Guild Wars 2

Hallo, all! I’m a Thief main, but looking to gear up a Ranger.

I have ZERO experience playing as one, and I don’t have HoT.

While I would definitely accept suggestions for PvP builds, I’m trying to find out what gear to buy for WvW mainly. Unfortunately, MetaBattle doesn’t help non-HoT players much.

Thank you! :-D

My pre-HoT build went like this:
Read traits from top (1) to bottom (3).

Traits:
Marksmanship – 3, 3, 3 or 3, 2, 3 (former for cc, latter for dps)
Wilderness Survival – 2, 3, 2
Beastmastery – 3, 1, 2 or 3, 2, 2 (former for weakness on pet f2, latter for cds and dps)

Gear:
Full Berserker’s

Longbow – Air and (Fire or Blood) Sigils
Greatsword – Energy and Bloodlust Sigils
Armour – Runes of the Scholar/Ranger/Pack (Any of those work)

Infusions:
Full Power Infusions

Food:
Omnomberry Ghosts (or equivalent)
Sharpening Stones

Pets:
Wolf and Krytan Drakehound

Utilities:
“We Heal as One!”
Signet of Stone
Lightning Reflexes
Quickening Zephyr
“Strength of the Pack!”

Alternatives to the build can give similar results, however, this is the one I found the most amount of success with in my years of roaming on ranger in WvW.

Quick link: http://tinyurl.com/jy2hcz6

Hope that helps

Thank a lot! :-D

I used to run something more like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA1CiNsAusActgBGh6fiSI17xdDyAOc/2AoA1JA-TlCEABKqyQiqz8wRAYLlgJt/ABPAAmU+1muAAOEAIcBACAgAczbmNvZg1re1re1reu5Nv5Nv5NLFg5CtA-w

The build Mr Greggles posted is better if you stick close to zergs because lead the wind let’s your arrows pierce, but I find quickdraw way more useful for roaming. Being able to double rapid fire, maul, stealth, or leap makes your build very versatile. Shouts + empathic bond is more than enough condi removal for any 1v1, just keep an eye on your pet, if you lose them then it’s time to double leap away and reset.

Around zergs zephyr’s speed is much more handy than beastly warden but for roaming it depends on what fits your play style. I love the taunt and it pretty much guarantees the bird will land its f2 which still hits pretty hard. For the wolf it helps cc those classes that have that near perma 1 stack of stability.

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you do go with the skirmishing line you should swap that energy sigil on the great sword to something else since you’ll have perma vigor while fighting with it from primal reflexes. I personally like hydromancy for that damage spike/cc but a lot of people go with intelligence for the guaranteed maul crit.

Edit 2: if you are soloing an undefended camp or tower swap the bird to a drake, they are tanky and their attacks cleave. Marsh drake has a nice poison spam to keep the npc healing down, and it’s a channeled attack that will get you to 25 might stacks with SotP for a nice maul burst.

If you are going to solo a keep go with double bears and switch 2 hand training to natural healing and signet of stone to signet of the wild.

Thank you also!
Lots of learning to do… Thief is quite different :-P

I might be wrong with this one but…

Condi was a way to go for non-HoT. It was some time ago but I remember my guildies play core stealth trapper all the time even if they could have played druid.

Since it was long time ago, please, consider this as nothing but a template. I might have mistaken in some things. But I think it was a build like this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8YnUqAlrgtrA2CCUtgBGh6fiVP17xdDCBuAu8AogJVA-TlQqwAD3fAg6PAA-w

Power naturally has a use, too. I’m just saying what I learned back then. I never really was a WvW player.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I might be wrong with this one but…

Condi was a way to go for non-HoT. It was some time ago but I remember my guildies play core stealth trapper all the time even if they could have played druid.

Since it was long time ago, please, consider this as nothing but a template. I might have mistaken in some things. But I think it was a build like this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8YnUqAlrgtrA2CCUtgBGh6fiVP17xdDCBuAu8AogJVA-TlQqwAD3fAg6PAA-w

Power naturally has a use, too. I’m just saying what I learned back then. I never really was a WvW player.

Probably want empathic bond over wilderness knowledge for that build since the only survival skill is entangle. I’d also go axe/torch over shortbow but that’s a personal preference.

Hey there,

I recently posted a list of Ranger/Druid builds here.

They’re basically all PvP builds but I would highly recommend the three under ‘meta pvp builds’. They will all perform well in WvW.

Thank you all! I’ll give these a try! :-)

EDIT: Sorry for the novel. Hope it helps anyway.

Wilderness Skirmisher

Damage
With Fury and when hitting from behind, this build has 100% critical chance with +7% damage when your pet is active from the Ranger runes and +5% from the Sigil of Force. Prickly Pear Sorbet adds additional Ferocity and the Might on critical benefits from your very high critical chance. The +% damage modifiers and the extra Ferocity are to cover for the somewhat low Power even with 25 stacks of Bloodlust.

Cleanse
Wilderness Survival + Brown Bear on swap are good for condition removal. Although you can only remove 4 conditions roughly every 20 seconds or 8 every 40 seconds, it is still enough to deal with the big offenders like Confusion, Torment and Burn. The important thing to remember is that this build is designed for kiting and is strongest at range. Be vigilant and you shouldn’t have to worry much about conditions as you will often be too far away from your targets for them to put many on you. The condition removal in this build is mostly for those emergencies where you’re caught off guard or are outnumbered.

Sigil, Trait and Stat Explaination
Sigil of Agility + Tail Wind give a nice long duration Swiftness on swap. Sigil of Energy guarantees an additional dodge which is always a safe bet when rolling something with low defenses.
Since this build does not use Beastmastery, pets are chosen based on their utility. Wolf or Smokescale are acceptable replacements for Bristleback but I prefer Bristleback for it’s tracking. Brown Bear is used strictly for condition removal and NPC tanking. It’s condition cleanse is on a low cooldown with a short cast time and can be used while you are CC’d so it’s a pretty handy ability.
Marauder amulet, Precise Infusions and Assassin Longbow were chosen to bring Precision to 70%. With Fury, Hunter’s Tactic’s and Spotter, this will bring the remainder to 100%.

Usage
Quick Draw + Swoop x2 gives you a ton of mobility when things start to get hairy. You’ll want to use this trait to it’s maximum potential by keeping people as far away from you as possible. Swoop x2, Point Blank Shot x2 or Hunter’s Shot x2 all work very well for kiting and used properly, can make it extremely difficult for anyone, with the exception of most Thieves, to touch you at all.

Because this build is designed for extremely high damage however, that means you’re very squishy. So not only is this build most effective at range, it demands you to be at range for your own survival. Greatsword has a toughness prefix for a tiny bit of cushioning in melee range but you should avoid melee combat as often as you can. If you think you can afford to be close to an opponent, Counterattack x2 from Quick Draw is a good way to both block and get a big hit in. Trust me this skill can really hurt someone! (I’ve seen it go as high as 8k after blocking a Backstab)

When in zergs or small groups, you should be poking people to find who is the most squishy. At max range, this build is capable of hitting glassy opponents for up to 4k per Long Range Shot and 18k Rapid Fires. Quickening Zephyr + Rapid Fire will kill 90% of unsuspecting Thieves/Ele’s before they know what hit them as long as you’re intelligent about using it! Bait their dodges and heals then counter pressure the heal. If in a zerg, you should be 3-shotting staff Ele’s no problem. Just remember to watch out for reflects, have a stow weapon button handy because you’ll need it.

The tldr of this build is that it’s glass and it’s designed to kill glass. You have the advantage of range and mobility. As long as you see your opponent before they see you, you should win most of your fights. You have enough condition removal to survive a moderate burst, enough mobility to get away from gankers (tip: Hunter’s Shot -> swap -> Swoop x2), extremely high ranged damage capable of killing, or severely wounding other players in only 1second and you don’t need to rely on any boons!

It’s not very creative and it’s extremely risky to play but I have a ton of success with this build. I always giggle a bit when another Ranger tries to Rapid Fire me and it does maybe 70% of my health but when I do it in response, I kill them because I crit more and my damage is higher.
I’m guildless and often scout/roam or hangout on the outskirts of zergs and this build serves me well where ever I choose to use it. Primarily stalking enemy zergs and pew pewing the fat kids which is very fun because I can stay far enough away to avoid being in too much danger and if the zerg turns around, I can disengage quickly enough that no one will bother to chase me.
If it’s your first time playing a full glass Ranger, you’re probably going to die a lot. It’s certainly not a build that requires a high degree of skill but it does require a lot of understanding of your own personal limitations. You don’t have a whole lot of buttons or combos you need to know but you do need to know when to use those skills. So be sure to get familiar with your thresholds and once you do, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Also I just want to brag a little here but I’ve had more than a few Rangers whisper me in WvW asking how I play without Druid and asking what my build is so I must be doing something right :P.

I wouldn’t recommend Smokescale and Bristleback for somebody who hasn’t got HoT – because he can’t use them :p. I also wouldn’t suggest Brown Bear (or any other bear). Those survival skills should be enough condi clear for a LB build that relies on kiting and avoiding dmg anyways. And most condi builds tend to be easy to kite, so you shouldn’t need tons of condi remove.
I actually tried the brown bear on a full glass lb build (MM/SK/BM) once. No condi remove outside of SoR, so i thought, the bear could be a decent addition to my wolf (and of course because “Bear Bow” is cult). But i figured out quite fast that additional CC and dmg from the hound would help me much more to kill stuff, even condi builds. The faster they die, the less chance they get to load me with condis. So hound + wolf are definitely my favoured pet suggestions for a build like this.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

I wouldn’t recommend Smokescale and Bristleback for somebody who hasn’t got HoT – because he can’t use them :p. I also wouldn’t suggest Brown Bear (or any other bear). Those survival skills should be enough condi clear for a LB build that relies on kiting and avoiding dmg anyways. And most condi builds tend to be easy to kite, so you shouldn’t need tons of condi remove.
I actually tried the brown bear on a full glass lb build (MM/SK/BM) once. No condi remove outside of SoR, so i thought, the bear could be a decent addition to my wolf (and of course because “Bear Bow” is cult). But i figured out quite fast that additional CC and dmg from the hound would help me much more to kill stuff, even condi builds. The faster they die, the less chance they get to load me with condis. So hound + wolf are definitely my favoured pet suggestions for a build like this.

You’re definitely right about Bristleback and Smokescale, I didn’t think about that. You also have valid points about the Brown Bear not being terribly useful but in my own personal experience, it has more than earned it’s place. Having two low cooldown condition removals (the bears F2 and Troll Unguent) is really nice when you’re being chased down by condition Chrono’s and Thieves or when you’re being Taunted. More than once I’ve had a Warrior Taunt me and have been able to cleanse it with my bear before they could punish me.

As I’d said, pets are chosen strictly based on their utility since I’m not using Beastmastery with this build. I don’t much care about their damage, just what they can provide for me such as CC’s, boons or other support. Some of the pets I frequently use are; * Bristleback, Smokescale, Wolf, Brown Bear, Pink Moa, Jungle Spider and Siamoth. I prefer to avoid using pets that are too squishy like birds or felines just because without Beastmastery, they die extremely easily even in a 1v1.

It’s true that there’s more than enough condition removal with the utilities I’ve chosen but you can never be too careful when you’re alone, in T2, a high WvW rank and on a profession that most Thieves and Mesmers love to eat. So I prefer to be safe rather than sorry.