Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to level up my HoT masteries and such, but I have a terrible time on those maps. I’ve always been pretty bad at builds on mmo’s, so hopefully someone can give me a few tips. It’s all over the place right now, so sorry in advance.

Pets: Jungle Spider/Arctodus

Weapons: (sigils are Masterwork)
(Longbow) Soldier’s Pearl Stinger
- Minor Sigil of Force
- Major Sigil of Accuracy

(Greatsword) Zenith Avenger
- Major Sigil of Force
- Major Sigil of Accuracy

Armor: (Runes are Masterwork)
Accursed Visage
- Superior Rune of Orr

Vatlaaw’s Pauldrons
- Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

Zho’s Coat
- Superior Rune of the Flock

Vatlaaw’s Gloves
- Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

Shiro’s Leggings
- Superior Rune of Rage

Shiro’s Greaves
- Superior Rune of Rage

Traits:
Beastmaster – Resounding Timbre – 2-handed Training – Zephyr’s Speed
Marksmanship – Signet of the Wild – Steady Focus – Lead the Wind
Wilderness Survival – Expertise Training – Refined Toxins – Poison Master

My Playstyle:
I like to use brute force the most, but I like the range and pet mechanics of the ranger class. I’m not opposed to using conditions to help me out, I just don’t like to rely on them as the focus of my damage. That’s it, basically. I almost exclusively play PvE, and would love a build/equipment that allows me to play in the HoT maps without constantly dying. I know there’s plenty of guides out there, and I’ve looked at them, but I wanted to ask here first, too, before I sink some gold

Swap the Spider for a Bristleback or Tiger/Lynx/Jaguar. The Tiger in particular will give you additional fury while melee’ing with GS.
If you don’t have Druid unlocked, change Refined Toxins/PM to the condition/control related traits Shared Anguish and Empathetic Bond (Or Wilderness Knowledge if you use those skills as utilities/heals/elites). Conditions aren’t too big of a deal in PvE, but it’ll still help you avoid taking too much damage or getting bounced around too often where conditions/cc do apply

Lynx or any other cat is a good substitute for euthy’s tiger suggestion. Generally you want to avoid bears because they do bad damage.

Most people try to go almost entirely power or almost entirely condi, which really boosts your damage and lets you pick matching runes and equipment. Superior runes of the ranger are what you’re looking for, or runes of the eagle for a cheap version. For armor, try to get berserker’s as a main stat, and supplement it with some power-based defense if you just can’t stay alive. Use karma, dungeon tokens, WvW badges, crafting, TP, I think guilds offer some armor? PvP reward tracks do… you don’t need to go all gold on the TP basically.

Edit: My lazy-mode PvE skills are signet of stone, signet of renewal, and either lightning reflexes or the druid damage glyph. You’ll want signet of the hunt if you don’t have the druid speed buff trait though.

Edit 2: This is pretty close to what your typical open world power druid will play, as a reference:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA1silsA+rActgFDBjJAsuaAPbhYQODerOWLrlMlwA-TxBFABAcFAuSJYhq/kmuAkU+JwjAAo9HAA-e

Thanks for the replies! I’ll try to get a Tiger, Lynx, or Jaguar to accompany me on the quest for a Bristleback. Fluffball (awesome name btw), what do you mean by ‘power-based defense’?

I have Druid unlocked, but not all of it is trained yet – I have up through ‘Live Vicariously’ trained.

jesse.3680:

what do you mean by ‘power-based defense’?

Power (and/or precision) as a stat and then some toughness and/or vitality and/or healing power.

If you use LB and take some defensive utilities you really shouldn’t need defensive gear though.

Few points to add for new rangers out there.

If your not already doing it, to get druid all the way up, do some simple zerging in Edge of the Mists, I find it easy and fun, it gives you the coins of notority or something like that which you can trade for hero points in your home WvW map.

I agree you should get the Tiger and Brisstleback, tigers F2 does more base damage than Lynx and is faster than Jaguar. Brisstleback has good condition bleeds and is a good ranged / melee mix with Tiger.

Full zerk of course if you like doing mostly damage, you may not use druid trait if you prefer power, but if you want to heal a little than your weapon of choice is the staff.
I alternate my second between LB and GS, GS for solo content and LB if the group is melee based.
I also switch my traits on the fly, to match these second weapons.

Stat wise, i have high toughness which i find is good for low level mobs who mostly have low damage, and with this (in non HoT mind you) I simple take their hits, lay traps and move on.
Traps, for SW, HoT and some other high level mobs they don’t like condi, husk for example, so I run 3 traps, not spikes as their cool down is too long, so i use flame, glyph spike thing, vipers. Another point to remember is these high level PvE mobs tend to have more enemies per encounter so traps tag up to 5 of them and then I use my GS cleave to mow them down.

Rotation wise, drop each of these traps while using staff or GS, this forces the pet to attack as soon as the trap triggers, personally i find this works best as with my low power full healing build I still melt most things.

Just a note on the Tiger. It is worth it and can be had fairly easily. Just use the LFG tool to find a group in Dragon’s Stand, preferably central, and then teleport to a member of the group. You can google for the location. My rangers all do this and then get the hell out of there.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve now got full exotic and weapons, berserker stats with the sigils and runes suggested. I changed the traits as suggested as well. I’m going to try it out in Verdant Brink, and maybe try the trap skills out to see if they help with those mobs. The quest for a Tiger begins!