Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody. I’ve been refining my ranger over the past few weeks, and I think I’ve nailed a pretty awesome playstyle. It’s pretty easy to alter, as I’ve found swapping traits and utility skills is incredibly easy with the ranger without ruining an entire build. So here goes:

http://tinyurl.com/b9b4g7p
( http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV3fjIVZ2RW+Vo2CglCBDspgTJZKMkxvAvgEmtpjB;TsAAzCpo8xAjAGbROfkFtqYUx2CA )

The build revolves around putting stacks of bleeding on the enemy, much like any other shortbow build. Previously, I had put all trait points in marksmanship and wilderness survival to maximise condition damage and duration, but that turned out not to be the best way to go. The stack counter would go up to 7 continuously without using utility skills, and even that was hard to maintain.

The new variant uses critical hits to dramatically increase the average amount of bleeding stacks on the enemy. Rather than 7, I now continuously get around 12~14 bleeding stacks if I stay behind the enemy. Keep in mind, however, that this is a build for picking off single targets. It won’t do much against a group.

So how is it done? I put 20 points in marksmanship to get some condition duration and piercing arrows. Piercing arrows are an amazing trait that allow you to hit anything in a straight line. In PvE, this can be amazing. In sPvP, it tends to come in handy during assaults on capture points. Getting sharpening stone at 75% health isn’t so bad either, as it’ll further increase your condition damage.

Another 20 points are put in skirmishing. You’ll need this for precision primarily, and the adept trait “sharpened edges”. Namely, every time you land a critical hit, you land bleeding on that target. At this stage, the trait isn’t optimal. I believe it’s a 1-second bleed, but here’s hoping to a buff from ANet. It synergises well with the Sigil of Superior Earth, though, that gives you a 60% chance to bleed (5 seconds, 8 seconds because condition duration is increased) upon crit. I don’t care much for the master trait “quick draw”, but it’s a pretty handy thing to have.

More importantly, 20 points are also put in wilderness survival. You’ll get 50% extra endurance regeneration that’ll give you awesome kiting capabilities, 20% recharge time off survival skills (super handy, as we’ll be relying on three such skills), and you gain protection for two seconds when you dodge. The master trait, again, isn’t so spectacular. It stealths you when you’re stunned, launched, dazed, knocked down, etc., which can be a life saver. It’s the best pick in my opinion, though.

We put 5 points in beast mastery, this to get quickness for two seconds every time you swap your pet. Consider it a “quickening zephyr” that recharges every 20 seconds.

This leaves us with five points. I’ve put them in nature magic to get some passive regeneration and survivability, but you could technically put them anywhere. Nature magic just seemed the best pick.

For healing skill, I picked “heal as one”. You are free to pick any other skill, however. The next two utility skills are vital, however. Sharpening Stone allows you to put five extra bleeds accounting for 5k total damage over 10 seconds. Use Sharpening Stone whenever you’re sure the next five shots will hit. You can also use it out of combat, to let the recharge kick in before the fight.

Quickening Zephyr makes you a dangerous machine gun that spams stacks of bleeding. With just Quickening Zephyr, you averagely plant 20 stacks of bleeding on the enemy in 4 seconds, assuming you’re behind the enemy. Doing some minor calculations that don’t have any mathematical credibility leads me to the following conclusion: With Quickening Zephyr, you fire approximately four arrows in a single second. With approximately 50% critical chance (actually 45%), two of those arrows will crit. Non-crit arrows averagely do 180 damage, crit ones 310. So added up, in a second, you do 980 raw damage. During this second, you apply (for the sake of argument) 8 stacks of bleeding. Four from Crossfire, two from Sharpened Edges and two from Sigil of Superior Earth. One stack of bleeding is good for 100 (101 actually) damage. So during that second, you’ve guaranteed 980+800=1780 damage that very second.

It gets more complicated, though. The stacks of bleeding you apply last longer than a single second. Crossfire applies a 4.75 second bleed that accounts for 487 damage. Sigil of Superior Earth applies an 8 second bleed that accounts for 808 damage. And Sharpened Edges applies an 1.5 second bleed that accounts for 150 damage. So 487*4+808*2+150*2=3864 damage over the entire duration of all bleeds applied during one second of Quickening Zephyr. 3864+980=4844 is the total amount of damage over time you’ve guaranteed yourself during one second of Quickening Zephyr. 4844*4=19376 is the amount of damage you can expect to have predicted throughout the duration (4 seconds) of Quickening Zephyr. Probably a little less, but still. Take half that damage, and that’s the damage you guarantee during 4 seconds of normal fire.

The damage is mostly over time, however, and doesn’t always look spectacular. On the upside, you’re not dependent on high damage output from single attacks. You can miss a few arrows, and it won’t much affect your damage output. Whereas if a thief missed a few backstabs, his damage output will have suffered terribly. Therefore, rather than relentlessly killing your opponent, it will more feel like you’re wearing them down significantly until they falter.

For armour and accessories, you’ll need condition damage, precision and toughness. Toughness mixes in really well, because it’ll give you survivability to outlast the enemy’s damage while you keep stacking bleeds on them. The runes I’ve chosen on the site maximise condition damage and condition duration, which is pretty much what your build is all about.

You technically don’t need a second weapon set. For the sake of having one, I picked the axe and torch. For fun damage, I simply plant a field of fire at the enemy’s feet, cast splitblade, and toss the torch for some more burns. But you could pick any other weapon set.

The signet and elite skill are optional, too. I’ve taken the signet for condition removal, because low vitality means I would die if I found anyone else with a condition build. And while the signet isn’t perfect, it tends to do the job. The elite skill is my favourite when I’m losing. It easily gets you out of nasty situations, or turns the tides in your favour in equal battles.

I don’t care much for pets. While I’ve done and loved beastmaster builds in the past, they’re not so relevant in this build. I’ve chosen pets that do condition damage (devourers, sometimes spiders), and that don’t die quickly (devourers have toughness, spiders have vitality).

As for the other four skills on the shortbow; I’m confident you know how to use them. The strength of this build lies in auto-attack (though I often use poison volley so soon as it recharges), but the other skills tend to give you some kiting abilities, which you’ll need to survive.

In summary:

Pros:
Massive condition damage.
Decent survivability and kiting.
Incentive for burst condition damage.
Deadly if teamed up with a glass cannon.
The elite skill allows you to change the battle in a whim.

Cons:
1v1, while possible, is a gamble.
You can only truly pick off one target at a time. Hitting others with piercing arrows is only convenient.
You go down pretty easily if you’re deliberately targeted by multiple opponents.
Enemies with condition removal can be annoying, but you tend to refill them with stacks of bleeding in three seconds.