Guild Wars 2

Hi! as the title suggests, i’m trying to build a TRAPPER RANGER with RUNES OF THE TRAPPER with reasonable condi damage.

However i’d like to stick with the longbow, hence i’d like a reasonable amount of Berserker stats to be able to deal some burst damage too.

Precision should be high enough to have at least 50% crit chance, whilst condo damage reasonably high and i’d like to invest the rest of the possible stats i can get into Power and Ferocity.

I’ve been trying to do the math all day using exotic gear but i think a bit of help from the forums won’t hurt :P Not sure what combination of armour pieces or trinkets would provide me the above. Please help! Thank you!

The most important question is:
WvW?

If so, you might consider playing a Celestial Ranger. I’ll give myself an easy time and build it in PvP editor (much less time picking stats, so please, feel free to ignore the Amulet and Rune – It would take a bunch of time to hit puzzle the stats into ideal):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjEq0ua5KGsQ1aABhYVQ73wW2JZblMqKA-T5QIwAAOCAs2fYYZAA

You’ll lack defenses via traits, so I’d say celestial for bonus stats could be a viable compensation. Since you really like the Longbow – that has zero synergy with conditions, I decided to make you a build that makes a use of it. A utility stealth Ranger.

Your game-play should orientate around sneaky plays where you’ll slowly drag your enemy down and stealth/reposition yourself on cooldown. You might not be the best duelist in the world, but you’ll definitely be as irritating to play against as Cloak&Dagger thief.

Watch the video(build inside), one of the best rangers I hvae met.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja82voSUMxk

I would use a build very close to that. If it were me. Just a couple of changes, added sigils, trapper runes, cheap food/wrench buffs, Oakheart Salve instead of HiPS to take advantage of that healing power.

I’ve found that you’ve usually got to make the choice of ferocity or condition damage, not both. I currently run a bleed focused SB build with all sinister gear that does quite well with 2/6/6/0/0 traits. If you wanted to adapt that to the lobgbow, you could change the talents to 6/6/2/0/0 and potentially find some more direct damage by splitting half of your stats into carrion, rampager or even berserker if you’re willing to give up condition damage.

Valder – He’ll end up with Zero Condi Cleanse.
… And you probably know what that means on a class without reliable escapes/utility.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Valder – He’ll end up with Zero Condi Cleanse.
… And you probably know what that means on a class without reliable escapes/utility.

I run into that issue a lot and I’ve found several ways around it. Healing spring can be good cleanse in any build and if you really feel like you’re getting burned by it you can always run condition clearing/transfer sigils. There’s also the signet of renewal which you can run and still have 2 traps.

I played hybrid trapper in WvW a lot with this build. Worked pretty well for me.

Haven’t unlocked sinister/carrion asc trinkets yet, otherwise i would use those instead of rampagers.

If you need more defensive stats, you can add more rabid/knight/carrion pieces.

Cele is imo not the best option for trapper, because it doesn’t benefit much from the healing power. Especially if the heal skill is the only source of healing.

Some pretty valid points from Valder and Umbra.

But the thing is that the most key part to WvW is mobility. If he doesn’t want to play Traveler, he has to get SotH. Plus healing power is mostly useless on everyone except for hybrid classes like Eles. There’s a nice video on youtube explaining why Healing Power is worthless, so I’ll skip the explanation.
The Celestial itself is worth even if the healing power is not used much.

Also, healing spring is not the option. In WvW you never fight around 1 point. You wouldn’t get more than 2 condis down from that ability if you are playing the right way.

If the player decides to go Sinister Stats for trapper runes… That misses the main point of build-goals. If you play full offensive stats – you need to take your enemy down in the least time possible. And Zerker is the clear answer for that. It would even open half of the traits and combination available to the key aspects, since we are facing here a problem of No Condi cleanse/Useless short-ranged missing LB/Traps not reliable/no mobility/no slots for Survival Abilities.

So for full offensive builds – ice trap+spike trap and full Glass would be the way to go. If the original poster requested a condi build with using longbow, I believe the purpose would be fulfilled the best with mix of defense/offense. Conditions make sense only if you live long enough to keep replying them because they have zero burst or surprise aspects.

Cele all the way.

You’ll have high precision and high ferocity so its a good fit for longbow.

I played celestial longbow trapper for a while but the lack of stunbreaks killed it for me.

Also I don’t think it does as much damage as zerk lb or condi survival.

Well, the good options are already out there to be copy>pasted.
The original poster asked for a favor, so we are doing our best to help him meet his demands.

Healing power scales nicely with regen, which is why I would use Oakheart Salve on a cele Ranger. HS and TU also scale pretty nicely with it. HS gets the initial heal scaled 1:1 and the regen by 12.5%. It is not worthless imo, no matter what wooden potatoes says

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATVjMq0ua5KGsQ1aABhaZAMvtrhQoFYmAZQJjqC-TlCFABB8AAYRtgP0Fg9+DAcIAuSJIKqqYlyPXUhIhLAgogyI-w

I have longbow/shortbow on this build.
A few things, you could run lightning reflexes or Signet of Stone instead of Signet of the Hunt. If you run SoS, swap in Signet Mastery for Keen Edge
You could also use Sword/Torch or Sword/Dagger instead of Shortbow. Swap out Hide in Plain Sight for Offhand Mastery if you do.

Food: Any of the 40% condition duration food will work. Coi Cake (Or Super Veggie Pizza), Bowl of Cactus Fruit Salad or Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Beans (Coi Cake or Super Veggie Pizza are the cheapest options.

Sigils:
For LB, Doom and Earth, Rapid Fire can stack quick a bit of bleed, especially if Keen Edge procs + 6 secs Poison. Can also combo your projectile finishers with the flame trap for more burn.
Shortbow run Air + Stacking Sigil (your choice, I would go Bloodlust)
Sword/X : Run Earth (or Energy) + Stacking

I run the sigils that way to keep a somewhat even Spread of Conditions and Damage in these hybrid Builds. Air gives SB more DPS while Earth gives LB and Sword more conditions.

LB/SB works a lot better when you roam with other people in WvW because lets face it, your hardly ever gonna get a proper 1v1 outside of OS and builds like these can’t 1v2+ as much as other builds can. Running Sword offhand gives you more mobility so going solo becomes a bit easier.

Pets: Wolf as second pet. CC is unreal. First Pet could be other canines or Jungle Spider for the Immob. Forest Spider with another poison is another option especially when your facing a Signet Warrior, anything cele or a regen build.

Btw, I have always run Healing Spring. Troll Unguent is a viable alternative but I like to combo leap/blasts for extra healing or projectiles for more Regen.

Keep in mind that Trapper LB builds gets pretty hard countered by regular LB builds. Their pets will set off all your traps, putting reveal on you.

Tragic Positive.9356:

But the thing is that the most key part to WvW is mobility. If he doesn’t want to play Traveler, he has to get SotH.

Trapper without SotH/Traveler is not the fastest outfight, but the infight mobility is actually pretty decent, thanks to superspeed and sword leaps (and some swiftness on weapon swap). Stealth in general is very powerful, when it comes to escaping and LR adds some mobility too. Moving speed alone won’t save you, if you get locked down by immob/stuns. Those two things are, what kills most trap rangers (who usually play with 3 traps). Not the lack of swiftness/25% extra speed.

And you can always swap to SotH/Warhorn, if you have to travel some distance without fighting.

Tragic Positive.9356:

If the player decides to go Sinister Stats for trapper runes… That misses the main point of build-goals. If you play full offensive stats – you need to take your enemy down in the least time possible. And Zerker is the clear answer for that. It would even open half of the traits and combination available to the key aspects, since we are facing here a problem of No Condi cleanse/Useless short-ranged missing LB/Traps not reliable/no mobility/no slots for Survival Abilities.

So for full offensive builds – ice trap+spike trap and full Glass would be the way to go. If the original poster requested a condi build with using longbow, I believe the purpose would be fulfilled the best with mix of defense/offense. Conditions make sense only if you live long enough to keep replying them because they have zero burst or surprise aspects.

It is not necessary to go full sinister, luckily WvW allows the mixing of stats. There are more options for hybrid than cele or full glass. Of course cele does work for trapper, but with mixed stats and a decent amount of active defense (evades, mobility, stealth, cc), you can trade defensive stats for more dmg, without loosing too much survability (in many situations a stun-/immobbreak – preferable LR – alone adds more survability than those defensive stats from cele gear).

Zerker is only your best option, if you are able to kill your opponent(s) fast, but that’s not always the case, even with full glass zerk build. If you have to kite/play defensive, the extra dmg from condis come in pretty handy.
And not many expect condipressure from a lb ranger, so there is some sort of “surprise aspect” ^^

kiwituatara.6053:

Keep in mind that Trapper LB builds gets pretty hard countered by regular LB builds. Their pets will set off all your traps, putting reveal on you.

This is true for lb ranger with good condi remove. But most lb ranger I encounter in WvW run with (almost) zero condi cleanse and are easy prey for hybrid (or condi) builds.