Guild Wars 2

Hey there, Rangers!

So I made my Ranger and am coming close to making her my 7th level 80 character and was finally thinking about end game meta builds and the sort. I can’t stand bearbows so I really don’t want to play that.

I know the meta for dungeons is spotter/frost spirit, sword/warhorn, but what else? I came up with a build here, but I know I probably got a lot of it wrong (I honestly don’t know what utilities to take after Healing Spring and Frost Spirit, so I just took some signets that I thought worked well with Marksmanship XI. I plan on using Birds and Felines primarily. Is that a good choice? I heard that they are the best pets for DPS.

I’ve heard that people like using “Guard”? I’m not entirely sure how it works/benefits dungeon runs – any explanations would be very much appreciated!

And now to mine the mine:

I also plan on roaming on my Ranger, and was thinking of playing a zerker Ranger while roaming. I’ve read that it’s not ideal but I’d like to give it a try (while also being too stingy to buy another set of armor purely for roaming.)

I came up with this build for roaming, with probably a Wolf and a Drakehound as pets. I’m still just not sure.

How would this fare? I’m just theorycrafting right now and would really appreciate any pro tips from experienced Rangers!

I’m sorry if this topic has been discussed/answered a lot – I tried using the search tool but it just doesn’t work for me.

Cheers!

DeathReign.7821:

I know the meta for dungeons is spotter/frost spirit, sword/warhorn, but what else? I came up with a build here, but I know I probably got a lot of it wrong (I honestly don’t know what utilities to take after Healing Spring and Frost Spirit, so I just took some signets that I thought worked well with Marksmanship XI.
I’ve heard that people like using “Guard”? I’m not entirely sure how it works/benefits dungeon runs – any explanations would be very much appreciated!

Frost Spirit is the only mandatory one, rest is situational. I take Quickening Zephyr and Signet of the Wild if I have nothing else to take. Sic’em is also a decent choice. I’d only use signet of stone on specific fights where you would benefit more from additional survivability.

I plan on using Birds and Felines primarily. Is that a good choice? I heard that they are the best pets for DPS.

Yep. I would recommend adding any drake into there on swap for trash since it can cleave. My personal favourite combo is Jungle Stalker/River Drake

I’ve heard that people like using “Guard”? I’m not entirely sure how it works/benefits dungeon runs – any explanations would be very much appreciated!

It doesn’t. I think the only time i’ve ever used it in PvE was AC p2, when I was doing the chains on the defend detha event. Even then it wasn’t super amazing, and was more of a just for fun thing.

I don’t know much about pve so i’m not going to comment on that, but I know a decent amount about wvw, so i will give some advice

do NOT use full zerker. It just won’t work as well as other combos (along with everyone else calling you a pve noob for using full zerker) personally i use knights armor, knights gs, assassin’s longbow, and zerker trinkets. I feel like i do semi-decent at roaming.

Wolf and Drakehound are my favorites for wvw, their CC is useful

Eagle Eye is probably a better choice than spotter (When I roam i solo, fyi)

If you really want spotter, get rid of Signet of the BeastMaster, and replace Signet of Stone with “Protect Me!”. When roaming no one ever goes after your pet, so it essentially has the same effect as the signet except no big glowing “I’M INVULNERABLE” symbol above your head so people won’t kite you until it goes away

Personally, I’d put at least 20 points into skirmishing for Quick Draw. I’d get rid of the 20 points in beastmastery for it.

Another IMO thing, but i don’t really like spirits. that’s just a personal thing though

I prefer greatsword over sword/horn, for its spike damage.

This is my build I think, if you’re curious (I main a ranger)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQJATRnMqQJLWwC2CCXLGIWP2TfCETB/ZkTBq6UBbqA-zECBoiAYMQEDQMDAJQFRjtcqIas6aYKXER1kCIUhRA-w

it does decent in both zergs and solo roaming. you could probably stick the 10 nature magic points in skirmishing, thieves just started really annoying me :P

This is just coming with someone with about 600 hours in wvw, so i wouldn’t consider myself and expert. just my thoughts

TurtleDragon.3108:

DeathReign.7821:

I know the meta for dungeons is spotter/frost spirit, sword/warhorn, but what else? I came up with a build here, but I know I probably got a lot of it wrong (I honestly don’t know what utilities to take after Healing Spring and Frost Spirit, so I just took some signets that I thought worked well with Marksmanship XI.
I’ve heard that people like using “Guard”? I’m not entirely sure how it works/benefits dungeon runs – any explanations would be very much appreciated!

Frost Spirit is the only mandatory one, rest is situational. I take Quickening Zephyr and Signet of the Wild if I have nothing else to take. Sic’em is also a decent choice. I’d only use signet of stone on specific fights where you would benefit more from additional survivability.

I plan on using Birds and Felines primarily. Is that a good choice? I heard that they are the best pets for DPS.

Yep. I would recommend adding any drake into there on swap for trash since it can cleave. My personal favourite combo is Jungle Stalker/River Drake

I’ve heard that people like using “Guard”? I’m not entirely sure how it works/benefits dungeon runs – any explanations would be very much appreciated!

It doesn’t. I think the only time i’ve ever used it in PvE was AC p2, when I was doing the chains on the defend detha event. Even then it wasn’t super amazing, and was more of a just for fun thing.

Ah that’s great advice, thanks! Are the trait choices alright too?

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

I don’t know much about pve so i’m not going to comment on that, but I know a decent amount about wvw, so i will give some advice

do NOT use full zerker. It just won’t work as well as other combos (along with everyone else calling you a pve noob for using full zerker) personally i use knights armor, knights gs, assassin’s longbow, and zerker trinkets. I feel like i do semi-decent at roaming.

Wolf and Drakehound are my favorites for wvw, their CC is useful

Eagle Eye is probably a better choice than spotter (When I roam i solo, fyi)

If you really want spotter, get rid of Signet of the BeastMaster, and replace Signet of Stone with “Protect Me!”. When roaming no one ever goes after your pet, so it essentially has the same effect as the signet except no big glowing “I’M INVULNERABLE” symbol above your head so people won’t kite you until it goes away

Personally, I’d put at least 20 points into skirmishing for Quick Draw. I’d get rid of the 20 points in beastmastery for it.

Another IMO thing, but i don’t really like spirits. that’s just a personal thing though

I prefer greatsword over sword/horn, for its spike damage.

This is my build I think, if you’re curious (I main a ranger)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQJATRnMqQJLWwC2CCXLGIWP2TfCETB/ZkTBq6UBbqA-zECBoiAYMQEDQMDAJQFRjtcqIas6aYKXER1kCIUhRA-w

it does decent in both zergs and solo roaming. you could probably stick the 10 nature magic points in skirmishing, thieves just started really annoying me :P

This is just coming with someone with about 600 hours in wvw, so i wouldn’t consider myself and expert. just my thoughts

Thanks for your advice! Duly noted. Though I think you mixed up my PvE dungeon build for the WvW one I made! (Replaced Spotter for Piercing Arrows, no spirits, using GS over sword, etc.) How would that fare in comparison?

And thank you for your advice on mixing up gear stats! How noticeable is the dps/survivability difference between the knights/zerk mix and a full zerk?

Thank you guys again for your input, it’s greatly appreciated!

I see, i always open up stuff in a bunch of tabs and get confused as to what’s what :P

Piercing arrows are only useful in large group scenarios or mesmers, imo. (that’s the only reason i use it, because i run with anti-zerg groups sometimes) so i suggest replacing it with eagle eye

i still really suggest replacing the bm tree with skirmishing. that 20% reduction on your longbow is potentially a 5-20% increase in dps that you’re missing out on. (not including the 20% increase to crit damage and 200 precision)

the difference between full zerk and having knights is the difference between getting 1-shot by a thief and getting 3-shot by a thief. I didn’t run full zerker for long so i don’t have much other comparisons :P the exact numbers is about a 15% decrease in damage you take, which is actually more notable than it sounds, especially in large group situations (as you’ll be taken 100,000+ damage over a few minutes running frontline), but it’s also notable in solo roaming as well.

it also really freaks other classes out when you get good at pvp and then last a good 20+ seconds at >75% health (it seems other people are accustomed for treating rangers as free kills, so when you aren’t one…)

DeathReign.7821:

Ah that’s great advice, thanks! Are the trait choices alright too?

They’re mediocre. Skirmishing is pretty important for personal DPS and ~81-86% crit chance is pretty low.

I’d take my zerker guardian or zerker warrior before I brought my zerker ranger into a dungeon.

That being said, if I get asked by my guildies to run another COF or something I’ll bring the Ranger if I have already ran my guard, war, mes, and ele through the dungeon they are requesting.

If this is your 7th level 80 it’s a safe assumption you have a level 80 guard and war already. Just stick to those and you’ll make it a better time for everybody in your group.

If you insist on still running your Ranger despite it all (or just to spite your guildies or PuGs) then at least run Brazil’s build or something extremely close to it.