Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow rangers…

Please help new ranger with few questions. I just dinged my 1st char to lvl 80 (through open pve only, did 30% map completion so far). And now I want to try some dungeon.

I have used SB and axe/horn with fern hound as main pet. As for other pet, I switch around time to time. Here is my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMEQNBlODbkoKyOwywC1SQsesn9HoWBOxUYIG9Kg+L+4kJ-jgxAYLioZKCMVJQEhklILiGbRtIasSBUuwI-e

The weapons/armors are current. As for the rings/back/etc, I am still trying to save enough gold to buy them at TP. I still have green/yellows for those.

Here are my questions:
1) Should I change any of my trait for dungeon run?
2) What weapon combo work best in dungeon?
3) Is there certain pet I should be using?
4) I was planning to buy berserker rings/back/etc. Should I stick with it or get some hp/armor/heal ones?
5) As for Fractals, should I wait until I get some exp with other dungeon?

Sorry if I had too many questions and thank you in advance for answering.

from new ranger…^^

Quick few points from my minor dungeon experience:
- signet of the hunt close to useless in dungeon, get a frost spirit instead to buff the entire party’s damage, just drop it somewhere in range, far enough from the bosses big aoes
- too many bosses are cc-immune, so entangle can be safely dropped. Go for RaO for big fury and stability uptime, or the elite spirit if you can place it at the right time in the right safe spot. Cooldown on spirit is annoying imho, and i’m not good at timing it, but it’s revive and group cond removal is very handy.
- QZ, really not sure. Don’t think those 6s will be the difference between success and fail. I prefer to noob it out and pick utility like Search and Rescue or Protect Me. Alternatively, Lightning Reflexes for one more get out of jail card.
- so unless you want to keep some Survival skills, you could remove the shortened cd on these with WS 10 and pick Vigorous Renewal for some vigor.
- spotter is great, keep it
- GM marskmanship is meh. Piercing arrows won’t be needed, and if you need aoe, you already have axe 1 and 2, and can pick a drake for cleaving attacks.The traited signet of stone can be nice, but i’d rather put those 10 points in nature and pick Vigorous Spirits for the spirit of frost.
- not quite sure about Quickdraw. Flanking autoattack has no cooldown anyway, and that’s the one you’ll spam in dps race conditions. If you’re good at keeping the pet alive, i’d go for Pet’s Prowess or Companion’s Might. But otherwise, i’d switch those 10 points to WS to get the protection on dodge passive, and pick Off-Hand Training to get more warhorn uptime.
- Master’s Bond is not gonna cut it in dungeon, you’ll lose a pet or have to swap to save it, so you’ll lose those stacks super fast. I’d go Mighty Swap and swap every time it’s available instead.

Weapon wise, speed clearers will tell you to go full melee. That’s probably the fastest dps setup. But meh, unless you’re speed clearing, you can do the job like that. Axe 1 is very weak against single targets though, so make sure to swap it out asap on bosses, and only come back to it when the warhorn is off cooldown. Or if you can avoid dying to the sword rooting, feel free to use it.

Pet wise, Jungle Stalker is handy for dps and group might, but could die a bit fast if you’re not careful. Not being the best at the F3-F1 dance, i like to go for drakes since they have a Blast finisher, survive well, and have a cleaving autoattack nice for the groups. A brown bear on the side is nice for condi removal too, but with less damage in exchange. Handy in case you need ‘Protect Me’.

On a more generic note, your condition damage is very low. So all your bleeds (on-crit trait, SB flanking, axe 2) will be wasted (overwritten) if your party stacks 25 bleeds with more cond damage than you. Same for other conditions if they reach the 5-stacks cap. But i’m not sure how much your average party would have in cond damage, so i couldn’t tell you how much to aim for i’m afraid!

Anyway, have fun.