Guild Wars 2

Is it just me that thinks the GM trait Protective Ward in Nature Magic is incredibly awesome? How come I don’t see people posting builds using it?

I use it on my PvP and WvW build. I mean it gives about a third uptime of Protection. I get 5 1/2 seconds of Protection every 15 seconds when I’m getting hit.

Is it great as I think or am I missing something?

Johje Holan.4607:

Is it just me that thinks the GM trait Protective Ward in Nature Magic is incredibly awesome?

nope I use it in my bunker build. it’s very good and the entire NM line is strong with allies’ aid and evasive purity. along with WS line, if you get your dodge rolls in, you can have almost perma prot. thing is, it’s hard to trait into NM if youre using a power build. otherwise, damage output or utility are severely lacking.

Yup it is very good against any zerker player, you can try perma weakness/protection build around it. Something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR8XjEqQLL2xCerAVLGyEqOZDgD4n8I/x9E/Ub8S21NA-TJBFwAI3fYxFBoaZAAPBAA

but it’s just that to be viable as a dps we usually take other trees instead. Also the other traits in nature magic are all a bit underwhelming.
But if you optimize the traits by Blue Moa (gives protection) it can make you play zerker build with good defense like warriors stance.
By the way there’s a glitch with Lingering Magic, if you chose the pet before switching to Nature Magic your pet gets +100% boon duration not 50.

Yea pretty much with grove runes / protective ward you get 50% prot duration and it’s perma prot uptime without boon strip of course between the #3 proc and protective ward + 3sec protection from dodge rolls.. I can keep 20secs+ uptime in fights. This is using a bunker condi build though.

Who needs healing runes when you proc protection and weakness when hit O_o
Get scholar runes and zerker amulet.
With Bark Skin of course.
weakness: -50% dmg
+
protection: -33 * 0.5 dmg
+
bark skin: -33 * 0.5 dmg

crazy dmg mitigation here with 0 toughness

RevanCorana.8942:

Who needs healing runes when you proc protection and weakness when hit O_o
Get scholar runes and zerker amulet.

Because it goes from getting ‘every now and then’ aka every 15 seconds to having it permanently, it’s really good in a bunker condi build as you need sustain from dmg and condis in order for you to dwindle them down. Not necessary, but really good , plus the extra immobilize on #6 is actually quite good.

Nobody who’s serious about the ranger class runs moa , no offense if you do it’s just not a good pet. If you run zerker you want pets that accomodate a zerker mindset, which is control – Wolf and Owl are good as you get a half burst every swap when going to owl + chill and wolf for the control. It’s a good synergy , moa just doesn’t provide much at all a low radius heal , protection on f2 with a high cd and very low dmg potential.

You probably wouldn’t run scholar runes because you will never be above 90% for more than 10-15% of the fight and damage output dwindles incredibly using nature magic even with zerker amulet – it’s very bad, coming from a PvP mindset. Scholar is more of a PVE rune, not practical at all in PvP or WvW though. Pack is much better imo or Wurm w/ valk or marauder’s.

You either run NM if you’re bunker or trying a cele build in which cele probably won’t work as you need skirmishing / marks to get might in the first place and you absolutely need wilderness survival for defense and condi cleanse.

blitzkrieg.2451:

RevanCorana.8942:

Who needs healing runes when you proc protection and weakness when hit O_o
Get scholar runes and zerker amulet.

Because it goes from getting ‘every now and then’ aka every 15 seconds to having it permanently, it’s really good in a bunker condi build as you need sustain from dmg and condis in order for you to dwindle them down. Not necessary, but really good , plus the extra immobilize on #6 is actually quite good.

Oh yea but check out the build I suggested above there’s Beastmastery that gives weakness 4 sec on F2 skill and hawk gives it every 5 seconds, he also gives 20sec swiftness every 20sec due to Lingering Magic (and blue moa gives protection). Wilderness Knowledge gives protection after a dodge which synergize with vigorous training which synergize with Loud Wistle etc…etc
Rune of the Scholar is a top choice for this build as when you start a fight you have bark skin, weakness and protection, troll onguent and condi removal on survival skill.
Nest Trap is just there for the combo field poison to add even more weakness with the leap finishers and hopefully heal reduction.

With such a survival engine (not even talking about evade on weapon skins…
You can risk to take Scholar rune and Berserker because you’ll have the equivalent of 6000 toughness.

Yes, Protective Ward is very good. But I would advise Superior Rune of the Earth with it over Grove, but both would work depending on your build.

Also add wilderness survival protection-on-dodge to it and you got some excellent protection uptime. And maybe throw in Blue Moa as well.

Holland.9351:

Yes, Protective Ward is very good. But I would advise Superior Rune of the Earth with it over Grove, but both would work depending on your build.

Also add wilderness survival protection-on-dodge to it and you got some excellent protection uptime. And maybe throw in Blue Moa as well.

Ah yes, nice find. Forgot about earth runes

I used to run earth runes with a power bunker build in WvW when the game first came out and didn’t touch them since but this would work nicely with it too , magnetic aura is pretty good.

It’s the best gm I’ll never take

Nm line would have been good in the old meta but now we need all the offensive ones

Sube Dai.8496:

It’s the best gm I’ll never take

Nm line would have been good in the old meta but now we need all the offensive ones

Depends on how you play. Ranger typically plays like a roaming +1’er and target focus damager. Marksmanship is arguably better than Skirmishing with Clarion and Moment of Clarity but the GMs are all pretty poor and you’d probably end up with Lead the Wind for consistency over Remorseless (you’d get more mileage out of Lead the Wind), and Skirmishing really only has Spotter and the 10% crit chance increase while flanking.
Quickdraw has so much wasted potential on a power build that camps weaponsets that it “feels” wasteful to take outside of duels.

I mean, none of those options are all that gamechanging for me personally. However, the defensive options eliminate common threats from insta-killing and evens the playing field enough for you to have the upper hand, while Beastly Warden making people eat full Rapid Fires and the lockdown alone are easily the best option for damage builds currently available.

Just my 2 cents though.