Guild Wars 2

Thank you, jubskie!

I’m curious to see your feedback on this build Chopps. I designed it myself with survival skills in mind instead of an extreme pet focus (your build opened up new doors for me that I’ll try later though). In general, your traits buff you while your skills cause greater damage in bursts. I’ve been using it as a PvE/WvW hybrid and it’s been working well for me. http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VG;4wE-y-r2JEV-0;9F8j;1TJJ;027B19-45;55JV4;2udbTudbTo-Fz0;06;2Vd-i0o1sYzZ352o-G-2i;9;9;9;9;9;9;0V8k3z

Spark Angel.2145:

I’m curious to see your feedback on this build Chopps. I designed it myself with survival skills in mind instead of an extreme pet focus (your build opened up new doors for me that I’ll try later though). In general, your traits buff you while your skills cause greater damage in bursts. I’ve been using it as a PvE/WvW hybrid and it’s been working well for me. http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VG;4wE-y-r2JEV-0;9F8j;1TJJ;027B19-45;55JV4;2udbTudbTo-Fz0;06;2Vd-i0o1sYzZ352o-G-2i;9;9;9;9;9;9;0V8k3z

must…sleep…so…tired

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

tommorow is another day! talk to you then!

Why Scholar runes and not Ruby ones?

Thanks a lot for the write up Chopps, I really like the idea behind your build.

I have two proposals to make:

1. Sup Sigil of Strength in Shortbow and Sword. Both weapons have very fast attack rates and can potentially hit multiple enemies, plus the might on crit you get is 10s unbuffed. I think that would fit pretty good in your setup, as with Fortifying Bond you can keep even more might stacks on your pet (transferred might has a max duration of 10s so your pet gets the whole duration).

2. 6/6 Sup Runes of the Ranger instead of Scholar. I compared both in buildcraft and while EP seems to be lower with Ranger Runes (precision < power), their flat damage boost is more stable, as it’s practically not tied to any condition (6th bonus works even when pet is dead). Staying > 90% HP can be very hard for a glasscannon, actually one hit or a few dots will make you loose the 10% dmg buff. Furthermore, the ~+8% crit chance you get synergizes better with might on crit (or anything on crit you decide to use) and brings more to your (and your pet’s) total dmg output than a comparison of mere direct dmg numbers can show.
Aaaand they are way cheaper :p The benefits of Scholar Runes in no way justify their price IMO. (((It’s simply because those kitten Charged Lodestones are used in every desired recipe in GW2. You even need 50 of them for the new Everlasting Potion. WTH ANet?)))

Edit: spelling.

Chopps.5047:

must…sleep…so…tired

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

tommorow is another day! talk to you then!

Haha! That’s fine. I went to bed after posting that anyway :P

Spark Angel.2145:

I’m curious to see your feedback on this build Chopps. I designed it myself with survival skills in mind instead of an extreme pet focus (your build opened up new doors for me that I’ll try later though). In general, your traits buff you while your skills cause greater damage in bursts. I’ve been using it as a PvE/WvW hybrid and it’s been working well for me. http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VG;4wE-y-r2JEV-0;9F8j;1TJJ;027B19-45;55JV4;2udbTudbTo-Fz0;06;2Vd-i0o1sYzZ352o-G-2i;9;9;9;9;9;9;0V8k3z

That’s an interesting build. I’d say do what gives you the most synergy (I hate that word but can’t think of a better one right now).

So in the mighty ranger build, the keys are

• precision
• companion’s might
• Spirit buffs/fortifying bond for dungeon buffs

Will these elements be useful in your build? That’s up to you to decide. I would note that you seem to be a power/bleeds hybrid and bleeds tend to spike cap in dungeons (not always, depends on group/weapons). So there’s advantages and disadvantages in trying to find one build for all situations and all gametypes. The cool thing about gw2 is that because so much of the game is based on skill, even hybrid builds can be successful, like you anecdotally point out. Good job!

Chopps.5047:

Gercoa.7490:

what I hate it how much it costs to even try the build. I have most everything, I was already spec’d to pow/pre/crit But no horn, just the horn and the scholar is 50 gold. lot to spend for a test… Is’t there a cheaper horn with same spec?

Ruby orbs and zerk rares is still huge DPS.

Run a bunch of CoF and get zerker gear via tokens and use the gold to upgrade to scholar runes. Make sure you eat omnom or raspberry bars

That’s how I started when I was a wee little ranger like you.

Ouch.

1. I never said I was broke.

I bought all scholar and found the Kodanroar horn reasonable. HAd everything else already.

I don’t thing I’m a total newbie here. I have 900 hours on my ranger. I was just asking a question since every time someone comes up with a new respec it cost time and money to try it and was looking for a cheaper alternative since I don’t even know if it fits my play style.

like I said before, I gave this a shot since I was already spec’d pwr/pre/crit. Meaning I already have full zerker everything. I only have 3 zerker ascended pieces but, filling in the remaining gaps with 3 zerker exotics.

What I found in last nights run is I’m extremely squishy with this build. Didn’t see the numbers I’m use to with the “Maul build” https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Maul-Ranger-WvW-Build/first#post2150178 That I was running. (A build that pre patch was letting me live in fracktals 22 with 15AR) and seems to hold it’s own in wvw.

In comparison we ran a normal lvl 20 frack last night with this build and could not get past the final boss. (not jade) My numbers only seem to be about half of what I was seeing on the other build same run. Now, I have not tried my old setup post patch, so I’m not sure how nerfed it is but going by last night, the maul build still seems a better build. Would be nice to get some side by side comparison of both. from others since they are relatively close builds.

One thing. I have never liked sword/horn much and have never really played them. So a lot of my failure last night was due to that I’m sure, but every time I tried to use any of the sword skills I would jump in, and die due to the super squishiness. I guess the biggest difference in the 2 builds is the vitality?

Chopps.5047:

That’s an interesting build. I’d say do what gives you the most synergy (I hate that word but can’t think of a better one right now).

So in the mighty ranger build, the keys are

• precision
• companion’s might
• Spirit buffs/fortifying bond for dungeon buffs

Will these elements be useful in your build? That’s up to you to decide. I would note that you seem to be a power/bleeds hybrid and bleeds tend to spike cap in dungeons (not always, depends on group/weapons). So there’s advantages and disadvantages in trying to find one build for all situations and all gametypes. The cool thing about gw2 is that because so much of the game is based on skill, even hybrid builds can be successful, like you anecdotally point out. Good job!

Sweet! Thanks for the feedback! I’m still tweaking it a lot, but it’s been working. I plan on changing it a little so that my pet’s more powerful, but I might have to look into spirits more also

I still haven’t seen you address the question of how you keep you pet’s up during boss fights.

Yeah, this might be nice for clearing some trash. But during boss fights (which is the heart of the challenging content in high level FotM), especially with no points in BM, all those crit stacks mean jack when your pet is dead.

I keep pets alive by using heals at the right time, using high toughness / vitality pets (red moa, river drake, reef drake, black bear are all good options now. Maybe a cat versus the grawl shaman that rush the captives assuming you can reliably chain CC the shaman with your group. If not, a dog would be better. I try to think on my feet.

As far as boss fights go, the imbued shaman I think is worst on pets (besides Jade Maw where I try to hold a crystal out of combat with the pet stowed…in high levels there’s so much going on this isn’t really an issue but at low levels you can speed it up this way.) Going back to the Legendary Imbued Shaman, I like to keep my bear out in that one because it can melee the boss. When the boss does big aoe bomb underneath himself, call the bear back.

When he goes invulnerable, use QZ to break the shield. Hide behind the guardian’s wall of reflection. Then the elementals must die so use your brown bear to pull all your teams conditions. After that, swap to drake, attack and right after the tailswipe you should have built up some might via peircing/companion’s might. Now hit the drake utility. By now most of the elementals are dead and you just repeat.

The other one that kills pets a lot is Captain Ash in ascalon. Use a devourer there because te Captain’s agony (same is true of Mossman) hurts a LOT when in melee range.

If you’re good enough at dipping your pet into and out of melee range, your pet will survive. If you find yourself looking down and “huh? My pet’s dead?”, then take personal responsibility. It’s not the pet’s fault, it’s the ranger’s. The ranger could have swapped, used a different/less glassy pet, used signet of stone, used Guard, healed, used Bark Skin, or any of a number of ways we have to make pets survive.

The cool thing about the so-called pet “nerf” is that damage is a little more normalized across the pets. So you don’t have to feel bad about picking a bear anymore.

Personally I run Protect Me, black bear, drake, signet of beastmaster, and signet of stone. If I know I can stay alive, I open my hero’s tab and adjust my traits so I get Spotter instead of Signet of Beastmaster.

Rock and roll!

I am NOT used to seeing this many crits. I am loving life right now.

I don’t think you do high level fractals very much.

Boss Fights in FotM Summarized:
Aquatic Ruins – No worries here since he targets pets much less often now.
Cliffside – Both boss fights insta-nuke melee pets, and range pets you can swap but you lose a LOT of DPS keeping both you and the pet micro’d and out of range.
Snowblind – Another pretty much instant nuke, especially during his up-top phase. Sure you might be able to have your pet survive one quarter health round if you blow everything, but next round everything is on CD and it is dead.
Jade Sea – Maw, ‘nuff said.
Swampland – Both Oakheart and Mossman will absolutely destroy both ranged and melee pets instantly.
Dredge Fractal – Melee pets are insta-nuked. Ranged pets are actually pretty viable with Ice boss.
Grawl Fractal – Pet’s actually do okay here, oddly enough.
Asura Fractal – Insta-nuked with all the Agony bouncing around (pet’s have no innate dodge/reflect)

The only way I can see your pets surviving, is if you are manually indicating EACH of their auto-attacks. I.E Send pet after boss, attacks once, call back to side right after; rinse and repeat.

Which is great, they survive, but now you are doing less damage than a “staff support elementalist” in apothecary/healing gear.

I do daily runs of 48, 38, and 28, if I can fit them all in. In a guild run, we play 2 rangers, 2 gaurdians, and 1 warrior. The other ranger is Skady Valda, maybe you’ve seen her posts? In any case, she never gets double death on pets and neither do I.

“How? How can this be, Chopps? My pets die!”

It’s a function of your teamwork, individual skill, and build. She runs double drake and I run red moa and either a bear or drake (really liking the new weakness on bosses since bosses do indeed crit). Don’t underestimate the survivability of calling a pet back (I like agility training for faster recall) or invulnerability like signet of stone.

Beleive me, if I thought pets died the way some of you guys claim, I’d be on here asking for help. I was, actually, before they buffed pets vitality a crapton and now I’m happy. Anet feels that if a ransr runs a glass pet and can’t micro it like a machine and/or won’t bother to use signet of stone, well, said ranger deserves to pay the price for taking that risk. And I feel the same way.

I’ve always run 20 into power for piercing arrows. Even on my BM condi builds. I’ve also always preferred to run bunker’ish builds. Someone has to bring the water fields, right? Though with every patch, they keep drawing me closer and closer to full zerker. It’s no surprise that this has been a large development issue, to me, since launch. The dev’s seem to be digging that hole deeper and deeper.

I have a really hard time believing you never have double deaths and can keep up comparable DPS to any other prof, I would be happy to be proved wrong though.

Mind providing a video or something of you going through 48 FotM?

Thank you, Chopps, for not bowing down to the massive amount of mindless ranger hate on the web. It surprises me how much ranger “discussion” dissolves into slamming pets and DPS off of conjecture (with a few hyperboles thrown in). I was running 25/25/0/20/0 before, but with this in mind I might redistribute 5 points from nature into wilderness for the endurance regen. Quick question. Do you think using knights instead of zerkers hurts crit damage too severely?

Chopps, i am 100% sure now that you are trolling people on purpose . You mention damage pets as if they actually do damage anymore and that there exists a trade off between survivability and toughness within the pet stable .

There exists a low damage low durability pet , and even lower damage , semi durable pet .

While i might agree that black bear and polar bear are looking far more viable now, it sure as hell isnt because both are good, on the contrary, everything else became SO BAD . There is a reason behind berserker longbow rangers with bears being the laughing stock of the GW2 community . Am i rite?

Sicarine.3985:

Thank you, Chopps, for not bowing down to the massive amount of mindless ranger hate on the web. It surprises me how much ranger “discussion” dissolves into slamming pets and DPS off of conjecture (with a few hyperboles thrown in). I was running 25/25/0/20/0 before, but with this in mind I might redistribute 5 points from nature into wilderness for the endurance regen. Quick question. Do you think using knights instead of zerkers hurts crit damage too severely?

Can we not circle-jerk the OP, seriously…

He posted a build with some interesting claims and understandably there is a lot of criticism warranted. Especially with the precedents ANet has established with Rangers. There is no Ranger hate here, only people want more out of their profession or feel there should be ways to raise the profession on par with the rest of the professions for certain aspects of the game.

There’s no reason we need to turn this into a fundamentalist bi-partisan debate that goes nowhere. The build by the OP is appreciated by most people that have posted here.

As for your question directed at the OP, most people can answer this and I’m sure he would agree. Zerkers is going to make you most optimal, if you find you need a handicap, then you can use other pieces like Knight’s, but will lose out on a decent amount of damage with the loss of Crit Damage which is needed in this build, badly.

are the people complaining about pets even bothering to recall/heal them correctly/switch pets based on the encounter? The only time I get double death is when I am literally not paying any attention whatsoever to anything that’s going on.

Doug.9628:

are the people complaining about pets even bothering to recall/heal them correctly/switch pets based on the encounter? The only time I get double death is when I am literally not paying any attention whatsoever to anything that’s going on.

Pretty much this.

Someone asked if I ever get double deaths on pets. Yeah, I do. Sometimes a pick up group isn’t working out too well and I’m rezzing others every two seconds and my pets get blown to bits while I’m distracted. Sometimes I test a glassy pet in a fight and find that I struggle keeping it alive. No one is perfect: sometimes I just mess up. Overall, with practice, a decent team, and decent personal skill, one can consistently prevent double deaths. I try to prevent deaths period, but that’s not always the case (signet on cooldown and drake gets focused, etc). However, rarely am I without a pet and if I find myself without a pet, it’s normally just for 10 or 20 seconds, which isn’t a big deal anyways if you’re in a rough pick up group.

pulsecodesgnl.3470:

Sicarine.3985:

Thank you, Chopps, for not bowing down to the massive amount of mindless ranger hate on the web. It surprises me how much ranger “discussion” dissolves into slamming pets and DPS off of conjecture (with a few hyperboles thrown in). I was running 25/25/0/20/0 before, but with this in mind I might redistribute 5 points from nature into wilderness for the endurance regen. Quick question. Do you think using knights instead of zerkers hurts crit damage too severely?

Can we not circle-jerk the OP, seriously…

He posted a build with some interesting claims and understandably there is a lot of criticism warranted. Especially with the precedents ANet has established with Rangers. There is no Ranger hate here, only people want more out of their profession or feel there should be ways to raise the profession on par with the rest of the professions for certain aspects of the game.

There’s no reason we need to turn this into a fundamentalist bi-partisan debate that goes nowhere. The build by the OP is appreciated by most people that have posted here.

As for your question directed at the OP, most people can answer this and I’m sure he would agree. Zerkers is going to make you most optimal, if you find you need a handicap, then you can use other pieces like Knight’s, but will lose out on a decent amount of damage with the loss of Crit Damage which is needed in this build, badly.

What is “to circle jerk”? I haven’t heard that since the 3rd grade. Hehe

You’re right, knights is a rough call. You can do it but it’s less DPS and you’ll end up eating more aggro. Give it a shot, though, let us know how it works.

Thanks for saying “thanks” to all the circle jerkers out there. I’ll circle jerk with you guys about ranger all day long. Love the profession and the game.

Chopps.5047:

What is “to circle jerk”? I haven’t heard that since the 3rd grade. Hehe

You’re right, knights is a rough call. You can do it but it’s less DPS and you’ll end up eating more aggro. Give it a shot, though, let us know how it works.

Thanks for saying “thanks” to all the circle jerkers out there. I’ll circle jerk with you guys about ranger all day long. Love the profession and the game.

Hahahaha

/15char

Doug.9628:

are the people complaining about pets even bothering to recall/heal them correctly/switch pets based on the encounter? The only time I get double death is when I am literally not paying any attention whatsoever to anything that’s going on.

I have no issues with pet survivability in dungeons, outside of a very few specific encounters.

The thing I’m complaining about is much more pressing. Anet, in their infinite wisdom, chose to nerf a very specific build (BM bunker) that was only prevalent in a very small area of the game (SPvP) by applying a blanket nerf to nearly all pets across all game modes. So now my PvE build, which was heavily invested in beast mastery, but by no means a bunker, is now less useful than it was before the patch.

Not to mention swapping what is one of the worst grandmaster traits in the game with a 5 point minor trait which was quite good, but by no means grandmaster material.

I don’t play Ranger much, but when I do, I wonder how your pets NOT stay alive!?

With a pet swap every 15 seconds and a decent heal, I’ve never faced a situation in FoTM where I cannot keep my pet alive.

In particular, Ranger excels at Grawl fractal. Not only can the Ranger solo his shield with Entangle, but it’s the most pet-friendly boss fight in the game because the boss rarely ever attacks Melee pets without his “flip” attack (which gives you more than enough time to call back your Jaguar.)

This really seems like a l2p issue.

Why isn’t zephyr’s speed grandmaster material? As an example, natural vigor (5 in WS) is a grandmaster for engineers. Quickness is so good ANET had to cut it’s effectiveness in half a few months ago. And not many people know this but with traited quicknenig zephyr and zephyr’s speed, ranger had the most quickness uptime in the game. Now it’s even longer.

Not only that, zephyr’s speed at 5 points made master’s bond (celestiallust sigil for pet) look awful. Finally, it was so good, almost every build used 5 in BM. Now we’re free from that ball and chain. The only real difference this makes is in pvp because now quick stomps require QZ or 30 in BM for spvp.

As far as pve goes, simply use this build or a variant and you’ll be way more effective than with anything you had before.

• by the way, how about longbow for this build? Dat 10 stack vulnerability! Mmmmm

Kain Francois.4328:

I don’t play Ranger much, but when I do, I wonder how your pets NOT stay alive!?

With a pet swap every 15 seconds and a decent heal, I’ve never faced a situation in FoTM where I cannot keep my pet alive.

In particular, Ranger excels at Grawl fractal. Not only can the Ranger solo his shield with Entangle, but it’s the most pet-friendly boss fight in the game because the boss rarely ever attacks Melee pets without his “flip” attack (which gives you more than enough time to call back your Jaguar.)

This really seems like a l2p issue.

QZ also melts the shield. Afaik ranger is the only profession that can easily solo the grawl boss shield without dying via entangle. But when I was told about that, I never knew if it was condition damage that I needed? Very interesting stuff indeed.

Chopps.5047:

Why isn’t zephyr’s speed grandmaster material? As an example, natural vigor (5 in WS) is a grandmaster for engineers. Quickness is so good ANET had to cut it’s effectiveness in half a few months ago. And not many people know this but with traited quicknenig zephyr and zephyr’s speed, ranger had the most quickness uptime in the game. Now it’s even longer.

Not only that, zephyr’s speed at 5 points made master’s bond (celestiallust sigil for pet) look awful. Finally, it was so good, almost every build used 5 in BM. Now we’re free from that ball and chain. The only real difference this makes is in pvp because now quick stomps require QZ or 30 in BM for spvp.

As far as pve goes, simply use this build or a variant and you’ll be way more effective than with anything you had before.

• by the way, how about longbow for this build? Dat 10 stack vulnerability! Mmmmm

Thing is, I don’t like that build. I did try a 0/30/20/0/20 build, similar to my old 0/20/20/0/30 build, replacing natural healing so I could pick up both pet’s prowess and companion’s might along with quick draw for my longbow cooldowns, and I still feel worse off than before.

Now, if companion’s might also caused the pet to stack might on the ranger, I might look at it in a different light.

Chopps.5047:

QZ also melts the shield. Afaik ranger is the only profession that can easily solo the grawl boss shield without dying via entangle. But when I was told about that, I never knew if it was condition damage that I needed? Very interesting stuff indeed.

I don’t think you are very familiar with Mesmer or Thief lol. Any prof that can cripple/root and do a series of skills that result in several fast hitting attacks is going to laugh at the Grawl shield.

Not to mention that if a Mesmer throws up a Feedback, the shield will be down before it ends, and you (and the team inside Feedback) are wholly invulnerable until it ends because the only thing attacking you is the worms with ranged attacks.

Ranger does excel at Grawl, but I’ve found on most other FotM boss fights, you are having to micro your pet so much you lose way too much DPS in comparison to other profs.

@Pulse

Nope, I play Ranger, Necromancer, and Elementalist. Although I’m really starting to like engineer. But I’m pretty sure feedback (reflection in general) was nerfed in dungeons a patch or two ago. :/ I used to kitten Lupicus with my offhand axe and get four or five 13,000 damage crits in succession. Now I’m lucky to get one 13,000 damage hit using the same technique.

By the way, I disagree about micro’ing pets and DPS. Because when I call my pet back, I’m still landing hits with shortbow. Let’s think about what that means for a moment.

Let’s put it this way: Did you know that whenever I call my pet it’s the same time the people melee’ing dodge?

And I’m using a LOT of shortbow and really only find myself swapping for the warhorn buffs. And my pet isn’t just sitting there being a damage sponge. Versus a single target I can keep ~8 stacks of might on the pet and it is really contributing. For these reasons, I think you’re incorrect to state such a thing as “known fact”.

I’m actually going to try this build with a Longbow instead of a short-bow. (Though I do have one on me when I need it)

I have a few questions for you:
1. Would you be able to recommend Greatsword with this build over sword? Yes I know it’s less damage, but I’ll take less DPS over dead DPS.

2. Would using Celestial Trinkets be a hindrance or just a minor loss for this? I prefer to use those on my Ranger over full zerker because I never like full zerker.

3. Why “Protect Me”? This might be just because I’m new to Ranger in Fractals, but why this shout. I mean I get what it does as a defensive CD and a stunbreaker, but we can just pop Signet of Stone with the Beastmaster’s Signet trait for a better defensive CD.

I’m used to playing a Hybrid BM build (0/20/20/0/30) and I haven’t played anything else since hitting 80 (which actually has been less than 2 weeks >_<). I’ve been looking to ditch the training wheels of Knight’s armor and use Berserker’s armor but I’d like a nice build to go with it.

Fade.1743:

3. Why “Protect Me”? This might be just because I’m new to Ranger in Fractals, but why this shout. I mean I get what it does as a defensive CD and a stunbreaker, but we can just pop Signet of Stone with the Beastmaster’s Signet trait for a better defensive CD.

Because it’s now a stun break. Signet of stone is not. Protect me also frees you from having to take signet of the beastmaster. The downside is your pet will most likely die, but I guess that’s why his new build runs bears and drakes.

What do you guys think of porcine? The pig gives

1) Egg with healing and 6 initiative for thief teammates
2) healing seed which is basically a healing spring if I recall
3) elixir of heroes…another 6s invulnerability!

The seeyamoth gives all boons (plasma) and a couple blinds/stealths.

I mean…if pets are normalized and with companion’s might we can pick any of them…

the porcine has Brutal Charge which is AoE knockdown AND leap finisher…

This could add defensive to the “offensive” template (if you haven’t checked the original post in a while, check again, I modified it today).

Based on the discussion around porcine, I might add that to the first post.

30,25,0,15,0 has been very very good for dungeons for a long time. You just couldn’t use companions might before. Now it’s a bit silly if you don’t.

I’ve been using sigils of battle along with 2 runes of strength for a couple months now in dungeons. I also have knights armor and not zerker. You honestly do not lose very much dmg. Especially on a ranger, where our skill coefficients tend to be low.

jewishjoyride.4693:

30,25,0,15,0 has been very very good for dungeons for a long time. You just couldn’t use companions might before. Now it’s a bit silly if you don’t.

I’ve been using sigils of battle along with 2 runes of strength for a couple months now in dungeons. I also have knights armor and not zerker. You honestly do not lose very much dmg. Especially on a ranger, where our skill coefficients tend to be low.

Yeah with Sigil of Strength (30% chance might on crit) I had basically permanent 20 to 25 stacks might on the pet. And with the flattening of pet damage, I don’t feel bad taking a pig. With the pig, it drops elixir of heroes rarely. That’s up to 15s of invulnerability if you want it (elixir/protect me/signet of stone/signet of beastmaster). And with the seed pod that’s more healing spring uptime (10 MORE seconds) and even if you don’t get seed pod or elixir, you still get egg (5 initiative for your thief pal or health if you need it). Knights is a great choice.

Well, after some testing knights does not constitute a significant dps drop for me(Not true in every frame of reference). As for aggro, it’s nothing significant. Not compared to the week that I tried the aggroriffic 25/25/20/0/0. Also, it seems like once it starts attacking, the pet usually ends up with more aggro.

Anyways Sigil of Strength is a bit pricey but invaluable. I’m using it to compensate for not taking piercing arrows. This build works beautifully when modified for personal preference and play style, so in the end I went with 25/25/5/15/0.

Chopps.5047:

But I’m pretty sure feedback (reflection in general) was nerfed in dungeons a patch or two ago. :/
…
By the way, I disagree about micro’ing pets and DPS. Because when I call my pet back, I’m still landing hits with shortbow. Let’s think about what that means for a moment.

Let’s put it this way: Did you know that whenever I call my pet it’s the same time the people melee’ing dodge?

And I’m using a LOT of shortbow and really only find myself swapping for the warhorn buffs. And my pet isn’t just sitting there being a damage sponge. Versus a single target I can keep ~8 stacks of might on the pet and it is really contributing. For these reasons, I think you’re incorrect to state such a thing as “known fact”.

First off, reflection skills were only nerfed by large attacks, in fact the only nerf I can think of is to the Dredge Powersuit boss where his bombs don’t do damage to himself, you can still reflect them just fine though. And that was the point of my comment with Grawl, you don’t use the Feedback for damage, you use to reflect all the worm projectiles while you handle the shield.

Second, I started this game at launch as a Ranger, it was my first 80 (out of 7 currently). I have spent a lot of time building and playing with my Ranger, while I don’t use him much for PvE anymore because of efficiency issues, I still WvW/sPvP with him the most.

So stop talking down to me please as if I am unfamiliar on pet micro and basic “L2P” comments that keep appearing. Re-calling, and re-attacking with your pet takes much more time than player dodging, for one. Especially when you are recalling a pet from an AoE attack, there is no ‘instant’ juke with pets, so you have to accommodate with basic walking time for them.

Beyond that, as great as shortbow damage may seem to you, it’s still really weak in contrast to other professions (with pet), even other ranged professions (i.e. see Engineer, Mesmer, Rifle Warrior, even Necro). This is counter-intuitive to the idea of a profession that is even named, Ranger, built with a focus on bows and ranged weapons. ANet has established this backwards precedent since launch.

Ranger DPS is currently built around synchronization with a pet. Consistent, straight-forward max DPS with a ranged weapon (shortbow) and a damage spec’d pet, have been shown time and time again about how they pale in comparison to other classes damage-wise. For someone that seems so involved with the Ranger I’m surprised you haven’t seen any of those theorycrafting threads on the forums.

These changes may have made your build more viable, but when comparing to the capabilities and efficiency of other professions, that does not necessarily make them viable itself.

TL;DR Pet micro doesn’t compare to dodge, and it decreases your already weak-in-comparison DPS to other professions.

I use agility training though so recall is actually really fast. Plus, you have signet of stone and teleports via swaps so pets double downing is not a problem. Of course mistakes happen, parties wipe in dungeons, etc. But with decent play and teamwork, it’s just not the issue you make it out to be.

“Beyond that, as great as shortbow damage may seem to you, it’s still really weak in contrast to other professions (with pet), even other ranged professions (i.e. see Engineer, Mesmer, Rifle Warrior, even Necro). "

Define “really weak” because it doesn’t have much meaning in this context. Please use timed kills or numerical estimates. Use my build to compare to theirs and videotape it. You must not like 25 stacks of might.

You see with pets.. they have this nack to not want to stay alive in boss fights or zergs, so companions might is a near useless trait in these scenarios. In sPvP or small group fights I could see it working wonderfully.

DeadlySynz.3471:

You see with pets.. they have this nack to not want to stay alive in boss fights..

No offense, but this is a l2p issue. Very rarely does my pet die in FoTM.

The only boss fight in the game my pets die is Subject Alpha, which is a very exceptional boss fight in the first place you’d rather the pet dead.

So, Chopps, what would you recommend for sigils?

I currently run Bloodlust on my Greatsword and Air on my bows.

Chopps.5047:

ProxyDamage.9826:

Chokolata.1870:

ranger DPS will never be the meta because every other class does it much better with half the effort .

This.

You can do dungeons, and if you’re going to you might as well go berserker, but you won’t be good at it. We have inherently crippled damage because… We have a class mechanic I guess… Especially after the pet damage nerf and the loss of cheap quickness access through pet swapping (which at least partially mitigated the horrid damage difference versus other classes), it’s simply a “why bother” issue.

I have one of everything. If I wanna do a dungeon I’ll just take out anything else for double the performance at half the effort.

My drake has perma 25 might stacks in this build. No idea what “pet nerf” you speak of. My drake is a cold blooded killer. This was simply impossible to attain before. Piercing arrows + high crit chance + companion’s might = 25 might stacks on drake…

Why does this not make you guys happy? I’m so sad right now.

I’ll tell you what. How about I stream a FOTM run using this build? That’s so much easier than filming.

Why do I not see this build in the dungeon thread? Go and show those scumbag elitists how wrong they are about ranger already Chopps. That thread you left yesterday is still going, I’m sure they’d all like to see it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Ranger-nerfed-in-PvE-for-PvP-purposes/first

Ranger DPS – new meta.

Given Eugene’s golden seal of approval … once they add seals as pets o/c

ilr.9675:

Given Eugene’s golden seal of approval … once they add seals as pets o/c

Ah! Speak of the devil and he will appear. This is the Ranger build that I run:

http://youtu.be/5ecRS2nyXI4

I’m always on the lookout for new builds, especially after this new update. I recently wanted to toy around with getting rid of my longbow on occasion and your build got me thinking.

Here’s my adaptation of your build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VG;4wEFx-a2REV-0;9-8I;1JO9E-07-04-5;04;3LRF5;2zxrUzxrUo-kKVH-6;2Vd-i0o1sYzZ352o-G-2i;9;9;9;9;9;9;0V8k3z

I’m more on the casual side of things, but I think it balances twitch skills with raw dps.

Mifletts version of Chopps build seems to be a better choice for me. I’m casual, but still quite experienced, so I’ll give Mifletts build a shot and see if I like it.
I’m really interested to see all the new builds that come up after the patch

I never was that interested in running a power-precision build until this last update. Been using a variant of Chopps’s defensive build (30/20/5/15/0) over the past couple days. I have ~46% base crit chance with my gear and I saw highs of 10 might stacks on my pet when unloading Axe #5 vs. a single young karka. Axe auto-attack gave me about 4-5 stacks. Not too horrible. I imagine those numbers can double with two enemies close enough together for Ricochet or Whirling Defense.

Since I’m mainly concerned with PvE, it works for me.

For fast might stacking for your pet, you really should go with the sword.

Sword/horn’s my preferred weapon set, but I was curious about how I’d fare with my secondaries. That said, when I tried sword on some unsuspecting mobs, I indeed got 12 stacks of might on my pet easy. Good god. It seems rather… stupidly powerful?