Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody,
I am working on a build for my ranger focused on the attributes in the topic. The idea is then to focus on abilities / sigils that trigger on critical hits, or that improve them in some way. I have already enough ideas about sigils and runes to use, but can you give me some input for the trait points distribution and the major traits to choose?

Most of the on crit abilities for rangers are pretty weak. For trait points, you might as well put them in marksmanship or skirmishing for the power/crit chance & damage.

I’m currently specced out in nearly full Knight’s gear (Toughness/Prec/Pow) with some Cleric’s and I’ve run with a few different trait distributions. I used to run 30/0/0/10/30 which gave me a good mix of raw power, quite solid regen (when coupled with Peach or Mango Pie foods) and a beast of a pet on top of having a second source of stability in Signet of the Wild and 6 second of invuln in Signet of Stone.

Currently, I swapped over some points so I’m currently 30/20/15/0/5 which boosted my personal damage up a bit and let me utilize my “on-crit” sigils a bit more. I may have lost Natural Healing but I now run Sigil of Blood on my Greatsword which procs enough that I can tell its actually aids my survivability. For me, this works a bit better as a roamer in WvW as it lets me use my LB from a long way out and gives me 1.4k crits on glass cannons with my auto attack with a 50% base crit rate (+Maintenance oil and Fury gets me over 75% when its up) and the occasional Sigil of Air bonus.

I’m not saying that my builds are ideal or that they’re min/maxed, but they do work for me.

Omega.1473:

I’m currently specced out in nearly full Knight’s gear (Toughness/Prec/Pow) with some Cleric’s and I’ve run with a few different trait distributions. I used to run 30/0/0/10/30 which gave me a good mix of raw power, quite solid regen (when coupled with Peach or Mango Pie foods) and a beast of a pet on top of having a second source of stability in Signet of the Wild and 6 second of invuln in Signet of Stone.

Currently, I swapped over some points so I’m currently 30/20/15/0/5 which boosted my personal damage up a bit and let me utilize my “on-crit” sigils a bit more. I may have lost Natural Healing but I now run Sigil of Blood on my Greatsword which procs enough that I can tell its actually aids my survivability. For me, this works a bit better as a roamer in WvW as it lets me use my LB from a long way out and gives me 1.4k crits on glass cannons with my auto attack with a 50% base crit rate (+Maintenance oil and Fury gets me over 75% when its up) and the occasional Sigil of Air bonus.

I’m not saying that my builds are ideal or that they’re min/maxed, but they do work for me.

I didn’t think of Sigil of Blood, but it could be a good idea too. Which weapons and pets do you use?

Hi, RedGlow what is your build for WvW? or PvE

RedGlow.2715:

Omega.1473:

I’m currently specced out in nearly full Knight’s gear (Toughness/Prec/Pow) with some Cleric’s and I’ve run with a few different trait distributions. I used to run 30/0/0/10/30 which gave me a good mix of raw power, quite solid regen (when coupled with Peach or Mango Pie foods) and a beast of a pet on top of having a second source of stability in Signet of the Wild and 6 second of invuln in Signet of Stone.

Currently, I swapped over some points so I’m currently 30/20/15/0/5 which boosted my personal damage up a bit and let me utilize my “on-crit” sigils a bit more. I may have lost Natural Healing but I now run Sigil of Blood on my Greatsword which procs enough that I can tell its actually aids my survivability. For me, this works a bit better as a roamer in WvW as it lets me use my LB from a long way out and gives me 1.4k crits on glass cannons with my auto attack with a 50% base crit rate (+Maintenance oil and Fury gets me over 75% when its up) and the occasional Sigil of Air bonus.

I’m not saying that my builds are ideal or that they’re min/maxed, but they do work for me.

I didn’t think of Sigil of Blood, but it could be a good idea too. Which weapons and pets do you use?

See, this is a question that I think a lot of people in this game shouldn’t ask because the answer should always be “it depends”.

I have 1 of everything, all of the Knight’s variety. It helps to be able to switch at a moment’s notice depending on the situation.

For standard open world play, I usually use Longbow(air) + Axe(fire)/horn(life) or GS(blood) or SB(blood) depending on what I’m doing. If I’m farming events, its usually LB+GS for the decent AoE capability. If I’m tanking for an event, its SB+GS. If I’m roaming with a group or just want some extra swiftness / need to rebuild my “+healing power” stacks I run with axe/horn. I also have a sword, dagger and torch just in case but don’t use them that much.

In dungeons, it depends on the boss. If I need to stand and fight, GS+SB. If I know melee is a death sentence, LB+SB. If I want to buff the team, A/H+LB.

Similarly, I use a variety of pets. Birds are my standard open world pets for the heavy damage and their reliable accuracy (they seem to hit more often than other pets). Devourers are my open world Champion standard because they’re the most durable in the long fights. Dogs and Bears work for dungeon trash fights when Birds are too frail. For bosses where I know that melee is a death sentence, Devourers can contribute damage or Red Moa + Jungle Stalker or Fern Hound can work if left on passive and just used for their buffs or Pigs left on passive for their pickups.

My standard WvW set is LB+GS, Raven + Eagle or Owl with occasional SB swapped for GS. GS gives the block + swoop for escapes and travel while LB really takes advantage of the open spaces available in open world pvp.

TLDR: Use what fits the fight. Don’t get pigeon holed into one weapon combo and don’t rely too heavily on one set of pets.

Indeed, I forgot to say that I’m mostly concentrated on PvE right at the moment, just starting a bit of dungeons right now.

And I agree that every fight should be fought with the appropriate weapons – well, we could extend that to armors and pets in GW2 (ever thought how weird it is that a piece of armor makes you more precise or strong? probably everything can be justified with magic)

But, having very diverse fighting style options, very diverse builds and, with rangers, also very diverse pets, requires lots of time a) to acquire all the “materials” you need, in terms of money/tokens/etc…, and b) to learn to use these techniques properly. It’s surely the most effective way of playing, but also the most time-consuming. So, since I want to enjoy the game with a smaller investiment of time, I thought of picking a configuration flexible enough (that’s why it’s no glass cannon and no pure tank, and so on) and decided to concentrate on that strategy. It will surely be optimal in some cases, suboptimal in others. But, well, I’m here to enjoy the game, not to be The Best :-)