Guild Wars 2

Hey.

First of all, I’ve been looking for this but almost every single I saw was from, at least, a few months ago, so it might be outdated.

I’ve been playing with my ranger mainly in WvW for zerging, and from time to time I used to roam by myself or with a friend, with a 50% PVT 50% zerker gear, using a LB and W/A. Actually I had a nice overall performance with that! xD

But anyway, now I’m looking for a condition damage build to roam by myself or with a friend. I saw in another post that I could go for a trap build and I’d get a lot of condition damage by losing just a bit of defense compared to a regen ranger (I’m not interested in being a regen ranger tho).

But basically I have no idea what gear to get, what skills, what traits, what pet… All I know is I probably need full Carrion gear and use a SB as one of my weapon sets.

So every tip will be welcome.
Thanks!

Theres a really quite a fair number of builds you can go for, too many to list all the possibilities and variations, so I’ll try just post some general thoughts of trap builds (since they are my true love in this game)

The common setup for traps is this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQBNSoS7qlr4yCVLBMEq2tQwWCsDgIYCA-T1wQgAAq/Aq8bVJIpAgYaE-w

Weapon wise really any combination of SB, Sword, MH Axe, Dagger, Torch or Warhorn will work. Its up to you and how you want to play. SB gives you the best ranged pressure, Axe will give you more burst bleeds though, and a sword is mostly defensive, etc.

Your final 2 trait points can go anywhere. Most people like 10 in MS for Keen Edges or Malicious Training, but if you want a buffer pet with might on pet swaps, or maybe some more Vitality and protection then the other traitlines work too.

For a trap build you almost always want flame trap + spike trap, but again you can mix those up. Some people like a 3 trap setup, personally I like LR as my 3rd utility, but you might also try Protect Me, or QZ. Elite is also up to you. I like Entangle, most like RaO.

Runes you might want Speed/Travellers for the movement speed, but if you chose WH offhand and RaO Elite (plus tailwind trait from Skirmishing) maybe you dont need speed. Krait is great for the condition damage+Bleed duration.. Or taking Grenth with frost trap can be good for a laugh, espeically if you throw in pets with Chill as they F2 (and if you go down this route, you probably want those 2 spare traitpoints for Malicous Training).

Basicly what I am trying to get at is… Try make the build that works for you, not one that works for someone else. Even within a trap setup there are dozens of variaous all offering something different, with different little synergyzes between pet/rune/weapon/utility choice. Everyone has preferences and playstyles, and one thing I love about rangers is that there arent 2-3 perfectly prescribed best builds. There are solid bases to work from, but really do try to change things to what you want and what works for you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNEQNAnfVjMq0ta5Kurw1aABhaVA0+FS2umkittenBbQBTqA-TViAABJcIAm4BA01+DAcCAkRfQYK/OS9H2UCy9RAIAACAzcmDdmDdmFCYxaA-w

A few very important things to note with this build… You have no stunbreakers. You want to start fights with Rampage As One and end them as quickly as possible otherwise you’re extremely vulnerable to CC’s. Your only condition cleanse is through Healing Spring which means you have to use it wisely. Generally I prefer to use it around the time I dip to 80 – 90% of my health, so that (unless I’m against a high damage opponent) it will be off cooldown by the time I need it again.
You also want to keep the poison pressure on to stop those who have high Regeneration uptime such as a Warrior, Ele or Guardian. Dropping Viper’s nest under their feet as often as you can is the best way to do this.
Generally I roam so this build is geared towards that, however, it is actually quite effective in zergs so long as you do what you can to avoid the hammertrain. Dropping traps everywhere and using axe #1 (Ricochet) will get you a lot of tags and a lot of bags.
After a lengthy period of using this build I’ve learned the following: Your chances of winning a 1v1 decrease significantly the longer you let the fight draw out. Do not ever get greedy with this build because there is little room for error. And lastly remember to use your Wolf fear and Raven blind properly (interrupting heals and mitigating damage received.)

Hmm… I’m a bit lost in what gear should I get. Dire kinda attracts me because it’s kinda tanky, but, will I have enough damage only with Cond Damage? I guess so because this is a Cond Damage build (xD), but… I dont know; just asking. Would Carrion be a good choice? Seems more damage oriented, but again, I dont know if I can just pass without the Power.

Thanks for both answers btw

EDIT: Dire seems much better than Rabid checking the stats in the guides you guys gave me, so… I guess that’s the way to go? xD

Here’s mine

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAsf3YjAVV29VaWs2BilCAJo2DOZeM5U4/TNioA-jECB4iDimWAgkOikHwZqFRjtGsIasKZER1KlYSBAx0I-w
2k condi dmg before stacks, 3k armor, and a ranger with 24k health? Not to mention very high protection uptime, and the evade spam. Your spider can put out 12 seconds of immobilize, forcing people to sit through your entire bonfire and allowing you to quickly put on your condi burst.
Perma weakness from axe 3, bark skin, and protect me combined with your high passive defenses make it impossible for any power build to kill you. Empathatic bond and signet of renewal make it impossible for any condi build to kill. Combine this all with your stupid high amount of condition dmg and youve got an extremely powerful roaming/1vX build.

To answer your questions, yes just straight up condi dmg is often more than enough to kill people. Carrion is very meh unless your going for a kind of hybrid ish approach but even then its meh. The 2 common condi sets are rabid and dire. People use rabid if they have lots of conditions that will proc on critical hits, for example the adept trait in skirmishing, or incendiary powder for engis. If you don’t have many procs like that then yeah dire is by far better

I like your build’s stats a lot. I mean, A LOT xD I’ll probably change a few skills and traits from what I’ve seen, but I’ll prolly stick with your gear build. Thanks!

I think Carpboy covered it really, but Carrion is generally not the best choice in WvW. Its fairly popular in PvP for its high vitality (since there is no Dire there), but for WvW I dont think I know any rangers who go for Carrion.

Rabid is a more offensive choice because of the possibility to stack rediculous amounts of bleeds. This works best if you’re using a SB due to its fast fire rate and also its in-built bleed. IT also works well in trap setups because traps can also crit and cause extra bleeding.

Dire is, obviously, the defensive choice. You lose some damage potential and also limit yourself range wise because your cant really stack an meaningful conditions at over ~350 range. Thats really want puts me off it, but of course the up side is you have a rediculous amount of HP

I’ll probably go for Dire and hope for the best, cos I dont feel like wasting 45g xD

Regnum.7102:

I’ll probably go for Dire and hope for the best, cos I dont feel like wasting 45g xD

Hi,

I am running Rabid gear and doing about 1700+ condition damage after food and tools – with a higher survive-ability than I’ve had in a while – not bunker by any means.

Any tweaks or suggestions to get the condi any higher appreciated.

I have guard stacks and condi stacks that pop this over to about 1850+ when guild buffed.

Normal running – 1700+ condition damage and not bad stats otherwise.

My own build, did what I could with my understanding of balance and going for as much condition damage as possible.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBjODbkRl2V7XxiFqWEoHUrDgDItbVDs2gnf7bkyr2SbrA-T1yCAB1phBgnAwxXAACVCelSkmUCJ0+DfpM4S1fm4gAolSjAAIAcdCdnFZZA8XDA-w

I switch out the pets condition damage multiplier in Wilderness Survival for
Soften the Fall when needed – and I do need it a lot being focused and banished quite a lot…

I’ve been running shortbow/sword+torch with all Devourers for pets. Always flank and take all Survival skills, including the elite. Traits are 0/4/6/0/4. The rest you can imagine. Tons of bleed and poison with stunbreaks and mobility. Great harassing build.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNQQRAsY3fjEq0uaLL2rw1aAAhaVA0OFyhwmdD0BfwJ7KFSA-TVyCABAcEAU4EAc8DBQo9HuUtCPVVJRlgZp8TP9DkC4RpRA-w

My condi/trapper build

I’m looking to switch my Ranger to a condi build. The core of my build looks a lot different than the others posted here:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAnfVjEq0yaNLesQ1aABhaVA0uGS2u2d+eDfNA-TFxGwAAUCCXfgL1fSq8jQALWDA-w
I still haven’t picked out sigils/runes/pets.
What’s the attraction of the sword in a condi build? Axe/Torch/Dagger are all pretty obviously condi friendly, but sword doesn’t have as much to offer.
I decided to tag onto this thread as any suggestions would no doubt help the OP, too.

perko.8309:

What’s the attraction of the sword in a condi build? Axe/Torch/Dagger are all pretty obviously condi friendly, but sword doesn’t have as much to offer.

Torch 5+Sword 2 gives the party fire armor 100% of the time. I also like the evades, and there is poison on sword 3, not to mention free might on your pet (auto attack chain #3) which also boosts pet condition damage.

With my build I spend 80% of my time in shortbow, and just use sword/torch when I’m out of vigor and need a few seconds for my shortbow skills to recharge.

EDIT: The fire shield always procs on me, not sure if it is also granted to nearby party members.