Guild Wars 2

This is my standard PvE Ranger build. It combines mobility with range, using the Longbow and Shortbow to deal damage

It’s built on the principle of ’Don’t stop moving.’ All of the defense is focused on dodging and strafing in circles around the target while staying out at range. This also benefits the party, in that you’ll be in a good position to revive downed players if the mobs disengage.

Primarily, I use the shortbow while soloing, and the longbow in group play. Most of the damage comes from repeated and high-damage critical hits.

For pets, I switch them out as needed, though usually I go with Drakes and Devourers. Drakes do decent damage with AoE, with an included healing skill and inherent toughness. Devourers are good single target ranged pets, inflicting posion on autoattack, and they have multiple skills that allow them to keep at range.

• With the recent buffs to pet health and AI, I’ve actually been using Drakes almost exclusively.

Skills:

1. Healing Spring – Used for the combo field and condition removal.
2. Quickening Zephyr – Standard DPS enhancement.
3. Signet of Stone – Added for the passive toughness, and the emergency ‘OH S#&%!’ button.
4. Signet of the Wild – Used more for the passive than the active benefit, this signet gives an additional buffer in case a mob lands a hit. Also, this will help keep the pet up, when combined with good situational choices.
5. Rampage as One – Much more reliable now!

Traits: 20/25/10/0/15

• Marksmanship – I Steady Focus, X Eagle Eye
• Skirmishing – I Companion’s Might, X Quick Draw
• Wilderness Survival – VI Wilderness Knowledge
  * As it stands, I’m debating if keeping the 10 points in Wilderness Survival is worth it, or if I should shift 5 points to somewhere else.
• Beast Mastery – IV Compassion Training

Equipment:

• Knight’s Duelist Armor
  * Ruby Orbs
• Rampager’s Longbow/Shortbow
  * Sigil of Force
• Berserker’s Trinkets/Rings/Necklace/Back Brace
  * Refined Ruby Orbs

As is obvious, this is a glass cannon build, with 2,092 power, 2,087 precision, 60% critical chance, and 73% critical damage bonus.

• As of the April 30th patch, I’ve actually edited the build, giving it more armor and refining some of the traits. With the Knight’s armor, critical chance goes down to 55% while gaining an additional 224 toughness, 404 with Signet of Stone.
• I’m still getting a lot of critical hits, even with the 5% reduction. With the Sigils of Force, the critical hits are up to 2500 damage (Longbow)/1100 damage (Shortbow).

Wondering what the ranger pros think about this! bump

Well, I’m going to be honest: I see a few problems. Not that you can’t kill stuff with this build.

I don’t really like entangle in dungeons but in PvE I can see it working—but only under certain conditions. You seem to be running a lot of power so I think you’re better off using Rampage as One, which will get you a bunch of might really fast, as well as fury and stability. Entangle really only hits for 25,000+ if and only if A.) you’re running condition damage and B.) the enemy cannot easily destroy the binds. Dungeon bosses will easily break out of a binding root.

Also, I really have to disagree with lightning reflexes. In PvE you need to do damage quickly. You’re better off with something like [Sick ‘Em]. QZ is ’ok’, I suppose, but, at the moment (until ANET splits the skill), quickness really isn’t so good anymore—particularly in PvE. I would strongly consider [Guard] or [Muddy Terrain], depending on the situation. Even entangle can be broken out in a rampager or berserker build if you really need it (I’ve used it to help with lava elementals in the grawl fractal, for example), but [Guard] will really help protect your pet and give it increased damage. So the best setup would probably be Signet of the Wild, Guard, and Sick ‘Em. By the way, if you’re using jaguar, be sure to sick ‘em AFTER stealthing lest you lose the buff due to one of many bugs we’re still burdened by (this situation will soon improve from what I understand).

You probably want to bring the jaguar (stealth makes it immune to direct damage which is very strong…we’ll see if ANET leaves it like this I REALLY HOPE THEY DO BECAUSE I LOVE IT AND ITS UNIQUE AND AWESOME). You probably want to bring a drake (tailswipe blast finish in Healing Spring on pet swap, 40s CD).

I like signet of the wild, it’s one of the best signets we get. However, I really, really, would strongly suggest more points into beastmastery and less points into marksmanship. In fact, with my open world PvE optimized build, I run dual axes and sword/warhorn. It’s just a lot better. But since you’re trying to do some rampager condition damage, you will probably be best off with sword/warhorn and shortbow. Leave the longbow for sPvP and WvW—same for greatsword, although, the greatsword definitely has its place in many open world situations (Swoop / counterattack / evade in auto chain).

I hope that helps. Rock on!

I wouldn’t consider myself a ‘pro’ ranger but I do have a lot of experience with the class. My build has been glass cannon ranger since day one as well.

SKILLS:
I don’t see anything blaringly wrong with your skill selection. Lightning Reflexes and Quickening Zephyr are both solid skills. Healing skill is just a matter of taste, so I won’t comment here. Signet of the Wild is fine for some added survivability. For elite, I used to use entangle a lot too, but personally found it only worked well in certain situations, and thus gave it up for RAO.

TRAITS:
First off, I would like to question your 15 into Beast Mastery, since you said you mainly use drakes/devourers, why would you increase your pet’s healing power? I can understand 5 into Beast Mastery for the quickness, but anything above that seems unnecessary if you’re going glass cannon. Now that quickness has been nerfed too, I would give up Beast Mastery altogether.
As for your other traits, 10 into Wilderness survival is good. 20 into marksmanship and 25 into skirmishing is OK, but I also question using Pet’s Prowess, since drake/devourers don’t have that high of precision, I wouldn’t use this trait. The only pet I would use this trait for is Jaguar.

EQUIPMENT:
Since your using shortbow, I see you’ve decided to opt into condition damage a little. Honestly if you’re going for a PvE glass cannon build, I would say just run all berserker gear, but that’s just my opinion.

Overall you’re build seems to be a mixture of raw damage + minor condition damage, with a hint of personal and pet survivability. My final conclusion is that it’s a bit unfocused, if you’re going for glass cannon, it’s best to go FULL glass cannon, especially with your mentioned play-style of kiting and ranging enemies.
I’m not going to tell you how to play though, its your ranger, play however you choose.

“I can understand 5 into Beast Mastery for the quickness, but anything above that seems unnecessary if you’re going glass cannon. Now that quickness has been nerfed too, I would give up Beast Mastery altogether.”

This would be a huge mistake, particularly if you like to run cats.

You get many more stats from armor, you know? You don’t need that extra +100 power from Marksmanship, particularly when the traits in that line are SO utterly terrible. The pet traits in beastmastery (MASTER’S BOND), on the other hand, are too good to pass up. In open world PvE—as well as CoF path 1 and most dungeons—I have found, through painstaking trial and error, that 20/20/0/0/30 is close to, if not, the highest DPS ranger build (using berserker gear and superior rune of the ranger).

Nevertheless, rampager isn’t necessarily a horrible choice and you will still do plenty of damage. The trick is to keep your cat alive because it will do more damage than you will. Your cat will be getting 6000+ crits with a full Master’s Bond on each attack. You, the ranger, will never make numbers like that appear unless you go invulnerable and reflect with the offhand axe (I’ve done 40,000 point crits instantly against dungeon bosses this way…but instead of signet of the beastmaster + signet of stone, I simply broke out my pig and used elixir of heroes).

I bet you rangers out there never thought of that. :P Why? Because I’m the only ranger I’ve ever seen actually use offhand axe.

@Chopps

Since he’s going glass cannon, I have to disagree with many of your statements. For one, Lightning Reflexes and Quickening Zephyr are a MUST for this playstyle, since stun-breaks and mobility are key.

In terms of Sick Em, Guard, and Muddy Terrain, I don’t see any of these being overly useful. For one, Sick Em is bugged and will end if you command your pet to do anything, and I just don’t see Guard being useful at all. Muddy Terrain is a fine skill, but is only situationally needed, just like Entangle.

For pets, Jaguars do very, very good damage, but I don’t see them being all that useful in dungeons since they die very quickly.

I mostly agree with what you said about longbow, but barrage is useful on occasion, and sometimes the long range can be useful in situations. You’re suggestion of using sword/warhorn makes little sense though, since sword is more of a pvp weapon, and he has stated this build is about ranged attacks, in which case axe/warhorn would be more suitable.

As for your second post (I wrote all of the above before reading it), I am intrigued by your build, but what I can say is, in my experience, pets die too quickly and are too unreliable to be used in such a fashion (not referring to open-world or cof p1).

jwaz.1908:

@Chopps

Since he’s going glass cannon, I have to disagree with many of your statements. For one, Lightning Reflexes and Quickening Zephyr are a MUST for this playstyle, since stun-breaks and mobility are key.

In terms of Sick Em, Guard, and Muddy Terrain, I don’t see any of these being overly useful. For one, Sick Em is bugged and will end if you command your pet to do anything, and I just don’t see Guard being useful at all. Muddy Terrain is a fine skill, but is only situationally needed, just like Entangle.

For pets, Jaguars do very, very good damage, but I don’t see them being all that useful in dungeons since they die very quickly.

I mostly agree with what you said about longbow, but barrage is useful on occasion, and sometimes the long range can be useful in situations. You’re suggestion of using sword/warhorn makes little sense though, since sword is more of a pvp weapon, and he has stated this build is about ranged attacks, in which case axe/warhorn would be more suitable.

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As for your second post (I wrote all of the above before reading it), I am intrigued by your build, but what I can say is, in my experience, pets die too quickly and are too unreliable to be used in such a fashion (not referring to open-world or cof p1).

Well, I don’t know, my man, but if your cats are dying that fast it’s probably because you’re never traiting beastmastery and/or letting them facetank when they could take aggro. You have to be smarter than that. Drakes can be a problem because their toughness is high enough such that bosses may aggro them, but their blast finish in healing spring is really nice for stacking on bosses.

*Note that during any dungeon I am constantly switching slot skills, weapons, pets, even trait passive tiles to best fit the given encounter. Obviously, if you’re dying a lot, you’re going to have to go more defensive than the build I’m talking. But you wanted glass cannon, right?

But that general template (30/20/0/0/20 or 20/20/0/0/30 and similar builds with berserker gear) is what I’ve found to be “best” after 300+ dungeons and 1200 hours of PvE. I mean, you can equip other stuff like LR or whatever while kiting, but during a boss fight (if you know how to position yourself) using LR is wasting DPS. QZ is not a must for any playstyle, untraited it gives like 8% quickness uptime which is only now 150% attack (basically). I’m not sure how good that is in PvE.

Guard on the other hand will keep your pet alive. And sick em will help your pet do more damage. And you can trait signet of the beastmaster for more stability, if you want. That’s not too bad. But not putting at least 15 points in BM for the 15s pet swap is really hurting your PvE potential. Part of your goal will be to keep the pet alive. Ranger has a high skill cap in that you have a lot to manage. It’s probably the hardest profession to play successfully in PvE, although it can be done in most cases and, generally, 90% of the whining is due to people picking a hard profession to play and then regretting that decision. Thankfully, I’ve never regretted playing ranger.

I’d say if you are good at keeping the pet alive, go with QZ. If you are not good at keeping the pet alive, go with Guard (guard gives the pet protection).

And to answer your question about sword, on a lot of bosses (subject alpha in particular), you will be stacking on the boss. Sword is essential for this because the evades really come in handy but also the autoattack gives your pet ~3 stacks of might with 100% uptime so long as you are attacking with sword “1” skill. Warhorn is great for buffing yourself and the party and the birds will crit a lot and hit hard. Just turn off all the “auto” stuff (including under settings like autotarget etc) and you’ll be fine. This really is important.

But there’s no point to argue, you can play your way, I’ll play mine. Deal? But, yeah, I don’t use the same exact build in every dungeon. If you really want to be successful with ranger, you’re going to have to pay a lot of attention to what skills and traits you take into any given encounter.

@Chopps
I was curious what you would choose for the specific traits in a 20/20/0/0/30 build. I like what you’ve had to say and I’m going to be spending the next couple days playing around with the dual axes bit/sword-warhorn.

I usually pick 10% damage while endurance is full, spotter, 30% pet damage, pets gain health on crit or honed axes (your choice), then master’s bond, shout master, and natural healing. If you pick 30 in MM you can get signet of beastmaster instead. With 30 in SM, you can get faster pets that gain health on crit and do 30% more damage (health on crit really helps cats stay up).

Really, the choice is yours. And I reread my comments and they seem harsh. There is no bad advice here, necessarily, as everything is situational. However, I do tend to believe a lot in BM traitline. I’ve also found that if I’m dying a lot, 15 in WS really helps (2 sec protection pn dodge roll)

Happy hunting!

@Chopps

We obviously have very different play styles, which isn’t bad as you said, you can play your way and I can play mine.

I too have done hundreds of dungeon runs, and have a thousand some hours played on the class, but that doesn’t make either one of us “right”. As you said, rangers have to be very adaptable, which is something I’ve learned after many strenuous hours of fractals and other dungeons. Gear, utilities, weapons, and pets are things rangers have to change depending on the situation, unfortunately I still haven’t optimized the use/swapping of pets.

All that being said, I still prefer a damage build focused on the ranger (using pet to tank/support), but that’s my preference. I tested out going pet-damage, and while it was good, I found myself sacrificing too much to my liking.

-Blink-

I honestly wasn’t expecting a response… Thank you!

This is the part where I defend my choices, right? …No? Meh. I’ll be the first to admit that this build isn’t optimized. I just threw it together as I leveled based on a preconception of the Ranger and what I played in Guild Wars.

• Defended Choice #1 – Eagle Eye
  I like the longbow, and aside from Skill #1, I believe it to be a solid weapon. Part of that is notion that ‘Range is better than armor.’ +5% Damage and 1500 Range? No brainer for me.

• Defended Choice #2 – 15 Points in Beast Mastery
  To me, 15 points in Beastmastery is a requirement of the Ranger, at least as concerns their pets. Swapping out near-death pets on a reduced timer is a lot more effective than trying to micromanage their every move.

• Defended Choice #3 – Lightning Reflexes
  I dodge. A lot. An instant dodge on command that not only damages, but breaks stun and grants Vigor? Duh?

• Defended Choice #4 – Quickening Zephyr
  This choice was before the Quickness nerf, and I haven’t looked into alternatives yet. (If I was a Charr instead of Human, I’d already have one. Hidden Pistol… -Drool-) The ability to stack 25 Bleeds with shortbow was the main attraction.

Now that those are out of the way… Some skills and traits I either just threw in because I didn’t really care, and others because that’s what I use most of the time.

• Entangle
  Entangle is more for roaming than dungeons, for which I do use Rampage as One. However, the fact that Rampage as One is dependent on your pet to really be of any use has me searching for an alternative.

• Pet Prowess
  The 30% pet critical damage trait was selected when I did use feline pets almost exclusively. Now, it’s mostly because I’m not impressed with the other Adept Skirmishing traits.

Edit – Troll Unguent
Love this skill! Unfortunately, Healing Spring’s condition removal edges it out for me.

One of the best skill types in Guild Wars was the Ranger’s Preparations. Adding a few to Guild Wars 2 would be a very, very, very tolerable alternative for Quickening Zephyr or Rampage as One. -Wink-

I run a bm build but as others have said the Jag for primary pet and Troll Unguent makes a difference.

eh..its pve..run whatever you want. Personally I run a knight/zerker build in pve with sword and shortbow and half the time greatsword/shortbow. Gives me the toughness and power I want and with 80% crit dmg with 40% crit chance along with 3k defence I got no complaints.

I never did like the marksmanship trait line especially once I truly seen how bad the traits are. I’d give up 10 points in marksman and invest it in wilderness survival/beasmastery. Or at least put 5 in skirmishing for the extra 5% crit dmg.

I think one thing people are saying is “bring every weapon to battle” and I totally agree with that. You should have two axes, a sword, a greatsword, a dagger, a torch, a shortbow, and a longbow on you at all times. I carry a few versions of each for different stats, as well as a couple armor sets (offensive and defensive).

@jawz : yep, rock on dude

Edited the build for the April 30th patch. Thanks for your reviews!

Hey Diak,
I went through the effort of putting your build into gw2skills, i’ve included the traits, pets, and even the weapons/armors/sigils, etc.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJAVTjEVR2FWKWsWCgli96rVgTOjDZ8fg2MW6DYSA-jwxAIsARFCUCsIasthioxqWwUlER1ejioVDA-e

Thank you, thank you! I didn’t even know GW2Skills had upgraded to PVE stats.