Guild Wars 2

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjEqQJL2yCGsAXLWyEsmkVA4A8M5WAPO4ZaOdoWi0rA-T1BEwAIuAAM3fU+B4IAwS9nHHCACPAgtKBLHcAwbvNgbD4WA-w

To start off, I would like to state that I do not play any other classes actively.
However, I have played longbow ranger for close to three years now and I have learnt to spot visual cues relating to other classes over the years. I mainly roam in WvW or queue in PvP using the identical build. Unfortunately, I do not have any roaming or pvp videos.

How I play this build. I tend to open up as much space from my opponents before bursting with longbow. Greatsword is more commonly used as a defensive weapon for blocks and leaps. My utilities allow me to clear 6 conditions while offering two stun breaks. While I normally run with Signet of the Hunt, I swap it out from time to time for “Sic Em”. Celestial spirit allows me to clear an additional 13 conditions which is especially useful for pesky condition mesmers, bersekers or reapers. The reason I chose Greatsword over staff is the fact that the great sword block allows me to block more attacks as opposed to that barrier on staff that only stops projectiles. Also, I’m accessing the game from Southeast Asia where the ping is far too high for me to effectively time my Vine Surge.

I chose this over the standard might stacking druid build as I prefer the ability to burst my opponents as fast as possible. The main detail I keep a lookout for before bursting is to ensure that my opponent does not have stability on.

Why it works: High damage/chance to catch your opponents off guard
Why it does not work: If you screw up the condition removal/stealths/dodges

The main bonus of having druid specced is that you are immediately able to utilise Ancient Seeds at the start of combat. It is a great trait that ensures that your target will be rooted as long as you stun/daze/knock back/launch them. How my combo chain works is try to ensure that my foe is rooted whenever I want to burst them for maximum effectiveness.

1. Activate Signet of the Hunt
2. LB1 (Long Range Shot) -> Usually crits for 2-3k cause of signet of the hunt
3. LB5 (Point Blank Shot) + Quickening Zephyr -> Roots your enemy because of Ancient Seeds unless it’s blocked or nulified. Watch for warriors or guardians on this.
4. LB2 (Rapid Fire). At this point, I send forth my Smokescale. It almost always shadowsteps to your enemy and starts to chomp away. Other pets will usually make a slow run for your enemy, screwing this important step up. This is where you also hit your pet F2, so that Beastly Warden triggers, taunting your foe. This is the part where your foe is usually at 50% health or so and trying to heal. Hence, Beastly Warden will play an important part in interrupting that heal.

What if your enemy does not die?

It’s ok. You’re not screwed yet. You have yet to utilise any of your defensive skills at the moment. You can drop a barrage infront of that enemy as they are almost always guaranteed to make their way towards you. Continue to drop long range shots (LB1) until they are close to you.
Then, you can either decide to:

1. Use LB3 (Hunter’s Shot) to go into stealth
2. Lightning Reflexes to break any stun/immob and roll back
3. Swap to GS

Should you decide to go with (1), this is the part where you should make full use of that 3 second stealth and not screw it up. Make sure that your stupid pet is still attacking your foe and not following you. Utilizing the stealth, head in the opposite direction that your enemy is headed. You can either open in stealth but I suggest that you make full use of that 3 seconds to open up as much space as possible. Remember, your toughness is non-existent. By then, Ancient Seeds is off cool down and ready to be abused once again. I usually open with LB5 (Point Blank Shot) again in order to open up that space. It will also root my opponent to give me more leeway in placing myself for the next burst.

(2) Lightning Reflexes is useful if you are fighting anything with high burst. That dodge allows you to open up some space and allow yourself precious micro seconds to evade their burst.

(3) Sometimes, hunter’s shot may fail for a variety of reasons. You will not go into stealth and you will find your opponent breathing down your neck. You can swap to GS and hit #3 to block incoming attacks. If they do not have stability, you can knock them back provided that they are attacking you with melee attacks. You can also daze with #5 and maul with #2 assuming that they are not on stability. Do not attempt daze and maul if your opponents are already on stability because it’s a waste of the precious stun. It is also worth nothing that your Smokescale’s F2 ability only has a 16 second cooldown. You can stay in Greatsword in order to utilise that leap into stealth. Once again, make sure you leap away from your enemy.

What I do at this point is swap back into Longbow and repeat my combo chain. This time, I switch to my wolf instead to make use of the Fear provided by my wolf’s F2 ability.

PETS
Smokescale – Good auto attacks, offers [F2] smokescreen for stealth combos and also takes down your opponent.
Wolf – Takes down your opponent, [F2] Fear is useful for pushing away opponents who are far too close to you. Don’t use it if your opponents have stability or if your wolf is blinded.

VS OTHER CLASSES
I don’t play other classes. I used to spend more time in game but it has since been reduced to about half an hour to an hour daily since HOT launched. I also do not pay active attention to patch notes and do not know what are the meta builds for other classes. However, some typical behaviours never change and here are my general observations. Feel free to debate/ discuss. I’m only one person. I apply the same combo chain to all classes whenever their stability/stun breaks are on coold own. I did not list the name of their elite specialisations for simplicity sake.

Mesmers
Mesmers used to be really painful and a kitten to fight. With the condi food nerf and the introduction of druid I find them more manageable. I usually replace signet of the hunt for “Sic Em” when fighting Mesmers. Remember that entering into celestial spirit removes 13 conditions from you and it is very useful to get those thick stacks of confusion or torment off you. Against power Mesmers, It’s important to watch for their shatter and make full use of lightning reflexes + hunter’s shot.

Thieves
Pretty much the same as above. Replace Signet of the Hunt with “Sic Em”. Make sure that you have stability up as much as possible. Do not get caught in their staff attack chain. You will die. Make full use of your available stealth. Use your wolf to squeeze them out of shadow refuge with it’s F2 Fear. If you can’t, drop barrage onto the shadow refuge.

Warriors
With the introduction of HOT they just leap at you these days and try to throw things at you. I don’t really know how it works. My general advice is just to block as much as possible with your GS3, open up as much space as possible before engaging. Do not let them close the gap on you, you will die.

Guardians
Pretty dumb. They just lay traps and hope that you will walk into them before bursting you. Let your pets trigger the traps and pew them from far away. They will also shadowstep to you and drop traps. Make sure to utilise lightning reflexes to dodge as fast as possible. If you get caught in the traps for more than a second or so, you will die. There is also some chain that tethers onto you. I have yet to figure out what that exactly does. My observations are that as long as you open up as much space as possible when you are locked on by that, it will not affect you. I do so by using lightning reflexes + Swoop on Greatsword.

Elementalists
I don’t know. Celestial eles were nerfed and I think Elementalists are extinct.

Revenants
I haven’t played this class at all. All I know is that you want to again make use of your defensive capabilities to dodge the attacks on shiro form. There is some flappy wing attack when they swap to glint and it does a heck of a damage, be sure to dodge that. A simple dodge will do. Don’t attack when they are blocking and certainly do not attack when they are using the heal that heals them based on the damage that you deal to them, you are just being stupid if you do so.

Necros
A ton of conditions. Use your condi clears carefully. Chill will kill you if you are not careful. You can’t do anything if they have stability while in reaper other than to kite around them. Again, you can use your pets to trigger the marks the same way you trigger the guardian traps.

Engineers
Do not fire arrows at the spinning barrier thing, they reflect right back in your face. Drop barrage when they use the dome thing, make sure they do not get to hammer you or you will die. What you can afford to risk is to fire point blank shot at the spinning barrier if the engineer is close to you. While it will not affect the engineer, it will knock you back, opening up some space between the both of you. Do not do this if you are low on health.

Rangers
If your opponent is running a the meta druid, you will need to ensure that you do not get rooted. You will not last fighting toe to toe as it simply has more sustain than you. Use your stun breaks to get out of those and avoid the rapid fire with stealth. As long as you can do those two things, you will survive.

STOMPING
Classes that are easy to stomp – Guardian/Warrior/Ranger/Engineers/Necro/Revenant
You can easily hit the F2 button on your pet that will trigger the blind on your foe, ensuring that their downed ability does not affect you when you stomp. A stealth stomp also works against Warrior, Engineer, Necro or Revenant.

Classes that are trickier- Mesmer/Thief/Elementalist
Stability, stealth nor blindness wont help you stomp these classes. Hence, you have to decide if it is worth the try especially if there is enemy fire happening around the downed foe. If it is not worth the risk, drop a barrage and try to interrupt the enemy from being resurrected by their ally.

For stomps, I usually hit Lightning Reflexes immediately after I stomp to get out of enemy fire if necessary.

UNDERWATER
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA

That’s about all that I can think of. I would love to answer any questions or discuss in further detail any concerns that you may have with this build that I play.

Came to the forums looking exactly for this. Do you recommend other types of stats than zerker for more survivability?

That build looks really, really glassy. Got any vids of it in action? I feel like Zephyr’s long cooldown, even with WS for condiclear isn’t all that good compared to Protect Me or Glyph of Equality with lots of CC flying around, but maybe that’s just me

That said, I guess some general stuff for that profession section:

Elementalists
I don’t know. Celestial eles were nerfed and I think Elementalists are extinct.

They’re definitely still around. Got to keep an eye out for their Earth Attunements and Aftershock shout for Projectile Reflects and their overloads (Air in particular hurts a ton). Between Protection uptime and Stone Heart (if taken), it can be difficult to burst them down, but still possible to CC/Bunker against.

Revenant
I haven’t played this class at all. All I know is that you want to again make use of your defensive capabilities to dodge the attacks on shiro form. There is some flappy wing attack when they swap to glint and it does a heck of a damage, be sure to dodge that. A simple dodge will do. Don’t attack when they are blocking and certainly do not attack when they are using the heal that heals them based on the damage that you deal to them, you are just being stupid if you do so.

Unrelenting Assault can be weakened if your pet’s close when its triggered, since it’ll bounce off of them once out of three hits. They’re not too hard to range pressure without Hammer and while they’re in Glint Stance, and even then, most of their damage comes from Coalescence of Ruin (which has terrain issues).

Shiro’s a different case, since they can chase with Phase Travel and their next couple attacks become unblockables right after. You’ll have to prepare for UA or Precision Strike, which is pretty painful up close.

Grayclay.4579:

Came to the forums looking exactly for this. Do you recommend other types of stats than zerker for more survivability?

You can probably mess with the traits/runes (and amulet if that’s not enough) before having to change the gear if you need something that packs a reasonable punch while having some defenses. Like sticking with Zerker and just change the runes to Soldiers (or Durability if WvW) for extra toughness/vitality+1 condi cleanse while also running Shout utilities. Maybe swap in Signet of Renewal while dropping WS for NM for more passive damage mitigation and a secondary mass cleanse if D.Clarity isn’t immediately usable when you get condi-bombed.

Didn’t read it all, but nice that you made such a detailed post. However, I would choose Natural stride over Celestial shadow and swap out Signet of the Hunt for something more useful.

Gannicus.4132:

1. LB1 (Long Range Shot) -> Usually crits for 2-3k cause of signet of the hunt
2. LB5 (Point Blank Shot) + Quickening Zephyr -> Roots your enemy because of Ancient Seeds unless it’s blocked or nulified. Watch for warriors or guardians on this.
3. LB2 (Rapid Fire). At this point, I send forth my Smokescale. It almost always shadowsteps to your enemy and starts to chomp away. Other pets will usually make a slow run for your enemy, screwing this important step up. This is where you also hit your pet F2, so that Beastly Warden triggers, taunting your foe. This is the part where your foe is usually at 50% health or so and trying to heal. Hence, Beastly Warden will play an important part in interrupting that heal.

I hope that you know, that LB5 are Barrage and "Point Blank Shot are LB4.

If i’ll take, I’ll change SOTH to SOTW and take runes of traveler.
For every one who did not know that, SOTW generate astral force really good!
Check it.

it will take about 25sec to generate AstralForce from 0 to 100 with SOTW passive effect.

It’s a very good writeup, but I honestly wouldn’t run your build. Not because it isn’t good, but because there are more efficient options.

For instance, you’re already specced into BM, all you would have to do is make sure you’re running We Heal As One and trait for shouts, and you’d get tons of mileage out of just that because you would have near perma swiftness so you could drop signet of the hunt entirely, on top of having more healing per second and astral force generation from regen from the trait.

I could continue tweaking the build, but it would end up being the exact setup I run, so it’s easier just to post that: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA9Ci1CCOsActglOBDelGT3pPtgQ1CzpvFAKcl480A-TFyDwAAM/dQJYz9H8oLIxlAowTAYnyvWq/AA-w

Rune choice would change based on utility I want. Scholar’s maxes damage as much as possible, Soldier’s for multiple small cleansing sources, or Dolyak for yet another unique source of healing to power Astral Force Regeneration (which in turn would give more cleansing and stunbreaks from traited Celestial Form).

Thankfully OP, you already have a nearly identical gear spread, if you wanted to try the two builds and make your own opinion (which is why I’m posting), you only have to make a few trait choices and maybe get a staff (it’s great utility and important for powering celestial form, but not necessarily a necessity).

Euthymias.7984:

Grayclay.4579:

Came to the forums looking exactly for this. Do you recommend other types of stats than zerker for more survivability?

You can probably mess with the traits/runes (and amulet if that’s not enough) before having to change the gear if you need something that packs a reasonable punch while having some defenses. Like sticking with Zerker and just change the runes to Soldiers (or Durability if WvW) for extra toughness/vitality+1 condi cleanse while also running Shout utilities. Maybe swap in Signet of Renewal while dropping WS for NM for more passive damage mitigation and a secondary mass cleanse if D.Clarity isn’t immediately usable when you get condi-bombed.

I’m not really up on theorycrafting or even making my own builds, is this generally a good strategy for all classes when tweaking, assuming you’re sticking to the same damage type (condi vs. power)?

I ask because I have full Marauders on my elementalist, full Assassins on my mesmer, and full Soldier on my (recently boosted) ranger, which, as you can imagine, has pidgeonholed me into very specific builds. Can runes help mitigate this?

Grayclay.4579:

Euthymias.7984:

Grayclay.4579:

Came to the forums looking exactly for this. Do you recommend other types of stats than zerker for more survivability?

You can probably mess with the traits/runes (and amulet if that’s not enough) before having to change the gear if you need something that packs a reasonable punch while having some defenses. Like sticking with Zerker and just change the runes to Soldiers (or Durability if WvW) for extra toughness/vitality+1 condi cleanse while also running Shout utilities. Maybe swap in Signet of Renewal while dropping WS for NM for more passive damage mitigation and a secondary mass cleanse if D.Clarity isn’t immediately usable when you get condi-bombed.

I’m not really up on theorycrafting or even making my own builds, is this generally a good strategy for all classes when tweaking, assuming you’re sticking to the same damage type (condi vs. power)?

I ask because I have full Marauders on my elementalist, full Assassins on my mesmer, and full Soldier on my (recently boosted) ranger, which, as you can imagine, has pidgeonholed me into very specific builds. Can runes help mitigate this?

Runes can definitely help make up for what you’re lacking, but it really depends on what you want/how you want to build. In the case of Soldier’s armor, that would be Precision and Ferocity. You already get lots of Toughness/Vitality and decent Power from that gear, so trinkets and Runes can somewhat make up for your lack of Precision and Ferocity (as can your weapons). Here’s an example (piggybacking off of jcbroe’s build)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA9Ci1CC+rActglOB7pFEqWYwr0Y6O1pvFAKclMtzA-TFyEwADUCW4SAoS9HAm/Cu/gGdBBeCA3U+BA-w

Edit: Swapped out Scholar Runes for Ranger’s , but they can work well since this is a ranged build and you’re able to easily keep the threshold bonus. Wont have a lot of Precision to make use of the Ferocity boost, though. Also, SoSt for SoR for passive condition removal/mass cleanse when you cant into CA atm since you have lots of toughness already.

Euthymias.7984:

Grayclay.4579:

Euthymias.7984:

Grayclay.4579:

Came to the forums looking exactly for this. Do you recommend other types of stats than zerker for more survivability?

You can probably mess with the traits/runes (and amulet if that’s not enough) before having to change the gear if you need something that packs a reasonable punch while having some defenses. Like sticking with Zerker and just change the runes to Soldiers (or Durability if WvW) for extra toughness/vitality+1 condi cleanse while also running Shout utilities. Maybe swap in Signet of Renewal while dropping WS for NM for more passive damage mitigation and a secondary mass cleanse if D.Clarity isn’t immediately usable when you get condi-bombed.

I’m not really up on theorycrafting or even making my own builds, is this generally a good strategy for all classes when tweaking, assuming you’re sticking to the same damage type (condi vs. power)?

I ask because I have full Marauders on my elementalist, full Assassins on my mesmer, and full Soldier on my (recently boosted) ranger, which, as you can imagine, has pidgeonholed me into very specific builds. Can runes help mitigate this?

Runes can definitely help make up for what you’re lacking, but it really depends on what you want/how you want to build. In the case of Soldier’s armor, that would be Precision and Ferocity. You already get lots of Toughness/Vitality and decent Power from that gear, so trinkets and Runes can somewhat make up for your lack of Precision and Ferocity (as can your weapons). Here’s an example (piggybacking off of jcbroe’s build)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA9Ci1CC+rActglOB7pFEqWYwr0Y6O1pvFAKclMtzA-TFyEwADUCW4SAoS9HAm/Cu/gGdBBeCA3U+BA-w

Edit: Swapped out Scholar Runes for Ranger’s , but they can work well since this is a ranged build and you’re able to easily keep the threshold bonus. Wont have a lot of Precision to make use of the Ferocity boost, though. Also, SoSt for SoR for passive condition removal/mass cleanse when you cant into CA atm since you have lots of toughness already.

Probably and obvious point, but at some level it’s worth it to just buy new armor rather than whole new runes/accessories right? I ask because while Soldier makes me feel pretty comfortable learning the class w/ a 27k hp pool, the damage is clearly lacking.

Grayclay.4579:

Probably and obvious point, but at some level it’s worth it to just buy new armor rather than whole new runes/accessories right? I ask because while Soldier makes me feel pretty comfortable learning the class w/ a 27k hp pool, the damage is clearly lacking.

Ultimately yes, you would likely want to change out armor for Berserker’s once you’re really comfortable. Changing out your trinkets at the very least can make up some of that damage you feel like you’re missing while keeping that steady HP pool and toughness till you’ve fully transitioned, though.