Guild Wars 2

I’ve played thief and engineer for almost 2 years. I’ve never enjoyed a ranger despite owning one for nearly 9 months … but when I saw all the changes to ranger with the recent patches, my ranger has since become my new favorite character and my goodness is he an absolute monster. Just FYI I dunno how well-known this build is (surely I’m not the only one who came up with this) but I thought I’d share it anyway.

TL;DR below

Lets start with Marksmanship trait line:

Normally, Opening Strike gives you: when you enter combat, your first attack does 125% damage and 5 stacks of vulnerability. Remorseless used to proc on kill or stealth, but it received a overhaul with the new trait changes: Regain Opening Strike whenever you gain fury. Opening strike deals more damage. Combine those two traits with: Precise Strike – Opening strike always critical hits.

… and you have a recipe for some serious damage.

There’s no cooldown on Remorseless, which allows me to regain Opening Strike as often as every time I grant myself fury. Because of this, I can do many 150% damage attacks with a guarenteed crit. I will be taking advantage of that damage boost with Maul, the #2 Great Sword skill.

Now, as for stacking fury to get all those lovely Opening Strikes: for my pet I use red moa F2 skill (grants fury), Clarion Bond (Marksmanship, grants fury on pet swap), the ranger elite shout Strength of the Pack, along with Battle Roar (it’s a Charr racial skill that grants might/fury/swiftness), and that’s 4 separate ways to instantly grant myself fury, at any time … which means 4 additional OSes whenever I want them. (If you don’t have a charr ranger that’s fine, it only means one less OS at your disposal).

Now, add in Beast Mastery for all those bonus ways to grant fury, and Skirmishing for Quick Draw, and by alternating between weapon swapping, pet managemant, and skills, I can easily get out near-back-to-back OS Mauls with guaranteed crits. These mauls are all hitting for about 5-6K damage on my ranger.

But we can get even higher damage than that! This is where longbow comes into play: if you begin your fight with LB#2, this nets you 15 stacks of vulnerability, 20 if you wanna pop one of your fury-granting abilities during the animation. You then close in for melee, popping LB #3 along the way.

After that, you then swap to GS, (Furious Grip grants fury upon weapon swap), which nets you another OS. You then IMMEDIATELY follow through with maul, then another fury-granting skill, and then another maul, which is possible due to the reduced cooldown of maul granted by Quick Draw. Already you should have done roughly around 14-15k damage, probably more depending on crits off of the longbow’s Rapid Fire.

After that what you do is up to your discretion. Since I took Two-Handed Training, I keep a watch out for when my GS hits grant me more fury/ another OS, and save my next maul for that occasion. While my other skills are on cooldown, this is also when I typically activate Signet of the Wild for another 150% damage boosted Maul. Or I can switch back into LB if I want to start re-adding those stacks of vulnerability with LB#2. GS #5 is also useful after the first maul, just don’t waste an OS on it.

This is a zerker gear build. Currently I’m not running full zerker, since I am at the moment testing some more defensive accessories for a little more survivibility. I added Rage runes, since I’m under near-constant fury and this gives me a near-perma 5% damage buff. Since you have a roughly 50% chance to crit (before fury), this build is great for sigils that proc on crit! I suggest sigils of air, fire, or strength for their low ICD. Peril works too.

Aside from all this, remember you are running zerker and are rather squishy, which is why I’ve taken the We Heal as One shout with Resounding Timbre (Beast Mastery, reduces cooldown on shouts, adds 10 sec regen) for as much healing as possible.

With some adjustments this build is viable in PvP. Boon stripping? Not a problem, since you’re granting yourself fury every few seconds. Stealthy thieves/mesmers avoiding your Mauls? That’s what Sic Em is for (6 seconds of Revealed). The main problem will be CC. For this you want to swap Beast Mastery with Wilderness Survival, and take Oakheart Salve, Shared Anguish, and Wilderness knowledge. Then equip Lightning Reflexes for a stunbreak and Signet of Renewal for condi cleanse. Since you are losing Resounding Timbre you may want to stick with Healing Spring instead of We Heal as One.

… And that’s about everything there is to say! Whew. Here’s the build, for those who want a TL;DR: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-K;4sE-u-VEgDV-0;9k3;2YZb;0257136247;46JF0D;1PedaPedao-FW0-w6;2VOVTWYXcYi3o42o-G-2iF

FYI, this is the first time I’ve ever shared a build. I know it’s not the most polished so feel free to suggest changes, improvements, ect! It’s appreciated.

Try bugged engi grenades 100->0 in .5 seconds.

Try unpredictable mesmer burst from stealth 100->0 in 0.75 seconds

Try new thief burst, steal -> CnD -> backstab 21k dmg in 1 second.

xD

I suggest Wilderness survival instead of Beastmastery for more reliable Fury through Wilderness Knowledge and overhall sustain.

Rune of the Warrior could also be interesting to get back into GS and proc Fury faster.

Those double maul are nice to land after Hunter’s Shot and Hilt Bash in-between. But you really don’t want to miss any of the 2.

Edit : Wait, it’s PVE build, nevermind.

Check out runes of evasion.

Dojo.1867:

Check out runes of evasion.

Eh, unless the rolling attack doesn’t use up your opening strike from the rune, I’d say avoid ‘em. It doesn’t help their case that they don’t exist in PvP. A better alternative would be Runes of Rage/Scholar for burst damage or Runes of the Pack for the utility. Runes of the Mad King are really fun with the new Rampage as One too, jumping your cat up to 25 might while shredding your victim with remorseless sword autos for perma cripple and 25 vuln.

Remorseless is a godly trait that we’re probably not gonna be dropping from any of our power builds any time soon. It’s just way too flexible with how accessible fury is.

Powerful? Really?

If Remorseless can do something remotely like this, then we can talk.

https://youtu.be/QMNsVVW7YVI

https://youtu.be/3YK78ShnCp8

https://youtu.be/46hPricq-RQ (Long video, but worth it)

Aidan Eighthrain.8612:

I suggest Wilderness survival instead of Beastmastery for more reliable Fury through Wilderness Knowledge and overhall sustain.

Rune of the Warrior could also be interesting to get back into GS and proc Fury faster

I took Beast Mastery for Resounding Timbre (this makes We Heal as One the best healing option) and Two-handed training. I am not running with any survival utility skills currently which makes Wilderness Knoweledge useless.

But, if you want to add in Lightning Reflexes or Quickening Zephyr, The stunbreak is nice for PvP and can certainly replace Battle Roar for non-charr rangers. I think both options have their merits, WS definitely the better option for survivibility and better CC management, and is better for PvP. Solid choices, there. I don’t play much PvP so I am glad you brought this up. I’ll add it to the OP.

Rune of the Warrior doesn’t really mesh well with this build as much as Runes of Rage IMO, because of how often you’ll be granting yourself fury. With rage runes, you effectively have a near-permanent 5% damage buff.

Dojo.1867:

Check out runes of evasion.

I don’t prefer it because it requires you to essentially trade a dodge for fury, and I already have enough ways to give myself fury without needing to waste a dodge. As I said above, I prefer runes of Rage for the almost permanent 5% damage buff.

Don’t dodge for fury. Rather see it as a free opening strike after every dodge.

run this for pvp, it’s my favourite Remorseless variant.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1Y_b;0257157246;4LB06U;1bRm8bRm84C

mistsim.2748:

run this for pvp, it’s my favourite Remorseless variant.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;1sEFx-r2NDV-0;9k-R;1Y_b;0257157246;4LB06U;1bRm8bRm84C

very nice build well desgined , have you tried Refined poisons yet instead of Shared anguish , im running in PvP a Lb,S+D condi hybrid atm i use Krait and Carrion Amulet instead of Valk amulet very tempting to get the extra Hp and this is right up my ally .

as your build plays out would you take refined poisons or is it not worth it?
or do you think the extra toughness and Hp would make it a good swap for shared anguish?

I haven’t tried refined poisons because I brawl a lot, so our HP is rarely above 90%. well, unless it’s right after swap. that being said, shared anguish is pretty bad so you might be onto something. I will definitely test it out.

edit: switched over, too good.

Dojo.1867:

Check out runes of evasion.

Just use 5 evasion and 1 divinity to get around the crippling attack using up your OS.