Guild Wars 2

Wait, wait, wait…

Freaking buffs cancel Sic’em as well? I only recently was made aware that commanding them cancelled it, but once I was told that it was easy enough to work around, just don’t touch your pet commands for 10 seconds. And it even kind of makes sense, if Sic’Em is sending your pet into a rage then I guess giving them another command snaps them out of it. But buffs too? Thats just silly. Ranger has so many abilities that passively apply buffs to pets.

Is this all boons in general (like for example Warhorn #5, or dodge rolling with Survival’s 15 point minor trait, or even Healing Spring) or only skills that apply a special buff to pets like GS #5 or Axe #3? Even if its the latter its lame, but if its the former than I may as well just ditch Sic’Em right now, because there’s no way its ever going to work for me until it gets fixed. >.>

if only pets could hit a moving target… and if only thieves couldn’t do more dps by hitting a button 2 times vs a ranger popping everything in a hail mary and hoping it works.

All this time i have been the wrong build.. sob sob, scurries off to try this new one Cheer! I shall report back, soon.

I just tried your build/playstyle in PvE. Excellent and very fun to play. You have to pay more attention to your pet and your cooldowns than usual. Very high damage bursts.

Electro.4173:

And it even kind of makes sense, if Sic’Em is sending your pet into a rage then I guess giving them another command snaps them out of it.

Hm, not sure what you mean by this, but using F2, different buffs and so on and thereby canceling the Sic’Em effect is nothing more than a yet another very annoying bug that plagues the ranger class.

Catsassination, now with birds!

I was doing some experimentation with Fortifying Bond and got a set of PVT gear to play with.

The pet’s condition damage is not affected by gear and the warhorn bird attack and sword are heavily affected by power coefficients.

Because the core build does not have many benefits that proc off crits, I went full PVT gear and built this way:

Skirmishing: 10
WS: 10
Nature: 20 (nature’s protection, enlargement)
BM: 30

I was running 1h sword and warhorn. My idea was that I would use the warhorn buff and through fortifying bond the pet would get double the benefit. When I catsassinate with my sword set on, I would bird them too. The 1h sword chain from 1-2 is also nice because it cripples the enemy, which is pretty much doom for them if your pet is buffed and they don’t break away fast.

The result was absolutely devastating. With full PVT gear I’m running over 25k health, nearing 3k power and armor. My birds hit like a truck and so does my cat. If they do not dodge catsassination with birds, its going to hurt.

With Fortifying bond the might stacking from rampage as one when the jaguar is in stealth is really crazy. I was getting some pretty huge spikes on low armor targets.

I think Choko has some good ideas with the nature magic points and Hoelbrak runes, I found myself really hard to kill with PvT and nature’s protection. The main feature of the nature tree is Fortifying bond, which has crazy synergy with the Catmaster, sigils of battle, and the warhorn.

To escape fights I was running Hornet’s Sting (first part) then chaining to Lightning Reflexes. This is a huge distance creator, I had no issues getting out of fights using this.

The horn is also extra nice because if gives me a reliable source of quickness. The only difficulty is getting used to the quirkiness of 1h sword.

This is another fun variation to try for those with good 1h sword mastery.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Electro.4173:

And it even kind of makes sense, if Sic’Em is sending your pet into a rage then I guess giving them another command snaps them out of it.

Hm, not sure what you mean by this, but using F2, different buffs and so on and thereby canceling the Sic’Em effect is nothing more than a yet another very annoying bug that plagues the ranger class.

To clarify what I’ve learned about Sic! Em is that there are pet “boons” and pet “commands.”

You will notice that if you use Sic! Em, the pet will actually target what you have selected and immediately rush it.

Sic! Em is a skill that takes a place in the pet’s queue. The pet has a sec queue of attacks. These include both the pet’s normal skill set, F2 skills, and “command” skills.

Skills like Guard, Sic Em!, or Search and Rescue are actually commands and will immediately disrupt the queue to take priority.

GS5 and Signet of the Hunt disrupt the pet’s queue because they buff the next attack skill in the pet’s arsenal. This forces the pet to break whatever command they are in and instead use a pet attack affected by the signet or GS buff immediately.

Normal boons like might, fury, swiftness, etc. will not break Sic! Em. Only pet specific commands or skills with mechanics like signet of the hunt will.

Recalling the pet or forcing it to attack will also break Sic Em!

Normal ranger attacks that do not involve the pet or apply simple boons (such as swiftness/fury/anything standard) will not break it.

Boons from RAO will not break Sic Em, but casting RAO may cancel it if Sic Em! is already active. I haven’t tested this yet.

The best rule is just to use Sic Em! last.

Not sure if it is still bugged but GS 5 used to give the pet the extra damage regardless of whether or not you hit anything. Might want to test it.

@lordhelmos: I am so happy that you wrote this build and posted it on the forums so well detailed. It is the build I have actually discovered on my own and have been trying to explain to my guild mates in order to maximize their survibability in almost all areas of the game. THANK YOU!

You should probably expand in the possible weaknesses of the whole build setup. I find it tricky to recover after performing a catssasination and having all my skills on cooldown. I all comes down to skill and how you can nameuver using the weapon skills alone, while micromanaging your cat to land hits on your target.

I have tried to implement higher condition damage while keeping my toughness high via the use of melandru and grenth gear (cursed shore as well as the runes). Skill wise, Muddy Terrain as an alternative for Signet of the Hunt on certain situations, or firetrap, or lightning reflexes… it can be a very situational thing (do I need to avoid damage/escape? can I burn my enemy down before they burn me down? can I cripple/stun them and control them for long enough?).

Also weapon choice should always be dependent on your environment, although I highly agree with great sword in wvw situations for closing the gap on enemies who are going to be catssasinated (like those pesky elementalists).

If possible, do any of you consider to have better results using carrion/knight/etc… armor better than the Cursed Shore armor I mentioned above? Thanks for the feedback!

Well QZ is no more an option as well as other quickness skills….huge nerf. Huge. Bravo Anet. Every kittening patch it’s just the same.

ofc its still viable

Chokolata.1870:

ofc its still viable

Totally agreed, if anything we just got it easier in terms of warrior/thief/mesmer quickness bursts. I wonder however how much it will affect our gameplay, but I don’t see a great downside as of right now.

Lord Helmos!, that is one wonderful guide, I really enjoyed reading this, and I agree that ranger is made to be a pet master not a solo fighter, I’ve been using the same tactic, but was always weilding shortbow, after today’s update I guess it’s time for the GS to shine.
Also Sick em! and active signet of the hunt are things I never used, never knew the max range for pet to chase the target or be controlled, I’ll be following this guide, roaming in WvW.
But I have a question, you already mentioned countering thieves with GS, what about mesmers, I’ve been trying out dual axes to take down mesmers, a good mesmer is my toughest enemy, any tips on playing vs mesmers?

Axes work great , both the main and off hand variant .

Vaya.1354:

Lord Helmos!, that is one wonderful guide, I really enjoyed reading this, and I agree that ranger is made to be a pet master not a solo fighter, I’ve been using the same tactic, but was always weilding shortbow, after today’s update I guess it’s time for the GS to shine.
Also Sick em! and active signet of the hunt are things I never used, never knew the max range for pet to chase the target or be controlled, I’ll be following this guide, roaming in WvW.
But I have a question, you already mentioned countering thieves with GS, what about mesmers, I’ve been trying out dual axes to take down mesmers, a good mesmer is my toughest enemy, any tips on playing vs mesmers?

I had the same problem, here is the solution I was provided:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Help-VS-Mesmers/first#post1190448

Their suggestions should apply well to BM and non BM builds. Hope it helps.

Been fiddling with a cat based build and am EXTREMELY happy you saved me the time and did this amazing write-up.

Naming my catsassins Ezio Pawditore and Mew Hayabusa in honor of the new phantom catmancer spec.

I’ve received various questions about gear. I actually run with multiple sets depending on the weapon set I’m using.

For running Shortbow/GS I like to run Rabid and high condition damage due to low power coefficients of the GS’s primary attack and benefit to maul. With high condition damage the shortbow becomes a deadly chaser weapon and can bleed people out very effectively.

For 1h sword and warhorn, I run PTV. Sword and horn are heavily affected by power, especially the bird call. Longbow is a power-based weapon as well and will do best with knight’s, zerker, or PTV.

Axes benefit the most from condition damage with splitstrike and combined with a shortbow.

There is alot of flexibility in what you can run. I generally see 1h sword, longbow, and warhorn as power weapons.

GS is somewhere in the middle and can be used for both due to it being mainly a defensive weapon. Maul now benefits from condition damage due to its buff in this patch.

Axe can run either but synergizes well with condition damage bombs due to split strike. With an offhand axe, it leans more towers power/crit. MH axe more condition.

Shortbow benefits heavily from condition damage due to bleeds on strike when flanking (which happens very frequently and punishes runners).

I generally build tanky due to my spike damage being covered by the pet.

I find myself using my rabid set (undead runes) and PVT (hoelbrak + battle sigil weapons) the most. I sometimes run knight’s or mixed gear when running dual bows.

Lately I’ve been running 1hsword and horn with PVT just to practice with the weapon. I feel that the 1h sword can be very powerful with this setup, but requires a high level of mastery.

This reminds me a lot of a build I came across on the forums already. Just a little bit different.

(https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/WvWvW-BM-Heal-Toughness-Ranger/first#post1314847)

I was skeptical at first, but upon giving it a shot in WvW I have to admit that it is a blast. Very fun change of pace for Rangers who have never ran a BM build.

I love the build, and I have all the gear for it, but it doesn’t execute very well in WvW. I’m not saying you said it would either, but that’s all I play. My experience so far? Pet dies in seconds. I was fighting 2vs2 and they just killed my pet right off the bat. The AOE alone was too much for my pet’s low HP and regen wasn’t doing the trick. I spent most the fight running for my life after the pet was dead.

I tried this with my rabid set, then half my PVT set. It may be better with a full PVT set, but I’m thinking its not. Honestly, I’ve just about given up on the profession altogether. My engineer puts out more damage and has a higher chance of survival because of his many utilities. Using an even less tanky engineer than my ranger, I was able to come back and fight 2v2 again and walk away without an issue.

What good is a pet if your enemy simply avoids all of his attacks by running out of range? What good is it if the pet is dead almost as soon as the enemy realizes this is a BM build? About the only thing it was good for was being laughed at because it was so easily defeated.

So there were changes made to cats. How does this build fare now? Still good?

I’m in the process of rolling up a new character but haven’t decided yet (deleted a Norn and Charr Ranger, thinking Human or Asura Ranger instead but what I really want is Tengu T_T). I had my heart set on catsassinating stuff in WvW and maybe PvE.

I just tried this while dueling some friends. When I hit Sik! em they just dodged and ran so only one of the cat’s attacks landed any counters?

This is a similar build to mine. I use sb and axe/dagger strictly for the movement impairing abilities and stun/interrupt. In theory, this helps your pet land their hits easier. Also, I use sigils on weapons that cause chill or whatever for slowing them down. I forget what they’re called.

However … imo … the change to quickness and pet timers have hurt this build. Also, the stealth nerf to felines opening attack (maul) has hurt it. The burst ability has been lessened a lot … at least in my current experience.

Again … my opinion.

Pendleton.6385:

This is a similar build to mine. I use sb and axe/dagger strictly for the movement impairing abilities and stun/interrupt. In theory, this helps your pet land their hits easier.

However … imo … the change to quickness and pet timers have hurt this build. Also, the stealth nerf to felines opening attack (maul) has hurt it. The burst ability has been lessened a lot.

Again … my opinion.

Yeah this build didn’t show the numbers that were in the video even on a dummy :/

I was getting very high crits and burst damage (for a ranger) before the Feb update. I don’t see the same numbers now. The quickness change only lessened things.

So can anyone say is this build still viable after the ptach? I feel like it was hurt a lot, honetsly.

try out whether it works.
If it doesn’t, MAKE IT WORK.
It’s a friggin RPG. Be creative.

If core mechanics of this particular build are now broken – it won’t work. So the question is not how to make it work, the question is – is it still possible?

it’s not like the cat can not hit targets anymore…

erm…

It’s not like the cat doesn’t do damage anymore. Just try to make it work yourself.

Yes it is. It was not able to hit targets before, and now even if it does – it makes less damage because of the pet f2 time nerf and maul damage nerf.

Then build around it.
I can think of lots of ways to still build something like that. At work right now tho.

Geshque.1326:

Yes it is. It was not able to hit targets before, and now even if it does – it makes less damage because of the pet f2 time nerf and maul damage nerf.

F2 time wasn’t nerfed, it just stays on CD when swapped, which i’m absolutely fine with seeing as how people were abusing it, and i’d much rather have to keep my CDs on my pet when swapping then be boned while swapping pets out of combat…

That being said, my jaguar is still shredding through people, so it appears to be working for me… the only change i made to the build was i dropped Compassion Training and took up this marvelous trait that was previously useless called Commanding Voice, you should look into it!!

PS: Speed Training is pretty amazing as well.

EDIT: Keep in mind that Quickness was changed to reduce the speed of SKILL ACTIVATION, IE once the skill is pressed it casts faster, NPCs do not cast skills as fast as players do so this hardly affects them, especially seeing as how the cats attacks are all pretty fast to begin with.

Key word is HARDLY

Last night my cat 2-shot a guy with a 7.6k opener. Paper armour!? xD

If I had any trouble, it was getting quickness stomp to work. Maybe I’m doing it wrong; will practice more. Anyway, last night’s WvW felt great on a catmaster.

I got myself a carrion devourer for secondary pet, which works with all of the catmaster traits such as rending attacks and malice training. F2 is sexy with “Guard” for stealthy poison bombs.

Yes, i’ve also tried it in sPvP and it was fine. Glass cannons die before they even could understand what’s happening.

However, I have problems with quick stomping. No it is nearly useless.

Geshque.1326:

Yes, i’ve also tried it in sPvP and it was fine. Glass cannons die before they even could understand what’s happening.

However, I have problems with quick stomping. No it is nearly useless.

I also had a similar experience but in WvW, being chased by a glass cannon pair: ranger and a thief. Decided to try to outrun them, but they kept on coming so I sent my cat in stealth, it killed both of them! I was surprised, very effective when used properly.

Well that’s good to hear. I’m working on my Ranger now but still don’t have any stealthing cats, and no traits and no experience. I think I’ll just PvE until around lvl 25 and I get some more points.

I’ve been running a similar build on my Ranger for WvW for a while now. Worked great prior to the Quickness nerf, but not sure how it is now. Don’t have the heart to try out my ranger since they didn’t really do much to help them this patch.

Chokolata.1870:

Ok, i have played a dozen matches in PvP ,and i have goofed off in WvW a bit . I must say, the build is pretty kitten awesome . I have been using the variant that i suggested btw , burnt 10 gold in 5 minutes to buy the gear that i needed .

Honestly the cycle is insane , not to mention the perma fury . I had a bit of an issue in closed spaces because i am used to shortbow greatsword-sword m but man did pretty much everyone drop . I had a couple of close calls vs necromancers, because i was to stingy to eat my poultry soup , and guardians are unkillable when in bunker form, but they cant touch you either so i suppose thats ok . Thiefs die in 1 cycle . He can run or die .
Simply obscene

Hey just wondering, what stats do you use on your gear? Really want to try this out in WvW

I am using :

Knight – helm , shoulders, gloves , pants , boots
Cleric – coat
Divinity – rings , amulet , trinkets
Bows – Berserker longbow , Rampager shortbow
Runes- Superior runes of hoelbrak

Ah thanks alot!

used this tactic in my early days, fun times. Coming back from my adventure through this world encountering many things and trying many different builds I can tell you this style is probably the most satisfying just to sit back and laugh while you are in no danger.

This is as good as it gets (for now) my rangers. WvW specifically.

Eurantien.4632:

Not sure if it is still bugged but GS 5 used to give the pet the extra damage regardless of whether or not you hit anything. Might want to test it.

This amazingly still holds true, and does work, was testing earlier on a dummy in LA, not in full Catmaster build but…

Basic attack averaged 750 damage
Bite averaged 1.5k
Maul averaged 1.8k
Basic attack + Hilt Bash averaged 1.1k damage
Bite + Hilt Bash averaged 2.2/.3k
Maul + Hilt Bash averaged 2.7k

Funnily enough, you can preload this as well.

Doing further testing, it would appear Hilt Bash pressed after does not cancel “Sick ’Em!” and as far as I can tell, stacks the damage. Hilt Bash + SotH doesn’t seem to stack either way round.

I just started using per prowess,had completely forgotten about that trait! It makes me love my jaguar even more :’)

used to be a beastmaster, but now I’m strictly following this build as a catmaster, catsassination i awesome, I truely love it!
Also the advice I got here for the mesmers really helped, I just keep space, go behind obstacles and let my cat do the magic, if he chases me i keep running and blocking with GS skill #4, if he decides to attack my cat i either make it invis or attack him myself to draw his attention again, and they ALWAYS choose to attack me “the tank” over the cat :“obviously the damage” i don’t even attack I’m not a threat you fool, well he still attacks me and lets the cat take him down, also switching to entangle helps with that alot, if he can’t get out of entangle he’s dead for sure.

another question, outnumbered fights, as a ranger, what do you do?
I focus attacking on the weakest and try to dodge and keep running around, then switch pet for quickness + finish him when he’s downed, but quickness right now feels meh anyway so thinking about just dumping quickness at all!
so, advice for 1 vs team please, i like to keep SB and GS active btw, best allaround ones, replacing GS with LB when I’m in EB jumping puzzle.

I’m still not running a full Catmaster build, I love too many traits in Wilderness Survival and Skirmishing to trait into Nature Magic at all or further in Beast Mastery, that said I’m considering trying 0/20/30/0/20 or possibly 0/10/30/0/30 in the future when I have better range of accessible equipment.

Currently in full exotics, sub-optimal runes, with a 0/25/30/0/15 and enjoying my WvW time, the Jaguar doesn’t get as many kills, but many don’t realize it’s not the greater threat when facing me, as Greatsword provides the mobility and control with #3, #4 and #5, of which they usually burn their evades and stun breaks, and Longbow creates the distance and killing potential with Barrage and Rapid Fire, each hitting the upper ranges of 6-7k. Yaghwaugh and Devourer damages are bonuses or aid me in getting the kills without weapon swap.

So I’ve started playing spvp.
right now running a glass longbow build but before I had a tanky catmaster…
Honestly, the best way to buff your cat is grabbing a war horn and getting the trait which copies your boons to your pet. You can get nice fury uptime with that. Get some runes of battle and a couple other sources of might and fury and your pet rips everything to shreds.
Well, in Spvp it behaves like a glass longbow build. You can’t really solo with it cause as soon as the opponent finds out where the damage comes from, you are gone, so you need to roam a lot to catsassinate people who are busy fighting others.

I confirmed a few things with Catsassination:

-Signet of the hunt applies “Opening Strike” which gives your pet a 150% damage boost on next attack.

-Bash (GS5) does the same thing. Both of these buffs will not stack. Bash will apply the boon to your pet regardless of whether or not you actually hit the enemy (which makes it essentially another signet on a 20s CD traited). Bash is really awesome knowing this.

Both SoTH and Bash WILL NOT cancel sick em after this patch (hell yes!)

GS has become extremely good with these mechanics and this last patch. I will update this in the guide.

This is actually a BUFF to Catsassination because now you can burn Sic! Em first and add the 40% dmg boost to SoTH!

Cat stealth will still cancel Sic! Em! So becareful with this!

the order does not matter.
SoTH will be first in most situations anyway(the buff lasts 16 minutes kitten but what’s more important, you can actually bash the kitten out of your opponents while sick’em is active. the gs buff + that fix pretty much nailed it.

naphack.9346:

the order does not matter.
SoTH will be first in most situations anyway(the buff lasts 16 minutes kitten but what’s more important, you can actually bash the kitten out of your opponents while sick’em is active. the gs buff + that fix pretty much nailed it.

You can also preload SoTH, it lasts for 17 mins or until the pet attacks. Bash preloads for 20 seconds.

Haha, you’re a great writer. I was laughing so much while reading your stories that I was crying. xD I’ve always loved the kitties, and now I know how to make them into an evil weapon! >:3

Is this viable for PvE? Or specific for WvW? What about SpVp?

I just saw on the post that while designed for WvW still works on other places. I’m still concerned to what extent it would work as Im a trapper-condition build that I wasn’t able to leave yet.