Guild Wars 2

This is a power/condition evasion tank build for the ranger. Below is footage of me learning the build over the course of few days. I make lots of mistakes, but it’s a forgiving build. I did a few tpvp matches and the build is definitely viable, but has a much higher skill cap for organized play.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV8YnIVUZZkFaBxaZAYzQwAbP4USM/HmtkdlC;TsAA1CtoQygkAJLSOkkItAZUw+AA

Part 1: http://youtu.be/s_EoFNCZ0Rg
Part 2: http://youtu.be/0b-uzFZXD-w

What this build is:

- twitchy and reactive; easy to play hard to master
- dependent on pet micro
- high sustain via endurance regen, vigor and damage avoidance
- high sustained damage with on-demand burst via quickness and pet micromanagement
- very disruptive against groups of opponents

Disadvantages::

- not bunker (you can’t reliably stay on point), but can easily be modified into a bunker build
- condition damage is not very high
- limited condition removal therefore can be slowly bled out by high sustain condition builds
- very high skillcap for organized pvp; every evasion and CD counts

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of pets in spvp. Pets are not just dots. Theyre your meatshields, burst and utility. I would not trade my 15 BM points for anything and I’ve considered adding more points in BM. However, wilderness survival is too good and Marksmanship reliably increases your dps.

I use high DPS pets simply because I don’t need the utility from canines, nor do i care for the low dps of spiders. Lynx has a leap which is amazing for closing distance, and along with the hawk, can help you stack bleeds very quickly. Swiftness from my bird occurs frequently and is invaluable. Empathic bond, while not 100% reliable, is hands down some of the best condition removal in the game.

Protect Me! is one of the best mitigation tools in the game. I hope that was demonstrated in the video so I won’t really argue about it. It’s vastly superior to the Signet of Stone, which should never be on your bar.

I feel like I’ve barely unlocked the potential of the build as I’ve only played it for about 3 days. Hope you guys enjoyed the vids, feel free to discuss the build.

[s]
The damage negation is way too ineffective.

Why don’t you just go 30 marks with XI trait and bring Signet of Stone instead of crappy protect me.

I’m using a similar build, but mine is very efficient damage wise AND prot wise. It’s 2 am here though, so I’ll post it tomorow.
[/s]

Sorry, I’m tired. I’m still willing to discuss prot me vs stone sig. But that’ll be tomorrow.

Protect me can be used every 48 seconds, which means sometimes even twice during an engagement. Not to be too dismissive but that basically ends the discussion for me. In addition, 15 in bm allows this to occur more often in addition to significantly increased DPS with more frequent pet swapping. Protect me works just fine if u have a good awareness of your pet and decent timing.

Appreciate the tips though. I find I actually have too much survivability. Mitigation may seem a little spotty at times but this is because im still fumbling with my keys. You can observe blatant lack of pet micro often. Any future tweaks would go into increasing DPS.

Nice vids, and for the most part I like it. Tried the build last night and had some pretty good success with it, even though I haven’t done a lot of PvP.

I will say that I don’t think you use your pet enough. A lot of the time its running next to you not doing anything. I know pets do a ton of damage, so I think a lot of those fights wouldn’t have been so close had you sent your pet after an opponent.

Is there a reason you’re using that particular heal over the others? It doesn’t seem like 5 seconds worth of cooldown is worth more than the 2k+ more healing you get from TU. Maybe there’s something I don’t know about it

Lastly: Do you feel that lightning reflexes is worth taking over muddy terrain? I know a lot of problems with melee could be solved if they couldn’t get to you, or were slowed. I know it supports all the dodging that the build needs, but I was just curious. Nice vids though, and nice playing

Ok, time to post my cookie-cutter build:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#ccom0zmzMmvoGMmvoGMx0paVmsqoko

“Guide:”

• Use stone signet when you see a large burst of damage incoming (fx treb or cannon).
• Use Signet of Renewal if you’re immob’d or stunned (keep yer pet close, bring ranged fx). Can change for reflexes though.
• use QZ when you want to do damage.
• with 20-VII Wilderness survival, spam Hunter’s Call and Call of the Wild.
• Swap pet for more damage.
• Dodge in combat to gain prot. 15 wilderness.

I use full fighter runes set (tough and power), with sigil of battle for SB and axe+hydromancer for high stacks of might and PBAoE snare.

video of me using it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_C2vqbi1Ao

Now, I don’t think Protect Me is necessarily a bad skill, but for it’s purpose, it’s not very conditionless. Even though Stone Sig has 50 more secs of recharge, it is completely condition free in whatever situation. Also, with the protection (-33% damage) going up quite often and 250 toughness, damage should rarely be a problem.

I see on vids you’re keeping your pet out of combat, which I understand since you need to keep it alive for Prot Me, but with the right pets, you’re giving up quite some damage (and with extra hazzle since you need to spam F1).

Last part is your choice of weapon. As it is right now, the sword is more or less a self-inflicted stun lock in the wrong situations. While it depends on your playstyle, I would still recommend switching to axe+snare because it’s also a ranged snare, and ricochet is good AoE vs. turrets, clones and minions. Warhorn is just plain OP with long range (1200 with my build) damage, and AoE might, swift and fury.

Removing the sword (2 dodges) and replacing it with an axe (0 dodges) is probably the worst possible thing you could do for a build that relies on evasion for avoiding damage.

@lil: entering melee while trying to avoid damage is a pretty bad idea, too. Also, they the main skill for the sword works right now, it can pretty much lock you in melee. That’s not especially great if want to flee.

You don’t go into melee range; someone else forces you into it. You use the sword to get away. Or get some damage in while evading attacks and then get away. Sword 1 only roots you when you use it. Don’t use it when you don’t want to be locked in place.

^ – turn off auto attacking for sword.

lil baby anime.6834:

You don’t go into melee range; someone else forces you into it. You use the sword to get away. Or get some damage in while evading attacks and then get away. Sword 1 only roots you when you use it. Don’t use it when you don’t want to be locked in place.

You’re not forced into melee when half your bar is melee skills (1 from dagger, 2 from sword). You only have 1 effective evade (that is counter-purpose if you’re running away) skill and the last is a decent snare.

Axe/warhorn gives you a auto-target AoE, also a decent snare, long lasting AoE buffs and good single taget damage. All from range!

@metx
i like your build. but it’s so different from mine that i cant really discuss it much. i can just say that the immobilize + focus fire is the ranger’s greatest problem in tpvp. in your build, you have no way of dealing with this. SoS is so situational due to its long CD, and you simply wont have anything up your sleeve for the next time youre immobilized. the evasion tank will allow you to evade for a few seconds until the immobilize is up, and the low CD of Protect Me allows you to use it twice in a longer fight. im not sure you understand how evades work (they actually render you invulnerable); sword #2 is the worst of the 3. give it a shot!

@red
thanks. Heal as One is used for its very low CD and for dealing with spike damage, which TU cant. i may need more practice with it. i tested the spring, and it may be needed as secondary condition removal against condition heavy teams, but so far i found empathic bond to be sufficient. Lightning Reflexes for vigor more so than the actual dodge.

learning to micro my pet better is top priority. will be making more footage in the future.

If you are using anything other than Healing Spring, you are doing it wrong. The condition removal, regeneration, and the fact that it is a 15 second Water Combo Field makes it the single best skill the ranger currently has.

no, it’s not good for every situation. as i said, it may be needed for condition heavy opponents, but when youre immobilized/focus fired, it cant help you much.

and there aren’t really any “single best skills” =P it all depends on the situation.