Guild Wars 2

Ok guys. It has been a few days now… So, in all 3 modes, how would you rate the ranger? But be realistic now..

PvE

WvW

PvP

Sitting on the necromancer’s head.

Don’t play PvE
WvW- worse off than before. We took some small nerfs , received some neat new tricks, but most of the other classes are in a much better place than before so they have passed us up
PvP- about the same, still fun to play, solid in 1v1’s, but they still didn’t do anything to address our weaknesses that keep us from being viable for high level PvP (lack of boon stripping and ports).

PvE 7/10 We can bring permanent group furry, spotter, frost spirit and single target dps.

WvW 9/10 Excellent roaming and dueling. Ok in zergs unless there is a group of rangers.

sPvP 5/10 Were good at 1v1 duels and +1ing and that is about it.

Really the same in terms of position in top tier competitive PvP. Yes, they got buffed … But other classes got buffed alot more which basically puts them in the same spot. Rangers lack a unique usefulness to top tier team play because most of what they can do can already be accomplished by other classes that provide much more to the team… It’s really the reason you don’t see them being used at all after the spirit nerf. Power builds do ALRIGHT in legacy but once focused (usually by a thief) then you put their edge out of play because they need to focus on the thief now, etc… Really condi builds are dead for ranger because cele ele exists and thief is ridiculous counter to condi ranger and power ranger just gets focused instantly in a team fight so really , pretty much the same. Rangers I would say are even at the bottom now and necros are higher due to getting some viable build openings.

Of course, it’s too early to tell right now with all of the builds, rangers could play into some specific compositions but just from my experience so far in top tier it’s about the same. Hopefully druid may be able to bring some uniqueness in terms of team play to the table.

I will say , sun spirit is pretty OP at the moment in team situations , it melts targets who are focused in 4v4/5v5’s BUTTTTTTT the issue with this is burning will DEFINITELY be nerfed so really just have fun with it while it lasts, once burning is nerfed, sun spirit will be again be next to useless because spirits are pretty bad now.

The Thing is, you cannot really tell yet.

PvE I don’t play so I can’t really comment on that

PvP Right now everyone is going crazy with build testing and trying things. Most are very damage oriented builds for now so you cannot really tell yet how good of a spot Rangers will be in once the dust settles. You can however now keep up with the celestial overlords in 1v1 situations.

WvW Kinda the same Thing applies here. I only do small scale roaming/duels most the time and I’ve been having a lot of fun really, but cannot tell what will be when all the carzyness wears off and People start finalizing their builds.

What I can say tho. I am LIKING the variety of builds I see. AND the amounts of variants that do seem to work at least in the limited environment of everyone testing their kitten.

PvE 1/10 currently a futile contribution to any group.

Puck.9612:

Don’t play PvE
WvW- worse off than before. We took some small nerfs , received some neat new tricks, but most of the other classes are in a much better place than before so they have passed us up
PvP- about the same, still fun to play, solid in 1v1’s, but they still didn’t do anything to address our weaknesses that keep us from being viable for high level PvP (lack of boon stripping and ports).

Agree 100%.

Outside of roaming, our best WvW aoe abilities took hits. Roaming wise we are around the same as before (except I’m finding thieves by far the easiest class to kill and mesmers insane which was never the case before).

Puck.9612:

Don’t play PvE
WvW- worse off than before. We took some small nerfs , received some neat new tricks, but most of the other classes are in a much better place than before so they have passed us up
PvP- about the same, still fun to play, solid in 1v1’s, but they still didn’t do anything to address our weaknesses that keep us from being viable for high level PvP (lack of boon stripping and ports).

+1 on PvP , EXACTLY what I’ve been thinking. Lack of boon strip, port abilities and unique team viability. This in a nutshell is what ranger lacks for high tier PvP.

blitzkrieg.2451:

Rangers lack a unique usefulness to top tier team play because most of what they can do can already be accomplished by other classes that provide much more to the team…

Power builds do ALRIGHT in legacy but once focused (usually by a thief) then you put their edge out of play because they need to focus on the thief now.

i haven’t lost a 1v1 to a thief since i got the hang of using beastly warden, and yes im in the top MMR bracket playing with the best of them, not that i wanna be here anyway but it’s where the matchmaker puts me every game. also BW brings a huge amount of utility for interrupting rezzes, heals, etc.

i think power rangers right now are running inefficient builds. people are still trying to figure things out, fair enough. but too many are stuck on signets, which is completely unnecessary. QZ is probably our most efficient utility right now when traited, and a must on any power ranger imo. and im still seeing too many people not slotting SotP which is another downfall.

also any ranger not traiting for BW put their team at a huge disadvantage. the taunt changes our entire flow and mechanic, as well as QZ. QZ fixes a lot of our drawbacks, such as lengthy animations, lack of true spike damage, and an on-demand gtfo.

Top mmr bracket does not equal getting coordinated burst from a truly good team which a team like abjured would do. Keep in mind I’m talking about good teams/premades in top tier ranked pvp. Ranger becomes a liability in this tier.

They simply would not let a ranger do anything, because it’s simple to focus a ranger down – insanely simple. This is another problem with the ranger. I understand if alot of people focus on one person they will go down, but it’s a no brainer with ranger now especially with the amount of burst damage people have now and with this situation for your team’s sake you’re getting instantly downed in team fights, becoming rally bait and a liability AND to top it off you had no team viability in power builds anyway except a taunt every 15 seconds (potentially) which isn’t a game changer at all in a team fight to begin with.

Besides, it will get nerfed and get tied to the f2 of the pet itself because right now it’s un-avoidable whether it’s an evade/block/invuln instant cast at the beginning of the f2 cast (so no ranged pets as well). Once they make it blockable, go through invulns and fix it being evade-able then it will be very bad and probably not taken at all.

nerfing BW in this way would be a bad move on their part. we need this because there are too many blocks in the game. but it being evade-able isn’t a problem really. running my build I haven’t felt like a liability YET, even against coordinated premades, mind you not full premades. ive survived thief + Mesmer spikes using a stunbreak and taunt. im sure you guys can figure it out.

WvW longbow ranger is a bit better than before. Mostly because of extra traits to choose and less traits to spend on Longbow.

It’s not very noticable. It’s mostly small things like Quick Draw or traited Troll Unguent which have their moments.

I wouldn’t call it much worse than it was. We lost some damage modifiers, but got some crit chance back and those extra traits.

Overall it’s about the same as before, so 10/10.

We havent got any power spike in this patch. Every other class got a power spike. I guess we doing really bad. Sure we got improved support but we lost our title of dps in pve, spvp and wvw. So i guess its a 5/10 because of some nice addition (taunt).

Klonko.8341:

We havent got any power spike in this patch. Every other class got a power spike. I guess we doing really bad. Sure we got improved support but we lost our title of dps in pve, spvp and wvw. So i guess its a 5/10 because of some nice addition (taunt).

QZ + taunt + bird f2 (3-4k) + hilt bash + remorseless maul (6k) + rapid fire (6k) + random autoattack from you and bird (3k) – this is all an easily repeated combo that pops people for almost 20k in under 3 seconds. um, spike-wise, u can do bird taunt + swoop + maul for about 12k on light armor, followed up by the LB combo. you can chain-CC glass specs and instadown if they don’t have blink/stun breaker, which is often because ure taunting every 15s. ive occasionally even won against average cele eles, but u cant make a mistake and get hit by their fire combo. you just need to be playin the right build. remember, u have 3 hard CC’s so if you chain them well with quickness, it’s over for just about anyone.

mistsim.2748:

Klonko.8341:

We havent got any power spike in this patch. Every other class got a power spike. I guess we doing really bad. Sure we got improved support but we lost our title of dps in pve, spvp and wvw. So i guess its a 5/10 because of some nice addition (taunt).

QZ + taunt + bird f2 (3k) + hilt bash + remorseless maul (6k) + QZ + rapid fire (6k) + random autoattack from you and bird (3k) – this is all an easily repeated combo that pops people for almost 20k in under 2 seconds. um, spike-wise, u can do bird taunt + swoop + maul for about 11k on light armor.

Still, extra stats have less impact on our class than many other because of how bad our power ratio is.

I’ve only noticed improvements to my power build. The addition of two cc effects on F2 (15 sec icd) and lots of condi clear in the Survival line made me incredibly strong in all three game types.

I haven’t played my ranger often and by no means to i main them so my rating is for how much i feel they have improved toward becoming a class i’d like to play even if it isn’t optimal or ‘meta’.

PvE: about the same 7.5/10 great all around, nothing exceptional.
WvW: 9/10 Honestly before it was very hard to get the builds i liked to work due to how traits allocated certain stats but now i can run a more melee focused build without sacrificing all my damage/survivability
PvP: 10/10 the only difference between WvW and PvP is that i don’t have to worry to much about my opponents running from me so I can afford to go with pets/skills that have more a ‘cool’ factor.

In PVE…. Little less than before. Still not running spirit or shout builds.

mistsim.2748:

Klonko.8341:

We havent got any power spike in this patch. Every other class got a power spike. I guess we doing really bad. Sure we got improved support but we lost our title of dps in pve, spvp and wvw. So i guess its a 5/10 because of some nice addition (taunt).

QZ + taunt + bird f2 (3-4k) + hilt bash + remorseless maul (6k) + rapid fire (6k) + random autoattack from you and bird (3k) – this is all an easily repeated combo that pops people for almost 20k in under 3 seconds. um, spike-wise, u can do bird taunt + swoop + maul for about 12k on light armor, followed up by the LB combo. you can chain-CC glass specs and instadown if they don’t have blink/stun breaker, which is often because ure taunting every 15s. ive occasionally even won against average cele eles, but u cant make a mistake and get hit by their fire combo. you just need to be playin the right build. remember, u have 3 hard CC’s so if you chain them well with quickness, it’s over for just about anyone.

“QZ + taunt + bird f2 (3-4k) + hilt bash + remorseless maul (6k) + rapid fire (6k) + random autoattack from you and bird (3k) "

You know people have active blinds, blocks, and evades and invulns (guardian / ele) and cc themselves to even control that burst you have? These aren’t AI or dummy mobs you’re playing against. Against any good player you will hardly ever land this combo for it’s full effect and a good player will know to proc protection especially an ele before this burst comes to them so that dmg is mitigated by 33%. And yes, the power ratio is horrible compared to everyone else. Maul is also a very telegraphed attack regardless of it being on a low cooldown. I’m not saying this combo can’t be landed, but you will fail 90% of the time against top tier players because they know the combo themselves and understand the ranger inside and out as they most likely multi-class.

^ it works more often than not

blitzkrieg.2451:

but you will fail 90% of the time against top tier players .

i haven’t been, and i wont. ive been brawling with all the esport kiddies (me in soloq) since the patch launched, and ive easily been winning over 60% of my games using a valk/survival/BW lb/gs build. ive also crushed every single ranger ive come across including some well-known names, most of them on outdated power builds. in these games, as you supposedly know, it’s not really possible to get carried.

im pretty sure I know who im playing against, i dont need you to tell me. im not coming from fantasy, but application. I honestly don’t care what you believe or don’t believe. im trying to help new players out, not convince you. you think youre being a realist, but tbh youre sounding more like a 1) bad, or a 2) troll (you type a lot of empty words), or 3) just extremely jaded and frustrated with the profession in which case you need to take a break

maul is easily landed:
1) from stealth
2) with quickness
3) on a CC’d target
4) on an enemy with no CD’s left

it’s a repeatable combo, Remorseless is up all the time. much of the success of the combo is attributable to 1) taunt being up often and 2) QZ, which is now a solid utility. it’s also easy to juke bad and good players by holstering. i wouldn’t say this was an effective combo at all, prior to the patch because QZ wasn’t really a viable utility, we didn’t have taunt, and we didn’t have Remorseless for the spike.

Lol you don’t need to show me anything and I don’t need you to convince me of anything.. I can tell you don’t play against top tier players simply by the posts you make regarding combo setups, first thing you need to realize is that nothing in this combo is new … It was being done wayyyyyy before this patch even came.

The problem is, against good players who also know this combo and how to avoid it is when it becomes a non-factor. You don’t even need taunt for this combo, it’s been around for a long time. It’s the exact same combo used in the 1shot ranger gimmick build in WvW only this time people are trying to do it with zerker/marauder amulet in PvP and you’re not using signet of the wild and you don’t have the buffs like you do from WvW due to stat combinations so the burst, even when it lands is no where the #’s you propose except against a thief, who has 3 to 4 different ways to avoiding it any given time.

You will never get those #‘s against: warrior, ele, engi which leaves mesmer and thief which you will most likely never land because good mesmers and thieves know how to avoid damage. They practice trying to avoid instant burst everyday in top tier games what makes you think they’re ever going to caught by the combo you proposed especially considering maul is the most telegraphed skill in the game and if you’re power and in a top tier matchup they KNOW you need to land everything in this order so they’ve already thought of your gameplan before you do it to them. Either you’re focused in the beginning of the team fight anyway so even landing this combo is a dream.

And like you said much of the build is attributable to 2 skills, one every 20 seconds, and one every 48 seconds i believe when traited which leaves you vulnerable in the fight for how long when that burst misses? Especially since you’re slotting QZ and just wasted a stun break for a telegraphed offensive combo?… Great consistent burst there!

Sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about.

again, youre writing so much yet saying so little, like a broken record. it’s pretty much impossible to have a discussion with you, so you can just walk away feeling better about yourself and i’ll go on my way, with my build and my decent success in a high MMR bracket. and you seem incapable of accepting something that’s different from your point of view which is a shame. i want to stop derailing this thread, and you may have the last word. peace

I multi class but am really enjoying playing ranger in wvw and pvp.

I think a lot of rangers look at other classes and immediately think “what about me” rather than actually looking at some of the good stuff rangers received.

What about pets? Pets received a huge buff. But it barely gets a mention here?

Opening Strike + Remoreseless? FORGET it. This is worth playing the class alone.

The build i play uses Beastmastery, Marksmanship and Wilderness Survival.

The Ranger got a massive buff as far as i’m concerned. Yes, i’ve been bursted like many other people here, but I can wreck other players just as easily.

From a PvP/WvW standpoint, there are multiple effective builds.

Marks/Wilderness/Beastmaster and Marks/Wilderness/Nature for Power (Marauder LB/GS).

Skirmishing/Wilderness/Nature and Wilderness/Nature/Beastmaster for Conditions (Axe/Dagger Sword/Torch Carrion).

There are others too, but these 4 setups I’ve been able to verify through myself and other players the most.

The one thing that makes me sad is the removal of throw-able traps. I’m no high level sPvP player, but it is what I enjoy the most, and my favorite build was condi ranger. It seems pretty impossible to play now without throwable traps, not the fun way it used to be anyway.

I only care about wvw and I run full glass.

26 less toughness (actually worse than that since i’m slotting protect me in my build)
4% less crit
5.67% less crit dmg

Lost a bunch of dmg multipliers and moment of clarity.

Running shout bow right now with WS so basically only gained bark skin, companion’s defense and 2 extra condi cleanse.

Not a good deal. I was mauling people for 12k without signets before. DPS actually is down quite a bit. In theory there’s more sustain on paper but given the power creep it don’t matter when thieves are doing 6k cloak and dagger.

I find Quick Draw to be highly overrated aside from dueling and running away and see zero reason to run skirmish. (Typical spvp balance, surprise!) Swapping in a zerg fight is worthless. Clarion Bond was fun to play with but they changed that back pretty quickly.

Not a good patch for me.

M8, I r8 8/8.
Sorry.
The Ranger has gotten updates, but not enough to keep up with the others.

mistsim.2748:

again, youre writing so much yet saying so little, like a broken record. it’s pretty much impossible to have a discussion with you, so you can just walk away feeling better about yourself and i’ll go on my way, with my build and my decent success in a high MMR bracket. and you seem incapable of accepting something that’s different from your point of view which is a shame. i want to stop derailing this thread, and you may have the last word. peace

My point of view is only scrimming against top tier organized teams, I’m sorry you havent had a chance to do that on ranger yet so yes , of course my viewpoint differs completely from yours. Once you start playing against people on that caliber will you only see what I’m talking about. High MMR doesn’t mean anything by the way, you’re also not even in the top 1000 bracket in ranked so you must be doing unranked which blows away any credit you had to begin with.

In short ranger is decent in low to mid tier, in top tier competitive pvp they have no place at all whether you like it or not.

So what would a good PvP team now be then?

Right now after the build system change?…..not very good. I usually just stick with PvE and avoid playing PvP or WvW, so I’m not sure how this particular change I’m about to bring up would affect those realms but I think it would still be just as necessary to have.

I was devastated to see that the ability/privilege for traps to be moved around and placed is gone! ( Before this huge update, there was a roman numeral in one of the trait categories that allowed traps (Spike Trap, Viper’s Nest, & Flame Trap) for Rangers to be “targeted” and placed anywhere on the ground with a very far distance and it also enlarged the size of the trap…..but it’s no longer there and I severely need it back!!! >_< My trap ranger was so awesome before and definitely my favorite toon to play as, but my style is useless now if I can only drop traps only where I am standing. So if it’s possible for anet to please tweak this small detail back to how it was or or even make it not a trait but just part of the skill then it’d be soooooo dearly appreciated, I can’t even express it!!! Cuz I really don’t want to find a new build – I’d miss my old one too much! crossing fingers!

Has anyone else felt this way?

Condi ranger got better than before.

Power ranger – 0/10
Everything a power ranger can do everyone else can do better in all game modes.

niconori.7235:

Condi ranger got better than before.

Power ranger – 0/10
Everything a power ranger can do everyone else can do better in all game modes.

Except not from near 2k range! With that in mind Rangers are 10/10

When comes to SPvP, ranger is fun and alright for Solo Que. But when you start building team comp, playing as a team Ranger becomes useless.

Power, just doesn’t cut it high tier at all and it’s to do with the type of burst we do, most of it is channeled or highly telegraphed. When you factor in the amount of access classes have to “save me skills/traits” and “support boons” ranger starts to fall short. We count on 2 skills to do all our main damage, Maul and Rapid Fire now if you’re a decent player you know to dodge these 2 skills, sure there are times you can land these 2 skills but more than often you miss or your rapid fire hits the target to 2k damage.

Question you need to ask yourself why would your team take you over Mesmer which has higher burst decent survival has great team utilities in terms of Portal plays and can shatter boons (removes protection) so they can land the big plays. Ask yourself what makes you better than a thief, they can rotate from point to point land big burst on low-life targets. Can you kill the new Cele Ele? that’s no brainer you have no chance! (Stone Heart). Can you out damage a Warrior in a team fight who can take down any class with there massive crits? do you have mobility and escape and traits? Where does this leave you as a Power build?

Bunker conditions, trying to play role of roamer/home point. Now compare yourself to other classes that can fill the roll? what makes you think you can do the job better?

As it stands the better option is to run a Cele Ele, why? team support it’s that simple it’s not matter of how much damage you do or how good your survival is you just can’t support your team mate’s.

So what does that leave us? do we bring Power build to backpoint. Let’s say you do and you’re in 2v2 and other guy is decent survival but requires your support, how are you going to support him. What happens if you start getting trained down you pop stone signet and LR what now? your out of all your save me skills.

So as much as we like to think we are in good place we are far from it, we decent for Solo Que and you can thank MMR for that other side if not pre-made will be mix of decent players and newbies same with your team. Now not saying don’t have fun and enjoy the Ranger class but until dev’s get real feedback from us they won’t change anything. Also stop saying I can beat this and beat that, there are many newbies racing around with same build as top tier players and it’s completely different ballgame when you face same build in hands of a pro.

they suck now.i like to roam and duel in wvw.before I would rarly lose to a war.now they kick my kitten in 3 hits.they took all the fun out of the game for me.ill probley stop playing this hunk of crap game.they need to change the name to glass wars.pretty soon it will be nothing but mesmers in wvw.way to go anet!

i’ll answer a few of your questions Sol. but you gotta run this build http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1Y_b;0257157246;4LB06U;1bRm8bRm84C

Sol.4310:

Can you out damage a Warrior in a team fight who can take down any class with there massive crits?

no we don’t bring more damage, but you can stunlock the warrior and kill him once his invuln is up. zerker warriors crumple pretty quickly when spiked, you just have to watch his cooldowns.

Sol.4310:

do you have mobility and escape and traits? What happens if you start getting trained down you pop stone signet and LR what now? your out of all your save me skills.

i run with 3 stunbreakers and BW of course. QZ is my favourite because you can cleanse, stunbreak, and just gtfo. brown bear is also neat for the cleanse + Protect Me combo

Sol.4310:

Where does this leave you as a Power build?

the build i use is versatile in every situation. i can contest points, roam, spike or lockdown people.

Sol.4310:

Bunker conditions, trying to play role of roamer/home point. Now compare yourself to other classes that can fill the roll? what makes you think you can do the job better?

bunker condi isn’t in a good shape post patch, i agree. i was really sad about this.

mistsim.2748:

i’ll answer a few of your questions Sol. but you gotta run this build http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1Y_b;0257157246;4LB06U;1bRm8bRm84C

Sol.4310:

Can you out damage a Warrior in a team fight who can take down any class with there massive crits?

no we don’t bring more damage, but you can stunlock the warrior and kill him once his invuln is up. zerker warriors crumple pretty quickly when spiked, you just have to watch his cooldowns.

Sol.4310:

do you have mobility and escape and traits? What happens if you start getting trained down you pop stone signet and LR what now? your out of all your save me skills.

i run with 3 stunbreakers and BW of course. QZ is my favourite because you can cleanse, stunbreak, and just gtfo. brown bear is also neat for the cleanse + Protect Me combo

Sol.4310:

Where does this leave you as a Power build?

the build i use is versatile in every situation. i can contest points, roam, spike or lockdown people.

Sol.4310:

Bunker conditions, trying to play role of roamer/home point. Now compare yourself to other classes that can fill the roll? what makes you think you can do the job better?

bunker condi isn’t in a good shape post patch, i agree. i was really sad about this.

Was rather disappointed with how little damage that build does, felt way too focused around landing Maul, longbow damage was rather low vs targets with protection it was almost waste of time. Also I can’t live without Refined Toxins, it’s just too strong it always applies on pet swap. It’s like having doom sigil on both weapons and my pet.

Not sure how that build would fit into Team comp, but once again each to there own if works for you then cools just not my style of play.

I liked the Bear and Protect Me combo I will be testing that out, I was trying to find a way to make that work.

Also I’ve fallen for Spike Trap, lost some utility but it helps me majorly with countering and controlling the fight.

WvW: The on swap traits are very, very good, but I find that power ranger is less effective on account of everyone running around and blowing everything up in 1s now. 1v1 roaming is doable, but surviving a focus in a group fight is pretty difficult now. Haven’t gotten around to trying any condi build yet since I prefer playing zerk builds, but I think the changes are probably good for condi builds.

Sol.4310:

mistsim.2748:

i’ll answer a few of your questions Sol. but you gotta run this build http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1Y_b;0257157246;4LB06U;1bRm8bRm84C

Sol.4310:

Can you out damage a Warrior in a team fight who can take down any class with there massive crits?

no we don’t bring more damage, but you can stunlock the warrior and kill him once his invuln is up. zerker warriors crumple pretty quickly when spiked, you just have to watch his cooldowns.

Sol.4310:

do you have mobility and escape and traits? What happens if you start getting trained down you pop stone signet and LR what now? your out of all your save me skills.

i run with 3 stunbreakers and BW of course. QZ is my favourite because you can cleanse, stunbreak, and just gtfo. brown bear is also neat for the cleanse + Protect Me combo

Sol.4310:

Where does this leave you as a Power build?

the build i use is versatile in every situation. i can contest points, roam, spike or lockdown people.

Sol.4310:

Bunker conditions, trying to play role of roamer/home point. Now compare yourself to other classes that can fill the roll? what makes you think you can do the job better?

bunker condi isn’t in a good shape post patch, i agree. i was really sad about this.

Was rather disappointed with how little damage that build does, felt way too focused around landing Maul, longbow damage was rather low vs targets with protection it was almost waste of time. Also I can’t live without Refined Toxins, it’s just too strong it always applies on pet swap. It’s like having doom sigil on both weapons and my pet.

Not sure how that build would fit into Team comp, but once again each to there own if works for you then cools just not my style of play.

I liked the Bear and Protect Me combo I will be testing that out, I was trying to find a way to make that work.

Also I’ve fallen for Spike Trap, lost some utility but it helps me majorly with countering and controlling the fight.

I think I will be switching to refined toxins myself. I actually use LB only for the utility, or as a finisher. I never bother casting barrage because it doesn’t do much on this build. I only swap to LB to finish people, i.e. by casting RF if quickness is still up, or by proccing a few remorseless strikes with the AA. I actually find relying on LB as primary source of damage the wrong way of going about it. it really comes down to a build being greater than the sum of its parts.

in terms of comp/team contribution – do versatility, survivability and roaming count? with decreased GS cd’s, perma swiftness and super speed, i believe it has as much mobility as a thief. it’s quite good in 1v1’s (not against all specs obviously), and contesting points. but I really mostly see it as a lockdown/spike build. I don’t use signets or brutish seals, so i can go into MoC. you can chain taunt, hilt bash and point blank shot very often. it’s absolutely OP against someone who’s run out of CD’s. and other glass players are pretty stunned when u drop them from 70% hp to 0.

the other issue is people are struggling to see BW for what it truly is. I think any survivable and mobile ranger who specs into BW can be useful to any team.

and if picking spike trap didn’t compromise my survivability so much, I would definitely use it as well. but again…qz is too good. whoever thinks otherwise hasn’t tested it enough, hands down. or maybe it just suits my playstyle (unlikely).

@mistsim.2748, yeah I would say be able to class it as a Roamer, I’ve mixed things up with my Shoutbow build same traits but I’ve been testing out different utilities.

Spike trap, has a place in Power build but its 50/50 some games not as effective some game extremely effective.

Sic Em, even know it’s bugged and you don’t get the damage. But it’s helping heaps vs stealth to point where I land Taunt+Rapid Fire, with extra damage from bird it wrecks them.

I also dropped GS for S/D turns out its bloody good vs so many classes in meta atm, I’m living throw burst which GS had no chance of countering and don’t need to worry about the Counter-Attack being proc’d by Ai anymore and D/P thieves just spamming #3 to counter GS completely.

the other thing I just noticed with remorseless…my targets tend to die with 20-25 stacks of vuln lol. that has to count for something, in terms of team utility. because ure proccing opening strike so much, one cant really cleanse this. imagine how much it buffs your thief or Mesmer for example. and the other neat thing about bear is it cleanses 2 condis on your entire team. pretty neat against those pesky burn guards and cele eles.

and thank you for the refined toxins tip. now my bear not only cleanses 2 condis while taunting, and my owl not only applies chill while hitting for 4k and taunting, but they also apply poison. makes my build even stronger, pretty nice.

Quarktastic.1027:

Sitting on the necromancer’s head.

Not even close