Guild Wars 2

Hello rangers. I think I did it. I created a successful melee ranger. Been playing it all morning and its very fun. It takes some getting used to, basically running in and out of the fight similar to a thief. I have had pets crit 8k in matches (dog crit 9k on a medium golem lol) when all the stars aligned and they had every buff on them. I strongly believe this build has potential to make it in the meta.

They have not updated the new amulets in the build editor but replace marauder with demolisher amulet. You will sit at 15k health and 1840 toughness.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR8XnUqANsgtsAuCCctgh/g6TjfY47+tGmhtIWgAogNJA-TJBFABiXG4+9Ha4JAAwFBAA

Here is how you play it.

Your primary burst is going to come from “Sic em” and Path of Scars. Make sure your pets hit matches the timing of path of scars so they can’t fall out of range of the pet attack. Follow up with sword 3 once the burst lands.

For optimal damage use the bird when you are going for a burst. You will do more damage if you allow your pet to hit normally for the first attack followed by the f2 skill.
This also allows for you to pull them followed by a taunt rather than taunting at the same time the pull happens.

Fighting condi is a tougher fight. Maintain distance and only close in on the enemy by swooping followed by hilt bash and then maul. Use the block to gain distance again. You are basically relying on your pet for these fights while avoiding as much condi as possible. You can also use both path of scars from a distance for damage.

Try to engage every fight with “Strength of the Pack” since it grants 25% damage to you and your pet every 3s when the fury is reapplied.

Avoid fighting on point and use opportunities to attack the enemy being hard pressured. (just like a thief)

Finally axe 5. I love this skill, but it requires the right timing. Primarily use it only on downed enemies or allies. You can put alot of on point pressure if you use signet of stone while activating it. You can hit enemies for upwards to 7k if they are trying to res targets and don’t dodge.

The most important thing to remember is although you have 1800 toughness you can not sustain in the large fights like a druid. For the large fights play like you would vs a condi class and maintain distance until opportunities to go in for a kill arise. Help out your team by interrupting enemies as much as possible. Path of scars, hilt bash and pet taunt.

Awesome, I’ll test it and give u some feedback. Looks fun and nice. And you play it very well dude!

It looks like a fun build, and proberly one of the stronger “fun” builds. But just the fact that you are taking druid away is enough that it proberly WONT be part of the meta.

The reason druids har so strong is because of their strong support / bunker while still having insane mobility with staff and greatsword / sword. While the pet still deal lots of dmg.

Yea upon further testing its probably not a meta build. Too hard to line up your burst perfectly especially in the confusion of a fight. Pets get chill and cripple on them and they are useless against an enemy that runs. Its a fun 1v1 and dueling build though

To be honest your build seams like it is all over the place.
I would replace one pet with tiger for more remorseless procs and ditch scrapper rune for rune of the soldier for more hp and more condi removal. Also ditch lightning reflex for protect me and ditch sic ’em for signet of renewal (you have signets traited, and signet of renewal is a stun break and it is the best think rangers have to counter a condi bomb, use renewal when they blow their condi burst and then immediately swap the pet).

Melee ranger was always a good build, never made it to meta status but it was always one of the stronger ranger builds and with the new demolisher amulet it is better that ever.

Remorseless without Tiger feels wrong.
Even more so seeing you got Sick’Em.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Remorseless without Tiger feels wrong.
Even more so seeing you got Sick’Em.

Yes I ended up switching to tiger instead of bird

foste.3098:

To be honest your build seams like it is all over the place.
I would replace one pet with tiger for more remorseless procs and ditch scrapper rune for rune of the soldier for more hp and more condi removal. Also ditch lightning reflex for protect me and ditch sic ’em for signet of renewal (you have signets traited, and signet of renewal is a stun break and it is the best think rangers have to counter a condi bomb, use renewal when they blow their condi burst and then immediately swap the pet).

Melee ranger was always a good build, never made it to meta status but it was always one of the stronger ranger builds and with the new demolisher amulet it is better that ever.

My main concern is you can’t do enough damage without sic em, unless perhaps you can stack a lot of might. I thought about rune of the soldier but I thought passing up the more power would hurt the build in the long run since its a struggle to burst people down.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXRnUqA9rgNsA2CCctgh/g6Tjf4o9cvHC+tIWgAoEh3A-TpBFABiXGogHAQJ7P4wRAggDBAAnAAA

How does a build like this look then?
Theoretically every time I swap pets my pet gains 6 stacks of might. They gain might when I use a signet (3 in total with the trait). And when my sigil of strength procs. Theoretically they gain fury every time I do and should also regain opening strike.

Main issues would be them surviving long enough for good amount of might to be produced and huge condi bombs if my signet was used. Plus side is I get 2 stun breaks.

For the “We heal as one” heal do they gain every stack of might or just one for that duration?

@FrownyClown When theory crafting builds for this meta you must have good and consistent condition removal, 1 condi every 10 sec (if your pet is not dead) and a full clear every 45 (again if pet is alive) is not enough. This is especially important because you are running demolisher amulet (no additional vitality), meaning you will die every time vs any class that is using a mercenary, wanderer, or any other condi/hybrid amulet (conditions ignore armor and protection, another reason why soldier rune is good since it gives you more raw hp).

This is the main reason i suggested rune of the soldier (you have a 16 sec cd shout and a 24 sec cd shout) combined with signet of renewal & empathetic bond, so you get 4 condis removed evert 10 sec, a full clear every 45 (if your pet is alive) and the clears from soldier rune in between. And even then it might not be enough to survive long enough to win a duel/skirmish vs something like a condi chronomancer or burnzerker.

You seam to fall in to a trap allot of newer players make which is ‘i need more dmg more dmg if it does not give me dmg it is not worth it’, when in truth you will never be able to do the damage if you die in 3 seconds or if you are forced to abandon a team fight 10 sec in because you are almost dead.

we heal as one gives you 1 might stack for 10 sec (this is with base boon duration) for every might stack your pet has and your pet 1 might for 10 sec for every might stack you have (the boons are copied from the ranger to the pet and then from the pet to the ranger. Fastest way for a ranger to get 25 might is use strenght of the pack → barrage a team fight and use whao for a 25 might).