowers your precision a bit as long as you just want some extra hp and not build completely into valkyrie which would result in having too low critical chance. I’m using full berseker, i have not many issues surviving except in certain places where a dozen mobs hit you.

@ Dahkeus: I might depend on our playstyles; I tend to wade in with the greatsword or longsword, so the enemies usually aren’t moving. For me therefore, the owl/whatever doesn’t have any issues hitting the target.

Sleepy.2647:

Aurum.8793:

To all the people saying I should reroll a warrior, I agree. I already have a 30 warrior, but leveling is such a pain, and I’ve already invested so much time in my Ranger. It would kill me to see all that go to waste.

You should simply ignore the people who tells you to reroll a warrior, even more if the best damage spec they suggest is “traps and shortbow”…that just shows how poorly they play their rangers.

Honestly, the best damage as ranger comes from full berseker (you can mix berseker with some valkyrie pieces if you feel like you need some extra HP at the cost of having less precision).
As for the traits, 15 into BM is a must to keep your pet alive in dungeons thanks to the extra stats for your pet along with the 15/48 seconds swap, 30 into skirmishing is great and 5 into survivality is also a must to gain endurance faster leaving you with another 20 points which i’d put into markmanship for piercing arrows and 10% dmg when full endurance.
As you can see this spec is mainly shortbow/longbow oriented, tho you can switch the longbow with sword/horn in certain situations where you feel going melee is not going to hurt you much. As for pets, you have to use many, i myself use jaguar/hawk a lot, but i switch to devourers if i know the DPS melee pets won’t be able to survive.

I don’t recommend traps/condition builds for PvE and the reason of why not it’s simple, other classes can apply bleeds/burn/poison and since it doesn’t stack (bleed is capped at 25) it will result in a DPS loss for you or your teammates.

I recently started getting my Lvl 80 exotic armor in order. I will end up with a mix of carrion and rabid. I read at length, numerous posts similar to your regarding berserkers being the best. While traps, conditions are obsolete. I run something like 0-30-20-20-0 and do run traps when applicable. As long as I use the right pet and handle them properly, I do not suffer many pet deaths traited at 0. Sometimes I add in some BM. All depends on needs.

First I will not argue that Berserkers and a power/crit LB build will out DpS my build in terms of just standing there firing away. However, there are so many variables, that straight damage (no conditions) could mean less damage. Bleed caps are hardly ever met in my teams. Even if they are, the CC from traps is a huge bonus for my team. If I don’t need the cc or condition damage my skills get changed as needed.

I have never heard anyone talk about the DPS plus’s of condition damage. Once applied, the DPS from conditions continue until they expire. Regardless of what your doing. If I’m res’ing I can watch thousands of damage tick away from the conditions my SB/Axe/Torch or traps applied. While healing I watch hundreds more. While kiting, trapping, running items, throwing rocks, whatever, the damage continues. Traps provide so much CC its not even funny. Even if they aren’t straight damage they allow your team to continue on the offensive. On dungeon/FOTM runs, I have noticed huge differences in team survivability between running a solo DPS build or a build with some utility (traps) and conditions. I can take the 5 -10 seconds to res someone, while still doing damage. I can be downed and still watch the damage tick away. To say certain builds don’t work, or this one does more damage than that one isn’t always cut and dry.

Maddie Bear.3509:

I can take the 5 -10 seconds to res someone, while still doing damage. I can be downed and still watch the damage tick away. To say certain builds don’t work, or this one does more damage than that one isn’t always cut and dry.

I don’t know how long your conditions last, but certainly not that much to make up for it. Each bleed ticks 3 times, make it 4 if you get all sorts of bleed extensions…if you stop applying bleeds your DPS is gone, so if you go rez someone by the time you get to that person most of your bleed stacks are gone. I’m not even going into detail about the positioning which is also a big downside to condition rangers, or the fact that in the time spent throwing a trap you would do more damage by using autoattacks. Conditions don’t do “extra damage” overtime, therefor your statement is not correct.

A berseker build will get raw damage instantly, with a condition build you will hit your target and seconds later you will get the damage done…so you are not doing more damage than anyone else while “you go around to rez someone”.

Either way, with 5-15 points in BM you can swap a pet and rez a downed team mate in 1/2 the time you would need by that matter, which is more important than watching a couple of bleeds tick

Also take into account that the build i wrote can also use “slow traps” to assist if needed, the best slow traps are muddy terrain and frost trap, none of them make damage anyways.
Just because you build a ranger with a berseker build doesn’t mean all it does is autoattacks with a shortbow, you can still support your team in many ways.

Sleepy.2647:

Dahkeus.8243:

15 in BM is viable, but not necessary. You can run 5 in BM and still do fine as long as you’re not running with a bird/feline and pop the extra 10 into WS. This gives you the prot on dodge roll and the ability to pick up vigor on heal. I would recommend this because:
1) More defense from stats means you can wear more berserker gear and less gear with defensive stats
2) More vigor means you’re at full endurance more often and thus get the 10% damage bonus from I in the marks tree. Of course, this also means more potential dodge rolls that grant protection.

Pets are fine with a 5 bm investment as long as you’re aware of what they’re doing, are not glass cannon pets, and as long as you’re not using melee pets on fights where melee gets chewed up.

15 into BM not only gives your pet better stats but it gives you 2 seconds quickness more often or 12 seconds earlier a dead pet. That of course is my personal opinion.

about the defensive traits…it’s actually worse, putting into defensive traits gives you less offensive and valkyrie gear keeps your power/crit damage it just lowers your precision a bit as long as you just want some extra hp and not build completely into valkyrie which would result in having too low critical chance. I’m using full berseker, i have not many issues surviving except in certain places where a dozen mobs hit you.

Yes, and that’s why 15 in BM is viable too.

As for defensive traits, they’re not totally defensive. By putting more in WS, you get toughness, but you’re also increasing your condition damage. Also, as I mentioned before, vigor on heal keeps your endurance full more often for the 10% damage increase.

As i said, it’s a matter of taste. I consider 15 BM a must have (to me) mainly because it gives more swaps and less dead pet downtime, which is quite noticable once you go on higher fractals since pets have no agony resistance right now. I don’t have any problems keeping endurance full most of the time since i use shortbow 3 a lot and has 7 seconds cooldown if traited.

Sleepy.2647:

Maddie Bear.3509:

I can take the 5 -10 seconds to res someone, while still doing damage. I can be downed and still watch the damage tick away. To say certain builds don’t work, or this one does more damage than that one isn’t always cut and dry.

I don’t know how long your conditions last, but certainly not that much to make up for it. Each bleed ticks 3 times, make it 4 if you get all sorts of bleed extensions…if you stop applying bleeds your DPS is gone, so if you go rez someone by the time you get to that person most of your bleed stacks are gone. I’m not even going into detail about the positioning which is also a big downside to condition rangers, or the fact that in the time spent throwing a trap you would do more damage by using autoattacks. Conditions don’t do “extra damage” overtime, therefor your statement is not correct.

A berseker build will get raw damage instantly, with a condition build you will hit your target and seconds later you will get the damage done…so you are not doing more damage than anyone else while “you go around to rez someone”.

Either way, with 5-15 points in BM you can swap a pet and rez a downed team mate in 1/2 the time you would need by that matter, which is more important than watching a couple of bleeds tick

Also take into account that the build i wrote can also use “slow traps” to assist if needed, the best slow traps are muddy terrain and frost trap, none of them make damage anyways.
Just because you build a ranger with a berseker build doesn’t mean all it does is autoattacks with a shortbow, you can still support your team in many ways.

SB ticks for 3 seconds… Splitblade, Spiked Trap, Sharpening stone, all apply more than 3 seconds. Think Splitblade is 8 or something like that without any buffs. Don’t forget poison and flame damage too. If its a Pug or high level fractal I usually run the 5 in BM for res speed… The tougher fights are not spike fests, otherwise I would agree with you wholeheartedly. I still crit often for about 550 and I’m not even fully spec’ed out. I expect it to get close to 650-700 according to mists testing.

Sharpening stone well before fight- tossing out spike, flame or muddy (before I pull aggro) then launching in a splitblade, poison volley and entangle will wipe a significant amount of health before any mob even gets to you. A few combos avail if you run torch. A few seconds later everything is recharged (minus entagle) and you just repeat… Even without flanking, I can’t get that DPS with beserkers gear and minimal condition damage.

Maddie Bear.3509:

Even without flanking, I can’t get that DPS with beserkers gear and minimal condition damage.

Almost every class has available burning and poison, and since they don’t stack they are non factor several times

Full condition damage = 120 bleed damage at most per tick (just guessing, i don’t even remember but if i recall right it goes sightly above 100’s), full berseker = 42+ bleed damage per tick…3-4 ticks is 360-480 vs 126+.

Using burning and that sort of conditions usually doesn’t matter, because even if it stacked you would be stuck for 10 seconds using a weapon that does less DPS than shortbow and if it was a flame trap by the time the animation ends you could have shooted at least 3 shortbow autoattacks dealing more damage.

Now, a fight rarely starts with you being on the flank applying bleed, everytime you gain aggro you lose your flank position as well, in some encounteers you won’t even flank your target 30% of the time…condition rangers are not ideal for Dungeons. Even assuming that you can apply bleed all the time the damage would still be sup par to a power build.
Let’s imagine that you can maintain 10 stacks of bleed that would be 1.200 DPS + 300-600 from autoattacks = 1.800-2.400 DPS…and that’s assuming too much. If we asume the same on a berseker build it would be around 500-1200 from autoattacks and 420+ from 10 bleed stacks = 1420-2820+ DPS. Now…this is what happens when you can’t flank:
Condition build without flank = 600-1.200 DPS
Berseker build without flank= 1.000-2.400 DPS

You can’t base the results on the mist tests, because a PvE ranger has twice the critical damage you have on the mists.

Yea, conditions can be good for PvP, but in PvE, you’ll be doing more damage with a direct damage build.

So basically direct damage builds are best for PvE. Drake pets are good for AoE, cats are best for single target, devourers for single target ranged.

For weapons and stats, I’m seeing Berserkers as best for damage. Weapons, it looks like Longbow, axe, or even possibly sword if you can do well with dodges. Maybe horn or dagger depending on what you want, but torch is bad since it relies on burn damage, which is rather poor when compared to other offhand abilities, as pointed out by Sleepy.

Traits I’m not to sure about yet. I know a lot of our damage comes from our pets, so having points in BM is understandable. But, if you want to be a glass cannon, wouldn’t it make sense to spec something like 30/30/0/0/10? That would maximize power, precision, critical damage, and would also give you the quickness thing when you changed pets.

But, on the other hand, the traits in those two lines are atrocious. One centers around Signets and the other Traps. Soooo…. here we are.

Aurum.8793:

So basically direct damage builds are best for PvE. Drake pets are good for AoE, cats are best for single target, devourers for single target ranged.

For weapons and stats, I’m seeing Berserkers as best for damage. Weapons, it looks like Longbow, axe, or even possibly sword if you can do well with dodges. Maybe horn or dagger depending on what you want, but torch is bad since it relies on burn damage, which is rather poor when compared to other offhand abilities, as pointed out by Sleepy.

Traits I’m not to sure about yet. I know a lot of our damage comes from our pets, so having points in BM is understandable. But, if you want to be a glass cannon, wouldn’t it make sense to spec something like 30/30/0/0/10? That would maximize power, precision, critical damage, and would also give you the quickness thing when you changed pets.

But, on the other hand, the traits in those two lines are atrocious. One centers around Signets and the other Traps. Soooo…. here we are.

-Shortbow does more damage than longbow
-I’d recommend Axe over sword since you are a glass cannon
-Warhorn is one of our best weapons no doubt
-For Traits I would recommend putting atleast 5 wilderness survival for faster endurance regeneration
-Also putting 15 in BM can go a long way

And yes our traits are atrocious. Welcome to the Ranger class

From markmanship you can take 10% more damage when full endurance and piercing arrows which are great traits, there is not any “must have” trait on the 30th slot outside the one which increases range with longbow (not needed in PvE) or the trait that makes signets affect you (not needed unless you want Signet of Stone, great skill).
On skirmishing you can get 30% more critical damage for pets, bows cooldown reduction and ability to throw traps (if you use any trap) or anything else, i like 30% mov speed for pets but that’s just me.

If you are going to put 10 points into BM you might as well throw 15, since you don’t really need that third slot from Markmanship and 5 points on survival is a “must have” to increase endurance regeneration. You will have 100 less power but better survivality for you and your pet increasing your damage output by more than just 100 power.

As for weapons, axe is “horrible” main hand for berseker builds, it’s decent for condition builds. It doesn’t bring you better DPS than ANY other weapon, it’s probably our lowest DPS weapon and the skills it has are more suited for condition builds.
Sword is great but risky/tricky to use, it’s our highest DPS weapon but you will only use it when you feel safe going into melee, i use it plenty of times in Dungeons and it’s one of my favourite weapons, coupled with quickness you can melt down anything.
Shortbow is/should be your main weapon in Dungeons, secondary weapon it depends on you. I myself switch weapons a lot, but longbow is probably my most used secondary weapon in Dungeons…barrage is great and rapid fire is decent coupled with quickness.

Agreed with Jay and Sleepy.

Also, if you’re running with less than a full BM build, I would really not recommend using a feline or bird pet since they’re really squishy. Instead, consider a canine (Wolf, Alpine Wolf, or Krytan Drakehound, not Hyena). They don’t look like a heavy dps pet from their stats, but they have a fast attack speed with a short attack animation that allows them to land a lot of hits. They also bring some good utility with their cripple, knockdown, and CC F2 ability.

@Sleepy, You say that the Shortbow should be the number one weapon. I might be wrong, but I’ve always thought of the shortbow as a condition weapon because of the flanking bleed, and the poison volley. Does it also do well with direct damage?

Aurum.8793:

@Sleepy, You say that the Shortbow should be the number one weapon. I might be wrong, but I’ve always thought of the shortbow as a condition weapon because of the flanking bleed, and the poison volley. Does it also do well with direct damage?

Yup, the short bow is better for both condition and direct damage specs. Here’s a good post that breaks down the numbers behind it:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57386-longbow-vs-shortbow-dps-speed-etc/#entry2094997

Shortbow is a great weapon for power builds, remember it shoots two arrows per second so…simply a good weapon. A berseker build will have 50-60% crit chance, therefor one of these two arrows will be a granted crit on average.
About the poison volley, it’s not a skill that should be used in PvE unless you want to reduce healing from X mob. Poison is the weakest condition and the skill itself does poor damage unless you are in melee range.

Usually the only skills you will use from shortbow are 1, 3, 4 and 5, this last one is nearly useless against bosses so i rarely use it on them. Third skill is an extra dodge with 7 seconds cooldown if traited, and 4 is quite decent and gives slow.

About the pets, you just really have to know what you are going to fight…i have no problem using jaguar/hawk as main pets in dungeons but i switch to devourers when i know melee pets won’t do survive at all. Bears are very situational.

Ugh, poison volley. I still have a bad habit of using that ability when I don’t need to. It’s just strange to have a damage ability that’s not worth using.

Dahkeus.8243:

Agreed with Jay and Sleepy.

Also, if you’re running with less than a full BM build, I would really not recommend using a feline or bird pet since they’re really squishy. Instead, consider a canine (Wolf, Alpine Wolf, or Krytan Drakehound, not Hyena). They don’t look like a heavy dps pet from their stats, but they have a fast attack speed with a short attack animation that allows them to land a lot of hits. They also bring some good utility with their cripple, knockdown, and CC F2 ability.

Hyena only gets its max effect after its f2. It is incredible in PvP as you now have two pets tossing around CCs instead of just one. It takes both hyenas to equal the damage of one of the other cannines.

DaisyRogers.6837:

Dahkeus.8243:

Agreed with Jay and Sleepy.

Also, if you’re running with less than a full BM build, I would really not recommend using a feline or bird pet since they’re really squishy. Instead, consider a canine (Wolf, Alpine Wolf, or Krytan Drakehound, not Hyena). They don’t look like a heavy dps pet from their stats, but they have a fast attack speed with a short attack animation that allows them to land a lot of hits. They also bring some good utility with their cripple, knockdown, and CC F2 ability.

Hyena only gets its max effect after its f2. It is incredible in PvP as you now have two pets tossing around CCs instead of just one. It takes both hyenas to equal the damage of one of the other cannines.

Yea, but even with the F2 effect, it still does less dps than any other canine that’s not using its F2. And yea, the double hyena for the extra knockdown can be good, but it’s unpredictable and compared to how useful an on use fear or immobilize is, I can never justify a slot for a hyena, even in PvP.

And it’s sad, because I really like the way hyenas look! It’s a shame their power is half that of other canines. =(

Is poison volley useless even in a situation where you would be using AoE?

Aurum.8793:

Is poison volley useless even in a situation where you would be using AoE?

I use it for tagging in Orr, but damage-wise, it depends. If mobs are going to die fast (like adds in Orr events), then you will only get a few ticks of damage, which doesn’t make it worthwhile. You have to hit a good few mobs and have them soak up the damage from the poison before using poison volley does anything more than a normal auto-attack.

And if you’re poisoning mobs when someone else is poisoning them, then you have a lot of wasted conditions applied since the mob will die before taking even close to the full duration.

I don’t have the exact numbers, and even if I did, it would depend on gear/spec/etc., but watch the numbers that pop up and use your best judgement. Personally, I think it’s still pretty close to useless if not completely useless.

Just as a heads up, bleeds don’t need to be capped at 25 for your damage to get nerfed simply being in a party.

If multiple targets are applying bleeds (and basically everyone can and does) the condition damage from bleed on a target is averaged by the different players causing it. If you’re the only one in your party focused on condition damage, your bleeds get immensely lowered.

Trying to make a build of any kind based on applying bleed for pve is a waste of time. IF you want to make a condition build of any profession, you focus on the conditions other players are less likely to apply (burn, poison, confusion, burn especially if it’s possible).

Sarcasmic.6741:

Just as a heads up, bleeds don’t need to be capped at 25 for your damage to get nerfed simply being in a party.

If multiple targets are applying bleeds (and basically everyone can and does) the condition damage from bleed on a target is averaged by the different players causing it. If you’re the only one in your party focused on condition damage, your bleeds get immensely lowered.

Trying to make a build of any kind based on applying bleed for pve is a waste of time. IF you want to make a condition build of any profession, you focus on the conditions other players are less likely to apply (burn, poison, confusion, burn especially if it’s possible).

Where did you get this information? This is the first time I’ve heard that conditions are averaged.

Test it yourself, it’s something I noticed in passing while dungeon running on my mesmer (who I initially build to full Rampager’s gear).

Alone, I could get my bleeds stacked up between 10-15, usually doing 110-120 damage per tick on dungeon mobs. However if any other party member had caused bleeding on my target, the ticks themselves would drop. 108, 100, 98. So on a boss battle (where everyone is attacking the same target) my bleeds would usually only appear to tick for some value in the 90s. 1/4th of my condition damage gone (from bleeds anyway).

That’s not how bleeds work. I’m not sure what you were seeing, but bleeds are each calculated individually for power and duration up to 25 stacks. I’m not sure what happens at 25 stacks (i.e., if new bleeds are ignored, or a stronger bleed bumps a weaker bleed). They stack in intensity, so a 25 stack of bleeds is just the total damage for all 25 applied bleeds. So if someone else applied a bleed, it does absolutely nothing to your bleed.

I also believe that swapping weapons can affect the damage if you switch from a weapon with no condition damage to a weapon that does have condition damage. Could that be what you were experiencing?

I had at first thought it was might, but then realized my build had no boon stacking beyond vigor. I doubt a weapon switch between 2 weapons prec/pow/cond could have shown such significant drops in damage. I could be mistaken, but I’ve seen the drops enough to just avoid focusing on bleed for pve damage. SPvP is the only viable place for self condition focused bleed stacking.

Sarcasmic.6741:

I had at first thought it was might, but then realized my build had no boon stacking beyond vigor. I doubt a weapon switch between 2 weapons prec/pow/cond could have shown such significant drops in damage. I could be mistaken, but I’ve seen the drops enough to just avoid focusing on bleed for pve damage. SPvP is the only viable place for self condition focused bleed stacking.

I got nothin’ then. Hehe.

I might tinker around with it tonight in the Mists if I have some time when I get home from work. I haven’t used a condition build in several weeks, and even then I don’t think I ever actually tested how bleeds worked myself. I just went by what I’d read on the forums.