Guild Wars 2

Hello rangers,

I am back into the game since almost 2 years ago and getting around to learning about fractals, ascended gear, etc. (used some of the laureals and some pristine fractaI to buy some ascended trinkets and now gunning for those crafted Wup Wup gear – almost there).

Looking into the celestial gear now, I am thinking it gives me the option of doing what I always wanted, a well rounded build that can go against all specific builds, provided you play well.

So here is the idea I was toying with (this would be for roaming – I was also thinking of using it in PVP just to get some exp and play around):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNMQJAVRjMq0yaHLOsQ1aABhaVAwueTgJwdTkDfdJjqC-TVSFABrpD4gDBAAXAg42foONB9pEcS1fa4JAUlyPSBYuwI-w

The rational behind it is basically:

- Shortbow, although it continues being a subpar weapon ever since I left (was considering replacing it for axe and torch, but I just like it so much….) designed to give great amount of bleeding and provide a good kitting weapon;

- Greatsword, good burst with a combo of weapon swap, swoop, stun and maul (this weapon became a beast), plus its AA aint that bad. (Was thinking of replacing this with Sword and Torch / Sword and Dagger, to get a better disengange / chasing ability than swoop, but then I feel that no skirmish grandmaster trait would be good for this build)

Trait allocation is very straightforward, idea is to focus on crit rather than direct power. With this build I think I have a good amount of CC to apply (Stun, daze, immob, cripple) as well as a very good fury up time (weapon swap and survival skills, plus greatsword attack) – Idea is to constantly have around 80% crit chance with a 200~% crit damage. (which should compensate for the lower power, and with smart weapon swaps I think I can have 6 might on a constant basis).

Traveler runes are there because of the roaming purpose of the build, need that 25% and think that SotH would be a waste of skill slot, even if now it affects you as well.

Condi removal is more on the active side with the Surival of the Fittest (3 active survival skills and one passive from trait) – think spring is also a bit better for a heal skill because of the blast ability with swoop.

Signet of Stone is there as “oh crap, let’s bail” button, or to give that bit of extra survivability for the bleed or attacks to down my foe.

Any thoughts? I am looking to stick with the Celestial Gear and I am not looking to play the condi bunker build (I know it is powerful, but I hate depending on condi so much to do damage…. just isn’t my style of play).

Looks good to me, I like it.

You might want TU instead of HS, but it’s sort of personal preference. They both have their advantages. Make sure you use swoop in your water field pretty much on recharge if you go that route.

If you find yourself wanting more damage, even non-traited traps are super easy to lure people over, so you can swap MT for flame trap. I’m a MT fan myself, so just tossing that out there.

By the way, if you do wind up swapping your SB, mainhand axe is looking really good these days, especially for celestial.

Edit: Also that’s a surprisingly well thought out build for not having played for 2 years!

Try this,
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNMQJAVRjMq0vaBLOsQ1aAChYVQ74yU2FRPlMqKA-TlSFABrpDYhjAwBHCAAuAA9pEcS1fgZ/hqU+hmmgBeAAkCwchRA-w

I find that with SB/GS Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival Trait lines are the way to go. If you want to run a might build use Axe. This build will put out similar damage but has superior condi removal. You are missing a bit of fury uptime with it but it is still manageable with the precision and boons from the Lyssa runes and weapon swaps. I suppose if you don’t care for the condi to boon on elite you could keep the travelers rune and swap out SoH for SoW to go with your 400healing power and get some stability. Or you can have high condition pressure with perplexity runes which also go well with your 2 stuns.

Hi @Azel.4786,
I have lots of experience wit SB/GS set up and there are some pointers i can give you:

1.If want hyprid/power setup you realy want to be at atleast 2000 power as base, less than that and your crits will feel noodlish in terms of damage.

2.air sigil is your best friend, it boosts and SB damge by alotttt, i use fire as second sigil but its more arguable, air is a must.

3. SB(your main damage source) has no burst damge potential build into the weapon, some builds will be able to out sustain your damage(like d/d ele, good medi gurds gs/hammer warriors with melandru condi defence food etc…) you need utilites like QZ and SOTW to function as burst rotations.

First of all, thanks a lot for the inputs guys.

@Fluffball, yeah I was thinking about going axe torch to get the burning condi… but the ability to trap people in place is what would work as a condi removal / help against thieves.

@ Slavi, I thought about going Wilderness instead of Nature Magic, but on one side it makes me more passive on my condi removal and on the other it makes me more reliant on weapon swaps for fury and condi for damage (power goes down to a 1572 without any chance to increase it).

Signet of the Wild is a big dilema for me though, on one side the 150 Thoughness from SoS is good, plus the good sos move when you activate it… guess I will have to go with the feel on the build.

@ LughLongArm, yeah, I aimed for a 2000 or closest to it I could get… I can’t get more points into power unless I lose points in precision or take out the rune of the traveler.

What I was thinking on damage though is that with the sigil and the traits selection, I would have a good chance of proc 2-3 (or even 4) bleed stacks, which together with my shots should give about 600-800 damage against heavily armored targets. Increasing as the bleed stacks increase.

Now I have seen a little bit shocked the Warrior constant heal ability, that thing is nasty and he heals a lot, but I guess then my way out would be to focus more on the greatsword for damage in those situations.

QZ is something I like… although two years ago it was even more awesome (specially before the SB AA speed stealth nerf), but I swapped it for muddy terrain due to the better cooldown and the need for condi removal (60s seems too much and couldn’t spare the trait points for the lower cooldown on it)…

Guess to improve it would be to try to go for the axe, but I want to make SB work so much more…

You got any ideas to keep the survivability I have now, but reach the 2k base power?

I just want to applaud you OP for not taking the easy way out and going for the no skill, brainless Rapid Fire/SoS spam build that seems so prevalent in WvW these days. Honestly, melee rangers are way more fun and still very viable.

@Azel.4786
I made some changes on your template(tried to stick to your guide lines, didn’t change to much). my reasonings:
1)One of most popular builds for warriors in WVW today inclueds condi defence food+hoelbark runes which give -60% condi duration, your sharpend edges trait is 2sec bleed, -60% its 0.8(sec) bleeds only deal damage each full second, which means your trait does nothing for meny tanky builds, and very litle for other. If you dont go condi duration focus with food and spesific rune choises(krait), don’t go this direction(same goes for earth sigil).
2) I replaced runes for pack, with your weapons swap and the rune u’ll have all the swiftness u’ll need in comabt, better fury duration(its atleast 100% uptime right now). for a solution off comabt i added sigil of speed on GS, kill 2 wolves(4 with summosns) and stack like 2min wiftness.

3) I replaced Moc with spotter for better stats distribution, I feel like Moc is not as consistent as one would think, its very hard to combo with a maul, unless your are supoer pro, keep it simple (feel free now to tkae S/d instad of GS if you like it).

4)changed: strengh of spirit with natural bounty to get the max out of your heal, u’ll need that regnen uptime more that you think. two handed trainig for whatever(i put evasive purify) you already have 100% fury uptime and the 5% buff wont do that much, GS is more of a support weapon. changed buff from precision to strengh(with changes you have the same crit chance, ~60%). changed rampager to assassin on SB(no point for rampager now).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNMQJAVRjMq0yaHLOsQ1aABhaZAMvMr3Kw9QcDfdJjqC-TVyEABG8AAuTXwfKBrU9nAuAAPcEAuS5nN7PAwhAgUAmrMC-w

More adjusments to test/consider – malicious training over keen edges, bloodlust sigil over battle on GS, different sigil so SB to replace battle(i put strengh should give more than 3 might wiht your crit chance). Try to take SOTW instad of muddy terrain or SoS, your healing power makes the passive as good as a mango pie food, also the stability and and+ damange and speed is amazing(best utility sigent).

Hi,

@Atticus, thanks – tryring to get a little variation from that. Not only it helps to improve your skill, but I like versatility more than being a one trick pony.

@LughLongArm,

Thanks for the input, like your changes a lot.

I was going MoC to try and have a bit more milage from the SB and the GS stun attacks and have the opportunity to pull that tricky combo. While still testing the build (albeit not yet with all celestial armor), when you manage to land it, its nasty, but doing it consistently is difficult indeed.

With your changes I think I get more consistency rather than the big whack, which is nice and helps with the versatility.

I also liked the natural bounty, was using strength of spirit to compensate for the lower power, now with a base 2k that is not needed.

With the changes I am wondering if I shouldn’t go with the sword/x to fully utilize the hybrid potential of celestial gear. Sword is able to do good damage and give some decent duration conditions. Maybe go with Sword/Dagger which gives more evades and conditions with good base duration (poison and bleeding).

On the change of muddy terrain for SOTW, the damage buff and specially the stability is really good, but I dont know if I lose out a lot on the condi removal/CC. Muddy train gives me a 25s condi removal, fury and stops the guy on his tracks for a bit, giving more room to reposition, deal damage and, if the guy is running, stop him to get closer and kill him.

If I do go with sword though, I got to learn how to master the sword 2 skill, don’t have much problem with the sword 1, I am very used to running without the auto attack on so that I can use skills with more efficency, but the sword 2 is tricky because of the first move being a backwards roll instead of a forward jump (only the forward jump triggers the water field right?) – if only I could learn how to move around and use it as a side roll rather than a backward roll that would help a lot.

@Azel.4786
Hi,
sword/dagger vs GS – sword dagger is one of the most skill rewarding weapon sets in the game. On paper is much better than GS for your build, if you think about it, sb and s/d have similar gmae rhythm, with movments,evades fast AA etc.. moreover, its another way to make use of your 400+ condi damage with more poison and bleeds, more cripple and might on pet. If you can handle it, by all means use it. The button “z” can realy help with camera rotation for “sword 2”. The long poison pressure will also open up for your new pet options like a raven as a second pet(perplacment for spider) for burst on deamend. GS is just very easy and fun to use, much more relaxing and very good for land speed(off comabt mobility).

muddy terrain vs SOTW – lets breake it down :as a fury source: fury up time already 100%, think about it, your rune set and bonus from weapon swapping alone will give you90%+ fury uptime(13sec every 20sec+6.5every 10 sec) you have another 23 sec fury from 3 survival utilites(LR, entangle and keen edge)on ~40-60 sec cd, so its a waste as a fury sourse.
as a condi defence mechanism – its 2 condi removal every 25 sec, i added to your build evasive purify which is 1 condi removal every 10 sec(which condi build doesnt put long duration poison on you) so in terms of condi defence its about the same compared to your original build, moreover, vs super condi builds you would like to change for SOR any way, so look at it as a flexisable utility slot.
as a utility – the long cast time and the ground targeting making it very underwhelming, its also can be evaded and blocked(unlike traps), it can work as a good chain with elite(works the best on necros) but thats about it. SOTW passive scales amazingly with healing power – ~90health every sec, the active saved so meny times its about defence as much as it about offence- with sword/gs mobility -> 50% speed, not much can catch you after that, 10 sec stability and damage buff also helps alot.

Hi Lugh,

Sorry it took me so long to answer, complicated couple of days.

Your arguments make a lot of sense, I will try out both styles and see what works best for me, but indeed the casting time on muddy terrain is too long and I do miss the ability to have stability against Mr. Stun-a-lot.

Thank you guys for the help with my build.