Guild Wars 2

- Preferred pets, and why
River Drake- Drakes do amazing DPS plus the lightening breath of the river drake can remove a good chunk of health even off of dungeon bosses.

Lashtail Devourer- I mainly only use this one if my Drake happens to go down or if im in an AoE heavy fight.
- Preferred weapons, and why
Main Weapon-Axe+torch I’ve played with this since the first beta and i’ve loved it ever since

Secondary weapon- Shortbow I mainly use it to kite champion or veteran mobs or to kite players in PvP

- Preferred stats, and why
Vit, Toughness, Power- I just like to be able to take more then one hit. Since i play BM i just let my pet do most of the dmg while i support it.

My ranger is 42 atm but I’m pretty happy with her current setup.
Weapon setup is greatsword/longbow, as the GS is very effective at dealing with small groups and has enough utility to survive most encounters, the longbow provides more focused single target DPS and suppression for tougher/more dangerous foes

Land pets are a Jungle Stalker & Black Widow. The stalker is an excellent companion for the greatsword as the active might buff and cats natural high dps lets us cut through most things with ease. Again for tough enemies that need suppression I switch to the spider as built in immobilize, poison field and active stun make it a great match for the longbow.

Underwater pets are the Rainbow Jellyfish & Shark, shark provides good dps while the Jellyfish is ideal for dealing with groups as it gives regen and it’s active skill is absolute murder against grouped enemies.

Preferred utilities are Flame Trap, Stone Signet, & w/e else I feel like bringing atm. The Norn summon wurm ability is very useful for large events when I need more backup. Preferred elite is Rampage as One as that’s what I’m already doing with the GS & Stalker most of the time anyways.

Im currently lvl39 and for various things i am still orrienting myself (mainly traits and pet in some regards).

Weapons: Axe + warhorn/torch
I just feel at home in the midrange area, i need to have things happening somewhat at a distance in front of me, as to not get confuzed about all the chaos happening around me (which tends to happen in melee). I also want to have people behind me, in a sense to have some eyes in my back, but also to get a ‘im protecting people here’ feeling while playing.

The warhorn gives a nice buff and i use it a lot, also for the speedbuff that lets me move around faster. Also the birds are just cool! The warhorn has a sigil that gives a 10% chance to heal allies around. The axe on this set has a ‘lengthens bleeding duration for 5%’, seeing the axe has a bleed on it.

The torch is my switch weapon, for when the warhorn skills are on cooldown, it gives a nice fire, combofield, which get used instantly as i am placing myself in that middle. But it’s also nice to have in single player mode. I added a sigil of the geomancer to the torch, so that it applies bleeding on a switch, this little extra on the torch makes me remember to switch more often (as i noticed that i forgot to switch), the axe on this set has a ‘lengthens bleeding duration by 5%’-sigil to boost that switch bleed, as well as the axe bleed.

For my heal i use ‘healing spring’ great as a combofield to support anything in front of me when i hurl those axes in that general direction. And being a middle man i can easily roll forward to heal the melee fighters, or backwards to heal the backline, and obviously placing this healing spring anywhere also lets others combo with it…

Utilities: Frost trap, Spiketrap, lightning reflexes
When being in that middle range, protecting that backline (or atleast giving them some time) feels like the thing to do, both frost trap and spike trap slow down movement of any foes passing through, as well as hurting them. The bleed on spiketrap also benefits from my Axe-sigils. But also in melee range these traps work wonders and frost trap also offers a cold-combofield. At one point i ran firetrap, but i realized that with the torch i would have a firecombo on a swap, so why take the trap. The snakepit is realy one dimensional with it’s poison, the animation is somewhat nice, but the other traps just have more going for them..

Lightning reflexes wasn’t my innitial choice for a 3rd skill, but it soon became a staple, as a stun/etc breaker AND doing damage AND providing an extra dodge AND giving a buff to endurance providing more dodges… well, as soon as i got to higher levels, where foes have more stuns/etc and fight harder, thus needing more dodges, it was pretty much a no brainer …

Elite: Sylvari TakeRoot, sometimes grasping vines, (not yet unlocked sylvari Druid Spirit).
TakeRoot and Grasping Vines provide a similar function (in my views) but in a totally different way. Grasping vines stop foes dead in their tracks, while Takeroot gives 5 alternative targets for foes to go after. Both are not perfect, as grasping vines has a target limit and the turrets don’t always draw agro. I mainly run Take root though, as during soloplay i usually mainly need extra damage, and the invulnerability during casting also gives me some time to get a heal or dodge back up prolonging my survivability…

PETS: Here i am still searching for a pet that feels like it’s my style of pet. There are some things with pets though…

- I tend to use a small bird (generally white raven), when i am just moving around, it takes up the least space on my screen, doesn’t walk in front of my feet, it also STOPS! when i stop… the only negative about the birds is that their F2 skill isn’t realy that awesome…

- Recently aquired myself a Hyena, I realy liked this pet during the BWEs but with my Sylvari Ranger (had a human in bwe) i am not to sure. Still though, the F2 can be a real life-saver. That extra damage and that extra target, and that extra pet, what can be better ?!
- Well an AoE buff could be better! So a Red Moa is also high on the list of pets…

Currently i still switching to my raven(s) though, both the Moa and the Hyena have the tendency to run so far ahead that the fight starts b4 i want it too. And they are also somewhat large and clumsy, walking in front of me, and generally annoying me with just being there :P

Water pets: Armored fish, gellyfish. I haven’t played that much in the water, and only have a shark alternative. The gelly may well make place for the shard sooner or later, but having the rainbow as a HOM unlock, well i just had to use it … i realy like the armored fish for some reason (just by looks), but it is a bit sluggish in his F2 response (as are most pets).

TRAITS: well this seems to be the hardest thing still, i am currently filling:
- Longbow for first strike & power.
- Nature Power, for added regen time
- Wilderness survival for vigor on heal.

As far as Jewelry goes, i am splitting myself between ‘healing power, condition damage, vitality, power’ … but then i realize that untill i am level80 and don’t realy have to rely on what sort of stuff i find, i should just go for a more balanced setup to give myself the most options in regards to finding out how i want to play (same with traits). So by the time i am actually lvl80 i will have a good idea on what i want to do with my character and I can start to make sure i have my Traits, Weapons/Jewels set up in a way that mostly benefits myself

My ranger is not yet level 80 but for outdoor play I favor sword/torch with two cats and a greatsword on weapon swap. I’m gearing full DPS stats (vacillating between Rampager and Berserker; need to run the numbers at some point). The sword/torch in combination with a cat kills solo enemies and small groups insanely quickly, and if I’m facing a larger group I can swap to greatsword for better survivability. The cat itself can solo any normal and some veteran enemies (especially with the “pets heal on crit” trait), and running two (near-)identical pets means I am free to use pet swap for the quickness and full pet heal without worrying about switching to the wrong pet.

Lynx for damage, love the amount of damage going out and the extension on bleeds as well as the vulnerability, also the high precision is great for my build.. I use the pet gains health on crit trait in Skirmishing. I used Arctodus for a tank until yesterday when someone told me the Polar Bear has more power.. promptly switched.. the maul is nice but doesn’t make up for the power difference.
Water pets: almost always the rainbow jellyfish.. that aoe and aoe regen iskittenamazing.

Axe/warhorn is my favorite.. love the buff and the aoe bleeds as well as being able to hit so many mobs at once. I like the longbow for single target damage and the aoe but usually the axe is better for aoe since it has no CD on the aoe, so ill usually start with barrage and the swap to axe even though I would rather have the buff up for the barrage.
Water: ALWAYS harpoon gun.. I just do not like the spear abilities.

Power, Precision, crit damage, vit.. in that order. Power is self explanitory I think. I use the rune that has a 65% chance to bleed on crit for my axe so crit is important.. then crit damage because of those crits and because it happens to be on both my preferred
armor/jewel “types” (Valkyrie/Berserkers or ruby/beryl) and then vit because no one wants to be a glass cannon.. not REALLY! lol

Open World:

Greatsword/Shorbow
Troll Ungent
Spike/Flame/Snake Traps (occasionally swapping Spike for Frost)
Entangle

Fern Hound/Devourer

I was absolutely shocked at how fun the 20 Skirmishing “Throw Traps” trait is. Seriously, it just feels good to use them, and the damage output from stacking three is fairly respectable. Besides, having an on-demand Ranged AoE Snare is just plain awesome. Flame Trap is nice with the Greatsword since I can get the Fire Aura combo without requiring Torch > Swap.

Dungeons:

Axe/Warhorn + Shortbow/Longbow
Troll Ungent (no, I don’t use Healing Spring…Water is a meh combo field)
Signet of Stone/Hunt + John Madden
Entangle vs trash, Rampage as One vs Bosses

Because the Warhorn is absolutely awesome, Axe is a solid AoE option, and the Shortbow is arguably the best single-target DPS. I occasionally swap in the Longbow if I need the knockback.

I still use Troll Ungent in dungeons because the HPS still ends up marginally better than Heal as One, and Regeneration/Water Field honestly doesn’t heal for much. Signet of Stone and Signet of the Hunt are used interchangably, based on whether my opponents are melee (Hunt) or ranged (Stone). The other two will generally be traps (Spike/Flame), although occasionally I use Signet of Renewal for condition removal or double Spirits (using it less because effect radii blow and they die so fast).

Right now I am only lvl 38 on my ranger but my ultimate plan is to go short bow quickness/pet/crit build.
I use devourers right now because I love their range but am thinking about trying it with cats. The swapping pets is a huge thing and I find that ettins 2-3 levels higher than me will get killed within a few short seconds when I swap my pet early in the fight for the quickness. I decided to give it a go against a couple veterans and the results were awesome. Took 20 seconds ish to kill each one but as long as I am on top of my pet switches I can keep both alive and 1/5 of the time I am fighting I have quickness up. I am not focusing any condition damage because my idea behind the build is more for constant high crits. When I pop my cooldowns starting a veteran mob I can have 20 stacks of bleeds on the poor guy in first 5-6 seconds. From there it is just about keeping him off of my pets.

This can only get better as I lower my cooldowns on swapping pets and get piercing arrows.

My only struggle is what to get that will go well with the short bow. Was honestly contemplating 2 short bows and using different runes on each for on hit chances and cooldowns.

This thread shows why there are so many misguided players complaining their pets are doing so much of their damage.

I play a high balance of 3 specs:

1) High Base Damage (Power – 3.4k Attack)
2) High Critical Hit Chance and Damage (Precision – 41% Crit Chance with 22% Crit Damage Increase
3) High Pet Attributes (High attributes in general)

With these 3 traits, I utilize a high and fast level of DPS using my longbow to quickly rain down fire upon multiple enemies. One of my strategies (and I have many) include shooting barrage—→hunter’s shot—→rapid fire—→ weap swap to sword/dagger combo and dive in to finish the kill (if the enemy isn’t dead by the time my ranged attacks finish it off)

^That’s not even including my pet and summons. Typically I use Mistfire Wolf along with my other pet as extra dps and a distraction when I’m fighting 1-3 enemies. Along with the DPS that they expunge, they confuse the enemy and they also help to kill quickly ASAP so I can move on to the next foe.

I.E. I get in quick, kill ASAP from various ranges, and support as a high DPS flanker and debuffer (cripple/vulnerability)

Delirious.9278:

I play a high balance of 3 specs:

1) High Base Damage (Power – 3.4k Attack)
2) High Critical Hit Chance and Damage (Precision – 41% Crit Chance with 22% Crit Damage Increase
3) High Pet Attributes (High attributes in general)

With these 3 traits, I utilize a high and fast level of DPS using my longbow to quickly rain down fire upon multiple enemies. One of my strategies (and I have many) include shooting barrage—->hunter’s shot—->rapid fire—-> weap swap to sword/dagger combo and dive in to finish the kill (if the enemy isn’t dead by the time my ranged attacks finish it off)

^That’s not even including my pet and summons. Typically I use Mistfire Wolf along with my other pet as extra dps and a distraction when I’m fighting 1-3 enemies. Along with the DPS that they expunge, they confuse the enemy and they also help to kill quickly ASAP so I can move on to the next foe.

I.E. I get in quick, kill ASAP from various ranges, and support as a high DPS flanker and debuffer (cripple/vulnerability)

Wait, you must have Mistfire Wolf up to fight more than 1 enemy?

41% crit chance and 22% crit damage? Oh I see, you are one of those people who think their build is comprehensive even though they haven’t experienced endgame content.

I am a condition damage based ranger.

Weapons
Sword + Torch / Shortbow or Longbow- On sword I have the Major sigil of bloodlust (7 per kill, haven’t sprung for the 10 yet), and on Torch I have (forget the name) sigil that adds 2 stacks of might when switching to it. When I head out into the field I am either equipped with a shortbow or long bow, but usually short because I only tend to longbow it in WvW), which works well with the sigil I have on my Torch. I used to use, and might go back to for normal map play, an Axe+Warhorn over a bow. I prefer the sword because it gives me ability to zip around and spring from target to target (if timed correctly), the Torch because it causes burning and I love my condition damage, and the bows because it gives me the added range. I really enjoyed Axe because it hit multiple targets and also gave me bleeding. I keep a warhorn on me at all times and while running or before entering combat will pop H, load it, get the boons, and switch back immediately.

Pets:
Right now using brown bear (cure condition) and red moa (-33% damage). I have also enjoye the Ice Drake, Hyena, and other Moas. Underwater I use the armored fish to help tank for me and Jellyfish (he’s so pretty, his name is Squishy and he shall be my Squishy).
Traits:
As I mentioned I am a condition based ranger, so I rely heavily on my traps: Fire, Poison, Bleeding. I melt faces. For traits my +30 is (forget names of traitlines) Condition/Toughness, +20 Power/Condition Duration, +15 Vitality/Boon Duration). My precision is very low, but I have sacrificed my chance to crit for my condition damage.

Pikafan.3792:

Delirious.9278:

I play a high balance of 3 specs:

1) High Base Damage (Power – 3.4k Attack)
2) High Critical Hit Chance and Damage (Precision – 41% Crit Chance with 22% Crit Damage Increase
3) High Pet Attributes (High attributes in general)

With these 3 traits, I utilize a high and fast level of DPS using my longbow to quickly rain down fire upon multiple enemies. One of my strategies (and I have many) include shooting barrage—->hunter’s shot—->rapid fire—-> weap swap to sword/dagger combo and dive in to finish the kill (if the enemy isn’t dead by the time my ranged attacks finish it off)

^That’s not even including my pet and summons. Typically I use Mistfire Wolf along with my other pet as extra dps and a distraction when I’m fighting 1-3 enemies. Along with the DPS that they expunge, they confuse the enemy and they also help to kill quickly ASAP so I can move on to the next foe.

I.E. I get in quick, kill ASAP from various ranges, and support as a high DPS flanker and debuffer (cripple/vulnerability)

Wait, you must have Mistfire Wolf up to fight more than 1 enemy?

41% crit chance and 22% crit damage? Oh I see, you are one of those people who think their build is comprehensive even though they haven’t experienced endgame content.

From your reply, you don’t even know how successful I am in WvWvW. The above that I posted was even my most mundane strategy to use in general situations in WvW. It’s not even my best strategy because I’d like to keep my others a secret, but with rapid fire I’m able to do up to 8k dmg (if crits hit) on an enemy.

Alright, listen, I could use Rampage of One; it has fury, might, stability, and swiftness for both you and your pet, but when it comes down to it, it’s only good for swiftly killing 2 or 3 people at the most within it’s 20sec window.

With Mistfire Wolf, I have the ability to have simultaneously 2 pets at my disposal for 30seconds and after 30seconds I only have one pet. Now consider the damage I do and what my current pet does along with the Mistfire Wolf (which does approx. 2k DMG with its charge and at least 3k with its AoE move. My pet does its fair share of DPS too.

My build is to strike hard, fast, and to make sure I kill up to 4 people within 30 seconds before all I’m not my strongest anymore.

I’m not sure why you seem so dominant over everyone else’s build, but I think with your reply, you’re just all mouth and no talk. My guild can vouch for me as some of them have participated with me in WvW battles as we play for Yak’s Bend server.

Edit: Also, the Mistfire Wolf is a distraction. Think about it.. When people see two pets attacking you and the ranger is DPSing you from 1200 units distance away, what are you going to attack if you’re not ranged? You certainly can’t come up to me and expect to kill me quickly, I have a full exotic set on and I can dodge backwards plus utilize swiftness and my knockback shot.

^That’s if they actually get to me (which most of my foes usually don’t because they run away after I flurry my rapid fire at them). My Mistfire Wolf shouldn’t be underestimated. It has decent defense, a fair amount of HP, high DPS for a pet, and a good source of distraction. It’s a perfect way to at least have an even chance against 2-3 players for at least 30sec considering they are high lvled and well geared as well.

I prefer using an Arctodus/Eagle for my land pets. As for my aquatic play, I use a shark and Ice Drake. I chose the Arctodus/Eagle combo for my land pets, because they seem good at surviving, and I like my Arctodus for tanking.

For my weapons, I went with a longbow/short bow combination, although I mostly use the short bow. I like the long bow for its AOE attacks, which is helpful for taking out a good group of mobs.

For my traits, I am going for Marksmanship, Skirmishing, and either Wilderness Survival, or Nature Magic. I really haven’t decided between the last two yet, but the first two seem to work really well for me.

I am still playing with utilities, although I do like the Rampage As One skill.

For my armor, I am focusing on mainly Power and Precision. Everything has been going well for me so far!

Delirious.9278:

Pikafan.3792:

Delirious.9278:

I play a high balance of 3 specs:

1) High Base Damage (Power – 3.4k Attack)
2) High Critical Hit Chance and Damage (Precision – 41% Crit Chance with 22% Crit Damage Increase
3) High Pet Attributes (High attributes in general)

With these 3 traits, I utilize a high and fast level of DPS using my longbow to quickly rain down fire upon multiple enemies. One of my strategies (and I have many) include shooting barrage—->hunter’s shot—->rapid fire—-> weap swap to sword/dagger combo and dive in to finish the kill (if the enemy isn’t dead by the time my ranged attacks finish it off)

^That’s not even including my pet and summons. Typically I use Mistfire Wolf along with my other pet as extra dps and a distraction when I’m fighting 1-3 enemies. Along with the DPS that they expunge, they confuse the enemy and they also help to kill quickly ASAP so I can move on to the next foe.

I.E. I get in quick, kill ASAP from various ranges, and support as a high DPS flanker and debuffer (cripple/vulnerability)

Wait, you must have Mistfire Wolf up to fight more than 1 enemy?

41% crit chance and 22% crit damage? Oh I see, you are one of those people who think their build is comprehensive even though they haven’t experienced endgame content.

From your reply, you don’t even know how successful I am in WvWvW. The above that I posted was even my most mundane strategy to use in general situations in WvW. It’s not even my best strategy because I’d like to keep my others a secret, but with rapid fire I’m able to do up to 8k dmg (if crits hit) on an enemy.

Alright, listen, I could use Rampage of One; it has fury, might, stability, and swiftness for both you and your pet, but when it comes down to it, it’s only good for swiftly killing 2 or 3 people at the most within it’s 20sec window.

With Mistfire Wolf, I have the ability to have simultaneously 2 pets at my disposal for 30seconds and after 30seconds I only have one pet. Now consider the damage I do and what my current pet does along with the Mistfire Wolf (which does approx. 2k DMG with its charge and at least 3k with its AoE move. My pet does its fair share of DPS too.

My build is to strike hard, fast, and to make sure I kill up to 4 people within 30 seconds before all I’m not my strongest anymore.

I’m not sure why you seem so dominant over everyone else’s build, but I think with your reply, you’re just all mouth and no talk. My guild can vouch for me as some of them have participated with me in WvW battles as we play for Yak’s Bend server.

Edit: Also, the Mistfire Wolf is a distraction. Think about it.. When people see two pets attacking you and the ranger is DPSing you from 1200 units distance away, what are you going to attack if you’re not ranged? You certainly can’t come up to me and expect to kill me quickly, I have a full exotic set on and I can dodge backwards plus utilize swiftness and my knockback shot.

^That’s if they actually get to me (which most of my foes usually don’t because they run away after I flurry my rapid fire at them). My Mistfire Wolf shouldn’t be underestimated. It has decent defense, a fair amount of HP, high DPS for a pet, and a good source of distraction. It’s a perfect way to at least have an even chance against 2-3 players for at least 30sec considering they are high lvled and well geared as well.

I agree with Pikafan.3792 your build is great only on WvW but not on PvE either is sPvP.
" My build is to strike hard, fast, and to make sure I kill up to 4 people within 30seconds before all I’m not my strongest anymore. " those 4 must be some rabbit armor lol, to kill 4 lvl80 full gear its impossible even if its 1 on 1 with that build of yours you wont win i can vote on that for sure (unless u said you are defending on top of your tower and the guy are free shoot no dodge/evade then well u might kill it)

- Pets
> Wolf for AoE fear (works with enemy zergs)
> Drakehound for AoE stun (works with enemy zergs)

- Weapons
> shortbow: BEST weapon for rangers by far. Inbuilt dodge, stacks bleeds, poison, cripple and the 5th skill is awesome
> Axe+Warhorn: Mainly to get fast from one side of the map to the other. Chill is nice to.

- Traits
> 20/30/20/0/0
> YOU NEED PENETRATING ARROWS AND 20%COOLDOWN (yes in caps lock)

- Stats: (magic find)>Precision>Power>Condition Damage>the rest

=> glass cannon build for those who know how to dodge

To answer this post question
- Preferred pets, and why
- Preferred weapons, and why
- Preferred stats, and why

first you need to in which Zone
1)sPvP
2)WvW
3)PvE (normal lvling world)

For me i think ranger are mainly Condition damage dealer meaning dragging as long as you can without dying.
If you play Power/precision/crit damage as a lvl80 player(full gear) you can almost quit the game after hitting 300normal 700 crit per hit so sokittenlow damage, and which you will quit if u play warrior burst out 10k on dungeon lvl80 boss(1.5-3k normal) with you hitting 700 max, I bet yourkitten no one will ever invite you for a second round believe me.

End of intro

question 1 sPvP
Rune : Rune of the Afflicted for extra +15% bleed duration/poison (which deals alot)
Weapon : shortbow / axe, torch
Troll Unguent healing ( pro’s only for Condition Damage player which Kite players round and round)
3 traps fire, bleeding, poison
Entangle (for 1-2 second too save yourkitten or Rampage as one (to run faster@@?)
Pets Bear, Tanky for Empathic Bond which you almost clean from condition most of the time. ( If it’s bear i use Black Bear for Roar fiercely, weakening nearby foes. Take note DON’T ever use it to attack which he only deal 500 omg ._." press on f3 key so he’ll just stay close to you and suck out all condition from you and use f2 when melee come by which will weaken them.) If you want damage i suggest snow eagle as they are small and slow AOE so that you can kite them round and round^^.

best build are traps with high condition damage around 1300-1480 with Skirmishing30, Wilderness Survival 20-30, Nature Magic 10(for Nature’s Bounty-Troll Unguent which heals up to 10k with 10sec cd nice^^ just kite them around with traps and the longer u kite the higher% you will win)

Question 2 WvW
Weapon any
skill any
heaing any
nothing basically you hardly get a 1 on 1 all you saw was 10-20 in front or so@@
well WvW is basically who’s has many players on who’s side that’s all LOL full gear or not rushing into a crowd of 20 players targeting range are death wish. (longbow might hit but with AOE damage of 500 you likely wont kill anyone with 20k hp unless they stay put dancing xD)

Question 3 PvE
best bulid are like sPvP with 20 stack of bleeding 115 per second YOU MIGHT BE WANTED into dungeon party xD

Ending
For those that are playing power/precision/Critical Damage dealer as Ranger well good luck lady’s and gentlemen’s ^^ (p.s you should consider changing Job as a warrior xD)

Level 40 Human, mainly solo PvE.

Weapons:
Longbow and either Greatsword or Shortbow as 2nd depending where I am.

Pets:
Usually arctodus (same as a bear but with a Maul attack) and alpine wolf (has a CC special). For water Shark/River Drake

Skills:
Troll Ungurent, Signet of the Wild, Quickening Zephyr, Rampage as One, and either Flame or Viper trap.

Traits:
Currently 15/0/10/0/5 with Steady Focus and Wilderness Knowledge active.

Usual MO is to travel with the wolf, approach mobs at max range, switch pets for quickness buff, open with auto attack, send in the pet, then cycle with Hunters Shot and Rapid Shot. If anything gets close, set the trap and use Rapid Fire for the added combo damage, or use the knock-back shot and let the pet finish off.

Pets

On land I use a Snow Leopard for pretty much anything: solo play and dungeons. I do so because of its high damage output. For dungeons I should probably switch to a Lynx, which seems marginally better because of the bleed effect on pounce. For tough opponents where the cat can’t survive I use a brown bear for tanking.

Under water I use a Jellyfish for tanking and a shark for damage. While the first is OK, the second is very bad, because of very poor survivability … so I’m still looking for a good amphibious DPS pet.

Weapons

Mostly a Longbow for just about anything, with Axe/Horn for AoE and kiting. I also tried a Short Bow for a while and found it to be ineffective .. maybe having Longbow traits has something to do with that :p

Stats

Traits into Marksmanship and Beast Mastery, with the left overs in Skirmishing. This turns your pet into a good damage dealer, or tanker depending on what pet you have active, while giving your own DPS a good boost.

I’m looking for Power, then Precision as the main attributes on my stuff, with Power being the highest value in my eyes. Reasons … the Longbow has low firing speed and you can achieve a decent critical chance from secondary stats and other sources.

prefered Pet : the Arctodus (for the rend/heal) and I am not set on the second the whiptail devourer (poison). I specced to give a trait to make condition damage.

Weapon : short and long bow. I alternate between the two on veteran champion, starting with poison/bleeding, then switch to long bow for the big damage skill (repeated shot?) repel skill.

Also have fire trap, poison trap, frost trap (alternated with regen signet not sure on which i settle) and the entangle elite skill (I don’t have yet the 30 points skill ; I am level 30 only and did a lot of low level zone for crafting material and exploration bonus).

For trash mob i use shortbow and traps.

So far I like it.

Lvl 80 slyvari ranger

axe warhorn &2hand-sword
Fast traveling mode

Shortbow warhorn
Piercing arrow
Quickness
Sharp stone
Rampage as 1
W3 fighting mode

Ground defending mode
Bow+torch
Sharp stone
Rampage
Quickness
Runes use in bow
+30% chance to cast flame explosion.