Guild Wars 2

So, if anybody has been keeping up with the PvP meta (this includes the weekly 2v2/3v3 cups), then they know that the April 15th patch essentially placed rangers on the backburner in PvP, as all of the swiss army knife builds that weren’t nerfed beforehand, and that were created post patch, are giving the team slot you would typically fill with a ranger the most competition (celestial ele, celestial engi, etc).

But, that being said, rangers haven’t lost effectiveness. More so, it seems that most builds that I’ve observed just haven’t been adapted to the meta very well. So, that being said, let’s talk meta builds, and viable options, based solely on my own opinion and observations (aka, these aren’t set in stone definite facts, so feel free to discuss whether there is any agreement).

Let’s start with a simple discussion: “what are my cookie cutter build options?”

Well, it’s very simple. You are going to be running x/x/6/x/x with Empathic Bond, Offhand Training, and Shared Anguish (III, VII, XI), with a Celestial Amulet, and either Spirits or Traps as utilities, going for 2 of each, and your last utility slot being Signet of Renewal. You are going to be running Healing Spring as your heal, and 9/10 times, you are going to be running Spirit of Nature as your elite, regardless of the build you are running.

For the visually oriented: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQBLyoi/KEtCAToaPAdaAA-TZAZAAQZAA

This is going to be what the base of every viable PvP build is going to start with from now until the next balance patch at the soonest. Yes, other things do work in hotjoin and even solo Q. But this is not a Hotjoin/Solo Q discussion, but a discussion about the highest level of competition you can possibly face in the game and how builds hold up in that environment, and all other things equal, just assume a trickle down effect (if it’s viable in top team settings, then it’s viable in solo Q/hotjoin).

Next, what are my weapon options? Well, you will be running one of the two combinations of weapon sets:
1) Shortbow and Sword/Dagger
2) Axe/Dagger and Sword/Torch*

(*You can run Axe/Torch and Sword/Dagger, but you limit your defensive capabilities to one weapon set and your offensive abilities to the other, and a smart opponent will take advantage of this).

These weapon options offer distinct capabilities and playstyles, and while they can be used on either build setup, there is going to be a noticeable difference in your capabilities versus certain situations. A quick rundown, the shortbow build centralizes the weapon as the main damage source. What it lacks in the ability to rapidly apply conditions, it makes up for with it’s constant autoattack damage output and utility options. Axe/Dagger on the other hand is a weaponset that will swap fairly often, and is much better and “bursting” conditions on to a target, but suffers from an inherent lack of ranged pressure, and relies less on the axes autoattack than the autoattack centric Shortbow.

You will be running +condition damage runes. The only exception to this currently is going with the trolly option of Pirate Runes for the extra bird summon for AI damage madness, but other classes benefit arguably more from the other benefits of the set than certain options available to us.

So, let’s get to the rest of the gearing options. For the record, every weaponset is going to be using a Geomancy Sigil. It hits for direct damage and applies a stack of 3 bleeds until the next weaponswap, and is one of the best ways to get “free” damage. Hydromancy will be the other option I choose for the utility and the kiting you gain from chill, however, where there are other options, I will discuss. List:

• Shortbow+S/D Traps: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjMq0ua3K+rQ0aABhaVA0+FS2Wgd9mBbQBbqA-TJhHwACuIAU2fAwTAwYZAA Balth runes are your damage option, but they are not always the most efficient option outside of the inherent improvements to Flame Trap (and later Sun Spirit).

• Shortbow+S/D Spirits: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjMq0savK+rQ0iABhaVA0+FS2WgV968IWiC2UB-TJhHwACuIAU2fAwTAwYZAA This is a debatable trait spread. Nature’s Vengeance most important usage is with shenanigans involving the elite spirit. If you go down, or an ally, and your spirit dies to to being killed or lifespan, it will trigger the active revive/cleanse. However, Nature’s Vengeance is arguably less valuable for your regular spirits, and outside of the effect you also gain from Bountiful Hunter, Nature’s Vengeance is not always going to be the most efficient traitspread and is very RNG/dummy player driven.

Sigil Alternatives: Shortbow builds are the builds where I can foresee there being the most room to drop hydromancy sigils on your weaponsets. So, your best option is more than likely Energy sigils for more dodging. There are other things that can work, like Doom sigils for more poison, or even Agony sigils for more bleed duration, but I would argue that the functionality of Hydromancy sigils and Energy sigils are the best options we currently have (I would also argue that because of the suggested cookie cutter axe builds, Hydromancy sigils are a necessary option for them to reach full effectiveness).

These are your shortbow builds. Your shortbow is like a mosquito, and while you aren’t able to really burst any sort of damage either, you can train and pressure people all day, making the shortbow much more invaluable in teamfights for damage/pressure than the other weaponset option, which is:

• A/D+S/T Traps: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0ua3K+rQ0aABhaVA0+FS2Wgd9mBbQBbqA-TJhHwACOJAh2fAwTAwYZAA This build is arguably the best utility build we can run against the current meta. Grenth Runes+Axe+Hydromancy Sigils are amazing, and allow for near perma chill to be maintained. Couple that with the unblockable, long duration poison against the current tanky/heal meta, and you end up with one nasty build. The shortbow trap build does offer the same poison, of course, but nowhere near the rapid output to take full advantage of somebody that takes a stroll through your traps.

• A/D+S/T Spirits: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0savK+rQ0iABhaVA0+FS2WgV968IWiC2UB-TJhHwACOJAh2fAwTAwYZAA Same concept, it’s the shortbow trait spread with chill. Alternatively for this build, Storm Spirit can replace Stone Spirit for another damage option, and with the weapons, you will be fighting more in range of the Storm Spirit anyhow. When taking storm spirit though, it is strongly recommended to drop the 2 in Marksmanship for Nature’s Vengeance for the active radius increase, and the “death nuke.”

Some thinking processes and alternatives: Primal Reflexes is an incredible trait that can keep the dodges rolling in (see what I did there). You can make a build without it, but you do lose a noticeable amount of dodge roll capability without it. Sharpened Edges just doesn’t ever seem worth it. The current EU 2v2 meta build for rangers is (0/4/6/4/0) Spirits with both Primal Reflexes are Sharpened Edges, but with 34% critical chance and 66% proc chance, only about 1/5 critical hits proc Sharpened Edges. Keen Edge is overall a much more reliable alternative that also increases damage just by power traitline investment, AND condition duration.

Pet Options: Wolf. Always wolf. The AoE fear is an invaluable tool and the best pet F2 we have access to. It interrupts stomps and rezzes, and in a shortbow build, it can turn people around so that we can flank and stack up a bunch of bleeds (even more with a Keen Edge activation). There is no reason to even run anything in the place of a wolf at this point. Swap options can include Drakehound for more control, similar to the Spider with the immobilizing F2 venom. However, a last alternative, and especially for chill builds, is to go with Owl. This will make properly managed chill application on those builds permanently effect your opponent. And the Owl damage, it is not negligible in the least bit. People will blow every cooldown they can to remove your chill and get away from your owl. River Drake for the corpse cleave and teamfight uses.

That just about wraps up the cookie cooker PvP meta builds. Any questions, concerns, debates, anything, go ahead and talk about them.

A realy nice writedown. Agree with everything. I have been using the x/x/6/x/x core for any build I play.
Using Axe Trap build in solo queue, it’s really good (tho I use rabid + Frost trap).

Will totally try out the spirit variation and the power shortbow, for now I only tought of it as condition pressure.

Sticky if possible.

Vote sticky too

Thanks guys, I appreciate the support of the thread. Glad to see some other people can back some of what I’m saying.

Hopefully this helps people with their builds and success rate in PvP.

Also, I’m updating some things to add more info that I missed the first time through, like additional sigil options.

Vigor is obviously crazy good, but I don’t know if it’s 10-points-into-skirmishing-for-unreliable-vigor essential when you already have a permanent 25% regen.

People always yell at me when I bring it up, but Nature’s Voice is seriously underestimated for a group support (aka spirit) ranger. Ya ya, the meta is supposedly only insta-kill bursts now. In reality, you have to expect your teammates to be able to defend themselves, and permanent regen and swiftness on them plus the HS is really strong for keeping people up. Edit: Math was totally wrong. Same point.

And this will never be stickied. Turtle wrote his PvE meta guide months ago and it still isn’t stickied.

you forgot the celestial option i told you about earlier.

Fluffball.8307:

Vigor is obviously crazy good, but I don’t know if it’s 10-points-into-skirmishing-for-unreliable-vigor essential when you already have a permanent 25% regen.

People always yell at me when I bring it up, but Nature’s Voice is seriously underestimated for a group support (aka spirit) ranger. Ya ya, the meta is supposedly only insta-kill bursts now. In reality, you have to expect your teammates to be able to defend themselves, and permanent regen and swiftness on them plus the HS is really strong for keeping people up. The regen heals an entire ele’s health pool back in something along the lines of 4 seconds, every 4 seconds, in theory removing the option to put steady pressure on your team.

And this will never be stickied. Turtle wrote his PvE meta guide months ago and it still isn’t stickied.

Well, without the 25% factored in, Primal Reflexes is essentially going to give you 1 dodge per crit per 15 seconds. With the 25% factored in, you gain 1 dodge back every 8 seconds, and unless you are attacking an afk or completely oblivious person/team, you will not have 100% of your endurance bar for very long. Because every class right now has a meta build that is running precision, except some necro and warrior builds (warriors still use sigil of intelligence and crit you though, so only Carrion Necros won’t crit you), the vigor is going to go off and help you gain all of your dodges back at almost every opportunity when you would want more endurance regen.

But beyond that, Primal Reflexes is the lowest opportunity cost way we have to gain more dodges outside of the standard 25% base you gain with cookie cutter builds. Not to mention the 5 points in Skirmishing is an incredible boon for kiting enemies and escapes (swap to sword set, gain swiftness, use your swiftness-extended leap to disengage a fight and reset or rotate, or just kite around).

I do see what you’re saying though, and for the builds I have listed in my posts, if somebody would prefer to not run Primal Reflexes (since you are already 6 in Skirmishing for traps, Primal Reflexes is just the best pick up option you have right there, unless people want to try to make Sharpened Edges work, but my opinion is that the defense lost for the offense gained is not worth the trade at all), they can go an extra 2 into Marksmanship instead and pick up Malicious Training, which is the best way to spend those points outside of Nature’s Vengeance since you are increasing both your damage and utility options.

As for Nature’s Voice, I don’t disagree with how effective a Nature’s Voice build is at surviving, but against the current meta right now, I would argue simply that you are going to see an extreme overlap in your regen output versus your teammates. Eles give out Regen like its candy, and in essence, you are sacrificing all of the utility you gain with spirits in that line to try to overlap your regen with your teammates, which yes, does make it permanent regen, but at a very noticeable cost. Also, the S/D standard meta thief build is going to rip as much swiftness and regen with his attacks as possible, so at a certain point, it can be argued that its just helping the enemy thief survive, as well as giving necros another boon to corrupt. Not to mention, with any amount of coordination (or even common sense as this translates down competition tiers), you already have a ton of regen output with just Healing Spring.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing duelist build that also offers team support, which makes in one of our swiss army knife option in a sense. But I didn’t list it for the same reason I don’t have my chill BM build listed, because at the highest tier of competition, neither build can compete against best in slot competitors (even engis can give a team perma regen, and the BM build, even though I love invigorating bond, also gets replaced by an engi easily while the engi offers more options to a team, where as even the tankiest pets melt in team fights).

I do appreciate the input though! This is just my initial stance for what is a very good and worthwhile discussion as we try to mesh out where we stand versus the current metagame. I’ll have to wait to see and have further discussions with people, and I hope I don’t mean to sound as though I’m discounting anything you say, I’m just backing my own reasoning for the sake of a good conversation

Prysin.8542:

you forgot the celestial option i told you about earlier.

If it’s the 0/2/0/6/6 one that you’re speaking of, it’s the same reason that I didn’t post my own BM chill build, and that’s because as far as cookie cutter meta builds go, BM focused builds don’t make the cut currently, because while they hold up fantastically outside of team fights, in any sort of teamfight, the pet loses so much effectiveness compared to something like going traps for AoE condi cleave and poison pressure, or Spirits for teamwide utility support that it doesn’t really compete for the “meta” slot well enough.

I’m not discounting the build at all though, it’s a great a build! Most people aren’t going to be able to pick it up and use it and be immediately as effective as other builds, which is a huge factor when it comes to determining a meta build, especially since I tend to go by the standards that the old PVXwiki for GW1 went by. If you know anything about the old wiki, the build would probably rate a 5/5 for effectiveness, but not receive a meta tag due to their being better options.

Also, a team that builds around your (or my) build is going to make it work no questions. But then it no longer really fits the definition of “cookie cutter,” I don’t think. Dunno, would be worthwhile having a conversation about this as well! Propose your build and give it some brief reasoning and explanations! It’s going to be a fun thread if we can get a bunch of good discussions going, and I’m always open to reason!

I meant NV with spirits. Obviously you move towards healing bunker away from the Storm Spirit damage by going that route.

I typically use a healing condi ranger that can both bunker and support in team fights. It’s HS on top of Spirit of Nature on top of Naure’s Voice, couple with AoE swiftness and protection, and even use those AoE healing sigils sometimes (which heal for almost nothing, but it all adds up dramatically.) It just makes your whole team annoying to kill, and you’re a solid bunker in your own right. The regen boon alone heals me for 3.7k every 10 seconds if I remember right.

But anyway, none of what I wrote is important to this thread.

Fluffball.8307:

I meant NV with spirits. Obviously you move towards healing bunker away from the Storm Spirit damage by going that route.

I typically use a healing condi ranger that can both bunker and support in team fights. It’s HS on top of Spirit of Nature on top of Naure’s Voice, couple with AoE swiftness and protection, and even use those AoE healing sigils sometimes (which heal for almost nothing, but it all adds up dramatically.) It just makes your whole team annoying to kill, and you’re a solid bunker in your own right. The regen boon alone heals me for 3.7k every 10 seconds if I remember right.

But anyway, none of what I wrote is important to this thread.

Ah, alright, I see what you’re saying now! That’s absolutely a fair option. I have no arguments against that setup at all, except that for a lot of people, Natures Voice is harder to pick up and use than other options. But even then, learning curve aside, a build like this that isn’t really on any VoDs anywhere and is relatively unspoken of has all kinds of potential.

Following up on the comments I made about regen, because you are also running spirits now, a Nature’s Voice spirit build is full support for us, and even with the regen overlap, we are providing so much to a team, and arguably the swiftness is the more important boon because it creates some much momentum for chasing/kiting/capping.

These are the build discussions I like to see! You have no idea how happy I am to see that I can still be genuinely surprised by ideas and builds with this much potential to get suggested. I will play around with this today and get a feel for how I would want to gear it, though I’m pretty dead set right now on this idea:

Shortbow: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YnMqQvg2sC+qARLGAQoWFAtnhmNGcvEPxQXymiC-TJhHwAU2fAwTAIwFBwYZAA

A/D: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8YnMqQvg2sC+qARLGAQoWFAtnhmNGcvEPxQXymiC-TJhHwACOJAh2fAwTAwYZAA

no i meant the 02660 one with Earth Runes. Condi power hybrid.

jcbroe.4329:

I have no arguments against that setup at all, except that for a lot of people, Natures Voice is harder to pick up and use than other options.

I moved the “Guard!” hotkey to my middle mouse button, so I just double click that every 10 seconds (and then immediately recall the pet on ‘R’ for my left hand, in case I put him on top of a cliff or somewhere ridiculous.) That combo takes my fingers like 1/4 of a second, and things like that make all the difference.

I think you may have the better idea with the malicious training though. That probably provides more to the party than shout mastery. More CC in exchange for more AoE regen and swiftness, and the selfish healing boost on my own extremely high regen. I’ll have to give that a go.

Fluffball.8307:

jcbroe.4329:

I have no arguments against that setup at all, except that for a lot of people, Natures Voice is harder to pick up and use than other options.

I moved the “Guard!” hotkey to my middle mouse button, so I just double click that every 10 seconds (and then immediately recall the pet on ‘R’ for my left hand, in case I put him on top of a cliff or somewhere ridiculous.) That combo takes my fingers like 1/4 of a second, and things like that make all the difference.

I think you may have the better idea with the malicious training though. That probably provides more to the party than shout mastery. More CC in exchange for more AoE regen and swiftness, and the selfish healing boost on my own extremely high regen. I’ll have to give that a go.

Ah, that’s my dodge button haha. I have a basic keyboard/mouse combo too, so Guard for me ends up being either Q or E (I use 1-6, E, Q, Z, and X for my elite, with ` as my weapon swap). Q makes it more like my engis weaponswap though, and after playing sleight of hand thief a lot, transitioning my hand up to F1 is definitely less than a 1 second task, especially since I still use escape as my action cancel instead of stow weapons since I’m a hardened GW1 vet and unwilling to change lol.

But that aside, yeah, Malicious Training with spiders looks to be my favorite option. For one thing, you can use Guard to keep your pets out of AoE, so you can essentially place your spiders wherever you want them to range from, and their poison field gets you as close to incorporating what makes the trap build so strong as you can possibly get, on top of the crazy immobilize durations, and weakness to help slow down direct damage characters on the Cave Spider.

It seems like the best team oriented build I can come up with without sacrificing much of any of our own damage output, though I did drop a stunbreaker, but still. You have more kiting and the regen helps with any recovery from damage you do eat, so in a build like this, your only true threat is going to be an equal or greater skill tiered thief/mesmer who can potentially burst you faster than you can react, especially thieves, who have less tells for their burst because of Steal/SoH than virtually every other class (a good DPS guardian will do so nasty things to you too if you let them, but we have enough resources to slow them down and kite them while condi damaging them down to win the matchup).

I’m still a little wary of the boon stealing and corrupt booning, but the build brings so much to the table, and no build in the game is meant to have the most effective answer to everything, so at that point, you’ve done so much for your team by just being there and pressing Guard and pressuring people and not dying, that your team can do their job and keep the thieves away and the necros dead.

Prysin.8542:

no i meant the 02660 one with Earth Runes. Condi power hybrid.

I messaged you on Skype, but yeah, I don’t really have any sort of idea when we had this discussion, and I feel pretty kittenty about it :/ would love to be refreshed and see the build now. The trait spread, without knowing any traits, is obviously solid. Celestial is solid. I wanna know though, I really want to see this build.

@jc

The chill bm build you mentioned, is it the same one you posted on the chill ranger thread?

StickerHappy.8052:

@jc

The chill bm build you mentioned, is it the same one you posted on the chill ranger thread?

I’ll do you one better and just give you a link for it here, but it should be! I don’t know if I changed anything though, so I’ll just give it to you again here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0vaBLWsQ0agDhqdJ8rjArA4dxusXdBTOA-TJhHwACOJAh2fAwTAwYZAA

Thanks for taking the time out to write this, was a great read and totally inspired me to give Ranger another shot, thanks! (Also we need something like this in the Mesmer forums)

I tried the sb/trapper variants with a couple tweak for yoloq (namely drop spirit for entangle) and the trickle down effect doesn’t work that well since the team is largely uncoordinated more full of roamers and will separate instead of stack leaving this build hanging without enough personal defense. Things did melt very well with a ton of effective aoe conditions so I can see the effectiveness in TPVP comp but I was left high and dry too much. I went back to my regular power roaming in yoloq with better success.

Thanks for making this thread though I didn’t have a good reference point for what people think of as condi meta ranger and now I do.

Otaking.4675:

I tried the sb/trapper variants with a couple tweak for yoloq (namely drop spirit for entangle) and the trickle down effect doesn’t work that well since the team is largely uncoordinated more full of roamers and will separate instead of stack leaving this build hanging without enough personal defense. Things did melt very well with a ton of effective aoe conditions so I can see the effectiveness in TPVP comp but I was left high and dry too much. I went back to my regular power roaming in yoloq with better success.

Thanks for making this thread though I didn’t have a good reference point for what people think of as condi meta ranger and now I do.

In what situations where you struggling with defensive options? I ask because incidentally (and anecdotally), the weaponsets, runes, and sigils were specifically chosen to be able to function independently from the utility bar, meaning that in 1v1 scenarios, there are only a few options the builds even match up poorly against.

Granted, the match up argument is a hard thing to give insight on with the amount that individual skill is a deciding factor, but I do know of certain builds that the builds I mentioned are directly weak against, so that could be a factor (Pistol Whip thieves and Terror fear necros mainly).

However, 90% of the time, there shouldn’t be any lack of defense in these builds unless you are outnumbers and being pressured by more than one opponent, in which case disengage, reset, and reposition.

Key factors for the trapper build to improve survival:

• Turn off the sword autoattack. I cannot stress this enough, the autoattack is amazing for control and DPS, but the only way to control it is turning the auto off. Manual input lets you control the leaps and ultimately, control the opponent and the fight.

• Viper’s Nest is a Combo Field. This means that combined with the 4 total 100% combo projectiles, the percentage based projectiles, and 2 leaps (one of them being the wolf), you will apply weakness. This is imperative to do against any sort of power DPS class, as well as bunker, so that they do less damage to you and they will dodge less.

• Use your Heal wisely. Healing Spring has a notoriously long cooldown for the actual amount it heals. The 1:1 ratio with healing power scaling helps it a little bit, but overall, you do not want to be punished with this heal skill, which means if you can afford to, save your heal for when you aren’t poisoned or chilled. If you can hold off to a point where you can heal without either of those conditions on you, you can improve your survival by leaps and bounds.

• Know when to fight off point. Holding the point isn’t everything. Stick on the point for as long as you can afford to, but if a warrior is just spamming all of his AoE on to the point, don’t sit on top of it. You’re providing him cleansing for your damage is it’s the LB F1 skill, and you’re giving him free damage on you, and an easier target. Not just warriors though, but any class. It’s better to win the fight (if it can be won in a fair time frame) and retake the point while taking the opponent out of the game while they respawn and run back than to give them a stomp and a cap and let them take you out of the game. If the fight is going to take too long, or if you are going to lose, disengage and reset, or go somewhere else. All of our survival is evade and mobility based, don’t facetank anything by choice, that’s a Warrior/Guardians/Eles job.

Now, I realize these are all situations where you are acting against an individual versus another individual, and that is because in teamfights, your only real job is to pressure a target(s) and stay alive. You can’t make your team win teamfights, and if your team is ultimately lousy, then no matter how good you are individually at any of the things I mentioned, you will eventually be overrun by the enemy team, and there isn’t a single thing you can do to survive that situation other than knowing when to disengage. So, just play your part, pick your targets correctly (never, ever choose the bunker as the first target if there is somebody squishier), and in solo Q, hope that your team can carry their weight.

But yeah, other than these general tips, let me know where any particular problems were and I will gladly talk them out, since these builds, when using evasion appropriately, are some of the best survival builds we have against the current metagame (literally, the only way to run a more defensive build is to go with a settlers amulet and/or forge runes).

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Thanks for taking the time out to write this, was a great read and totally inspired me to give Ranger another shot, thanks! (Also we need something like this in the Mesmer forums)

No problem! I’m glad it inspired you!

Yeah, it’s a real shame that GW2 doesn’t have a PvXwiki that assesses and evaluates the meta and individual builds. Hopefully, more people can step up within the profession specific communities and have these discussions, so that the communities can collaborate and kitten where the metagame is and how they fill into it. Supcutie, for the amazing PDF he provided, doesn’t really help when it’s all information pertaining to a different meta, so hopefully, we can continue to have discussions and information at these/those levels.

That, and as much as I love shatter on my mesmer, I can see where its weaknesses are against the current metagame, and would love to see a build that can compete better against where the game currently is (that isn’t a clone death build, I must shatter my clones) lol.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YnMqQvKWxC+CCXLGAToaPAdaA86GcvBXwEnxRf8KC-TJxGABA8EAkqMQuXEAf2fAA

This is my tpvp point-holder build. So far it has been the only ranger build that I’ve been able to work with. Win 90% of all 1v1’s but lose in mere seconds when it turns into a 1vX.

I really enjoy playing my ranger. Just want to know if there are any good 1vX ranger builds out there.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YnMqQvKWxC+CCXLGAToaPAdaA86GcvBXwEnxRf8KC-TJxGABA8EAkqMQuXEAf2fAA

This is my tpvp point-holder build. So far it has been the only ranger build that I’ve been able to work with. Win 90% of all 1v1’s but lose in mere seconds when it turns into a 1vX.

I really enjoy playing my ranger. Just want to know if there are any good 1vX ranger builds out there.

Any build that can sustain in a 1vX isn’t necessarily going to win the fight. Most classes that can sustain under that type of pressure don’t win the fight in the end though, they just stalemate until their team arrives to create a teamfight. Any class capable of winning 1vXs is doing so through the ability to repeatedly reset the fight and avoid damage (P/D condi thieves are a tad notorious for their capability in doing this, and engis can too if they manage their cooldowns well).

Not to say we don’t have any options, but your best bet is to run something more out of the ordinary than a typical setup, like: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YnMqQvg2vCWsAXLGAToaPAdaAwKZdfBLwEXwmK-TJxHAB1+EAQqMgO7PAwFBAA

That’s going to be your typical evasion tank setup, which should be able to outlast almost everything you come across if you manage your cooldowns and leaps correctly. This ever so slightly alteration is the more offensive oriented version: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjMq0ya/KWsw1aAMhq9A0pBAvk17FsAFspC-T5wHABJVGo2nAAAXEAA Rune choice for that is really up in the air, though I would probably go for more healing power personally. Flock Runes are a very lolzy choice, but offer up a decent amount of utility on top of the healing power (bonus healing, a blind and extra attack on people hitting you).

0-2-6-6-0 with bark skin and survival of the fittest. Gs and Sword/Dagger with storm spirit and spirit elite. Pirate runes with owl pet. I have been using this and it will pretty much win 80% of 1v1’s and 90% of 2v2s. Bare in mind this is for small fights, the 2v2s etc, it could possibly work far point but I’m not sure.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Thanks for taking the time out to write this, was a great read and totally inspired me to give Ranger another shot, thanks! (Also we need something like this in the Mesmer forums)

I think you could get something like this done Chaos. Just squeeze together pyros phantasm build guide with juricas gs/staff guide and you could pretty much make an equivalent for the current meta.

So some additional information and things to clarify:

• On the shortbow builds, dropping Hydromancy for Energy Sigils seems to be the more versatile option and will probably make your average survival a bit better, versus the stronger but more situation kiting Hydromancy creates.

• Survival of the Fittest is not a top tier option due to the limitations it creates on builds. By no means does this mean builds using it are bad, but as far as the coordination and team comps you see in top tier goes, it limits the “role” you play for a team to some sort of roamer, with hardly any team support to offer. The fact is that at this point, thieves, eles, and engis completely and totally replace you while bringing better team support, and overall, although the builds using the trait definitely make for strong builds, they wouldn’t be competitive in the current metagame for a team slot.

• Our top team composition competition class wise is elementalists. With the buffs to celestial and strength runes, elementalists have recaptured the powerful position they used to be in when the game launched, meaning that they have high mobility, high damage output through direct damage and semi through condis, and they have high team support options through the amount of boons and heals and cleanses they can provide. That means that the criteria we are aiming for is to try to provide a similar amount of options for our team with a similar amount of survival ability. That way, at the end of the day, the only thing eles have over us is AoE, where we can offer superior condi support and decent rez utility.

Hi everyone. Aspiring to be decent pvp ranger here. I have a silly beginner’s question: Does Malicious Training actually work? I was trying out extra chill duration with arctic wolves, owls, and even Lynx, but none of them seemed to have a longer duration on practice dummies in PVP lobby. Is it still worth it to invest into this trait then?

izzuedotcom.2498:

Hi everyone. Aspiring to be decent pvp ranger here. I have a silly beginner’s question: Does Malicious Training actually work? I was trying out extra chill duration with arctic wolves, owls, and even Lynx, but none of them seemed to have a longer duration on practice dummies in PVP lobby. Is it still worth it to invest into this trait then?

Of course, for 2 points in marksmanship its worth it but depends on the build. BTW, tooltip is wrong does not change even with Malicious Training but it does work :p

izzuedotcom.2498:

Hi everyone. Aspiring to be decent pvp ranger here. I have a silly beginner’s question: Does Malicious Training actually work? I was trying out extra chill duration with arctic wolves, owls, and even Lynx, but none of them seemed to have a longer duration on practice dummies in PVP lobby. Is it still worth it to invest into this trait then?

you need to engage in combat before the trait kicks in, so you cannot open with a F2 attack. you have to attack (one attack, even if only 1 arrow will do) and then the trait and skill tooltips affected by the trait should change, although i am not 100% sure the skill tooltip does change, i can vouch for the trait’s function. Stupid idea to make it only work in combat, but i can see why they did it, still stupid.

To follow up, for Fluffball’s suggestion, I think it is just about the best team support option we can possibly run right now as far as my testing goes. However, there is a learning curve to it.

So that everybody knows what I’m talking about, this is the variant I ended up liking the most: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fnMqQvg2sC+qARLGAToaPAdaAwKZdvBfwEXwqD-TJhHwACOJAh2fAwTAwYZAA

Now, there is a learning curve, as I mentioned. It’s a very cast time heavy build, and you don’t have any stunbreaks. This pushed me to decide to take Primal Reflexes, especially since I went with a chill option for the build. This chill option for me ended up being a no brainer, because if people started focusing me down, sword alone wasn’t always getting the job done, so by going for a chill option, it allowed me to control my opponents and the flow of the fight better, not to mention giving me a potentially perma weakness option for direct damage heavy opponents. I dropped a spider due to this, and picked up the wolf. Even though I prefer Guard with spiders, the wolf’s utility is too invaluable, especially since you have no interrupts otherwise.

Overall, I think you would be hard pressed to find a better support build to run right now, and the dueling ability the build has coupled with the team utility makes it the top contender for team compositions right now imo, as long as you can manage the learning curve.

i think i would swap Axe Dagger for shortbow. You will have the same number of evades, better bleed and poison coverage, and also a on-demand interrupt which will help stop enemies trying to stomp.

Prysin.8542:

i think i would swap Axe Dagger for shortbow. You will have the same number of evades, better bleed and poison coverage, and also a on-demand interrupt which will help stop enemies trying to stomp.

While its true that the shortbow is better pressure weapon in teamfights, I think it’s a 50/50 thing between what your team needs or would want more of, because if you swap to shortbow you may as well just drop the chill utility entirely. I would think that this would rely heavily on team composition.

Assuming the common core for a team of Warrior/Guardian/Thief/Elementalist/Necro or Engi, we would basically be looking to replace the Elementalist, and entirely from a team fight perspective, I would theorize that Shortbow pairs better if the team has an engi, because engis have a pretty decent condi coverage but lack an “easy” way to stack bleeds and maintain poison, where as necro has arguably less radius to their AoE but can stack bleeds and poison for days, and would probably appreciate the chill lockdown you can offer so that they can continuously stack bleeds on easy targets (and also a team with lesser mobility will definitely appreciate your ability to peel people off of them with Chill, which is something the shortbow can only do with crippling shot, and an interrupt to some extent if you aren’t saving it for something else).

There’s a strong argument for both though, and they both have strengths and weaknesses. At the top level though, I think it would be up to the team to figure out which they need more.

Necro has chill spam deluxe

Prysin.8542:

Necro has chill spam deluxe

Isn’t this the typical necro build though? http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW7Yjc0UebfNG3wfbighSyW4Di+ACgzlykIKA-TpwXAAw+DWZAA

That might just be the NA build. Not sure if Carrion is the standard or the exception (I copied and pasted one of the only NA necro builds I know, too lazy to go look at the ESL VoD, bout to head to bed).

But in a build like that, I wouldn’t consider the amount of chill anywhere near spammable, especially since Dark Path with Path of Corruption should be used strategically to rip boons more than to just get the chill and bleeds.

Dunno, there aren’t as many teams running necros as there are engis, as far as I can tell from observational data from the livestreams. Could just be a poor perception of it. I mean, I didn’t want to bias the thread, but I personally prefer the shortbow sets to the Axe sets, even though the chill build is my “baby” lol. The Axe sets are strong duelist sets, but lose lots of value for team fights. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have uses though, you would just need to be on a team that incorporates them into their strategy.

dunno about necro builds, i do not play necro. GW2 necromancer simply does not have the slightest hint of the type of gameplay i expect in a “necromancer” class. IE; re-animation, corpse manipulation and so on.

If chill is what you are looking for, why not try sigil of Ice? It is not in any way “replacing” the chill + weakness on axe 3, but it will grant you chill with almost the same duration and cooldown. Or my personal favorite combo; Sigil of Frailty (50% chance pr hit to add 10 sec vuln, 2sec ICD) and Sigil of Water (AOE heal to allies around the target for around 350-600 HP depending on amulet. 5 sec ICD).

Sigil of water allows for even non BM builds to have their pet soak a LOT more damage. In some fights, i have found that it was the difference between a dead pet or not.

Op really good job on this post.

Nice post. You might want to add the forge rune build. When running xx6xx, you will have a very powerful trait called Companion’s Defense which pairs nicely with forge runes and energy sigils.

I would like to add that x/x/6/6x with Axe/Dag + Sword/Torch + Survival Utilities is ALSO a very viable build that easily contends for a top tier spot.

Prysin.8542:

dunno about necro builds, i do not play necro. GW2 necromancer simply does not have the slightest hint of the type of gameplay i expect in a “necromancer” class. IE; re-animation, corpse manipulation and so on.

If chill is what you are looking for, why not try sigil of Ice? It is not in any way “replacing” the chill + weakness on axe 3, but it will grant you chill with almost the same duration and cooldown. Or my personal favorite combo; Sigil of Frailty (50% chance pr hit to add 10 sec vuln, 2sec ICD) and Sigil of Water (AOE heal to allies around the target for around 350-600 HP depending on amulet. 5 sec ICD).

Sigil of water allows for even non BM builds to have their pet soak a LOT more damage. In some fights, i have found that it was the difference between a dead pet or not.

They’re all good suggestions! I’ve actually been playing around with a shortbow chill build, but I dunno if it’s where I want it to be (unless I already posted it on this thread somewhere lol).

I was actually playing around with sigil of frailty on a longbow Remorseless build the other day, and it was pretty amazing for vulnerability stacking. Without zerker though, I think the longbow is horrendous damage, and with zerker, you’re pretty much fodder for any roaming class and person who is decent at roaming (thieves will eat you alive).

Frailty on the Shortbow (and sword) are very interesting alternatives though, because their attack speed better takes advantage of the 2 sec icd to get as many procs as possible.

Water too, and it’s a very good note that Water and Renewal sigils are extremely usable for us since quite a few of our builds promote weapon swapping often and have good attack speeds to take advantage of low ICD procs.

My next round of build testing from the thread starts today, so I’m definitely going to “combat test” all of these ideas (dunno if I can say this on the forums, so I’ll say; this thread is a theorycrafter’s “happy” dream hahaha).

Archon.6480:

Nice post. You might want to add the forge rune build. When running xx6xx, you will have a very powerful trait called Companion’s Defense which pairs nicely with forge runes and energy sigils.

I would, BUT, again, addressing this at the highest tier of competition where a S/D thief is standard right now, the moment that thief becomes aware of the runeset you are running and the effect you are going for, they are going to take your protection every opportunity they gets, especially the long duration protection you get from the 6 bonus.

However, I’m glad you bring it up though, because this is one of those options that actually translates down “tiers” extremely well. The less organized teams get, and the less competent players are (Solo Q says hi), the better this option gets. You’ll have protection for days, and eventually a thief might notice and rip it once or twice, but overall, you’re going to have the benefits from it more often than not.

I personally would not suggest running it with Celestial though, but that’s without testing it myself so it isn’t giving a fair chance. It would just leave your condition damage at 734, so I want to test how much that affects damage output.

Really though, this is a good contribution, and it does put things into perspective that even if I discuss things at the highest tier of competition, that isn’t where all players play at (most don’t), so even though the thread is basically discussing what people should aspire to play to be as competitive as possible, it doesn’t mean that where most people currently sit, their aren’t other options.

jcbroe.4329:

Archon.6480:

Nice post. You might want to add the forge rune build. When running xx6xx, you will have a very powerful trait called Companion’s Defense which pairs nicely with forge runes and energy sigils.

I would, BUT, again, addressing this at the highest tier of competition where a S/D thief is standard right now, the moment that thief becomes aware of the runeset you are running and the effect you are going for, they are going to take your protection every opportunity they gets, especially the long duration protection you get from the 6 bonus.
…
Really though, this is a good contribution, and it does put things into perspective that even if I discuss things at the highest tier of competition, that isn’t where all players play at (most don’t), so even though the thread is basically discussing what people should aspire to play to be as competitive as possible, it doesn’t mean that where most people currently sit, their aren’t other options.

Thanks for reply! Yeah, I mostly play mid level solo queue or pickup tpvp (rarely) so I’ve never run into problems with boon stealing. I’ll keep an eye on those pesky thieves. I am looking forward to trying some of these celestial builds. Decap Engineers seem to be largest problem for this build.

Forge runes should be used with carrion, actually. I used to run apothecary at lower levels but soon realized the protection gave enough defense, so more damage output increased the effectiveness.

Archon.6480:

jcbroe.4329:

Archon.6480:

Nice post. You might want to add the forge rune build. When running xx6xx, you will have a very powerful trait called Companion’s Defense which pairs nicely with forge runes and energy sigils.

I would, BUT, again, addressing this at the highest tier of competition where a S/D thief is standard right now, the moment that thief becomes aware of the runeset you are running and the effect you are going for, they are going to take your protection every opportunity they gets, especially the long duration protection you get from the 6 bonus.
…
Really though, this is a good contribution, and it does put things into perspective that even if I discuss things at the highest tier of competition, that isn’t where all players play at (most don’t), so even though the thread is basically discussing what people should aspire to play to be as competitive as possible, it doesn’t mean that where most people currently sit, their aren’t other options.

Thanks for reply! Yeah, I mostly play mid level solo queue or pickup tpvp (rarely) so I’ve never run into problems with boon stealing. I’ll keep an eye on those pesky thieves. I am looking forward to trying some of these celestial builds. Decap Engineers seem to be largest problem for this build.

Forge runes should be used with carrion, actually. I used to run apothecary at lower levels but soon realized the protection gave enough defense, so more damage output increased the effectiveness.

Yeah, engineers are a nightmare for just about every non-necro class right now lol. A key thing to remember is that the only condi cleanse they have is their heal. So if you can keep the pressure on them in between their heals without taking too much of it yourself, you’ll be good. Engineers can be very spammy with their cooldowns so low though, so it really is a hard matchup with the amount of pressure they can output.

You can pretty quickly tell how an engie fight is going to turn out. Sometimes you will just have to drop point and leave if you dont want to die. (Turret engie with reflects and crate)

engineer with turrets and reflect can only be dealt with by trappers. It’s not even a competition if not using traps or pure glass LB from 1500 range (so you can dodge your own reflects)

Heh, so im guessing my ranger build that im running since pretty much the feature patch is quite fine?
Only changing which two traps i use and some sigils then and now.
I always liked reflexes more than sigil tho, shorter CD and adds quite a bit extra dodging

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0ta9KusQ0aAAhaVA0eGa2Ygd+2BfwJr4ArA-TphBwAAOBAaOIA52fAzRAIyDAwbZAA

Ryan.9387:

You can pretty quickly tell how an engie fight is going to turn out. Sometimes you will just have to drop point and leave if you dont want to die. (Turret engie with reflects and crate)

Have you tried any of the builds here at all by the way? I’d be interested in your opinion on them, since I’m pretty certain you’ve played at a higher tier of play than I have in this game. I’d be interested in knowing how you think any of these builds would hold up, especially the chill based ones, since they are a previously untested concept by everybody except Kanscout, who ran Axe/Dagger Sword/Torch Grenth Runes long before April 15.

I’ve had a ranger for years but still pretty new to the class PvP wise, I learned a lot from reading this & have bookmarked it for later use. Great resource, very well written. Thanks to the OP and all posters ^^

jcbroe.4329:

Ryan.9387:

You can pretty quickly tell how an engie fight is going to turn out. Sometimes you will just have to drop point and leave if you dont want to die. (Turret engie with reflects and crate)

Have you tried any of the builds here at all by the way? I’d be interested in your opinion on them, since I’m pretty certain you’ve played at a higher tier of play than I have in this game. I’d be interested in knowing how you think any of these builds would hold up, especially the chill based ones, since they are a previously untested concept by everybody except Kanscout, who ran Axe/Dagger Sword/Torch Grenth Runes long before April 15.

From my own experience, I’ve found chill builds to be strong except against thieves, who aren’t hurt much by it. Other classes were really easy to shut down by timing my chills after their condi cleanse or heals. It’s very effective against “bruiser” type builds, like d/d ele or most eniges. I don’t run it though because I would rather end up stalemating eles than losing to thieves.

The builds you posted are good, and the “core” is pretty much spot on. When I spec for teamfights I bring something a lot like your shortbow spirits or s/t a/d chill builds.

Right now I run a build you have not posted:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAsY3PjMq2sivKEtGAToaPALbA8cUTVnbwHcwvaP-TJhHwAPLDM4JA8a/BAnEAA

My role with my team is representative of this build. I play homepoint/farpoint with the expectation to never lose 1v1 to anyone even without my elite and to survive 1v2s long enough to allow support to arrive. The core is built for extremely high sustain and high condi burst. The empty utility is SoR or SotW depending upon the other team.

Ryan.9387:

jcbroe.4329:

Ryan.9387:

You can pretty quickly tell how an engie fight is going to turn out. Sometimes you will just have to drop point and leave if you dont want to die. (Turret engie with reflects and crate)

Have you tried any of the builds here at all by the way? I’d be interested in your opinion on them, since I’m pretty certain you’ve played at a higher tier of play than I have in this game. I’d be interested in knowing how you think any of these builds would hold up, especially the chill based ones, since they are a previously untested concept by everybody except Kanscout, who ran Axe/Dagger Sword/Torch Grenth Runes long before April 15.

From my own experience, I’ve found chill builds to be strong except against thieves, who aren’t hurt much by it. Other classes were really easy to shut down by timing my chills after their condi cleanse or heals. It’s very effective against “bruiser” type builds, like d/d ele or most eniges. I don’t run it though because I would rather end up stalemating eles than losing to thieves.

The builds you posted are good, and the “core” is pretty much spot on. When I spec for teamfights I bring something a lot like your shortbow spirits or s/t a/d chill builds.

Right now I run a build you have not posted:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAsY3PjMq2sivKEtGAToaPALbA8cUTVnbwHcwvaP-TJhHwAPLDM4JA8a/BAnEAA

My role with my team is representative of this build. I play homepoint/farpoint with the expectation to never lose 1v1 to anyone even without my elite and to survive 1v2s long enough to allow support to arrive. The core is built for extremely high sustain and high condi burst. The empty utility is SoR or SotW depending upon the other team.

Awesome! Definitely appreciate the insight. It’s actually bad that I haven’t played a Settler’s build in so long I kind of forgot about them lol.

I actually do have a question for you, the build link shows you taking Oakheart Salve over Offhand Training. Is that intentional? I totally understand the reasoning behind it if so personally, but there are going to be people who don’t understand the decision at all haha.

Anyhow, thanks for the contribution to the thread!

Oh, should I assume that you would consider Settler’s over Celestial a better choice for some of the spirit builds I posted?

Yeah it is intentional. I can get perma regen with that trait and healspring.