Guild Wars 2

First of all: I know there are articles, and other threads, covering Ranger/Druid builds. However, my primary issue is that I play World PvE. Most of those builds are based upon team play.

Secondarily: I have… trouble understanding the mechanics. You may as well be teaching me algebra in Eteocypriot. It’s why I am asking for help rather than working it our for myself.

Notes:

• I spend two-thirds of my play time on my own. The other third is with farms/sporadic groups for events.
• More to be added if needed…

General Questions:

• Build?
• Slot Skills?
• Pets?
• Armour set, and Runes?
• Weapons, and Sigils?

Many thanks for the help, if there is any to be given!

What kind of build do you want?
-Support and dmg over time
-burst dmg
-ranger or druid
-healy or buffy

After you specify i am glad to help:)

Well, one early question I feel should be “what are you currently using?” Knowing what you currently run, and how much you enjoy it is an important starting point. Do you have all the pets unlocked? Do you have any crafting skills on your ranger, or on any of your other characters? Are you just open world, or do you do any dungeons/fractals? What’s your preferred playstyle? Have you fully unlocked the Druid trait tree?

One generic tip I would give is you should always have one melee weapon and one ranged weapon equipped at all time. Being able to switch from one to the other allows you to keep going when an enemy gets too close/far away, or throws up a skill that reflects/absorbs projectiles.

@InsaneQR – I’m not sure, that’s why I am asking for a build that suits general (solo) PvE roaming! I’d imagine some sort of survivability and damage combo?

@Rognik – Currently I am equipped with:

• Sentinel Emblazoned Armour with Berserker Runes.
• Berserker’s Pearl Stinger (Longbow) with Sigil of Force, and Sigil of Momentum.
• Berserker’s Pearl Needler (Shortbow) with Sigil or Air, and Sigil of Fire.
  Additional:
• All of the pets but the GW1 specials are unlocked.
• One of my characters has maxed crafting skills.
• Just open world.
• Primarily solo playstyle (achievement hunter/completionist), though I do get involved in a lot of the world events (world bosses, Silver Wastes, Auric Basin meta, etc.)
• Druid is all unlocked!

I use to combo the longbow and a sword + torch, but I stopped playing for a year and logged back to my character a fortnight ago to a longbow and shortbow, and just went with it. So I am utterly confused on all the new systems, builds, etc.

I am hoping for better survival, and possibly damage? I am not sure if the two can be done at the same time.
Oh! And I am not against using pets! I love using pets.

I hope that some of that will help.

Fusreya.1562:

I am hoping for better survival, and possibly damage? I am not sure if the two can be done at the same time.
Oh! And I am not against using pets! I love using pets.

I hope that some of that will help.

Survival and damage can definitely go together in the sense that the best defense is a good offense; everything does 0 damage once it’s dead. Seriously, for open world your first priority is bursting down trash as fast as you can. Practice your dodges and using your defensive skills, and really most fights will take one heal or none, unless it’s a pitched map meta battle.

Weapons: as others said above, you really only need one ranged weapon. Your choices, pre-Druid, are longbow, shortbow, and mainhand axe. If you like longbow, you are in good shape with Berserker’s stats – this is a “power” weapon. Shortbow and mainhand axe are “condi” weapons, meaning they’ll be more effective if you choose stats with Condition Damage and Expertise (with Power, Precision, and Ferocity still important, but secondary to these two) like Viper’s and Sinister. Condi builds are stronger for longer fights, but Power is fine too, and stronger on shorter fights; for open world the difference is small enough you might as well choose what you like best.

(EDIT: I just reread and saw you have staff available as well, so I’ll talk about it. Staff is a ranged weapon with mostly healing and defensive skills – the two damage skills do low damage and healing, 3 is a kind of teleport, 4 immobilizes and cleanses conditions, and 5 heals projectiles and is a water field. Reasons to use staff are mainly 3 for running/skipping, or if you want to build up tons of astral force to get into Celestial Avatar faster for big group heals and a group damage buff).

Once you’ve chosen between shortbow and longbow, power and condi, you can pick a melee option. Mainhand sword is popular to pair with longbow, both because it has the highest direct damage, and because you can swap offhands between offhand axe (highest damage and super fun to use), warhorn, and torch. Condi builds most often suggest pairing shortbow with mainhand axe/torch, even though this leaves you with a lot of projectiles, because these weapons apply the most conditions. Greatsword isn’t recommended as often, but the damage is still fine for open world (especially since its recent buff) and it can also be really fun to use – and sometimes better for tight spaces as it’s harder to throw yourself off a cliff with greatsword than sword!

Oh, about pets: Felines do the most damage, but the others can be useful too, depending what you want/need. Try them all, get a feel for them! Swapping pets and weapons and even traits on the fly is central to the ranger lifestyle.

@Sister Saxifrage – Though I love the idea of playing a healer, that’s for another character and another time. It doesn’t seem like Druid would serve me well for solo-play. So let’s see…

Primary: Longbow, Shortbow, or Axe?

• Longbow for sure. It’s the weapon I am most familiar with. I don’t think I have ever taken the Longbow off my toon’ in her two and half year+ lifespan.

Secondary: Sword or Axe?

• From your explanation, the Sword would be more optimal.

Offhand: Axe, Dagger, Torch, or Warhorn?

• If the Axe has the highest damage, it’s probably what I should use. Lesser option: Torch (it just feels good to watch the enemies burn, but I don’t know the damage on it).

Power or Conditions?

• Something that I have never really considered. I went with the map chat advice of using Berserker a few years back. Would the weapon choices affect my options? Example: Going with Longbow and Sword + Axe means I am better off with Power?

Pets?

• I’ve only recently being experimenting with pets due to the additions with HoT. Generally, I run with a Stalker, and have taken up a Lightning Wyvern as the secondary. But whatever helps me the most on the different maps.

General thoughts:

The first place to start when deciding on a build for yourself is just what weapons you enjoy the most. Some weapons complement each other more than others though (outlined well by Sister Saxifrage above)
Since you’ve said longbow (and your listed stats so far are sentinel and berserker) I’ll just assume a power build for now.

Utility skills are easily swappable, so experimenting with what you enjoy is a good idea here too.
Some general thoughts:
Storm Spirit’s active skill and Glyph of Equality are good AoE power damage/defensive options against groups of mobs (mobs don’t attack you while they’re dazed)
Trap skills, Glyph of Alignment and Sun Spirit are good AoE condi damage options.
Signet of Stone, Protect Me and Guard are good pure defensive options.
Search and Rescue and the Spirit skills are good group support options during meta events.

As far as traits/specialisations go, a simple way of doing this is by looking for the trait that supports the weapon you prefer, and starting by picking it.
So for longbow, this would mean Marksmanship, taking Lead the Wind as the 3rd trait.
The most fun first trait in this line is probably Clarion Bond.
The second trait can vary depending on the rest of your build, but generally if mostly using longbow and letting your pet tank, Steady Focus. If using some signets as your utility skills, Brutish Seals. If using greatsword as your second weapon (or having a lot of dazes available), Moment of Clarity.

For open world pve, I do love taking the druid specialisation for the permanent swiftness available from Natural Stride as the second trait. It’s just a fantastic quality of life bonus.
The first and third traits depend on the rest of your build again.

This leaves you with one other trait line to swap around and experiment with a bit.
One way of picking which one is by picking the line that contains the utility skill type you use the most.
Assuming the above is fine with you, I’d probably go with either:
Nature Magic, goes well with druid, helps the group support role in world metaevents, and can improve Spirit utilities.
(For example, Allies Aid, Windborne Notes, and any of the third traits depending)
or
Beastmastery, helps make your pets better, and can improve Shout utilities and greatsword.

Lastly I just wanted to check if you had looked into getting ascended trinkets yet?
Just asking because they offer a nice increase in stats over exotic trinkets.
If you haven’t, a good place to start is by completing the Heart of Thorns story achievements for some power damage amulets as rewards.
Living Story season 2 achievements offers condi damage stat trinkets as rewards, alternatively.
A fun ascended backpack to go for if you have none yet is Mawdrey.

Mawdrey is fun in the sense of the skin being cute and weird, and arguably fun as a scavenger hunt, but it is not cheap or easy. The cheapest, easiest ascended backpack is the one you get for winterberries from Bitterfrost Frontier.

Fusreya.1562:

Power or Conditions?

• Something that I have never really considered. I went with the map chat advice of using Berserker a few years back. Would the weapon choices affect my options? Example: Going with Longbow and Sword + Axe means I am better off with Power?

In most cases it does influence your choice. Longbow, sword, great sword, off-hand axe are largely power weapons, ignoring the side-effects of some skills and great swords more defensive orientation. Shortbow, torch (and sometimes dagger) are condi. Mh axe is mixed, but as far as I know is chosen for condition damage due to skill 2 for more bleeds. In your example, yes, Power’s correct.

As for Druid: While I’m also no fan of support specs due to my heavy solo focus (and with my low-ish level of skill the phrase “everything works in Open World PvE” does not apply), I also don’t want to miss the passive 33% movement speed bonus. Yes, there’s the 25% signet and a self-boon Ranger build.

Some general thoughts…

I would like to add one specific thing about the melee weapon choice. You can actually use Greatsword for travelling as well as leaping farther than you can jump (although this doesn’t have supermany applications now with gliding) so if you prefer the more balanced Greatsword in terms of offense/defense I quite like it. In fact I find sword to be more of a group weapon, as you easily risk more damage taken with it, but that’s also down to knowledge – it’s harder to learn just because how it interferes a bit with dodging logic.

It also really depends on how fast you want to kill things. You can definitely build a Power gearset that is fairly durable in terms of healing through Zealot (or cleric + some crit) where you have more mitigation and such, although it will make fights much longer. If you wish to do this I would go the condition route and pickup Apothecary gear, simply since it is easier to gear for that type of damage along with defense. As others have said though often a strong offense can be good, especially with Power (that cannot kite around while condis tick for damage) so bringing durable pets to alternate calling and wearing all that berserker stuff is also a thing, just more dependant on dodging well and such.

But I would definitely try to build upon the aspect you find fun with Ranger first. It’s not very fun to be effective if it brings you no joy. One nice perk with ranger is that power, condi, healing, and so on… there are weapons supporting all of that, so for open world ranger has quite diverse choice. If you’ve trouble distinguishing those, a weapon with things like burning, bleedor poison, is typically condition, whilst a weapon with straight damage values and maybe some general buffs is a Power weapon. Some are a little hybrid, such as Sword which can technically be used in either, but for Ranger it’s otherwise fairly straightforwards; ex. Short bow for Condi – Long bow for Power, commonly. Staff is mostly used for zipping around or group heals.

Hope any of this helps, I don’t have a good build on hand to present

By the sounds of it, I will most likely go for the Longbow and Sword + Axe combo, though I may fix up an offhand Dagger, Warhorn, and Torch for if I ever feel like trying something else.
Power build it is then! Though this is where I get confused as there are so many attribute combinations for Weapons and Armour. What would be best?

Three Attribute:

• Berserker – Power, Precision, and Ferocity.
• Zealot – Power, Precision, and Healing Power.
• Soldier – Power, Toughness, and Vitality.
• Forsaken – Power, Toughness, and Healing Power. (Weapons only)
• Valkyrie – Power, Vitality, and Ferocity.
  Which would be the best for me out of these?

Four Attribute:

• Commander – Power, Precision, Toughness, and Ferocity.
• Marauder – Power, Precision, Vitality, and Ferocity.
• Vigilant – Power, Toughness, Concentration, and Expertise
• Crusader – Power, Toughness, Ferocity, and Healing Power.
• Wanderer – Power, Vitality, Toughness, and Concentration.
• Viper – Power, Condition Damage, Precision, and Expertise.
  Which would be the best for me out of these?

So for traits:

• Marksmanship – Call of the Wild → Steady Focus → Lead the Wind.
• Beastmastery – Companion’s Might → Natural Healing → Zephyr’s Speed.
• Druid – Druidic Clarity → Natural Stride → Ancient Seeds.

I’ve not dabbled in Ascended items/trinkets yet. They are something I am currently working towards. :x

The best for power builds are usually berserker stats, for a maximum of damage. If you want to take some defensive stats, marauder is a solid pick with only a little less dmg compared to berserker, but a bunch of extra health.

Traitwise i would take Skirmishing over Beastmastery, for Spotter and Quickdraw, but BM can work well too.

Ascended trinkets: do not neglect WvW. The badges of honor rain down on you, much easier to get than laurels, and you can use them to get the same items for fewer laurels from WvW laurel vendors.

Ascended weapons: finishing HoT opens up a quest for a free ascended sword (or greatsword, scepter, dagger, or shield). Elite specs also unlock collections for free/cheap ascended weapons; guardian gets a longbow, necro gets a greatsword, ele gets warhorn, warrior gets torch, ranger gets staff. And ascended weps are always account-bound. So there’s that to keep in mind if you have alts.

@UmbraNoctis – Well, I have never crafted armour for myself, and I’ve a 2+ year loaded material bank that I’ve never touched. Marauder/Svaard sounds like my goal for Weapons and Armour!

@Sister Saxifrage – I’ve tried WvW and only got as far as rank 20. It just isn’t for me ^^; As far as things coming together, it seems like I am best of crafting the armour and weapons that I want. So I will aim for Ascended.