Guild Wars 2

I was wondering if I should go for the Ascalonian Power/Toughness/Vitality armor for my Ranger, and is it really worth it? I mainly do dungeons and I don’t die much, but I want to know if its worth it for not for higher level Fractals and such

I like to do tons of dps so probably Berserker’s is good for me?

DarkPenguins.3549:

I was wondering if I should go for the Ascalonian Power/Toughness/Vitality armor for my Ranger, and is it really worth it? I mainly do dungeons and I don’t die much, but I want to know if its worth it for not for higher level Fractals and such

I like to do tons of dps so probably Berserker’s is good for me?

If you like doing fractals and want to be up in lv 89 or w/e people are at now you will need either rampagers or berserkers because at that point defensive stats no longer matter, they become useless, weak and unworthy of even considering.

However if you’re talking about you’re average dungeon/WvW/ lv 30ish and lower fractals it’d be fine, it makes you super sturdy and hard to take down, but you still have quite a bit of bite!

I -really- like Power/Toughness/Vitality armor, but at the same time I’m a beast master through and through and build to hinder my enemies so my beloved drake can end them easily and quickly instead of dealing damage myself.

Honestly Cleric’s or Apothecary is better for defense.

Our base ~16k health is more than good enough and the +healing power will give you way more staying power than vitality ever will unless you somehow get hit with one really big hit.

Healing Power + Toughness gives you staying power. Vitality + Toughness makes you die slower.

With Cleric’s or Soldier’s your personal DPS will be pretty bad though. 30 in BM for pet DPS is basically required if you go that route. Apothecary you can actually do alright damage because condition damage doesn’t really need the precision and crit% that power needs to be great.

Edit: skimming is not my friend… missed that this is primarily about fractals. What I said is still true, but Durzlla gave a better answer for your specific question.

If you dont die much then go more for dmg. Thats the balance.. Death vs dmg.. think for your self.

I run a LB/SB Build in Full P/T/V in WvWvW and find it very effective. My 2 cents…

The point above on Cleric’s gear is a valid one, but it isn’t black and white either.

Cleric’s will give you more survivability about in fights lasting longer than about 30 -90 seconds after you first take damage significant enough to need regeneration. The math shifts based on traits and skills selected (heal, regen signet). If you are 30 in BM, note that your healing power does not influence Natural regeneration.

In a fight lasting a shorter period or in a situation where you can reset the fight, PTV gives better survivability. In any fight, PTV gives better damage than Cleric’s since power is the primary stat. Cleric’s of course, gives better support when you trigger heals on allies.

Thanks for the advice guys!

DarkPenguins.3549:

Thanks for the advice guys!

Just remember. There are several approaches to ‘surviving’.

• Healing up damage you took

• Mitigating damage you take

• If you kill something faster, total damage taken during a fight becomes less.

These 3 are all situational and ultimately you are the best judge of yourself regarding which occasions you die to most often.

It’s not as if with no healing you have no heals, but, just a scratch less. I’ve never been a fan of the ‘healy’ build. In fractals, you want bosses to die as soon as possible. Not drag the fight out. You can’t outheal damage in higher level fractals.

PTV for ranger? Most useless class for WvW and you want to make him more useless? Hmmm... great idea! ^^

I use a p/v/t set from AC when running dungeons on my ranger, with runes of Melandru.
I also have a p/v/t set of temple karma armour, but don’t it much anymore.
For normal PvE, I use a mix (3 pieces each) of knight/valkyrie.

As for vitality vs healing armour stats:
Rangers have lousy condition removals, so AoE attacks are always a concern. You cannot always rely on dodges to get you out of red circles. The only way to deal with condition damage is to have a decent HP pool, otherwise you wont even have time to trigger healing before you are downed.

p/v/t gear with some knight jewelry is great for melee greatsword “tanky” ranger. Evade on autoattack + perma vigor from trait + block make it quite fun.