Guild Wars 2

Greatsword Ranger Debate,

Power or Condition Damage and why?

Sub weapon and why?

Thank you! ^^

Defensive weapon. I don’t use it for fighting, it’s awful. The block and leap on it however are awesome.

why would you even consider condition damage? it has no damaging conditions (even before last patch… the three bleeds were pitiful) on its weapon skills (yes you can burn with fire swoop or traps… but then why arent you using sword or axe?)

power.

as for alternate weapons you’ll find differing opinions
alot of people like melee rangers (and i see the appeal) using both sword/x and GS
i like LB and GS (swoop being a way to easily close the ‘icky’ damage distance of LB and get up in peoples face or to retreat to a safe distance)

Linguistically Inept.6583:

why would you even consider condition damage? it has no damaging conditions (even before last patch… the three bleeds were pitiful) on its weapon skills (yes you can burn with fire swoop or traps… but then why arent you using sword?)

power.

as for alternate weapons you’ll find differing opinions
alot of people like melee rangers (and i see the appeal) using both sword/x and GS
i like LB and GS (swoop being a way to easily close the ‘icky’ damage distance of LB and get up in peoples face or to retreat to a safe distance)

If you consider using the Spirits which are all about adding conditions then why not focusing on condition damage even with a Greatsword to make more “condition damage” especially that the Greatsword traits are in condition duration.

No, just no. GS is a defensive power weapon. Listen to what these guys are telling you.

Spirits are not just all about conditions. Only one out of 4 non-elite spirits grants you one condition every 10 seconds. There is no reason to build full out condition damage just for a 3 second burn every 10 seconds from sun spirit.

Ralk.7106:

No, just no. GS is a defensive power weapon. There is no reason to build full out condition damage just for a 3 second burn every 10 seconds from sun spirit.

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

I use the GS in my power crit build. It’s the only way I can seem to put burst on a target. Well…. “Burst.” Also the evade and block it gives is nice for my squishy self.

I generally only use great sword as a troll weapon or exclusive farming weapon in fotm when it comes to jade maw :_: ….

Power would be the way to go though, as other people have stated; it has no real condition benefits. Generally, any melee weaps you go (daggers being an exception) power what you really should be focused on. There are the exceptions of course….

pysta.1278:

Ralk.7106:

No, just no. GS is a defensive power weapon. There is no reason to build full out condition damage just for a 3 second burn every 10 seconds from sun spirit.

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

condition duration != condition damage
… and poor planning (or balan… an attempt at balance)… you also see trap potency in prec+crit damage yet thats clearly a condi trait

pysta.1278:

Linguistically Inept.6583:

why would you even consider condition damage? it has no damaging conditions (even before last patch… the three bleeds were pitiful) on its weapon skills (yes you can burn with fire swoop or traps… but then why arent you using sword?)

power.

as for alternate weapons you’ll find differing opinions
alot of people like melee rangers (and i see the appeal) using both sword/x and GS
i like LB and GS (swoop being a way to easily close the ‘icky’ damage distance of LB and get up in peoples face or to retreat to a safe distance)

If you consider using the Spirits which are all about adding conditions then why not focusing on condition damage even with a Greatsword to make more “condition damage” especially that the Greatsword traits are in condition duration.

condition damage; not condition duration
its poor planning and wasted stats (or they decided to lump GS CD in with sword CD…)
sun spirit is 3s burning every 10s… and no other spirit is condition damage, i see no reason why you wouldnt just go sword

(and power builds make use of condition duration with non-damaging conditions… not thakittens relevant, since you obviously got confused… )

pysta.1278:

Ralk.7106:

No, just no. GS is a defensive power weapon. There is no reason to build full out condition damage just for a 3 second burn every 10 seconds from sun spirit.

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

Same reason that our trap traits are in crit chance/crit damage line when traps can’t crit.

Levetty.1279:

pysta.1278:

Ralk.7106:

No, just no. GS is a defensive power weapon. There is no reason to build full out condition damage just for a 3 second burn every 10 seconds from sun spirit.

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

Same reason that our trap traits are in crit chance/crit damage line when traps can’t crit.

While i agree that the placement of the trap traits are annoying, traps can actually crit. The crits from them are rather pitiful damage wise but it can be useful for proccing on crit bleeds etc.

Pvp or pve.. ? Quite a big difference

Pvp:
Power to the max and full on zerker. Combined with a LB it’s a perfect burst weapon in conjunction with moment of clarity. Hit the enemy a little then rush in, hilt bash(triggering MoC) and hit maul. It’s not uncommon to see that hit(crit) for 4-6k, and that’s not even on the glass cannons. If all goes horribly wrong just hit 4(block) and create some distance and face the right way and the fly away to safety like a bird(swoop)!

I’m more of a sword fan in pve myself since the raw dmg is just higher. But again power over condition damage if you want to build around GS since it doesn’t gain anything from condi.dmg
I’d say axe/warhorn for secondary probably? Just to provide some boons and damage when not being right in the enemies face for different reasons

Eatpies.6598:

Levetty.1279:

pysta.1278:

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

Same reason that our trap traits are in crit chance/crit damage line when traps can’t crit.

While i agree that the placement of the trap traits are annoying, traps can actually crit. The crits from them are rather pitiful damage wise but it can be useful for proccing on crit bleeds etc.

Except for ice trap, all the traps do both direct damage and condition damage. The direct damage part can crit. The condition damage part cannot. But the direct damage is pretty small relative to the condition damage, so it’s a moot point. You use the traps for the condition damage, not for the crits. Trying to “sell” the usefulness of traps based on critical damage is like trying to sell breast implants to men.

Solandri.9640:

Eatpies.6598:

Levetty.1279:

pysta.1278:

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

Same reason that our trap traits are in crit chance/crit damage line when traps can’t crit.

While i agree that the placement of the trap traits are annoying, traps can actually crit. The crits from them are rather pitiful damage wise but it can be useful for proccing on crit bleeds etc.

Except for ice trap, all the traps do both direct damage and condition damage. The direct damage part can crit. The condition damage part cannot. But the direct damage is pretty small relative to the condition damage, so it’s a moot point. You use the traps for the condition damage, not for the crits. Trying to “sell” the usefulness of traps based on critical damage is like trying to sell breast implants to men.

I agree that the damage dealt by the traps, even when critting, is not even worth considering. However, it is possible to trigger traits such as sharpened edges or companions might or even sigil of earth, using these tiny trap damage crits to apply additonal conditions using the traps (spike trap is less useful for this as it does not pulse and ice trap cannot do this at all).

pysta.1278:

Ralk.7106:

No, just no. GS is a defensive power weapon. There is no reason to build full out condition damage just for a 3 second burn every 10 seconds from sun spirit.

Then why they have put the Greatsword traits in both Condition duration and Boon Duration line instead of power line? 0.o

Because ranger traits don’t make sense and some compromises are made for PvP purposes (as is the case almost all the time with the ranger class). The party precision buff is in the power/condition duration line, despite it giving perception. It’s in neither the precision line or the party support line.

Traps are in the precision/crit damage line. Some people have argued this allows trap builds to bring defensive traits, but it comes at the cost of real precision and crit damage traits. Rangers that want to build precision or crit damage builds have terrible option (not a typo) because the precision line is devoted to traps (despite traps themselves having almost nothing to do with crits or crit damage).

gs is a deffensive weapon with one dmg skill(maul) its good in zerg fights but short sword is better in 1v1 fights (pvp and boss fights). i think gs is an excelent second weapon in most cases. but it has the power to be main

Linguistically Inept.6583:

sun spirit is 3s burning every 10s… and no other spirit is condition damage, i see no reason why you wouldnt just go sword

Not that it makes that much difference, but if your pet is in range and is attacking too it’s 6 sec burning every 10 sec.

Power

I love the GS. In PvE I always run a squishy build and the GS auto-attack evade makes it great for wading in and cleaving groups down. Though in general I feel the norn animations are a bit silly it still feels fun with the GS, like dancing through a crowd. I miss the beta damage but shrug

It should be a power weapon – but everyone knows that rangers don’t get effective power weapons, because then we’d be overpowered. After all, your pet has 100% hitrate and uptime, to bring your DPS up to par with other classes, right?