Guild Wars 2

I dinged 80 on my ranger a few days ago (after her sitting in my roster for about three months) and I’ve already made it my second main outside of my guardian. I’ve had little to no trouble learning the ins and outs of the profession; how to utilize my pets effectively, what pets to choose (per situation), which utilities to bring (to the right situations) and what weapons I enjoy using. I do, however, have a few questions that I hope the answers to can give me a bit of a leg up.

Before I ask my questions, here’s my setup:

Full Zerk Exotic gear (all armor, trinkets and weapons are Zerk)
6/6 Superior Rune of the Warrior
Longbow/Greatsword
LB Sigils: Sup. Sigil of Accuracy, Sup. Sigil of Frailty
GS Sigils: Sup. Sigil of Accuracy, Sup. Sigil of Purity

I chose Accuracy to give my Zerk gear a leg up in the crit department, while Frailty on the LB helps me proc even more vuln stacks when using LB 2. Purity on the GS for when I get slapped with random condis in close quarters and my Healing Spring is on CD. I usually stick with a feline pet (Jungle Stalker) and a spider (Jungle Spider) but I do swap if the situation calls for it.

Sorry about the semi-wall of text, but here’s my couple of questions:

1. Would it be wise to use LB in conjunction with Axe/X or Shortbow? I really enjoyed the SB’s conditions and the Axe has great AoE potential at range (the self might stacks don’t hurt either).

2. Should I consider a gear change? I’ve read a couple of threads (namely the stickies) and I saw Knight’s and Soldier’s mentioned twice in the OPs there, and nothing about Zerk. Is there any advantage I would have if I switched to Knight or Soldier?

3. Rune and Sigil suggestions? I found that my Sigils help a bit, but not as much as my sigils on, say, my Guardian or Engineer help. I feel I may have chosen the wrong ones.

Lastly, 4. I love using my pets, but I also love using my bow. Is there any build that utilizes both effectively? I particularly enjoy Eagle Eye and Read the Wind for my Longbow, but I also want to use my Pet a lot more.

I’m open to suggestions. I want to be the best ranger I can be, I love this profession!

LB: Sigil of Air+Fire
GS: Energy/Intelligence/Fire

You are a Zerk. You have to behave like one. There’s no discussion about the Sigil choice.

I assume you mean open world? Just screw around and find the most fun build. Nothing matters. Open world is a good place to screw around with beast mastery like you mentioned. Master’s bond is probably the closest you can get to utilizing your pet as much as your LB, unless you artificially turn down your damage. Usually you wreck things before your pet can even attack as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

For dungeons, it sounds like you know enough about the game to be aware of the frost spotter build, with s/a?

First … there’s always a discussion … even about the Sigil of choice.

It largely depends on PvP vs PvE. If you can be more specific on which one you’re asking about I can give more information … but here’s some …

For PvP, Air + Fire is pretty good on the longbow as the additional burst is what you’re often looking for. Energy, Intelligence, Air, Fire, Leaching, etc. are good options on the Greatsword for PvP. Ultimately though, it largely depends on your build(s) that you play.

For PvE, take a look at metabattle if you’re running speed runs. Otherwise, you can get by with just about anything that feels right to you. Burst is generally less “awesome” in PvE, so many take Sigils of Force, Night, or whatever they’re fighting against. For the specific enemy sigils, many Rangers will take multiple of a given weapon so they can swap in the one pertinent for the content they are doing … but that’s only necessary for the most hardcore PvE speedrunners.

For zerk gear, MH Axe has pretty bad damage. It has some of the lowest coefficients. The Might Stacking is nice, but it has a very short duration and doesn’t make up for the Axe’s bad power coefficient. THe Might from MH Axe is best paired with 3 points in Nature Magic so that you’re Might Stacking on your pet to get it at 25 quite quickly (it’s pretty ridiculous in an awesome way).

Shortbow has a better Power coeffcient than MH Axe, but it really needs to be flanking for its bleeding. This is an issue because you don’t have any condition damage with zerk gear and because your group may already be capped on bleeds on the target.

Fluffball.8307:

I assume you mean open world? Just screw around and find the most fun build. Nothing matters. Open world is a good place to screw around with beast mastery like you mentioned. Master’s bond is probably the closest you can get to utilizing your pet as much as your LB, unless you artificially turn down your damage. Usually you wreck things before your pet can even attack as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

For dungeons, it sounds like you know enough about the game to be aware of the frost spotter build, with s/a?

Yeah, I run Spotter and FS as much as I can in dungeons or instanced group stuff. I figured the upped precision and damage respectively would help the group much more than my DPS or pet skills. That’s not factoring in any other spirits I tend to use at times for difficult encounters, like Earth Spirit.

@Sebrent: I kind of knew that they’d be horrible choices from the start, but I just love the weapons so much more than GS. While my GS helps greatly when fights get in my face, I never really liked how it functioned. Built in evade is a lifesaver, I’ll admit, as is the block and daze (one of the only weapons I ever found turning AA off actually HELPED). It’s just the look and feel of how my ranger swings it and utilizes it that doesn’t sit well with me.

In terms of builds, Metabattle has helped some. It’s the usual FS/Spotter and the like for groups, and Read the Wind and all that jazz for roaming. I’m still learning how ranger works in its more complicated areas so my sigil choices were poor now that I realize it. No synergy with my armor stats or build, now that I think on it.

In the end, if you’re not doing high level, competitive play … play what you enjoy.

Just don’t get mad if someone else doesn’t like it.

Just as you’re not obligated to play the way someone else wants you to …
… others are not obligated to play with sub-optimal partners.

So as long as your and those you play with understand and agree, just have fun with it. Sometimes I’m in a mood where I don’t care what you’re running. Other times I want to get the fractal/dungeon done and move on … and then I care.

Communication is key

Axe isn’t too bad if your group isn’t stacking Might as you can benefit from that. It’s horrible single-target though.

Sebrent.3625:

In the end, if you’re not doing high level, competitive play … play what you enjoy.

Just don’t get mad if someone else doesn’t like it.

Just as you’re not obligated to play the way someone else wants you to …
… others are not obligated to play with sub-optimal partners.

So as long as your and those you play with understand and agree, just have fun with it. Sometimes I’m in a mood where I don’t care what you’re running. Other times I want to get the fractal/dungeon done and move on … and then I care.

Communication is key

Axe isn’t too bad if your group isn’t stacking Might as you can benefit from that. It’s horrible single-target though.

That’s what I was wanting to go for with Axe mainhand. Constant roaming AoE damage with selfish might stacking in conjuction with Jungle Stalker and boon sharing with my pet. It sounds like an awesome farming build, too, for tagging.

I do understand the communication, too. I always tell the PUG what build I’m using before we start. I haven’t been kicked a single time since, even with my poor sigil choices and my awkward build.

Oh… So you are playing PvE.
My bad, I deducted that wanted the build for PvP. I apologize.

If you like Axe main hand for might stacking in PvE. That’s still better kind of bearable in recreational play.
You’d like to get Honed Axes for more Ferocity while wielding axe in main hand, too. And if possible, try to hit targets where 2 are close to each other. You can beat GS DPS on single target that way. Because your main target will get hit 2 times since the bounce will return to the only target available – your main one.

Axe is quite fine if you want to stay at a safe distance and get as much tags from farming as possible. It’s not DPS effective, but it’s definitely self-satisfying. You came to the open content with the goal of farming anyways, Right?

With MH Axe, I think it’s a toss-up. You might want to take Pet Might on Crit instead of Honed Axes … depending on how many points you’ve put into skirmishing. Or, if you’ve taken enough points in skirmishing and your group isn’t providing much poison/burning you can trait for traits and use Fire and Poison trap. Those combo well with projectiles from your Bow/Axe. The Fire is extra nice for allowing your team to blast for Might.

Fun little combo:

• Fire Trap
• Warhorn (Might + Fury + Swiftness + Blast FInisher)
• Swap in a Drake pet who will do their blast finisher first thing

Enjoy the Might

If you are using the Axe when your group is providing little to no Might, Sigil of Might (Might on Crit) is nice for the Axe … especially when it’s getting to hit all 3 times per attack and you have decent precision. That combined with Pet Might on Crit can give your pet 25 stacks of Might in no time. I’ve been in a fractal playing around with it and had 25 on my pet in very few attacks and upkept about 16 on myself.

Lots of fun little things you can do as a Ranger. Just get a feel for your group and play around with the Ranger. There are lots of things we can do that are very helpful … we’re just not part of the PvE Meta because some classes provide everything AND the kitchen sink (Ele/Guard/War) which leaves us looking lackluster when, in fact, we’re not lackluster, we’re just actually on the power curve with the other 5 classes while those 3 are above it.