Guild Wars 2

Thanks for this awesome topic and also thanks to everyone who has posted something. The discussion has been both informative and thought provoking. I think there are some really great ideas here for how to grow a rangers contribution in pvp within the confines of current game balance.

I personally have not had a chance to try everything that’s been presented. I have had a few quality matches though on this build here http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsfVjEq0yaHL+rQ1aADhqdL8uVNrAwdR8CXdBbqA-TZRFwALOFAAOCAJeAAp2f4ZZAA

Some thoughts. Ranger immob spam is really strong. We are possibly the best class at the moment for aoe immob without really giving anything up to get it. Muddy Terrain is allright as well. It’s a bit clunky in a 1v1 but in team fights its like a mini entangle without having to sacrifice positioning.

Swapping in SB for A/D definitely increases rangers team fight presence. As others have mentioned the flanking requirement can be an issue especially in fights around points where it is hard to maneuver, or where that maneuvering would put you in a vulnerable spot. SB is quite capable of churning out a lot of bleed stacks in a short period of time, and the power dmg from the auto is a nice addition, though as others have mentioned the SB sometimes feels lackluster in its ability to do dmg NAO. 1v1 SB felt ok, but I definitely had to swap back to S/T for the extra dmg from burning to finish.

Back to Immob spam, do we need muddy terrain on our bar? Or do we get enough from pets and entangle? Next time I play this build I’ll try it with Quickening Zephyr or Sharpening Stone. My thoughts are either one would help the SB apply more pressure. SS is nice because you can apply it before a fight and have the cd back up fairly quickly once in the fight. SS is also =to a stunbreak vs fear. QZ offers another stunbreak (3 on your bar, not bad) and helps apply more bleeds from SB but also more power dmg.

The double sword builds posted by Eurantien above both seem interesting. Certainly the mobility would allow you to get to any freecap about as fast as any other class in the game could. My initial impression though is that the dmg would be a little lower overall, maybe to low, like if you miss a maul you lose the fight low…..

Double bow build Sebrent posted looks fun.

Jcbroes idea for a GS A/D build seems on paper like it could be really strong, possibly even competing with S/T SB but ultimately does it do anything different? Fill a different role? OR do the same role better? Not sure but Im really keen to give it a try.

And oh yeah!!! Last thought. Cele ammy on ranger feels much better than I ever thought it would.

I think you’re right about the amount of immobilize we can dish out. In fact, back in the BM days, I used lb/gs, dual raven, 0/2/6/0/6 with soldiers ammy and used muddy terrain, SoR, and LR on my bar. It was an amazing utility because I could use it to set up burst, lock down a target for someone else, or cast it behind me while fleeing. Since it got “nerfed” imo when they reduced the duration of it but increased the condition duration time I stopped using it out of spite.

However, your words have swayed me. Because the two things that I think ranger can do that is unique are ranged damage and lots of immobs and I haven’t given the latter much thought. There was once a ranger named Kimochi that I had heard was good when I was still learning. He liked to do a burst combo of drake hound immob + spike trap immob (traited of course) -> pet swap (giving quickness) to auto pew pew with sb and use jaguar burst.

Given the all around utility of muddy terrain and the way Kimochi would burst has made me wonder if we could just do the same thing with muddy terrain. It completely changes the ranger play style imo to a more support of a class, which I think is comfortable transition due to how much support lb/gs zerk ranger can actually give out in terms of CC and pet control already. Adding in muddy terrain and entangle just adds a little bit more depth to it.

So that’s what I will be messing around with, different combinations of ranger burst, pet burst, and giving muddy terrain a second look.

As for gs a/d and s/t sb…. at the end of the day I always just thought… shouldn’t I be using a/d s/t? But then again, with any of these 3 weapon sets, you give up some team fight or some 1 v 1 capability while often maintaining selfish utilities.

Which is why I am going to give muddy terrain another look because due to its versatility it can provide good support via lockdown, self peels via the immob, it can cover condis, or it can set up a good pet burst. It’s a versatile utility that once made my style of bm ranger viable vs all the condi ones.

note: I did just try 0/6/2/0/6 with spike trap, muddy terrain, SoR, entangle, and tried to the “Kimo-burst”. Used lb s/w cele with sigils to cover the immobs and cripples on my lb as well as lyssa runes. It was 1 game, it kind of worked… hence my deeper consideration into muddy terrain again.

note: 6/0/2/0/6 immob spider → pet swap to jaguar and also sword aa burst… (using steady focus, malicious, predator’s onslaught, shared anguish, quickness on pet swap, and stab trainging.

I just finished creating a spreadsheet with all the Ranger Weapon Skills in it … and looking at the DPS I can’t help but notice Path of Scars. Even if it just hits once instead of the twice that is more common (especially when your target is immob’d), its DPS is quite high. Maul is the next closest but much more telegraphed and restricted to melee range. In addition, Path of Scars does have a pull which can interrupt as well as mess with positioning.

When it comes to flanking with the shortbow, I did find that immobilize and fear were my friend. You only need to get about 60 degrees or so to the side of your target to count as flanking for the purposes of shortbow autos. Immobilize and Fear remove your opponent’s control over their facing … fear usually turning your opponent’s flank to you.

If I had path of scars and call of the wild on one wep set (even if it was JUST two skills) i’d use it. Imo, there is no main hand that can REALLY be paired with off hand axe.

I’ve been keeping up with this thread and while I don’t consider myself to be an excellent ranger I do spend most of my time playing theorycrafting builds, so I wanted some feedback and if the builds I run have any chance of being effective in higher tier play.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhFakRlOWbZxiFqWEkIUtGBeBwvg1dNkCRdGX9xrK-TZxFwACeCAJOEAQLDIb/BAnAAA

I’ve seen mention of cleric’s amulet BM builds before and this is what I’ve found works best for me. I tried to squeeze out as much group support as I could while maintaining good mobility and decent 1v1 ability.

In terms of team fights I provide high amounts of swiftness and fury to my team as well as vigor and a strong regen with my heal. I can also combo my own water field up to four times in quick succession if I time everything right by using Call of the Wild, drake’s tail swipe, switching to my greatsword for Swoop and swapping to my snow leopard for an icy pounce, doubling up on leap finishers. Usually I can only manage two or three blasts in quick succession, but it’s still a lot of outgoing healing to those near me. Meanwhile Lightning Breath is really strong in group fights, especially when I can catch my enemies in Entangling Roots to keep them from dodging. The build also provides a fair amount of immobilize with Muddy Terrain which I like to throw on enemies so my pets/allies can secure their burst.

I sometimes swap greatsword out for longbow for more personal damage, the amazing knockback, stealth, and the AoE cripple, but find myself missing the block, stun, and the mobility/leap finisher of Swoop. Plus this tends to get me a lot more angry folk who think I’m running a power ranger.

Sebrent.3625:

I just finished creating a spreadsheet with all the Ranger Weapon Skills in it … and looking at the DPS I can’t help but notice Path of Scars. Even if it just hits once instead of the twice that is more common (especially when your target is immob’d), its DPS is quite high. Maul is the next closest but much more telegraphed and restricted to melee range. In addition, Path of Scars does have a pull which can interrupt as well as mess with positioning.

When I run double melee in WvW, I often use PoS with muddy terrain and double canines and entangle. You can indeed get it to hit twice reliably. The other time I get it to hit is when people are running away. They don’t have time to react, even if they know what the skill does.

There is the possibility of hitting 3 times if you immob someone at long range. I’ve never personally done it, but it would be absolutely devastating.

And as for immob spam… Even back before the LB buff, I started with sending the drakehound in, KD, immob, MT, wolf fear, KD. Before RF was buffed I won a lot of fights without taking a single attack of damage. I used that combo to win about 6 or so matches on a glass LB build in the ranger king of the hill thread, not to take away from the players that it worked on. I’ve played with them on teams and they are good players, and have even run in to them at the top of the MMR ladder with the abjured folks and what not. It’s just a strong combo of overwhelming people’s escape methods.

MT has rarely left my skillbar in over 2 years. Seriously, take it people. Is good.

I was wondering if you could use scavenging runes instead of krait? some extra condi dmg, thou you lose torment, bleed duration and just bit less poison… i used to run rabid build with krait and i must say that i do like cele alot more. this is the build i used for the lolz in stronghold, its the metabattle melee ranger just having cele amulet…http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjEq0xaLLOsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2l1dTcDfdJjqC-TZhHwADOIACOBAl3fAwTAwYZAA

i do like that keen edge more than sharpened edges because of synergy with survival of the fittest…kinda having ’’extra’’ survival skill even if using signet of stone. bark skin…could replace it with poison master thou.

Having combined some of my thoughts I have been enjoying the feel of this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHfxG2IhKds2viLLUtGgToaGAV6zNdDcbAW5L+ppK-TpgIQAgHCwf/BA

I’m just trying to clean it up still, I have thoughts in my head, what ammy is best? More damage or more tanky? Do I need regen somewhere? etc. I LOVE the might stacking, having about 15 might stacks constantly is great and the drake dishes out some amazing damage.

Eurantien.4632:

Having combined some of my thoughts I have been enjoying the feel of this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHfxG2IhKds2viLLUtGgToaGAV6zNdDcbAW5L+ppK-TpgIQAgHCwf/BA

I’m just trying to clean it up still, I have thoughts in my head, what ammy is best? More damage or more tanky? Do I need regen somewhere? etc. I LOVE the might stacking, having about 15 might stacks constantly is great and the drake dishes out some amazing damage.

I added +15 might in the build and the total (meaningful) DPS gained by utilizing Cele in a (some kind of) might stack build is ridiculously more than say Rabid/Settler/Dire or maybe any other build…lots of survivability/tankiness… you can also then swap out SoR since you got a ton of HP to start with in fights, maybe to SotW to secure a few stomps every game.

About WH, I used to run a/t, s/w but later I found I can’t live w/out dagger offhand…but that maybe subject to preference.

Have at least paired dog w/ drake for over a year now. The day I swapped one of my pups for a Drake I felt my life as Ranger got elevated abit higher — the big gecko hits like a truck.

Many things me and the subsequent posters have/will write are definitely things you know already/in your head/aware of; you’re one of the best rangers here

Warhorn is a gigantic pile of useless crap. It’s the only blast finisher we have aside from a pet, but not worth it I think when you can leave it to eles and warriors and even engis.

@Eurantien: with solid might stacking, my first thought is cele ofc. I just don’t know what our role is at that point. Among the typical cele users, we’re not as tanky as eles or shoutbows while engineers put out better damage (correct me if I’m wrong, here) and cc.

At least with settler’s and a bit of regen, I feel confident in my ability to fight on point for quite a while, but then I have all of the issues that have been so well-catalogued in this thread.

@ Thread: I pretty much always run with muddy terrain, renewal sig, and lighting reflexes if using SotF, and last night I tested GS, A/D in conjunction with them.

Edit: Here’s the build.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3YjMq0xaLL+rQ1aABhaVA0uGShu2dTcDf9B/O9A-TZBHwAFeAAAOCACuIAt2fAZZAA

Once I got used to the setup, I felt like I did pretty well. GS felt much stronger in team fights than sword/torch or short bow, and I still won my 1v1s. This setup definitely felt stronger against shoutbows than my normal settler’s build.

All of that being said, I just don’t know where it would fit on a team. It brings good survivability, okish cleave, a large water field, some team condi removal, decent mobility, aoe immobilize, and good hybrid damage. Yet I still found it a bit lacking compared to say, shoutbow. Ofc the more I play that build, the more I’m convinced it’s wildly OP.

It’s 100% entirely the warhorn that makes shoutbow too strong. A simple CD increase would bring it in to line with other buillds. It also highlights how impotent our warhorn is.

@ Dagger vs war horn

The boons from war horn are nice, as is the blast finisher but that is really the only novelty. If we had a blast finisher somewhere else i would probably take it. I was using rabid, and although I wasn’t using dagger I was having a hard time getting through an ele. I wasn’t dying, the ele wasn’t great but it was hard to get the kill nonetheless. I’m not sure if it was the lack of dagger, the lack of hydromancy sigils, or just me playing lazy. Well, I know I was playing lazy, but still it felt like the fight should have been easier given my extra like 500 condi damage than my normal 1v1 d/d ele build. So I’m wondering if dagger is just that good? Although, I think it was mainly my laziness, I wasn’t counting CDs or chilling after water attunement. I just can’t help but think… If staff is any good ranger will be amazing.

You guys remember when the WH didn’t even have a blast finisher? Gravy, what was anet thinking.

Malhavoc.8976:

@Eurantien: with solid might stacking, my first thought is cele ofc. I just don’t know what our role is at that point. Among the typical cele users, we’re not as tanky as eles or shoutbows while engineers put out better damage (correct me if I’m wrong, here) and cc.

At least with settler’s and a bit of regen, I feel confident in my ability to fight on point for quite a while, but then I have all of the issues that have been so well-catalogued in this thread.

@ Thread: I pretty much always run with muddy terrain, renewal sig, and lighting reflexes if using SotF, and last night I tested GS, A/D in conjunction with them.

Edit: Here’s the build.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3YjMq0xaLL+rQ1aABhaVA0uGShu2dTcDf9B/O9A-TZBHwAFeAAAOCACuIAt2fAZZAA

Once I got used to the setup, I felt like I did pretty well. GS felt much stronger in team fights than sword/torch or short bow, and I still won my 1v1s. This setup definitely felt stronger against shoutbows than my normal settler’s build.

All of that being said, I just don’t know where it would fit on a team. It brings good survivability, okish cleave, a large water field, some team condi removal, decent mobility, aoe immobilize, and good hybrid damage. Yet I still found it a bit lacking compared to say, shoutbow. Ofc the more I play that build, the more I’m convinced it’s wildly OP.

Did I see you in game? After I made the post about GS and Axe/Dagger, I started testing it and ended up in a match with somebody running the exact same build haha.

So if so, small world!

But yeah, you’re choices are slightly different than what I was running, and after playing it for a longer period of time and getting accustomed to it, the build itself feels really great, but as you mentioned, versus it stacking up against meta-builds, it doesn’t really “edge out” any of them right now.

Still, I do think it should be recognized in its own light at least. I’m glad to see somebody else having success with the idea!

There are 2 problems with GS and celestial I can’t get past. 1) All the condi damage is wasted, unlike with s/x. And 2) the GS hits like a little child unless you’re full berserker and power speced. IIRC, mauls crit for like 4k, which is less DPS than most meta builds autoattacking. Speaking of autoattacks, the GS doesn’t have one.

If you’re going to go for a power slanted celestial survival build, use the immob spam for s/a. For a condi slanted build (which you’re specced for anyway) torch is amazing.

About the meta and people not knowing how to play against it …
… The celestial build I used to run was using a Longbow.

And what I did was that I used barrage to apply AoE cripple and AoE effects of bleeds (trait), pop Rapid Fire – and watched 3-4 defensive cooldowns being used …
Then I watched them bleed out slowly regardless.

That was a fun fact in my early days of this build. Even though the purpose of me using Longbow in celestial was a very effective decapping and utility.

@Eurantien;

The only choice I’m curious about is the stability training choice on the pet over Vigor on pet swap. Besides that, I think it looks pretty good.

Doom on Axe set, Geomancy on Sword? That’s what I gravitated towards.

Celestial amulet, runeset is great.

@Sebrent;

The LB/SB set does do great damage, and the pressure is pretty fantastic at range.

However, I found that if I got “jumped,” it didn’t have enough utility to save me. It pretty much relies on quickshot and knockback shot to create any sort of distance, and if you can’t create that distance, you aren’t really winning the “damage race” against what’s attacking you either (common example being a typical Panic Strike thief) so you’re pretty much dead unless you are greatly outskilling your opponent (which we all know doesn’t make a build good).

It was entertaining however hahaha.

Tragic Positive.9356:

About the meta and people not knowing how to play against it …
… The celestial build I used to run was using a Longbow.

And what I did was that I used barrage to apply AoE cripple and AoE effects of bleeds (trait), pop Rapid Fire – and watched 3-4 defensive cooldowns being used …
Then I watched them bleed out slowly regardless.

That was a fun fact in my early days of this build. Even though the purpose of me using Longbow in celestial was a very effective decapping and utility.

I have had TONS of fun with the LB Axe/Dagger celestial setup for just this reason. People don’t even stop to think how hard you are hitting. They see Longbow, and they start blowing cooldowns when you start using skills, and then you can just pressure them forever at a distance or if you’re close, you can swap and land a full condition burst that most builds have no choice but to eat, and then swap back and do it all over again.

It’s pretty humorous and surprisingly effective.

Weighing it against Shortbow, I just can’t seem to get people to blow cooldowns from its pressure the way they do with Longbow. You still have the ranged pressure the build “needs” and are still effective, but outside of pressure, it’s hard not being able to open people up with the Shortbow the way the longbow does.

I’m going to attribute part of that to the fact that people just aren’t used to seeing Longbow on ranger builds that aren’t zerker, and would imagine that once a good player learns the build matchup, the Longbow would lose some of its effectiveness.

Still, that’s only speculation at this point.

Fluffball.8307:

Speaking of autoattacks, the GS doesn’t have one.

i c wut u did dere

jcbroe.4329:

Did I see you in game? After I made the post about GS and Axe/Dagger, I started testing it and ended up in a match with somebody running the exact same build haha.

So if so, small world!

But yeah, you’re choices are slightly different than what I was running, and after playing it for a longer period of time and getting accustomed to it, the build itself feels really great, but as you mentioned, versus it stacking up against meta-builds, it doesn’t really “edge out” any of them right now.

Still, I do think it should be recognized in its own light at least. I’m glad to see somebody else having success with the idea!

Haha perhaps you did! Funny how that can happen.

Idk if you posted your version already, but would you mind doing so? I’m curious about what you did differently. Lol I know mine isn’t perfect.

@Fluffball: You are right that my build is probably too skewed toward condis. I ran with six in WS out of habit. I’m curious about whether a might stacking approach would be better, tho harder without torch, obviously.

Otherwise, your two main points about GS and cele match my thoughts as well. I’m experimenting with GS any way because rangers just don’t have any other weapons that cleave the same way. It’s nothing other than a desperate attempt to find something that checks every box well enough lol.

I brought the owl to buff up my DPS, and that plus GS skills plus 10-20 bleeds definitely adds up. There were times when I really missed having a wolf, tho.

Malhavoc.8976:

jcbroe.4329:

Did I see you in game? After I made the post about GS and Axe/Dagger, I started testing it and ended up in a match with somebody running the exact same build haha.

So if so, small world!

But yeah, you’re choices are slightly different than what I was running, and after playing it for a longer period of time and getting accustomed to it, the build itself feels really great, but as you mentioned, versus it stacking up against meta-builds, it doesn’t really “edge out” any of them right now.

Still, I do think it should be recognized in its own light at least. I’m glad to see somebody else having success with the idea!

Haha perhaps you did! Funny how that can happen.

Idk if you posted your version already, but would you mind doing so? I’m curious about what you did differently. Lol I know mine isn’t perfect.

@Fluffball: You are right that my build is probably too skewed toward condis. I ran with six in WS out of habit. I’m curious about whether a might stacking approach would be better, tho harder without torch, obviously.

Otherwise, your two main points about GS and cele match my thoughts as well. I’m experimenting with GS any way because rangers just don’t have any other weapons that cleave the same way. It’s nothing other than a desperate attempt to find something that checks every box well enough lol.

I brought the owl to buff up my DPS, and that plus GS skills plus 10-20 bleeds definitely adds up. There were times when I really missed having a wolf, tho.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3YjEq0xaLL+rQ1aADhqdL8uVNrAwdR8CXdBbqA-TZRHwAEOIABeCAAuAAk2f4YZAA

This is what I ended up with. I also tried out 4/0/4/6/0 with spotter and then by extension 0/4/4/6/0 for near-perma fury (primal reflexes and sharpened edges on this one).

So far I think I enjoyed the fury variant the most.

I really enjoyed the “dual burst” aspect of it more than anything. Particularly with the fury variant, I was also really enjoying my canines having ~50% fury uptime through Fortifying bond. Canines already hit hard without crits, but with more chance to make those big hits crit, it was always entertaining having a wolf leap do like a 3k knockdown as I Mauled the person for another 2-4k, then swapped and landed a full split blades crit for like an instant 8-9 bleed stack.

So if my internet wasn’t running at dial up speeds, this is what I’d be trying out…..

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8XjMq0yaHL+rQ1ag+ga9BEAjdrf4dakFLdBraA-TpBFwACuAAA3fo9RAYxBBoaZAAPAAA

I think it would mostly play like the current 66200 power build. Difference is the higher focus on ccs from pets and immobs across the board as well as super charged pets and on demand quickness with a low recharge. Obviously people can still just hide behind los. In my head I’m thinking it’d be harder for other players to just push in on the ranger though. You’ve got more than enough cc on your bar to burn through any ports evades stunbreaks whatever that a thief, mesmer or guard is bringing. The quickness helps you get yours and your pets ccs off more instantly.

vs the meta build you give up a bit of personal dps but that seems like its made up in pet dmg as well as quickness burst. S/A vs GS for another ranged nuke and fast repositioning. Also, quickness stomps? Quickness rez?? Anyone else remember when those were hot in pvp?

Another thing. As far as drakes are concerned. I think Marsh and River drake (none of the others) are the closest to a decent down cleave that ranger has. Downed bodies are the perfect target for the slow cast speed and bad tracking of their f2s. If someone is trying to res you get the perfect 2 target situation to maximize bounces and therefore dmg. It can be absolutely devastating to the rezzer.

@jcbroe: Thanks a bunch, man. I’ll have to try your versions out.

Edit: The more theorizing I do, the more ready I am to admit defeat regarding this combination of weapons. S/T just plays so much better.

Sebrent.3625:

I just finished creating a spreadsheet with all the Ranger Weapon Skills in it … and looking at the DPS I can’t help but notice Path of Scars. Even if it just hits once instead of the twice that is more common (especially when your target is immob’d), its DPS is quite high. Maul is the next closest but much more telegraphed and restricted to melee range. In addition, Path of Scars does have a pull which can interrupt as well as mess with positioning.

When it comes to flanking with the shortbow, I did find that immobilize and fear were my friend. You only need to get about 60 degrees or so to the side of your target to count as flanking for the purposes of shortbow autos. Immobilize and Fear remove your opponent’s control over their facing … fear usually turning your opponent’s flank to you.

It surprise me i never saw a ranger in spvp using sword x axe in their power ranger build.

Lévis.5489:

It surprise me i never saw a ranger in spvp using sword x axe in their power ranger build.

I used it like a week ago. In my celestial setup …
… Don’t judge me, I forgot to swap weapons >.>
But somehow I ended up hard countering Engies.

So just an update for the results I’ve personally found between Shortbow Axe/Dagger and Shortbow Sword/Torch, I’ve really just found the first option to be better for fighting. You have much more output, and the loss of burn on torch doesn’t really hurt against most competent players in their meta specs because they cleanse it immediately, and it isn’t exactly like torches burn is spammable.

The thing that has hurt probably the most is as mentioned, the loss of mobility on the Axe/Dagger set. However, I’ve found that while out of combat mobility is pretty much tied with Guardian builds, that it isn’t so low that it isn’t manageable, it’s just a difficult transition for most of us that have been attached at the hip to sword and GS.

Really, it’s just come down to me preferring the most output I can possibly have.

I see that you guys have been talking about soft CC (and immobilize) capabilities, and it’s intrigued me, so I plan on revisiting it as well to see what I can come up with. It will more than likely still use SotF and the same utilities to begin with, but that will be just the starting point, so I’ll see what I can come up with.

Also, as Eurantien mentioned a few pages back, Storm Spirit right now… yeah.

So, due to popular request I’ve searched the rats nest of papers coating my desk in order to find out what my Celestial LB/Slingshot build was that I used way back when and managed to find out what it was!

Link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATVjMq0uaLLGsQ1igABZ5gANnNi5iLvCfyGi0K-TZRFwALuAAAeCAF3fIxhA4ZZAA

So, first things first, this build, like almost every single build I personally run, doesn’t have that much passive defenses, however, what it lacks in passive damage soaking it makes up for with a significant amount of up time on evades. This allows you to mitigate the lack of condi removal and defensives CDs by dodging the big bad skills that’d ruin you in the first place. However, like most my builds, if you get caught, you’re going to be hurting and will likely have to slink away from the fight and lick your wounds from out of sight until you can manage to regen your health back up.

The Role of the Weapons:

The two bows fill a very similar role of both being defensive AND offensive in different ways. The Longbows role is a tad bit more offensive than the shortbow. As such it should be used primarily to punish squishies, interrupt any dangerous abilities, stomps, rezzes, w/e there may be. The weapon should be used primarily to control the fight from afar while whittling away at peoples health through the condi procs and direct damage it applies. The reason you take hydromancy sigils on the LB is for when you are looking to disengage from the fight again, it allows you to swap to LB, chill everyone, and then either stealth yourself or knock back your main threat and retreat to safety.

The Shortbow, in my mind, is more of a defensive skirmishy weapon, one thing the shortbow excels at is staying just a few inches out of the melee range of an enemy. This allows you to literally be one step ahead of any warrior, thief, guardian, mesmer, you name it trying to hack your precious ranger body apart. You will NEVER be so far ahead that you will be 100% safe, but you will be far enough ahead that their melee attacks will not contact you, and you will be able to constantly whittle away their health bar as you circle them.

Now in team fights the roles of the weapons change almost entirerly. In this scenario the LB should be your primary defense, you should use it to protect your ally and yourself through the knock back and cripple field, all the while amplifying your allies damage through the vuln stacking.

The SB in team fights takes on a significantly more offensive role since it’s a lot easier to flank the enemy. This makes it so that your damage actually pulls ahead of the LB since you’re in celestial gear. This allows you to ramp up bleeding on your target, and likely others, combine this with the poison and the burn and you’ll be applying a lot of pressure to most of the enemy team. However, keep in mind that if a melee is sticking to you in the team fight the SB will probably become a better defensive weapon than the LB would be since you can stay just ahead of them. This target should be dealt with ASAP or peeled off you or else the enemy team could capitalize on your distraction and hit you with a big CC after a dodge roll leaving you to likely die.

Utilities

Most people will doubt my utility choices, and I could argue for them as much as I want but it’s likely people wont understand. Regardless I will explain myself here, but will not defend it further since i get tired of defending my utility choices every time i make a build.

Flame Trap: This trap is probably one of the best skills you can have as a celestial ranger. It provides a lot of damage due to it double dipping in both raw power scaling and condi scaling, it works as a very nice defense vs thieves since it’ll blow up even if they’re stealth, they evade through it, etc. And more importantly it provides a lot of team synergy, giving your team access to a fire field which can be used to apply more burning via projectiles, grant your team obscene amounts of might through blasts, or just give you a fire shield to punish enemies for attacking you. This skill should primarily be used for offense if you’re using Shortbow, placing it down as you run from enemies and kiting them through it while pelting them with arrows proccing more burns. On Longbow you should ALWAYS be standing in your flametrap if possible, this will alert you immediately to an incoming assassin since it activates just moments before they shadowstep onto you allowing you to dodge the incoming attack if you’re quick. This can also open them up to being punished quite heavily by knocking them away for guaranteed burn + distance, calling them out and rapid firing them. In an organized team this will leave most thieves and mesmers fleeing from the fight or dying in the attempt.

Lightning Reflexes: This is my go to defensive utility. It gives you distance when you need it most, it’s a stun breaker, and more importantly it gives vigor. Lightning Reflexes should NEVER be used at full energy (unless it’s a stun break), that just wastes an aspect of the skill and in most situations a dodge roll would work just as well. However, this skill can be invaluable to completely negate an opposing teams attempts to burst you down. This is because many teams will count for double dodges, this skill can bait them into thinking you’re out of dodges only to throw you out of harms way, and give you more endurance to keep dodging whatever they throw at you. Combine this with the stealth from LB and the evade on SB and you can become a very slippery ranger that’ll make any mesmer or thief jealous.

Signet of the Hunt: This signet is almost essential for this build. This signet gives you the mobility needed to get to wherever your team requires you, whether it’s a 1v1, a 2v2, a 5v5 etc. Additionally this signet + SB is what allows you to stay just out of range of the enemy (like a little tease), it also allows for you to get further while stealthed. It also allows you to juke projectiles easier since they track as if you’re moving faster. You can also use the active to finish off a weakened opponent trying to flee. This has secured quite a few kills for me in the past, because it essentially guarantees a crit from both you AND your pet. You can also activate the ability while running in order to slow yourself down enough to dodge some of the faster projectiles (most rifle and pistol skills), however this is just a little trick you can do, it’s not something i’d suggest using whenever you can, just more as a last ditch effort.

Entangle: This skill is pretty self explanatory, AoE immob, applies bleeding damage and some physical damage, short CD. TLDR lots of control lots of damage.

Healing Spring: This is your only condi removal, no you can’t give up other things in order to get empathetic bond, nor would I ever take the trait if i could. At most i’d consider dropping the kryatan drakehound for a brown bear, but that depends on whether you want your build to be more aggressive or have some more defense vs other ranged builds (last i checked ranged builds aren’t that common and thus the brown bear isn’t as useful). Healing Spring, much like flame trap, provides an obscene amount of team utility, it provides AoE regen, it provides AoE vigor, it will restore 50% of your endurance through the runes, It will clear conditions, and it heals for a significant amount of health by itself, not to mention if your team combos into it. Due to the nature of the build healing springs flaws aren’t as easily seen, with both your weapons you can easily kite back and forth through it kiting enemies and projectiles as you see fit. This allows you to almost always gets the full healing and condi cleanse from the heal.

Pets

So, I had 3 pets (well technically 5) pet names written down on my scrap piece of paper for this build. They were the 3 names of my hyenas (commanding voice allows you to have 3 hyenas out simultaneously provided that the summoned one does not die and that you leave your hyena out long enough for it), my Brown Bear, and my Drake Hound. I put the Hyena and the Drake hound in the link since i know no one but me will run the bear anyway.

Hyena: The hyenas provide a lot of CC through cripples, and chain knock downs and provide just as much damage as any other Canine, the main flaw with the Hyena however is that if the second Hyena is NOT present (for whatever reason) it’ll lead to the hyena pet doing less damage than another canine would. This is only made worse through the long CD on the pet F2. Regardless, the Hyena does very well with the build due to it being very CC heavy. The Hyena can single handedly guarantee wins in 1v1s with the chain knock down, and if the 1v1 is painfully slow (like against a bunker for whatever reason) chances are you’ll get to the glorious 3 heyna point which is literally a death sentence to your opponent.

Drake Hound: Low CD, AoE immob in a purely ranged build is without a doubt amazing, couple that with the KD and the cripple there’s little reason to not want to bring him.

Brown Bear: The Brown Bear provides you with an excellent meat shield capable of taking gods fury and keep chugging along. His damage may be lower than any other pet but he provides you with an almost guaranteed safe pet swap. This means that you don’t have to worry about your pet dying and getting railed with the 60s pet swap CD. The bear does very well with the Hyena pet since it allows you the safety of knowing that you can sit on the bear for 36s while you wait for the howl to recharge (or mostly recharge) without the fear of the pet dying in the meantime. Additionally the brownbear provides an AoE 2 condi cleanse on a 20s CD. This can not only save your life, but it can also save the life of your allies. Because you wont be sitting on your bear unless your other pet is injured this allows you to swap to the bear immediately after being feared and having him cleanse it from you and any ally who also got hit with it. This alone can win you a team fight. Additionally the bears have ever so slightly larger hit boxes than a player, this makes it very easy for the bear to intercept projectiles (and some non projectile) abilities that your enemy throws at you. By properly positioning behind my walking juggernaut i’ve won many duels by making my bear eat a CC, or a crucial skill for a combo, it also is a pain in the kitten in team fights trying to not shoot a bear as a ranged weapon user since if the ranger is good with their, and their bears positioning they can have it being a nuissance the whole fight. EX: Instead of sending your pet directly from Target A to ranged target B, you can call your pet back to you, and then send him at target B so he runs in a line to target B, intercepting any projectiles target B is trying to hit you with in the process.

Traits

Keen Edge: This provides you with added “execute” pressure on low health targets, it’s hardly mandatory, but it’s a trait very near and dear to my heart for this build due to my joy in watching my enemies panic as their healthbar gets lower. A good replacement for this trait would be Beast Masters Bond for the added damage when your pets get low health (the canines will), or Predator’s Onslaught to fill a similar, but different role to keen edge.

Piercing Arrows: you’re a pure ranged build, if your arrows can’t hit your target you’re useless. This allows you to not have to worry much about your positioning if your one job is to kill a single target and leave, and allows proper positioning to punish the entire enemy team. There are no replacements for this trait.

Sharpened Edges: You have 813 condi damage and 34% crit chance without fury (you’ll have fury a lot of the time), this trait will provide a pretty hefty amount of damage over the course of a fight and has a chance of proccing on every enemy you hit when you pierce allowing you to provide team wide pressure with proper positioning. The only trait i’d recommend replacing with this one is Primal Reflexes and that’s ONLY if you’re not tricky enough to pull off the elusiveness the build has access to, even then i wouldn’t say it’s an actual alternative, more of a training wheels alternative.

Quick Draw: 20% lower CDs on both your weapons, there’s almost no reason not to take this trait, it increases your utility significantly, there’s no replacement for this trait.

Vigorous Renewal: This trait provides team wide vigor whenever you heal, as well as providing yourself with vigor ontop of your flat endurance gain on heal. This allows yout o be exceptionally hard to take out once you heal by giving you a sudden surge in dodges. The only trait i’d even consider replacing this with would be healers celerity to help with picking up the downed (as well as allowing them to reposition quickly)

Hide in Plain Sight: nothing is more infuriating than when you’re about to kill the ranger after CCing them only to have them vanish, not allowing you to target them with the killing blow. Additionally if the enemy is not NEAR you, you can stun break out of this with LR and have your location completely unknown. Shared Anguish is useful, but I wouldn’t take it over this trait due to how much access you have to dodges/evades and how proper positioning can already mitigate most of the CCs headed your way.

Commanding Voice: This trait provides you with a 20s CD AoE 2 condi cleanse, or a 16s CD aoe 2.5s immob, and makes your Heyna much stronger due to the CD being only 36s long instead of kitten . This also opens up the possibility for the glorious 3 hyena chain KD.

Well, I know most of you wont read the massive wall of text I just typed, but w/e. I’m not giving a TL;DR since the people who would just quickly glance to that likely would try my build, do it poorly, and then say it’s worthless, or just criticize every aspect of the build and I have no time to argue with either. People asked for my build, and I provided it, if you do not like it, do not use it.

I appreciate the input Durzlla, I disagree with many of the choices but I’m intrigued by the potential of commanding voice and that traps will almost always cause someone to waste a dodge. Thanks!

Eurantien.4632:

I appreciate the input Durzlla, I disagree with many of the choices but I’m intrigued by the potential of commanding voice. Thanks!

Yeah they actually stealth nerfed commanding voice a while ago, there used to be no duration on the Hyena summon so you could potentially get an infinite amount of Hyenas (the most i’ve ever had was 6 due to having to fight constant 1v1s which didn’t allow the hyenas to despawn lol). Now the Hyenas have a duration of kitten , which gives you only a BRIEF overlap of having 3, but it’s still enough to make it lethal.

Very happy to have you back Durzlla. I’ve yet to run into another Ranger that thinks as outside the box as you do. It’s refreshing :-)

Stick around, bud

Random thought … 2 Rangers is painful enough … 2 Rangers with 4 to 6 Hyenas is just plain mean :-)

<edit>
Also, I was dueling with a Ranger buddy of mine last night. She has her own Longbow build that uses Hide in Plain Sight. I can attest to how absolutely frustrating it is to fight a Ranger that has that … especially when you aren’t one of the classes that cleaves every time you break wind.
</edit>

One thing I find interesting is freeing yourself from condi removal. I’ve been on a big kick the past few months doing that in theorycrafting off the wall builds.

Basically every build anyone comes up with has either 6 in WS or 6 in NM. It’s annoying, restricting, even crippling. You can’t completely ignore condi removal, but we do have enough options via equipment and other random things like bear or nature spirit that we can manage. WvW obviously has a lot more options in this regard.

And then there is the old stalwart SoR.

Edit: Based on the above, here’s what I’m playing with in WvW. It probably looks fairly familiar if you know some of the builds I like to screw around with.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjMqUxaDL+rQ1iAChaVAwqAevFP706MJqhR0F-TZBEwAGuAAAOCAPOIAULDQ4BAAA

Working so far, but WvW is such a mixed bag in terms of player skill. I never know if they’re incompetent or if my build is any good.

Left runes blank since I can’t change them in WvW.

Edit 2: Loving this build a lot. The pet is devastating, my attacks are at least… well they exist (3.7k mauls or something, but you take what you can get) which is all they need to to let the pets hit, and the survivability is godmode. I didn’t run in to any 1 or 2 people that were able to kill me until I lagged out in front of a cannon and a shatter mesmer.

Going to try running supply in stronghold with it perhaps.

The reason I like this over more traditional double melee builds is that both me and the pet are fairly dangerous. The more normal one, 200660, the pet is just used for CC. Here I’m stacking cripple and stacking might, and allowing the pet to just T off on people. Thieves were losing half their health in a single ill-timed shadowstep.

Fluffball.8307:

…When I run double melee in WvW, I often use PoS with muddy terrain and double canines and entangle. You can indeed get it to hit twice reliably. The other time I get it to hit is when people are running away. They don’t have time to react, even if they know what the skill does.

There is the possibility of hitting 3 times if you immob someone at long range. I’ve never personally done it, but it would be absolutely devastating.

Yeah mate, PoS is amazing in double melee, I always use an Intelligence sigil on OH axe, just for it, as when someone flees, you Swoop, MT, swap, PoS and they just die especially if you proc the MoC interrupting their heal on the 1st pull, the 2nd hits for 50% more heh.

Usually would be something like this.

@Thread:

I have been following along and taking plenty of notes in regards to what you guys have been discussing. This thread has a lot of solid advice that benefits all players of any skill level.

There isn’t much for me to add in regards to knowledge as everyone has pretty much covered everything. I hope this thread doesn’t die out either. A sticky would be nice too.

The build I discussed with Eura has been changed slightly from the second variation I messaged him in case anyone was wondering.

My final build for solo Ranked is this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjEq0yaFLOsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WwdTcDfdKXqCPFB-TZRHwADOCAp3fIwFBAwDA4YZAA

It has raw damage, condi damage and huge bonfire for extra point pressure and Combo fields using your two leaps. Your Wolf will often get the Fire field Combo off using his leap as well.

It has:

- Mobility
- 1v1 capability
- Team fight capability

When combined with Might stacking through team sources that’s when this build really shines.

I look forward to trying out some of the builds posted earlier in the thread as well.

The build i run right now is pretty similar, as I just love the mobility of double melee. I actually run Carrion with Scavenging Runes and Poison Master. Pretty sick damage stats and the high Fury uptime and Int Sigil on the GS make up for the lack of critchance. I really do miss my Majory’s Axe Skin though.

I’m a little fuzzy on the numbers since they don’t seem to match the wiki, but I believe if you take compassion training, natural healing, and signet of the wild (SotW I believe is affected by your own healing?), you wind up with something like 180 health per second (??). For comparison, the wiki lists healing signet at 363 per second.

I dueled a berserker guard in WvW tonight and won without using my healing skill. It was a relatively protracted duel since my damage isn’t that spectacular and he had a lot of heals, but we all know the kind of damage medi guards can dish out.

I’m not sure how to translate that into PvP, but the possibility is there. Perhaps a max damage condi build with HS and pets for team support. I dunno.

ItIsFinished.9462:

@Thread:

I have been following along and taking plenty of notes in regards to what you guys have been discussing. This thread has a lot of solid advice that benefits all players of any skill level.

There isn’t much for me to add in regards to knowledge as everyone has pretty much covered everything. I hope this thread doesn’t die out either. A sticky would be nice too.

The build I discussed with Eura has been changed slightly from the second variation I messaged him in case anyone was wondering.

My final build for solo Ranked is this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjEq0yaFLOsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WwdTcDfdKXqCPFB-TZRHwADOCAp3fIwFBAwDA4YZAA

It has raw damage, condi damage and huge bonfire for extra point pressure and Combo fields using your two leaps. Your Wolf will often get the Fire field Combo off using his leap as well.

It has:

- Mobility
- 1v1 capability
- Team fight capability

When combined with Might stacking through team sources that’s when this build really shines.

I look forward to trying out some of the builds posted earlier in the thread as well.

Like Fluffball I don’t see the wisdom of GS with celestial. A/A would be a much better combo IMO.

Hell GS is so weak I’d take A/A over GS in a zerk build…

Sube Dai.8496:

ItIsFinished.9462:

@Thread:

I have been following along and taking plenty of notes in regards to what you guys have been discussing. This thread has a lot of solid advice that benefits all players of any skill level.

There isn’t much for me to add in regards to knowledge as everyone has pretty much covered everything. I hope this thread doesn’t die out either. A sticky would be nice too.

The build I discussed with Eura has been changed slightly from the second variation I messaged him in case anyone was wondering.

My final build for solo Ranked is this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjEq0yaFLOsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WwdTcDfdKXqCPFB-TZRHwADOCAp3fIwFBAwDA4YZAA

It has raw damage, condi damage and huge bonfire for extra point pressure and Combo fields using your two leaps. Your Wolf will often get the Fire field Combo off using his leap as well.

It has:

- Mobility
- 1v1 capability
- Team fight capability

When combined with Might stacking through team sources that’s when this build really shines.

I look forward to trying out some of the builds posted earlier in the thread as well.

Like Fluffball I don’t see the wisdom of GS with celestial. A/A would be a much better combo IMO.

Hell GS is so weak I’d take A/A over GS in a zerk build…

A/A is actually extremely satisfying in zerker, sure split blade isn’t as strong, but my god is everything else.

Been theory crafting A/A lately, trying to take advantage of it as its a nice combo imo. Thinking more burning on a point would be nice… Burning A/A.

I’ve also started playing with dual axes oddly enough.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAnXRjMq0yaFL+rQ1iABhaVA0+FS2llVC4sJ+hMW5jXRA-TZRFwALOEAAeCAIOBAp2f4ZZAA

Hybrid variant. It doesn’t have easy access to multiple types of conditions so I focused heavily on bleed damage. The bleeds get cleansed fast enough but they can also be reapplied pretty quickly as well so it doesn’t hurt as bad. The bleeds help compensate for a lack of legit burst so I can still do fair damage with the tankiness of celestial.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAnXRjMq0yaFL+rQ1aAChaVA0eFK2j1dSsDbdGr8xrI-TZBFwAFeCAMOEAy2foaZAAnAAA

And this is the zerker variant. You could max it out more for raw damage but I personally prefer a bit more defense than what the zerker amulet offers.

The general strategy with this build is to pop Signet of the Wild, run into the center of the point, and use Entangle followed by Whirling Defense as the river drake unleashes Lightning Breath. It does a LOT of AoE damage during the two channels that hits everyone in the immediate vicinity while stacking vulnerability and reflected projectiles. After that, depending on how much health you have left, you can either follow up with a Splitblade on your nearest target for more bleed stacks or swap to the Greatsword and finish with a Maul.

Barkskin keeps you from being focused down unless you have 4+ people hitting you in melee. The reflect stops projectiles and the stability stops the channel from being interrupted. When you hit 25% health it activates Signet of the Wild via Enlargement on top of the 50% damage reduction, which makes it very hard to finish you off should you get in a hairy situation. Then you just disengage with Lightning Reflexes+Swoop.

I’ve actually found this to be really strong in Courtyard as a way to help your team push the enemy team back, and occasionally secure a kill. It’s likewise been effective in Conquest, but it could just be a matter of no one expected offhand axe.

I’m not sure if Enlargement and Signet of the Wild share an internal cooldown or not. Nothing in the game text says it does nor does the wiki. I’ll have to test it on some NPCs and pay closer attention. If they do I’ve still found the Enlargement trait helpful on securing a stomp on more than a few occasions.

Oddly enough this build seems to destroy power rangers in team fights. If you stand between the necromancer and his prey his auto attacks will reflect and shred his health. I actually almost won a 2v1 against a necro and a thief with just Whirling Defense as the damage took out the thief and the necro killed himself. I only lost due to the crazy damage of the necro downed state.

EDIT: Did some testing and there is no internal cooldown. I activated Signet of the Wild and went down below 25% health and got ten stacks of Stability rather than five. Whether this means I get a 50% damage boost (25% from both signets) and 100% speed boost (50% from both signets) is hard to tell.

Durzlla.6295:

Sube Dai.8496:

ItIsFinished.9462:

@Thread:

I have been following along and taking plenty of notes in regards to what you guys have been discussing. This thread has a lot of solid advice that benefits all players of any skill level.

There isn’t much for me to add in regards to knowledge as everyone has pretty much covered everything. I hope this thread doesn’t die out either. A sticky would be nice too.

The build I discussed with Eura has been changed slightly from the second variation I messaged him in case anyone was wondering.

My final build for solo Ranked is this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjEq0yaFLOsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WwdTcDfdKXqCPFB-TZRHwADOCAp3fIwFBAwDA4YZAA

It has raw damage, condi damage and huge bonfire for extra point pressure and Combo fields using your two leaps. Your Wolf will often get the Fire field Combo off using his leap as well.

It has:

- Mobility
- 1v1 capability
- Team fight capability

When combined with Might stacking through team sources that’s when this build really shines.

I look forward to trying out some of the builds posted earlier in the thread as well.

Like Fluffball I don’t see the wisdom of GS with celestial. A/A would be a much better combo IMO.

Hell GS is so weak I’d take A/A over GS in a zerk build…

A/A is actually extremely satisfying in zerker, sure split blade isn’t as strong, but my god is everything else.

Yeh those might stacked ricochets and PoS at mid are awesome. They also eat mezmers and turrets for breakfast.

The problem I’m having is the alternative set. I’m currently running sword/warhorn but even with air/fire the “pressure” from sword feels low.

I’m actually tempted to go GS for the utility…but wait I hate GS!!!

Rangers need a new mainhand melee…

Sube Dai.8496:

Durzlla.6295:

Sube Dai.8496:

ItIsFinished.9462:

@Thread:

I have been following along and taking plenty of notes in regards to what you guys have been discussing. This thread has a lot of solid advice that benefits all players of any skill level.

There isn’t much for me to add in regards to knowledge as everyone has pretty much covered everything. I hope this thread doesn’t die out either. A sticky would be nice too.

The build I discussed with Eura has been changed slightly from the second variation I messaged him in case anyone was wondering.

My final build for solo Ranked is this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjEq0yaFLOsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WwdTcDfdKXqCPFB-TZRHwADOCAp3fIwFBAwDA4YZAA

It has raw damage, condi damage and huge bonfire for extra point pressure and Combo fields using your two leaps. Your Wolf will often get the Fire field Combo off using his leap as well.

It has:

- Mobility
- 1v1 capability
- Team fight capability

When combined with Might stacking through team sources that’s when this build really shines.

I look forward to trying out some of the builds posted earlier in the thread as well.

Like Fluffball I don’t see the wisdom of GS with celestial. A/A would be a much better combo IMO.

Hell GS is so weak I’d take A/A over GS in a zerk build…

A/A is actually extremely satisfying in zerker, sure split blade isn’t as strong, but my god is everything else.

Yeh those might stacked ricochets and PoS at mid are awesome. They also eat mezmers and turrets for breakfast.

The problem I’m having is the alternative set. I’m currently running sword/warhorn but even with air/fire the “pressure” from sword feels low.

I’m actually tempted to go GS for the utility…but wait I hate GS!!!

Rangers need a new mainhand melee…

What i used for my zerker set was dual axes + a LB or a GS (i’d swap between the two, could never decide which i liked more). I felt like they fit a lot better than Sword did. Even though Swords DPS is higher, it just never felt like it did nearly as much as LB or GS did.

I just can’t help but cringe when I read a/a. I can just foresee -> rolling into a team fight -> focus swap to ranger -> ranger dies.

It just brings me back to the fact that we are always missing something. Most often, I find that the thing we lack most is the ability to have 3 weapon sets at once haha.

Current status: blind optimism that druid = ranger + improvements + a viable weapon set!

Eurantien.4632:

I just can’t help but cringe when I read a/a. I can just foresee -> rolling into a team fight -> focus swap to ranger -> ranger dies.

Now now you’ve got a reflect on a 25 second cd that roots you in place…what more do you want?

S/x isn’t too bad for the defensive set. You can always S2, LR, S2 away if you need to.

I’m finding the problem is single target damage in melee range.

This is what I’ve been using. It’s great fun when the entire combo gets unleashed and stands up pretty well in team fights. Great to call out stun/daze to teammates to focus.

Ranger – Stunlock:
http://tinyurl.com/ncyvptl

See the original thread here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Stun-Build-Stacking-Damage/first#post4960603

As I’ve said before in other threads, Ranger Sword is a weapon you go to when either:

• You are going on the defensive and need those 2 extra evades and/or the extra mobility.
• You are on the offensive and want to stick to your opponent like white on rice.

If a fight is still fairly even, I don’t feel like Sword is really a good weapon to swap to unless you’re going to be fine avoiding the auto-attack chain. The primary reason for this is if I see a Ranger using Sword AA Chain on me, I know during the animations for AA #2 and AA #3 that I can nail them with whatever I please as they can’t interrupt the attack to dodge roll (hence why I hate this fact about Sword when I use it).

Please take a look at the spreadsheet I created for the Ranger weapons:

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tuDz1x50hIhREdfWni7Eim9MbG8cDRkIuuIsioXdruc/edit#gid=0

Unless your axe is getting a double-tap on your target (target-somethingElse-target), its power damage on the auto-attack is pretty darn bad. Now, if you’re able to might stack thanks to the 3 hits, that can change a bit, but the power scaling on axe is still very weak. If you are getting double-taps with the Axe, that does make it better direct damage DPS than:

• Shortbow Crossfire (without bleeds)
• Longbow LRS (0-1,000)
• Greatsword AA Chain

This is one reason why MH Axe can be amazing when fighting another Ranger as you’re very likely to get double taps as it hits Ranger-Pet-Ranger.

Whirling Defense’s DPS is sadly underwhelming. However, if you’re using a MH Axe and not getting double-taps, this is the one instance where using Whirling Defense does more DPS than your auto-attacks :-)