Guild Wars 2

In advance I need to make a few notes. I have been playing since beta, but am only a casual gamer. I’m 28 and have a family/job so I can’t devote a lot of my life to this game, I also was in an accident that rendered my hands incapable of operating the keyboard/mouse efficiently and thus play using an Xbox controller and X-Padder. I know no one cares, and I want no pity, this is merely to summarize why I play the style I do, and why my build requires some of the things it does to be efficient for me. So, what I am asking is input on where my build could be flawed, not a response of “Go Seekers/Bunker or go home.” Furthermore, I am posting on my mobile, so I can not direct link the build, but will explain the best I can.

Build:
30MM- Signet CDR; Signet Might; Beast master’s Signet
0- Skirmishing
5- WS
5- NM
30- BM Master’s Bond, Compassion Training, XII (Regent)

Armor: Clerics with Monk Runes
Trinkets: All Ascended Celestial w/ Zerker Quiver
Weapons: Zerk Axe Prec Sigil/ Zerk axe Blood Sigil
GS Soldiers Battle Sigil
Food: Mango Pie or +Prec + Crit / Master Maintenance

Skills: Healing Spring/Signet stone, Signet Hunt, Signet Wild, Rampage as One

20k-ish health, Almost 3k toughness, 3k-ish Power. Stacked 50% crit chance, 35-45% crit damage.

The Why: I really liked seeing the GS 15k build, and wanted to get away from BM Bunker condi style for awhile now. I just need some variety. However, due to my play capacity I am not feasibly capable of running full zerk and hoping to get lucky enough to survive. So I decided I needed something to maintain some survivability. Wilderness Survival is nice, but I realized I could get more burst from my pet, make it Huber tanky, and get about 1000Healing Power If I went 30BM and Clerics. It gives me a very solid toughness and HP score, with a decent power. Yes, I know it scales poorly, but is still preferred as I usually run with a condi Necro, so going Condi is pretty pointless. This setup allows me to have a solid, not great, attack with a low end burst, and a potential secondary pet burst. I run Riverdrake primarily as his breath weapon has the best chance to hit, and can proc a lot of might asap.

I have several ways I can start an encounter, usually pop RaO for stability and Aegis as enemy is closing. Use my opening strike via axe 4 for pull, while queuing my pet who is in passive to attack said target, activate it’s breath toward the end of pull to utilize the 1/2 second or so of displacement. Follow with GS5, pop signets and maul. This usually totals 8-15 k depending on crits etc. With the 12-25 stacks of might. If I miss the pull, I’ll usually axe 3 chill into, weapon swap, Swoop, signet pop Maul.

I’ve had fair success with this, and took down some potentially bad players today in WvW. Had zero trouble PVE solo murdering Champions and Mobs. In WvW I also ran around in a 5 man havoc squad for a bit and we were consistently taking down groups 5-8 and killing 3 man thief hit squads. Not sure how much of that was me, I could have been carried, but feel I was a significant role in our group. I can also solo tower lords/camps with no problem, pending I don’t have an enemy zerg (or 1-2 players tbh) eating my face simultaneously.

So any critiques besides L2P, GTFO, or Play a different profession?

It looks like you’ve put a lot of effort into creating a playstyle that suits you, well done!

I for one, wouldn’t put as much focus on Beastmastery as the Wilderness Survival and Nature Magic traits tend to allow for a lot more survivability for the player. And while you’re alive, you can control the pet.
Increasing the player’s potential (be it surviving or dealing damage) is in most cases superior to increasing your pet’s.

As for pet choices; I usually run with a spider/wolf combination as their damage doesn’t seem too affected by the 25th patch and in my opinion have the most reliable F2 skills. Also I value good crowd control higher than more damage. It’s important to keep in mind you can always change your pets to deal with different types of situations, so don’t ever feel stuck with one pet.

One last suggestion; because the Ranger profession seriously lacks condition removal, the Lemongrass Poultry Soup is a great consumable to keep in mind.

Edit I want to leave 1 suggestion/remark about your trait build, spending points in Nature Magic is usually either all-in, or not at all. The first minor trait is not worth it at all in my opinion, and you would be much better off with 10 points in Wilderness Survival instead so you can take either III (Shared Anguish) or IV (Vigorous Renewal), I think it’ll also be a relief that you can now use shortcuts in WvW by changing that adept trait to I (Soften the Fall.)

I would have to think about it some more since I have two conflicting views on this.
My initial thought was to go more pet+bunker. Let pet do more of your damage and the build is more forgiving to any mistakes.

Then I realized that any bunker build the fights go on for a lot longer…sometimes they don’t actually end. I know after some of those fights my hands/wrists are sore and I need to take a quick break. That doesn’t sound ideal for you.

So maybe more GC would work for you. In and out, kill or be killed…quickly. It’s all about the pre-fight setup and patience to wait for the right opportunity before committing.

Maybe try both styles for a week and see what works best for your situation.

Thanks for the responses guys. Here is a little clarification on the thought process behind, and what I intended out of the set.

First, the build done in an editor.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VG;4wEVu-f2kDV-0;9-8;2T-44T38A;713BbFG6;2TudbTudb00kKN455;2VPVUWZXdYj3p42uVIF310;9;9;9;9;9;4cV0;1V8k3I
Edit: ~Swap to GS weapon to see effective stats when I switch to main focus, those are what I was basing off of.~

Hopefully that works.

Jorne~ I really did look into the Wilderness Survival line, as I ran it always at 30 when I went with the RRR build. Here was the concerns I had with it. The Minor Adept is fantastic, but the major’s don’t bring anything major I constantly would prefer to have. Transferring my hard cc to my pet seems very un-rangery to me, and too passive to count on. It may be a lot better than I think, but I didn’t find it all that reliable. The vigor on heal is nice, but really doesn’t add that much on top of the already increased by minor trait. Faster Rezzing, meh. Muddy Terrain is a nice shortcut skill I agree, but I can take most short cuts without it anyway. Not really build defining. The minor master trait actually equates out to a 1s protection, because the first second is utilized when you are invulnerable via dodge roll anyway. The Major traits for master have some nice options, but none that really warrant survivability loss in my opinion. (Please correct me if I’m wrong, it is why I am posting this anyway.) Bark Skin and Empathic Bond also feel very last ditch effort, and a hope to god to survive thing. By that point, usually the battle is pretty well lost or won, unless you are on a Bunker Regen build, which I am trying to get away from. I defend my choice in Nature magic minor because that Regeneration is effected by my 20% boon duration, and with 1000 points in healing power, (Thanks to BM tree), really has a good bit of capacity to keep me on my feet. I definitely notice it kick in when I take those hits. Beast Mastery for me is a dually defined road. One, I took Masters Bond because I want to focus on River Drake primarily for an extra burst attempt. One I can setup with GS5 or Axe3/4. With a fully stacked and traited Drake, they can actually give a decent chunk of damage, and it is AOE-ish. Not to mention that beast can tank almost anything, even without Protection or what not. Add Regeneration on top of the Signet, Natural Regen, and Compassion training, and that beast will tank almost anything, especially once I pop signet of stone. Would love to hear your views on these thoughts.

Forzani~ Also greatly appreciate your time in considering this. It means a lot. The one thing I am looking for most really is a critique on the build itself, as I know my capacity with a BM is decent, on zerker, I fail. This is mostly because I have difficulties at times trying to maintain my pet on my controller. I have him mapped to the directional pad, with the left joystick being my move. To save my pet, I sacrifice my mobility. To save myself, I sacrifice my pet. So I have to establish a kind of balance. The BM line being 30 helps that, as I don’t have to worry about an instant gank on my pet constantly, which robs me of utility or damage. It isn’t fool proof, but it at least helps it sustain some.

The other thing I was questioning. Sigils on my Axes. I use the precision to get my Crit chance up to 50% with the sword, so my subsequent attacks after bursting aren’t pool noodling it, but the blood sigil is questionable. I only use the axe to initiate on groups and mobs where I don’t want to blow all my cool downs, and for having a 900 range pull/light cc. So would there be a better option to add on the off hand axe?

Thanks again guys.