Guild Wars 2

Hey all,
so Ive read it a couple of times that Melee ranger is going to be getting buffed after the trait changes.

Obviously Wilderness Survival is obvious.
Will it be Marksmanship + WS + NM/BM or WS + NM + BM?

I dont do a whole lot of theory crafting unless I can actually test stuff out but are people seeing trait combos that will be awesome?

Edit:
Or does it just stem from being able to min/max differently with the stat changes?

I think it will depend on what mode you’re playing and what your personal style is.

But, I think Marksmanship is at least as much of a given as WS for a melee ranger, so I personally don’t think WS/NM/BM is the route to consider.

We’re basically talking about greatsword, and in my view, you want to manufacture burst/spike damage with that weapon. Marksmanship currently offers the best route to do so, while also allowing you to build tanky. You can sacrifice precision and go with more cavalier/valk as your “offensive” items because you are going to get crits when you need them. Similar to running an intelligence sigil under current rules, only (possibly) better: applying fury will apparently refresh opening strike, which will also cause auto-crit and +25% damage. So if you build ferocity and combo it wisely with something like maul, while giving yourself plenty of fury sources, you should be able to manufacture decent spikes on demand. Precision becomes more of a dump stat.

So, with that in mind, right now, I’m thinking Marks/WS/NM. The advantage of NM on a melee ranger is the area weakness. You can dive with greater impunity, basically, and REALLY disrupt a backline like (I feel) you’re supposed to. It’ll still be risky, and you will need to time things right. You’ll need to get to the backline before taking damage, so that it procs where you want it to. But if you do, they’ll be in bad shape. Weakness is strong.

That’s my theory-crafting so far. So basically yes, part of it is that you can build less precision and still get crits, and make them hit pretty hard, while also being relatively tanky (min/maxing as you say). But that’s actually possible to an extent, currently.

However, the traits as shown so far can enhance that style of play beyond where it’s at right now. They’ll probably nerf it completely though, cuz LB+Anet=<3

Disclaimer is that I’m not talking about PvE. I also am curious to see what druid has to offer. But unless the druid traits and weapon skills are jaw-dropping, I don’t see it really fitting into even a supporty melee build. We’ll see.

I’m holding off on theory crafting until we get the finalized traits and even gear stats, but things are looking very promising. Finally we’re freed from the burden of all our stats in purely defensive trait lines.

@Draeyon
Some of which I thought of.
Point supporter:
Beastmaster’s Bond + Might, Remorseless
MDG, Spotter, Quick Draw / Strider
Bountiful Hunter, Windborne Notes, Protective Ward.
- Viable Power build that provides damage spikes, provides Team Support in a noticeable measure and has high sustain. GS, Sword + Horn setup.
Healing Spring + SoS, SoR, SoW + RaO. Pets: Wolf, Marsh Drake

It lacks passive condi cleanse, but will have high defenses regardless, 3 leap finishers, 2(+1) blasts – and with access to healing spring. Almost permanent Regen and all in all shouldn’t die to condis because of SoR. Provides permanent AoE fury, AoE swiftness, AoE regen, Team condi cleanse via HS and Signet.
Gains crit on Pet Swap, Weapon Swap, and has unstoppable Bombing phase inside of RoA + SoW (crit every 3 seconds – fury is reapplied)

The other melee build:
Elusive Skirmisher
s/t + s/d
Sharpened Edges, Quick Draw
Ambidexterity, Oakheart Salve, Wilderness Knowledge
Protective Ward.
- simply said : Absurdly annoying to play against. Full of evades on short cooldowns, plenty of condi cleanse, disrupts enemies, deals hybrid damage.
Troll Unguent + Muddy Terrain, LR, Sharpened Edges + Entangle
Celestial setup. Wolf + Raven.

Ah ok, thanks for the feedback.
With Protective Ward, does it give protection to the ranger or the pet? The tooltip says ranger but people were saying that in the livestream, they said pet instead.
Hope its the ranger, if your already specing into NM, one of your minors givers your pet protection when you get it anyway.

Ah ok, thanks for the feedback.
With Protective Ward, does it give protection to the ranger or the pet? The tooltip says ranger but people were saying that in the livestream, they said pet instead.
Hope its the ranger, if your already specing into NM, one of your minors givers your pet protection when you get it anyway.

Also, if I ran MS, WS + NM, would Windborn Notes or Evasive Purity be a better option?
Cant decided between the almost perma regen with 5% damage reduction or the blind, poison and cripple removal.

0/0/6/6/6 hands down. im fantasizing about this build every time I play. same massive condi damage and survivability we have now, in addition to a decently buffed pet with beastly warden. give how it’s a pbaoe cc, I wont need to run canines any longer. instead, i’ll switch to two birds and pop people for 4-6k f2 damage with 25 stacks of might after axe 1 spam.

regarding power builds, pure melee likely wont be viable still, unless staff really delivers. I was thinking a remorseless GS build + beastmastery and wilderness survival: 6/0/6/0/6 and beastly warden. should be able to go very tanky while dealing decent damage, perhaps it will be a good frontline build. alternatively, 6/6/6/0/0 with quickdraw.

@Draeyon
Most of stuff is going to change. Most Dangerous game is probably moving into higher tier trait, some traits are going to be swapped, some merged, and so on and so forth.

These are merely the builds that currently are described.
Protective Ward was mentioned a subject for change to give protection to the pet. Which will not make it worth a GrandMaster. One way or another, a lot of stuff is going to change. But you can make a picture of what is going to be possible.

Can’t wait for the changes, will be a lot of fun testing out all this theory crafting.

I’ve been trying to make something for PvP that has good damage, sustain and support. This one gives perma Regen, Swiftness, Fury and a fair bit of Might to the group and is quite bursty. Hopefully Protective Ward keeps at least some of the protection on the Ranger.

Supporty Valkyrie