Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been doing pvp alot lately. After having mastered the elementalist profession I decided I wanted to try every single profession and play it attleast half-decently and to find the best build for each profession conform to my play-style.

So far:
Elementalist-hybrid, bunker
Engineer-hybrid decap
Necromancer – power DS necro.
Warrior – Condition
Thief – condition
Guardian – bunker, support
don’t have a mesmer yet for lack of character slot.

But I’ve tried ranger…. I have no idea how to play ranger, what build to use, what role to fill… I need help…

Spirit bunker and defend close and help out at mid.
Build I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAsf3YjMq0savK+rQ0aAAhaVA0eGa2Yw9S8EJRBrOA-TJhHwAPLDI4kAEa/BAPBAA

ranger is best known as a home node defender. my build is a bit the same as My Sweet Lily’s but it’s a roamer type. it is insanely tanky and has insane Condi damage. warhorn is very useful when running from node to node.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhVakRlGW7VxZFiWDAIIrC0eWtYuX+MZFrkC-TJRAwAsLDA4JAwc/hAnCAA

Ranger roles are a bit varied once you get into details. The most popular setups consist of whether or not you want to contribute as a roamer or as a point defender, this will depend on your team’s needs. The most solid build will be however, the one you can use to destroy your enemy in 1 vs 1 while contributing to your role (roam or point defend). Let’s say you jump into an spvp match, personally I like to run to far point and destroy them there, if it is well defended I will go home if no one else in the team is strong enough to defend it, otherwise I will roam middle-home or middle-far. It’s a very dynamic choice of which I highly recommend you pick one for every match you play and get a feel for what works best for you as a ranger.

For point defense I go for: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fjEq0xaLLmsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2u2d+eDfdBbqA-TphAwArLD45IAsc/BAHEgOXAgNPAAA

It’s amazingly tanky and its sole role is to defeat your enemy on a 1 vs 1 while staying alive. It has a slightly general purpose build which works great against any profession in a 1 vs 1 and 1 vs 2 battle.

For the same home defense role I also like to use a shout-regen build, although I will advise you to consider your condition removal options against your shout options: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fnMqQvgWLIWsAVLGAToanAdaA86Gc3sLwEXwnK-TpRAwAsLD85IAA4BAwc/hAHEAPXAAA

For the roamer role, the one I have found works the best is the bleeding master build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fjEq0xaNLusQ1iABhaVA0sGSWWJg789G+6C2UB-TphAwAcOCAkLDA4gA05CAs5BAwb/BA
For this last one you will have to get a little creative, certain maps require certain setups as you will ideally roam where your team most needs you, or help defend a point, this is a very strong build all around (especially vs other rangers). The creative part will be on pet selection, choosing quickening zephir vs muddy terrain (do you need more condition clear and area control vs fast damage?… fighting a ham bow vs a mesmer?) etc…

Let’s not forget the spirit build which have been posted above and for tips, condition rangers work best when paired with 1 other person (if roaming). Best of which is necromancer, condition ranger and engineer. When running home point, you may be pressured off it, that is why you have to learn to fight in close quarters and constantly apply pressure using your build. Bonfire is the #1 way to pressure your enemy on point, use it when you know they chose to be close to you (melee), swap to your ranged setup not only to be ranged but to apply that poison (sigil of doom) just before they heal, very important!

Feel free to ask questions in game too, but also take some time to look at twitch tv for tournament videos to get an idea of what other people like to do, your role will eventually be defined by you.

Edit: there is also another strong build for roaming, it uses celestial, poison mastery and beast mastery but I personally don’t know all the details, perhaps someone else can fill it in.

i run a Veriant of the Poison mastery build , if i feel on the day when im doing spvp or tpvp there is a lot of passive healing type builds being used .

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBjYDbkRluVbZxiFuWDoHUrCg2FxB32unij4tLZFLB-T5gHwAAeAAj2fwYZAA

i run 2/0/6/6/0
celestial amulet
LB/ S+W
runes of Hoelbrek
sigil of strenght(sword)+sigil of Earth(warhorn)

you could even use off-hand dagger but i feel like its already a lot of poison and i feel the blast is more usful for a tpvp setting.

Longbow Sigil of Earth+Sigil of Accuracy or sigil of fire , Accuracy for 7% crit more chance to do some critical damage , fire for one off Damage spikes through barrage and rapid fire.

it could be good to add Doom , as the poison damage is also increased on that sigil too.

Marksmanship = sharpening stones/Steady focus/beastmasters bond

Wilderness , 20% cooldown survival skills, Oak heart/vigour on heal , Poison master
nature magic , Natures bounty , Evasive purity , Survival of the fittest.

healing skill = healing spring ( if the target kites away from you swap to longbow and pew , if he tries to take advantage of that, pointblank shot him away from your spring or pet swap to reapply poison at close range till you can swap weapons again,

these traits make it so you can out passive heal your target through the use of bleed and -20% condi durations to take the pressure off using the utility , medium dps that grants might to your pet for extra damage and that also boosts the poison damage your pet does on that first hit , it might not be much if its one stack but if the poison is applied during a fight and you could have up to 6-8 stacks of might on average , with the blast from warhorn you can bolster this poison damage and direct damage by quite a lot.

beastmasters bond is a good choice, as soon as the target works out your applying poison through your pet , the smart thing would be to target said pet and this gives you a good bonus if that happens too , you can always passivly heal your pet with healing spring for a total of 18secs 5.5k hp+ 5.3k on use when inside HS for 100% time normaly on point too.

In the link you’ll see i’ve opted for poison trap instead of muddy terrain or Quickening zypher as zypher would hurt you more with this kind of bunker support set up , this in general isn’t for the poison but the poison field+blast combo for the weakness it’ll allow you to heal up while reduing the targets damage and healing power, also at the same time if you got guildies you can say poison field , and then you can stack lots of weakness for as long as the trap is active.

would like to see a 6points in Bm version though but i don’t know where to start with that.