Guild Wars 2

In general, I’m reasonably happy with my Ranger WvW performance.
But sometimes I meet seemingly immortal opponents—I can blast them with everything I have, over and over, but it’s like bows and arrows against the lightning.

Then I wonder if my build is rubbish. Can I just get some general feedback on these numbers, are they low, average, high? Are these roughly what other people have?

Power: 2059
Precision: 1990, 55%
Ferocity: 464, 181%
Cond.: 466, 30%dur.
Tough./Armour: 2085/3159
Vitality/HP: 1133/18000
Runes of the Ranger w/+7% damage
Shortbow | Sword/Dagger
Hound/Brown Wolf

If they seem immortal, they either use blocks and invunerability at the right time or they have a lot of healing.
In the first case you should have a better timing. In the second case poison is your friend.

Your stats seem alright for group play. If you run solo, you will learn to love healing power which you didn’t even mention.

I can tell you that it is sometimes quite funny to ignore rangers shooting at you while running over the map. I, as a ranger, can easily ignore the damage done by the bow while running using perma regeneration and signet of the wild. Sometimes I am annoyed when these rangers don’t give up shooting at me, because one is so much slower while being infight. Then I turn around, avoid damage spikes with “Protect!” and kill the ranger with my sword while using my evades against most of their damage. If they should get me low life my bark skin makes my healing power even more effective. Then the enemy often makes mistakes, because he thinks he almost got me down, gets too agressive and forgets his defense.

Looking at your stats I can tell right off that part your problem is using a shortbow with a power set. Shortbow is is more orientated towards condition damage but your condi damage is rather low – a longbow would serve you better as a ranged weapon with power high.

You also need to consider your role in WvW. There is a significant difference between surviving and being effective in a zerg, and being effective as a roamer (Different gear stats, different weapons). Using the wrong set for the wrong role will have inferior results

Your stats look good but it’s clearly not a full offensive setup. You’ve gotten plenty or armour and taken low damage pets.

That’s not to say it’s a bad setup, just that yeah, if you meet a full tank player (especially a warrior or guardian) you are going to struggle to take them down. I mean just think, a guardian with maybe 3200 armour, perma protection and more blocks than you can imagine… Of course he’s not going to go down to a single player with good but not great direct damage.

Hense why most solo roamers (not all, but most) are either full zerker or condition builds, so that they can smash through even the tankiest of opponents.

I’ve used a build with 3000 power, 80% crit chance (with fury), 226 crit damage, and quickness but it just barely seems to dent them. They’re always either warrior or guardian.

That’s why I like the idea of Longbow getting armor pierce on its auto attack.

Thanks everyone, some interesting points! I was mainly interested to know if the numbers themselves seemed low, average or high rather than a build critique, but again your points bring me to further questions;

@Oak da vite; ‘Ignored’ healing power because standard heal gets me back almost half HP and I like to rely on my high armour, Signet of Stone, Protect Me!, and evades for invulnerability instead. I had recently considered Bark Skin, but was put off by the trigger threshold of 25% health—seemed too dangerously low.

@Ryuujin; I love the quick fire on the shortbow, it’s always active and always applying some condition—unlike the Long Bow which I feel leaves one ‘stranded’ for too long, especially if you aren’t traited with Quick Draw. Having said that I ran with SB/LB for the longest time.

@Cufufalating; Definitely not full offense as you say, but I had hoped it would qualify as upper end offense combined with high armour for survivability. The two pets I have chosen have the highest power points of all the pets, what do you mean “they are low damage pets?” Their control abilities are excellent, however.

@Holland; I’ve never had that much power—Zerker build—I just hate getting downed so quickly. But other than those invincible enemies you fought, what about the general populace, did they melt like butter?

Do you feel that you completely understand what is happening on the other side of battle, what your seemingly immortal opponent is doing to stay alive? I suggest that you begin by understanding precisely this, so that you can properly modify your approach and build to better suit the challenges in battle. Sometimes it also happens that you are doing everything you can but they do not die, whereas in reality you are doing it all in the wrong order. The simplest example I can think of is not using poison after/before your enemy uses a heal or pops a regeneration boon on themselves. Another example is not properly timing a stun before or as the enemy heals. In the case when fighting elementalists, using all your condition damage during or immediately before they use the condition clearing heal skill can also be a good example, when you should save some if not most for after their heal.

Pure Heart.1456:

@Holland; I’ve never had that much power—Zerker build—I just hate getting downed so quickly. But other than those invincible enemies you fought, what about the general populace, did they melt like butter?

I’m only doing WvW and I don’t solo-roam (would be suicide), but this is the build I used:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRnUqQtgWyCGsAXLGYPoWHAFwZz+CGhQw1Wkyr2RbtA-TlCEABEcBASU9ntUCy0+jyPDeAAdohpNdAAcICe4IAYimgAAIA38mBghO0hO0hO0u5NH6NHayAovFA-w

I can usually keep 25 stacks of bloodlust up (+250 power). I get Fury from Red Moa and Rampage as One, which is not 100% uptime, but good for bursts.

Yes some melt like butter, especially Rangers…

^^^

Is this the reason all the thieves seem to bee-line my ranger? :p

B – line for the Squishy Zerker ranger , no ranger should ever go Full zerker in WvW lol

OP, you came face-to-face with the reality that LB Ranger suffers from.

Accept that there are many style of builds from other professions that you cannot even inconvenience let alone kill. Even the soldier gear warrior which are primarily turtles will wreck you. It’s just the way it is.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

B – line for the Squishy Zerker ranger , no ranger should ever go Full zerker in WvW lol

You shouldn’t get more survivability than you need. If you survive for hours on end you should drop some survivability and get more damage output. If you still survive for hours on end, get even more damage. Keep going like this until you can’t get rid of any more survivability. This is the rule for any class and any build in the game.

Out-ranging every class in the game is a great amount of survivability in itself. The point is to make sure you keep out-ranging them.

yep thats what im currently doing for WvW but i’ve hit the cap for my server is i go any lower in vit at this current time, i’ll be Stun killed during Zerg pushes even if i do use lighting reflexes to avoid the main bulk of the damage and keep some relitive distance between the heavy melees and me.

to other people Holland above^ Presents a good point before you take any advise from someone promoting full zerker right away, use his method to work out your limits.

I have been using sharpened edges in many of my recent power builds with good results against heavies. Short Conditions constantly applied can help beat condi removal methods. Poison is another must have against heavies, esp signet warrirors.

What traits are you running and what food/sigils as well?

I wish they made lightning reflexes 20 or 25 second cooldown… it’d help a lot lol reduced vigor duration ofc.

It is always a question what you want to build for and against. Is it worth going for more direct damage or condition damage while losing some survivability? What builds do you have problems to fight against and which builds are an easy kill for you?

Me, for example, I have no problem to fight zerker builds. But some condition and hybrid builds give me a hard time. As I am playing in groups quite often, I lack some condition remove while running solo. I could change my build for more condition remove, but I would either loose survivability or damage, which might result in loosing against zerkers and giving a worse performance for the group.

Another question ist the importance of killing someone or not getting killed. If you are the agressor, you want to kill your enemy fast to capture. If you are the defender, you want ot stay alive as long as possible while slowly getting rid of the agressors.

Keep in mind every build has a counter. If your kill/death ratio is on your favor, I would think there’s nothing wrong with your build :> It would be helpful if you posted your build too, easier to give tips and constructive criticism.

Referring ya’ll back to the OP, note the armour at 3159.
There are still occasions when poof! Thieves disappear and then, tink tink! tink tink!
…and I’m downed from full health in mere seconds. What gives?

Pure Heart.1456:

Referring ya’ll back to the OP, note the armour at 3159.
There are still occasions when poof! Thieves disappear and then, tink tink! tink tink!
…and I’m downed from full health in mere seconds. What gives?

thats just how thiefs kill their target without being hammered into the floor, If you got gs wait 1-2secs then block force his hand to back away, if your condi with a evade type build let him hit you once , then kite away with shortbow 3.
if you got traps shouldn’t be a problem just plant a spike trap+burning trap , then attack him with full pressure but make sure to save your utlity doing that will make him pop his first.
preventing cloak and dagger with blocks and evades as soon as they waste that first stealth really messes with them.

on other accounts its one of those classes you need to play against 1vs1 with a friends to learn the bad habbits theifs do some times.

Pure Heart.1456:

Referring ya’ll back to the OP, note the armour at 3159.
There are still occasions when poof! Thieves disappear and then, tink tink! tink tink!
…and I’m downed from full health in mere seconds. What gives?

It would be more helpful if you showed us your build rather than the raw numbers, you can use this site http://en.gw2skills.net/editor for example.

Kilger.5490:

^^^

Is this the reason all the thieves seem to bee-line my ranger? :p

I run full zerk longbow in both spvp and wvw, and yes thieves will bee line for me… if they dont they die… do you blame them?

Three Minutes