Guild Wars 2

Alright, so i have seen videos and read threads about the 10k/23k hit ranger builds, and i just leveled a ranger to 80 so i can mess around with them in WvW.

In both of the threads people bring up both zerker gear and valkyrie gear as helping make the build the best it can be (im pretty sure valkyrie is good for getting the highest crit possible, but it also adds vitality which does increase survivability somewhat).

My question is what is the best mix of the two to make a viable ranger that can hit really hard, and not melt as fast due to the higher vitality?

I’m primarily going to use this build for small man roaming.

Any build advice would be much appreciated as well, i think 30/30/0/10/0 is what i have been seeing with the nature magic being 5% vit to power, or the spirit buff.

(I’m also planning on getting a set of rabid for when i want to play around as a bunker condition ranger)

Thanks alot,
Xel

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXTnAVEZZWQ+VwaZAZpYP6DmCDhRePmF2TEzYpbkJB-jEzAYLioRiSQILYEIQiEUyrIasF1ioxqYwUlAKzFV7NCm7YR1CBMaBA-w

it should do the trick for you. High vitality, some healing, a pet that will hit like a truck, and a bow that will hit equally hard

Prysin.8542:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXTnAVEZZWQ+VwaZAZpYP6DmCDhRePmF2TEzYpbkJB-jEzAYLioRiSQILYEIQiEUyrIasF1ioxqYwUlAKzFV7NCm7YR1CBMaBA-w

it should do the trick for you. High vitality, some healing, a pet that will hit like a truck, and a bow that will hit equally hard

Isn’t speed increase important for a roaming build?

Knights armor with rubies/rangers/divinity/
Cav trinkets with rubies/beryls.
Berserker or Valk weapons with air/force/accuracy/bloodlust/precision

This is for toughness over health.

30/20/10/10
30/30/0/10
30/25/5/10

Levetty.1279:

Prysin.8542:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXTnAVEZZWQ+VwaZAZpYP6DmCDhRePmF2TEzYpbkJB-jEzAYLioRiSQILYEIQiEUyrIasF1ioxqYwUlAKzFV7NCm7YR1CBMaBA-w

it should do the trick for you. High vitality, some healing, a pet that will hit like a truck, and a bow that will hit equally hard

Isn’t speed increase important for a roaming build?

most of the time, the speed increase isn’t needed. In fights, it might be handy, but all in all, the signet offers little utility and thus, it can easily be replaced without it being a huge loss.

Levetty.1279:

Prysin.8542:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXTnAVEZZWQ+VwaZAZpYP6DmCDhRePmF2TEzYpbkJB-jEzAYLioRiSQILYEIQiEUyrIasF1ioxqYwUlAKzFV7NCm7YR1CBMaBA-w

it should do the trick for you. High vitality, some healing, a pet that will hit like a truck, and a bow that will hit equally hard

Isn’t speed increase important for a roaming build?

I would consider it mandatory for a roaming build. You’re trying to gank dolys and hit camps in quick succession, before the enemy roamers have time to catch you.

Mmm, more paper armor rangers. Our dear enemy servers have loads of them. Our roaming teams are wondering how their rangers always melt so fast. If they run with about 2k total armor and zero defensive traits, I can imagine why. No doubt that build packs a lot of offense, but to e.g. solo roam with it, oh my…

For comparison a full glass thief, with zerker ascended gear, scholar runes + 25 stacks of bloodlust can do 20k+ against 2.5k armor. Against above armor it would mean 25k+ crits = instant death, even if that character has 2.5k extra health from the WXP trait + consumable buffs.

Well thats also a 1 shot against any zerker character save for wars and necros. Its just easier to do against a ranger because the other classes all have a defensive gimmick:

Guard – how much hp could a guardian guard if a guardian could guard hp??
Mesmer – pick a clone, any clone
Ele – LOOK AT ALL MY BUFFS, JUST LOOK AT THEM!
Thief – now u see me— o wait, no u dont. haha silly me!
Engineer – Do you know what this is? Neither do I! but I am 66.6667% sure it will confuse you more then it does me!

as for ranger? YOUR SUPPOSE TO ATTACK MY PET, NOT ME!! HAVE U EVER HEARD OF “AGGRO” YOU STUPID PVPER?

Lorelei.3918:

Well thats also a 1 shot against any zerker character save for wars and necros. Its just easier to do against a ranger because the other classes all have a defensive gimmick:

Guard – how much hp could a guardian guard if a guardian could guard hp??
Mesmer – pick a clone, any clone
Ele – LOOK AT ALL MY BUFFS, JUST LOOK AT THEM!
Thief – now u see me— o wait, no u dont. haha silly me!
Engineer – Do you know what this is? Neither do I! but I am 66.6667% sure it will confuse you more then it does me!

as for ranger? YOUR SUPPOSE TO ATTACK MY PET, NOT ME!! HAVE U EVER HEARD OF “AGGRO” YOU STUPID PVPER?

this made my day.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Mmm, more paper armor rangers. Our dear enemy servers have loads of them. Our roaming teams are wondering how their rangers always melt so fast. If they run with about 2k total armor and zero defensive traits, I can imagine why. No doubt that build packs a lot of offense, but to e.g. solo roam with it, oh my…

For comparison a full glass thief, with zerker ascended gear, scholar runes + 25 stacks of bloodlust can do 20k+ against 2.5k armor. Against above armor it would mean 25k+ crits = instant death, even if that character has 2.5k extra health from the WXP trait + consumable buffs.

Toughness is one of those all or nothing type things. Especially in WvW where Thieves are so plentiful. If you can’t get 3k armor, you may as well not get any because, as you said, a Thief will still end up 2shotting you.

Ranger damage is already pathetic. But when you factor in enough toughness to reach 3k armor (honestly not that much, but it’s still a hit) you lose so much damage that you’re almost better off going condition/regen spec like most of the Rangers in this game. But this is hardly unique to Rangers as a lot of classes deal with this. Of course other classes have things like 50% chance to crit when in shroud or when a target is stunned etc to help increase damage. A Ranger has a cat…

Lorelei.3918:

Well thats also a 1 shot against any zerker character save for wars and necros. Its just easier to do against a ranger because the other classes all have a defensive gimmick:

Guard – how much hp could a guardian guard if a guardian could guard hp??
Mesmer – pick a clone, any clone
Ele – LOOK AT ALL MY BUFFS, JUST LOOK AT THEM!
Thief – now u see me— o wait, no u dont. haha silly me!
Engineer – Do you know what this is? Neither do I! but I am 66.6667% sure it will confuse you more then it does me!

as for ranger? YOUR SUPPOSE TO ATTACK MY PET, NOT ME!! HAVE U EVER HEARD OF “AGGRO” YOU STUPID PVPER?

Poorest implementation of pets since the tamagotchi fever 15 years back claims another victim

Alright, thanks for all of the replies! I actually play on a tier ~7 server and 80% of my playtime is in the morning, so when i play the only thing really going on is small groups of people wandering the maps. No need to worry about a zerg rolling along to kill me if i ever come into a small battle at a camp, etc.

I think i may actually just start off with a suit of 100% zerker and see how that works for me, and then may eventually put in some cavalier trinkets if i think my defense needs a little bit of a boost.

I just found out that you can actually get exotic rabid trinkets in orr to match the exotic armor there, so i am definitely going to pick up a 100% rabid suit soon just in case i want a little variety, but TBH i more leveled this character just to see how fast i can melt people while roaming (and i needed a character to level while helping my wife level)

I will mostly always be playing with my wife, who is a 80 thief, so that will help with both my defense and offense. (I have been debating picking up remorselessness and testing it out because with the added stealth from a thief it will mean that many more opening strikes (when fixed)).

My main is actually a stealth phantasm 100% zerker mesmer build which is pretty much a god in solo/small man roaming, and i kinda got sick of easy mode, so how much more of a challenge is there than a super glass cannon build (and ranger kinda reminds me of Hunter from DAoC with stealth bow hits, and a pet to help kill, i miss melting people from stealth before they know what hit them)

Thanks again,
Xel

Lorelei.3918:

Well thats also a 1 shot against any zerker character save for wars and necros. Its just easier to do against a ranger because the other classes all have a defensive gimmick:

Guard – how much hp could a guardian guard if a guardian could guard hp??
Mesmer – pick a clone, any clone
Ele – LOOK AT ALL MY BUFFS, JUST LOOK AT THEM!
Thief – now u see me— o wait, no u dont. haha silly me!
Engineer – Do you know what this is? Neither do I! but I am 66.6667% sure it will confuse you more then it does me!

as for ranger? YOUR SUPPOSE TO ATTACK MY PET, NOT ME!! HAVE U EVER HEARD OF “AGGRO” YOU STUPID PVPER?

lol great post

Power builds are not solo roaming builds. Use them with a partner who can peel/kill things off you.

Zenith.7301:

Power builds are not solo roaming builds. Use them with a partner who can peel/kill things off you.

Well, yesterday i played ranger for the first time in WvW for a few hours, i was using 100% exotic zerker with ruby orbs. Most of the time i was with my wife, who is also a 100% zerker thief.

Zerker thief+zerker ranger= single targets die in about .5-2 seconds, depending on what class they are. Multiple targets took a little longer but we were still able to win the outnumbered fights we came across.

I also solo roamed for a bit and over all i only lost 1 1v1 to a guardian that i couldnt burst down for the life of me, the fight lasted for about 5 minutes though, it was a good fight all in all.

I went 3/4 1v1s against thieves, 2 of those fights were an arranged duel, the first of which i won because i timed my block and invulnurability well. The second fight the same thief came in with a big burst, i used my defensive cooldowns and he just stealthed for like 10 seconds waiting for my buffs to wear, and then melted me. The third thief i fought was a condition spamming thief using torment/bleeds etc, i managed to win that fight, but only because when he downed me, i used the wolf to knock him down, and then kill him so i beat him in a downed battle. The fourth thief i fought i used the GS#4 on when he stealthed and hit him for about 5.8k damage with the kick, o.O

I also lost 1v1 to a phantasm mesmer, (after playing a phantasm mesmer of my own i know they are almost impossible to kill 1v1)

I won about 5 other 1v1’s where i got the jump on the person and they died before they could really touch me.

Most of my time was 30/30/10/0/0,
Marksman: 10% extra damage with full endurance, eagle eye, signet of the beastmaster
Skirmishing: 30 pet speed, bow reduction, moment of clarity
Wilderness Survival: Wilderness Knowledge.

Utilities i was using: Lighting reflex, signet of stone, signet of the hunt(or Wild)

I am thinking about changing the 10% extra dps with full endurance to Signet Mastery, and switching the 10% from wilderness survival to nature magic and picking up the 5% vitality to power trait, or spirit buff and frost spirit if running with a group. (I have found i dodge way too much to get the 10% bonus from full endurance, which really only helps if i get the jump on someone)

With the traits mentioned above i would run signet of hunt/signet of stone/signet of wild, with RaO,

(I am also debating only going 25 in skirmishing and spending those 5 extra points wherever they would be most useful)

What do you guys think about the traits/utilities i was running compared to the changes i mentioned?

Thanks,
Xel

Prysin.8542:

Levetty.1279:

Prysin.8542:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXTnAVEZZWQ+VwaZAZpYP6DmCDhRePmF2TEzYpbkJB-jEzAYLioRiSQILYEIQiEUyrIasF1ioxqYwUlAKzFV7NCm7YR1CBMaBA-w

it should do the trick for you. High vitality, some healing, a pet that will hit like a truck, and a bow that will hit equally hard

Isn’t speed increase important for a roaming build?

most of the time, the speed increase isn’t needed. In fights, it might be handy, but all in all, the signet offers little utility and thus, it can easily be replaced without it being a huge loss.

Is this theory crafting ?

1. Can’t roam without speed. Especially small man. You are a sitting duck if any groups/zergs see you.
2. Your truck hitting pet is severely hampered without speed.

30/20/20 or 30/25/15 is what I would suggest for any power based build. You need the WS tree for added toughness and the endurance regen + protection on dodge rolls to augment your damage mitigation. Gear choices boil down to how quick on your feet you are. Scale towards power if you find you survive very easily, scale towards toughness if you find you are dying too often.