Recently, i have been experimenting with a “new” twist to some old builds. I will emphasize that this build will with very high likeliness fail hard in the EU PvP meta. This is because the NA meta is focused around power bunkers and a few condition bombs, while EU meta is focused around DPS condi bombs. It sounds weird when i try to explain it here, but as one who play in both regions you can just trust me, it will not work in EU as well as it will in NA.
I have named the build S.R.B – Spirit. Regen. Beast
The build is focused on using spirits to up DPS, while retaining high aoe regen. Through pet you deal burst damage.
This build will struggle immensely with heavy damage condition spammage. But it can handle your average p/d thief, as they usually deal low damage, but just maintain stacks very well (you simply keep the bleed damage low through sheer self regen power).
This build will grant you extraordinary amounts of control through pet, shortbow and dagger offhand. You will easily keep your enemy where you want them, and if you feel like you need more control, you can go for 2x immob spider (jungle + widow).
The build is a attrition build, it will not be a quick win, even against weak enemies, but you will win. In 2v1 situations, i prefer to rely on focusing one target so he/she is low, then send pet at the other target while i evade and damage my initial target. This way, both are kept busy and it will slow down their rotations.
How to play:
Against thieves – depending on thief build, either summon elite spirit and use guard for regeneration (p/d) or activate Troll Unguent (d/d) as the first thing you do when you enter the fight. Reason for this is;
Most thieves will rush to get you below 50% then finish you off with heartseeker or unloading a massive bulk of conditions. If you keep your HP high, they are forced to use initiative hungry attacks to blast through yout healing, or they gotta wait. A thief that is A; not applying pressure to it’s target or B; is not able to damage you, will lose the fight. It is not a question of if it will lose, it will lose or run. If it runs, you’ve won and node is yours.
Against mesmers – depending on build, focus your effort on the “main” mesmer and grind it down. Make the mesmer exhaust it’s blur early on. This can be done by immobilizing with spider and they rapidly swapping to a cat and activate the F2. The windup of the F2 will either cause the mesmer to use its blur, or some sort of cooldown.
Your main weapon against the mesmers will be your sun spirit. If suspecting a shatter. stand ontop of your sun spirit and use its active. this will take a few seconds to activate, but if you get the timing right, you blind the entire shatter group, causing the shatter to fail, and the mesmer having its shatter on a 15 seconds CD. If you are too close to the clones/phants to use the spirit, just use an evade. But prioritize spirit blind, as your evades should be saved in the case of someone else appears or the mesmer tries to pull off another shatter.
Against warriors – evade damaging attacks, CC, avoid standing in combustion shot. If this means you gotta get off the node, so be it. Enemy dies – node is yours, if you gotta let them borrow the node for some seconds while you deal with them, then that is a low cost to pay. The moment you die, they get the node for a much much longer time, that is very very bad and can be the difference between enemy getting 4-7 points and enemy getting 30 points+.
Against guardians – gonna be a long battle, bring popcorn and calming music. Keep your head cool, focus on avoiding pulls and whirling GS.
Against engineers – stay at furthest range of SB and spam poison + bleeds and burns. Use the feline pet to kill the thumper turret ASAP. Once thumper a massive part of the engis node control is gone, not to mention one of the engineers best “ace’s” is lost. His sustain will go down with the turret as he get fewer tools to control his enemy with.
Against necromancers – minions, use terrain. Minions got just as bad pathing as pet’s does. You know what kinda terrain your pet will struggle in, use that to your advantage. Power wells – if you get CC,d you are generally doomed. Stay alert at all times.
Against other rangers – BM bunker will tear you apart, trapper will tear you apart, spirit ranger can be beaten, but it is hard, power LB will blow you to pieces before you can even land a scratch on them. You cannot put out enough DPS to stop them and the KB shot will send you flying all over.
Currently @ some T1 server in EU