Guild Wars 2

Since all the QQ posts have gotten stale, I’ve been thinking about the possible new combos for the new patch. These are all theoretical since we can’t test them yet, but some of these look pretty interesting. I’m pretty sure these are not the only ones and I would love to have discussions with the other creative ideas that people can come up with

1. Storm Spirit Bomb

• Call Lightning: Increased damage by 150%. (new)
• Nature’s Vengeance – Activated skills of spirits are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed. (existing)

The storm spirit can now do 1500-2000 damage in a 360 aoe. If it is able to use the skill and killed shortly after, thats a 3000-4000 damage nuke. The skill is used as a damage skill and not used for the buff. This can also work with sun spirit for a blind bomb.

Viability: not sure how well 3k~ damage would translate to, but it is in a 360 AoE

2. Do A Kholer

• Path of Scars: Now pulls enemies on the return flight. (new)
• Entangle (existing)
• Whirling Defense (existing)

Use Path of Scars to pull, use entangle as they get close and use Whirling Defense and make them eat the entire channel while they are bleeding from the roots.

Viability: We don’t really know how entangle and the pull interacts with each other (we might entangle them and the pull will make them leave the roots). If it works, you can switch whirling defense with any melee combo as well. (Like QZ + Sword#1 spam)

3. Ranger BURST+! :O

• Beastmasters Might: This trait now grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds. (new)

While running a full signet build, pop 3 signets (Wild, Stone and Hunt) before executing the tried and tested Swoop-Hilt Bash-Maul combo, but now you get 9 stacks of might

Viability: Ok, popping Stone might not be such a good idea as it is a panic button, but 6 stacks of might is still better than absolutely nothing before

4. I bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away

• Keen Edge: This trait now activates when you strike a target that is below 50% health, instead of when your health reaches 75%. (new)

Additional bleeds for 10 points in Marksmanship sounds really good. Now all we need to know if it has decent internal cooldown so we can gauge how useful it will be.

Viability: depends on the internal cooldown. Its activation condition is so much better than what it was before

5. Evasive Purity

• Evasive Purity: This trait has been moved to the Master tier. (new)

Ok this has been ignored mostly because its a GM trait but it doesn’t have that wow factor that GM traits are supposed to have. I see this mostly as an effective way to remove poison which is the direct way to counter (or at the very least hamper) regen builds.

Viability: It’s much better than what it was before, but I really wish that it removed 1 condition on dodge instead of just poison and blind.

6. Perma Regen/Swiftness

• New Grandmaster trait – Nature’s Voice: Shouts apply 10 seconds of regeneration and swiftness to allies in a 360 radius. (new)
• Shout Mastery (existing)

This new GM trait is in the NM tree which means you get +30% boon duration with it. That means the swiftness and regen on you is actually 13 seconds. Adding shoutmastery to it, you can lower Guard’s cd to 12 seconds. Perma regen/swiftness yo.

Viability: Rangers can remove SotH from their bar and get near perma protection on pets and perma regen/swiftness on yourself and any allies within 360 AoE. The only thing limiting it is the x/x/x/30/10 requirement. With Faux already thinking of switching to 0/0/30/30/10 for an after patch RRR build, it might be a really good thing. (especially in small group WvW)

7. 12 seconds of no direct damage

• “Protect Me”: This ability now breaks stuns. (new)

With traited Signet of Stone and Protect Me, rangers now have 12 seconds of immunity from direct damage (provided pets survive the spike). Adding a stun breaker to it just further adds ranger survivability which is always good.

Viability: As pets are now being sent(forced?) towards utility instead of damage, they could serve rangers better as literal meat shields without minding the loss of damage too much. Pets surviving 6 seconds is a separate topic of discussion.

8. Mighty Pets

• Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to your pet, up from 1 second. (new)
• Barrage: Increased cripple duration by 50%. (new)

Barrage is a much better control tool which hits 5 people every 0.6 seconds. That means a potential 5 stacks of might on your pet every wave, for a potential 25 stacks of might if everything crits. Groovy.

Viability: With the pet nerf, 25 stacks of Might might not be a lot of damage, but pet condition damage wasn’t touched, so condition based pet damage will get quite a boost for the 5 seconds that they have it.

Jubskie, you are a god amongst mere mortals in my book. Thanks!

- set spike trap or chilling trap a your feet, use Path of scars in the untriggered trap.
You pull, they trigger trap.
Benefit compared to using roots: my experience as engineer with a pull showed me they always dodge if you manage to pull them, they always always do.
You might waste your elite skill if they are really fast.

- use the shout ‘guard’ with the new trait for a pet with swiftness and protection, and regen that is chasing an enemy in stealth…
Swiftness is the new thing here: guard just became ‘fetch’.
Guard has a 1200 rage, if the enemy is in the ‘guarded zone’ the pet will attack it if it’s not on passive anymore.

- Shared Anguish: unchanged, pet takes stun etc from you
Combined with new ‘stability training’: bears etc don’t just get stability when disabled, but simply ignore the effect.
Depending on how ‘disabled’ is defined with the changes, this means that bears simply eat your stun and even gain stability for it.
I know, I know… bears… but at least they got to be a little more usefull now, even if they still do next to no damage.

Main reason why this last one is a theorycrafted one: not many people take 20 points in BM line and use… a bear!
But who knows.

I might add that swiftness is huuuuge. Everyone tells me I’m wrong but that 25% signet jut isn’t enough. Especially if you’re using bows and want to create gaps, swiftness is very necessary, right? I mean I can shout to run fast now, if this patch is correct. I can drop oakheart salve for offhand training. Maybe the beastmaster won’t die, it’s form will just change? Maybe the nerf was necessary to the build we’ve been using in wvw since the Lost Shores patch? Maybe this patch is just toning down the beastmaster while making other builds actually viable? Maybe I’m going to love Tuesday?

1. I’ve been testing this kind of bomber build alot lately, and while it sounds very good it has one problem. The activated effects take too long to occur, so by the time they go off people tend to have kited out of them. However, like you theorized the concept is good and when it does connect it is pretty good.

2. Personally I think doing the combo into a Whirling Defense would be a waste, and would be more eager to try it with traps or go into a hilt bash→maul combo.

3. Yes I’m excited about this, 6 stacks of might is good plus if you pop Signet of the Wild you’re getting 25% more damage, and the boost on Signet of the Hunt can help make that spike with maul even more deadly.

4. Eh, bleeds.

5. I use this trait regularly when I’m not using spirits. It’s actually very even now. It may not sound all that great to remove poison and blind, but I find that using it in conjunction with SoR helps to make sure that a large portion of condis stay off you and gives a greater chance for SoR to hit a more potent condi like chill or immobilize.

6. Also excited about this, even with complaints about swiftness and regen being the boons. Only thing I’m concerned about is the short duration on Guard as it will needed to be recast quite often and its casting time is somewhat long for something that is a shout.

7. Love the added change of a stun break. Actually gives the skill some viability as an invuln skill, especially for people who don’t want to spec 30/x/x/x/x just for SoS.

8. Like this change too as it will make might stacking very easy on the pet even without using RaO.

Keen internal is 45 seconds, Its basically a Talent version of SI

Xsorus.2507:

Keen internal is 45 seconds, Its basically a Talent version of SI

You mean Sharpening Stone? Darn. Was hoping it didn’t have a cooldown :P I know, I know, it’ll be OP. Vague patch notes stirring my dreams :P oh wellz

Kimbald.2697:

- set spike trap or chilling trap a your feet, use Path of scars in the untriggered trap.
You pull, they trigger trap.
Benefit compared to using roots: my experience as engineer with a pull showed me they always dodge if you manage to pull them, they always always do.
You might waste your elite skill if they are really fast.

Good catch! Spike trap or muddy terrain might work, but their durations are too low to maximize a good spike, but that’s better than blowing a 150s cd skill.

Kimbald.2697:

- use the shout ‘guard’ with the new trait for a pet with swiftness and protection, and regen that is chasing an enemy in stealth…
Swiftness is the new thing here: guard just became ‘fetch’.
Guard has a 1200 rage, if the enemy is in the ‘guarded zone’ the pet will attack it if it’s not on passive anymore.

Yep, basically the same as the #6 I listed

Kimbald.2697:

- Shared Anguish: unchanged, pet takes stun etc from you
Combined with new ‘stability training’: bears etc don’t just get stability when disabled, but simply ignore the effect.
Depending on how ‘disabled’ is defined with the changes, this means that bears simply eat your stun and even gain stability for it.
I know, I know… bears… but at least they got to be a little more usefull now, even if they still do next to no damage.

Main reason why this last one is a theorycrafted one: not many people take 20 points in BM line and use… a bear!
But who knows.

This might be true, but the only 2 bears I would consider is Murellow for the poison field, or the black bear for the 8s AoE weakness. If I needed a pet that would use stability training, pigs would still be better. A cleaving knockdown with environmental weapons brings more to the table. The only thing that would sway my decision would be if Protect Me and Defy Pain (bear skill) would consistently work together.

Chopps.5047:

Jubskie, you are a god amongst mere mortals in my book. Thanks!

Lol! Thanks, I guess :P QQers will QQ, theorycrafters will theorycraft. Happened every patch before, will happen every patch to follow.

Xsorus.2507:

Keen internal is 45 seconds, Its basically a Talent version of SI

Has it been fixed then? It used to be bugged I tested it not too long ago, it was 6minutes if you stayed in combat and 1minute after you left.

Eh? No other replies?

Guess people would much rather QQ than explore the possibilities opening up with the patch. /shrug

Speaking my strictly from a PVE/dungeon perspective where DPS is king, only 1 & 3 interest me… Seems like most people in this ranger subsection pvp in WvW or t/spvp and do little else. I do neither. (I’m having to do WvW now strictly for map completion and badges for legendary.) I’m currently trying a traited for bows and swords 30/20/10/10 build. So far I am finding 0/30/5/5/30 with cats and/or drakes the best so far for overall DPS with s-w and SB. I need to try and off hand axe (as I hate the main hand axe). I also run PPT gear with dolyak runes

jubskie.3152:

Eh? No other replies?

Guess people would much rather QQ than explore the possibilities opening up with the patch. /shrug

I am going to wait until I know with 100% certainty what the patch notes are before spending too much time theory crafting. I would drive myself insane making the perfect build and finding out it isn’t valid !

I’m wondering if there is some sort of viable BM Shouts build with the new grandmaster trait. Something like 0/0/20/30/20. With Shortbow and Axe/torch maybe. I wish there was some more options in that tree that felt better.

The only one that really opens anything major is the perma aoe swiftness and that will be heavily determined on how large the radius is and whether there will be an aoe target cap on it.

The other changes are nice but none of them really make up for proposed pet nerfs in terms of damage output. Companion’s Might may make up for it but I doubt they would nerf the damage on pets only to provide us a way to buff their damage higher than ever with effortless might stacking.

I’m only just happy I can pet swap quick stomp again (if it goes live).

I do tend to agree, I’m really leaning towards some sort of power build of a 20/20/30/0/0, my issue in tpvp is, There is nothing special with this build I don’t know who it beats. Sure spotter is nice but your still in the I give an ok buff to my team while doing single target damage.

To me ranger should be a roaming class, and these are the things I know. with all the speed buffs I have available I can not run away from anyone. Traps I do like, but their not really that good, and its just another mass aoe which is part of the games problem.

I feel like our utilities are just not good overall, spirits and shouts are not really decent. Signets are not too bad but not overly good either.
Shortbow they just made the problem worse, by increaseing the damage of 2-5, now they are just more spammable and still somewhat meaningless. I’d much rather those skills have longer cooldowns and just be something more effective, and need to be used smartly.

Forzani.2584:

I am going to wait until I know with 100% certainty what the patch notes are before spending too much time theory crafting. I would drive myself insane making the perfect build and finding out it isn’t valid !

Fair enough. If you notice, I didn’t make full builds, just bits and pieces that might fit well with already established builds. No harm in having a little bit of theorycrafting fun

thefantasticg.3984:

Speaking my strictly from a PVE/dungeon perspective where DPS is king, only 1 & 3 interest me… Seems like most people in this ranger subsection pvp in WvW or t/spvp and do little else. I do neither.

Don’t you think the possibility of perma regen/swiftness appealing in PvE/Dungeons? Although, I will admit having to recast guard every 12 seconds is a bit of a hassle in PvE.

thefantasticg.3984:

(I’m having to do WvW now strictly for map completion and badges for legendary.) I’m currently trying a traited for bows and swords 30/20/10/10 build. So far I am finding 0/30/5/5/30 with cats and/or drakes the best so far for overall DPS with s-w and SB. I need to try and off hand axe (as I hate the main hand axe). I also run PPT gear with dolyak runes

Knights with dolyak are fine in WvW, if you’re just into zerging. With 30 in skirmishing, you can also trait for throwable traps so that’ll help you with your tagging as you have enough toughness to take a few hits. Just be mindful of your positioning!

Seetoo.9316:

I’m only just happy I can pet swap quick stomp again (if it goes live).

Yeah! But I don’t know if going 30 deep into BM is as good as it was before just for the quickness on swap. I’m going to revise the DD505 guide after the patch

Substance E.4852:

The only one that really opens anything major is the perma aoe swiftness and that will be heavily determined on how large the radius is and whether there will be an aoe target cap on it.

Isn’t it a 360 AoE? That would mean allies within a little over dodge roll distance. I’m guessing it’ll also be affected by the 5 player limit.

Substance E.4852:

The other changes are nice but none of them really make up for proposed pet nerfs in terms of damage output. Companion’s Might may make up for it but I doubt they would nerf the damage on pets only to provide us a way to buff their damage higher than ever with effortless might stacking.

Agreed, but as someone who rarely relied on pets to do damage and provide utility instead (one of the perks of the DD505), I don’t really feel as badly for the pet damage. My pets will still immobilize and knockdown my targets just as well as they did before. Effortless might stacking does seem really OP, but the duration keeps it balanced. I just hope companion’s might doesn’t have a cooldown to keep it interesting.

jubskie.3152:

6. Perma Regen/Swiftness

• New Grandmaster trait – Nature’s Voice: Shouts apply 10 seconds of regeneration and swiftness to allies in a 360 radius. (new)
• Shout Mastery (existing)

This new GM trait is in the NM tree which means you get +30% boon duration with it. That means the swiftness and regen on you is actually 13 seconds. Adding shoutmastery to it, you can lower Guard’s cd to 12 seconds. Perma regen/swiftness yo.

Viability: Rangers can remove SotH from their bar and get near perma protection on pets and perma regen/swiftness on yourself and any allies within 360 AoE. The only thing limiting it is the x/x/x/30/10 requirement. With Faux already thinking of switching to 0/0/30/30/10 for an after patch RRR build, it might be a really good thing. (especially in small group WvW)

Add soldier runes for maximum support! Guardians ain’t got nothing on us!

Now, seriously, could be pretty good. Two shouts + Signet of Renewal + Healing Spring = Awesome condition relief. You can even get Empathic Bond if you want to go balls really deep.
Get a Red Moa with Commanding Voice and Concentration Training for 80% uptime on Fury. You can still get Keen Edge or Sharpened Edges with 30 points in BM and NM. With Rare Veggie Pizzas (or dirty cheap Koi Cakes) and a Giver’s Bow, the damage is still good but the support capabilities increased ten fold.

Cleyran Knight.8291:

Add soldier runes for maximum support! Guardians ain’t got nothing on us!

Now, seriously, could be pretty good. Two shouts + Signet of Renewal + Healing Spring = Awesome condition relief. You can even get Empathic Bond if you want to go balls really deep.

Yeah, condition cleanse every 12 seconds looks really good. The additional 165 vit and 50 toughness is nothing to scoff at as well. This just might solve the ranger issue of not having active condition removal.

Cleyran Knight.8291:

Get a Red Moa with Commanding Voice and Concentration Training for 80% uptime on Fury. You can still get Keen Edge or Sharpened Edges with 30 points in BM and NM. With Rare Veggie Pizzas (or dirty cheap Koi Cakes) and a Giver’s Bow, the damage is still good but the support capabilities increased ten fold.

That’s an interesting point of discussion. Sharpened Edges and Keen Edge are similar yet very different from each other. Getting them both isn’t always possible as well. Looks like I have something to write about again

Manekk.6981:

Xsorus.2507:

Keen internal is 45 seconds, Its basically a Talent version of SI

Has it been fixed then? It used to be bugged I tested it not too long ago, it was 6minutes if you stayed in combat and 1minute after you left.

Umm, you could be right, I never stayed in combat that long

jubskie.3152:

That’s an interesting point of discussion. Sharpened Edges and Keen Edge are similar yet very different from each other. Getting them both isn’t always possible as well. Looks like I have something to write about again

You can even get both if you don’t mind having 20 instead of 30 on BM.
May not be a big deal. More power to the ranger, a bit less to the pet. And with Apothecary/Settler’s gear the perma regeneration will probably make up for the loss of Natural Healing. You could get 2 shouts + 1 trap if you feel that the conditions from the weapons, traits and sigils are not good enough. Also, you could go for the Leeroy Jenkins build for ZvZ: Full PVT, maybe some Clerics… Swoop in, give the frontline that delicious swiftness and regen, drop a water field for them to blast and leap, remove conditions with your shouts, annoy the crap out of the enemy zerg, cancel a channeling with Hilt Bash, absorb some hits with Counterattack, and when you get low on health, Swoop back to your own group and then pull someone in with Path of Scars. I mean, if they’re dealing damage to someone with almost 2.9k armor and 28k HP, they’re not killing that Engineer in full rampager’s or that glass cannon elementalist that just finished casting his Meteor Shower. You can be double obnoxious with two Leeroys by sending in an invisible Polar Bear with “Guard” to Roar on them, then send him back with a defensive “Guard” and activate “Protect Me” and spam /laugh while they still try to kill you not knowing what is happening. Probably not the best course of action if you’re in a very, very serious WvW focused server, but could be pretty cool to do if you’re just having fun with your guild. At least beats killing yourself with Barrage.

I was kinda “meh” about the patch, but this thread got me really pumped!

Xsorus.2507:

Manekk.6981:

Xsorus.2507:

Keen internal is 45 seconds, Its basically a Talent version of SI

Has it been fixed then? It used to be bugged I tested it not too long ago, it was 6minutes if you stayed in combat and 1minute after you left.

Umm, you could be right, I never stayed in combat that long

They stated now these notes are correct and atleast for the most part the same I heard, keen edge would have a kitten cd now so lets hope it is fixed then, I remember cause someone had a thread about it before and I just assumed it had the same cd as sharpening stone back then anyways the discussion lead to me going to actually test it and it turned out it was that ridiculously long reset if you stayed in combat and also a full minute if you left wich also seems too long.

why is “fortyfive seconds cooldown” censored? wtf this forum sometimes /lol

jubskie.3152:

thefantasticg.3984:

Speaking my strictly from a PVE/dungeon perspective where DPS is king, only 1 & 3 interest me… Seems like most people in this ranger subsection pvp in WvW or t/spvp and do little else. I do neither.

Don’t you think the possibility of perma regen/swiftness appealing in PvE/Dungeons? Although, I will admit having to recast guard every 12 seconds is a bit of a hassle in PvE.

No. It’s not appealing. Appealing would have been stability/swiftness. That would have been worth traiting for. Now that it is confirmed, no. Only traiting for it when running for map completion and only because I want soften fall anyway. Warrior, Mes, and Guards do swiftness so much better I wouldn’t waste the trait points for it and hurt my DPS like that (aka kick in the bawlss to DPS).

Well, if you’re just after PvE, then yes, just build for glass and use pets for their utility (jungle stalker’s 5 might stacks or red moa’s 15s fury). No one really says no to more fury, right?

Cleyran Knight.8291:

I was kinda “meh” about the patch, but this thread got me really pumped!

The more I think about it, the more I am too I showed the new trait to our WvW commander and he was like “Jubskie, get soldier runes and a greatsword. You’re going on the front lines”

I was thinking something like a power based shout build 0/0/30/30/10 in full soldiers gear (first posted by Sebrent).

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|c.1c.h2.g.1c.h4|1.1c.h2|1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x|4u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0|0.0.u4ac.u35c.a3|2m.1|4i.4y.4l.4k.55|e

Almost 2.4 power, 27k hp and 3k armor, with perma swiftness, perma regen, an AoE condition cleanse every 12 seconds and 2 stun breakers. Edit: Oh and the pet will also get 83% protection uptime.

This will probably be nerfed in the July patch. Lol.

jubskie.3152:

Well, if you’re just after PvE, then yes, just build for glass and use pets for their utility (jungle stalker’s 5 might stacks or red moa’s 15s fury). No one really says no to more fury, right?

Cleyran Knight.8291:

I was kinda “meh” about the patch, but this thread got me really pumped!

The more I think about it, the more I am too I showed the new trait to our WvW commander and he was like “Jubskie, get soldier runes and a greatsword. You’re going on the front lines”

I was thinking something like a power based shout build 0/0/30/30/10 in full soldiers gear (first posted by Sebrent).

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|c.1c.h2.g.1c.h4|1.1c.h2|1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x|4u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0|0.0.u4ac.u35c.a3|2m.1|4i.4y.4l.4k.55|e

Almost 2.4 power, 27k hp and 3k armor, with perma swiftness, perma regen, an AoE condition cleanse every 12 seconds and 2 stun breakers. Edit: Oh and the pet will also get 83% protection uptime.

This will probably be nerfed in the July patch. Lol.

Shouts will cleanse conditions?

With Soldier Runes, yes.

jubskie.3152:

With Soldier Runes, yes.

Oh right right I thought I’d missed somthing in the notes

I would like to try something like this. But I’m a cheap kitten, and prolly won’t spend much. With easy acces to might on crit, pets will be able to deal some nice bleeding damage, especially with RaO.

Edit: kitten I forgot I don’t have 20 in BM and bleed on crits for the pet nvm

nagymbear.5280:

I would like to try something like this. But I’m a cheap kitten, and prolly won’t spend much. With easy acces to might on crit, pets will be able to deal some nice bleeding damage, especially with RaO.

Edit: kitten I forgot I don’t have 20 in BM and bleed on crits for the pet nvm

OMG, I just made the exact same trait build (with slightly different trait choices) :P

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|3.1c.h17|1.1c.h15|1n.7i.1c.7i.1n.7i.1c.7i.1n.7i.1c.7i|411.0.211.0.311.0.211.0.311.0.2v.0|u28b.p5a.f5.0.0|54.1|4i.4y.4l.4p.55|e

jubskie.3152:

Well, if you’re just after PvE, then yes, just build for glass and use pets for their utility (jungle stalker’s 5 might stacks or red moa’s 15s fury). No one really says no to more fury, right?

Can’t. Die way too easily in melee to run a GC build. PPT w/soldier runes and zerk acc is a good balance, IMO. I trait either for ranger dps (as in my current build) or I trait for pet dps. Have to stay alive in melee, at least some, to have worthy DPS. I do take my ranger into dungeons still, but only when running with the guildies or friends or when the blue moon rises. I ain’t pugging with my ranger. Run either s/w-gs or s/w-sb. Problem for me is I love the Ranger (not pet) style with weapons and whatnot. I want to play it, but when I can kill things in half the time on my warrior, it gets annoying.

Well one funny combo you could do, could combine a nasty trap ranger, pets and a longbow ranger with that nifty new extended cripple:

A/A-(any secondary weapon you choose)
Moa pet (black moa/pink moa) for that nice daze
black widow Spider or Drakehound (for that nifty immobilize)

Combo: Wintersbite (for chill and weakness/endurance refill reduction)—>Path of scars (for pull)—>Entangle (at same time hit dazing screech on moa)/causes immobilized, and can forces them to blow a stunbreaker (if no stunbreaker hit your whirling defense and melt hp off them)—>(by this time wintersbite is up again so you can chill em again) hit drakehound’s or widows immobilize and keep em under your control
^…..For above, you can keep your traps at your feet for lawls to ensure a nice little burst.

During this you have your longbow ranger hitting barrage over them to ensure there is always CC on them. Than unload on them with a good rapid fire (can also pop SotH if you have Signet of the Beastmaster traited for a nice 150% increased initial dmg on rapid fire)

Should ensure some funny kills, and utilize the funny new Path of Scars.