Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I’ve been tinkering back and forth a Core Ranger build that won’t use Longbow and mainly use Axe as a power weapon. You can give me suggestions or feedback.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBHhF6kSFofFsVQwhFgrFM8HU7rvABg37/ew/pxP0AnwqrTD-TpBFABFt/g6HBAxLDwwhAAiHAAAnAAA

It comes to a simple rotation :

Strength of the Pack -> Call of the Wild (either from Pet Swap or Warhorn) -> Sick Em -> Smokescale’s Smoke Assault -> Hunter’s Call -> AA.

What more can you do ?

Use GS for mobility, blocks, close range AA Evade/Maul spamming and Hilt Bash (Interrupt). A good landed Hilt Bash and Pet Swap (Call of the Wild) is good too.

Hide and send your Smokescale wears (bait their defenses) them down while you Hunter’s Call, Sick Em, Call of the Wild and Strength of the Pack.

Remember that every Fury proc Remorseless that gives Opening Strike. You can use We Heal As One to reapply your boons, hence Fury again. Also, GS trait gives a Fury application.

Use Smoke Cloud with GS’s leap, Pet Swap or Warhorn’s #5 for invisibility. Works well when stomping or running away.

Pros :

• Burst is incredible : Anything under 15K hp that don’t have damage immunity will go down.
• Not as squishy because of Weakness (Winter’s Bite and Protective Ward). 23k HP.
• 25 Vulnerability.
• 25 Might + Fury, Regen, Swiftness. Near Perma.
• Brown Bear is a good condi dump (Signet of Renewal) and clear (F2) in a team fight.

Cons :

• Condition removal with long cooldowns (Rune of the Soldier helps for small condis)
• Stun Breaker is linked to your single condi removal (Signet of Renewal)
• Loss of a more usefull pet. CC or DPS pet (Brown Bear).
• Reflects from Axe AA (Since you hit hard, beware).
• Smokescale is dead ? Both pets are dead ? Tough luck. Learn to Pet Swap.
• Don’t Hunter’s Call with Confusion on you.

Good against : Thief (Sick Em. You should be able to bait their evades with your pets), Guardian (Low HP, send your pet to trigger traps, lots of active defense and immunity damage Elite), Ranger (After Signet of Stone, burst is open), Mesmer (Squishy, Sick Em, beware of Distortion damage immunity)
Ok against : Revenant (Don’t burst when it has Herald’s Heal), Engineer (Lots of tools and AoE. Long fights. Sick Em, lots of them use Stealth Gyro), Necro (After F1, they are open for burst)
Bad against : Warrior (Too many damage reduction, immunity and CC immunity), Elementalist (Tempest support is just overall annoying with lots of active defense and damage reduction), Condi Corrupt Boon Necro (Ugh, probably the worst. Play cautiously and from range), Condi Mesmer (Ugh, send your pet after them and try to manage your condi removals. Play cautiously and from range).

You can change (alternatives) :

• Put Enlargement for extra damage boost and stability (Sometimes you won’t Pet Swap as much, only when you need to use Brown Bear for condi clear). Lose blast and unblockable.
• Put Bountiful Hunter for extra damage boost. Lose condi clear and support potential.
• Put Beastly Warden for CC. Lose overall damage potential.
• Go Assassin or Berserker amulet if you feel deadly and don’t care being squishy. Marauder gives breathing room.

PS: Brown Bear AA do nearly the same damage as Smokescale AA, but not the same range. They have nearly identical stats. Brown Bear only has 1374 more Vitality. Actually a better pet than Wyverns.

Have fun !

I don’t see it. Axe is overall a wonky weapon with no utility. I found it useful only against mesmers but that was before the targets nerf. not worth it.

In small scale Guard is better than SoS as you usually will have protection and guard will transfer (or should at least) 33% of that damage. to you’ll be hit for the 67% or the 67% from the original damage, and get might instead. and it’s CD is much lower.

Without druid you are gimping yourself, ranger is a very incomplete class that has not the required utility to make it work. Druidic clarity and celestial shadow gives you the needed breathing room to reposition yourself and be able to have some chance to fight.

Also you will not be able to keep the perma boon state or the 25 might stacks with that set up.

My advise is to Just go for the meta Lb\Sw-x with trooper and druid and try to have fun.
After this pvp season we will see if Anet decide to actually improve ranger.

anduriell.6280:

In small scale Guard is better than SoS as you usually will have protection and guard will transfer (or should at least) 33% of that damage. to you’ll be hit for the 67% or the 67% from the original damage, and get might instead. and it’s CD is much lower.

Been considering Guard too, since it would be one Condi Cleanse with Trooper, but not 100% immunity. Getting Might is actually good too for the build.

anduriell.6280:

Without druid you are gimping yourself, ranger is a very incomplete class that has not the required utility to make it work. Druidic clarity and celestial shadow gives you the needed breathing room to reposition yourself and be able to have some chance to fight.

Totally agree. I was just trying to toy with a core ranger build, but I always have the itch to put Druid instead of Marksmanship, get a Stun Break/Condi Clear that won’t hurt the Pet and Stealth/Super Speed

anduriell.6280:

My advise is to Just go for the meta Lb\Sw-x with trooper and druid and try to have fun.
After this pvp season we will see if Anet decide to actually improve ranger.

I will probably change to Druid back if I struggle too much, since I’ve been climbing in Gold rank and people been using mostly cancerous builds. So many DH.