Guild Wars 2

With the upcoming nerfs to eles, engis, and might, there will be a huge possibility that we can start playing support roles again in pvp. I have prepared some builds that would hugely benefit from our future weapon buffs. Suggestions are welcome.

Celestial axe/warhorn spirit build

Heavy condi sword/torch spirit build

It might be only my personal taste, But I think I would swap sigils on shortbowfor cele build. I like having some kind of defensive setup, the “oh kitten” weapon, so I would go for energy.

Aenia Shadowforce.9148:

It might be only my personal taste, But I think I would swap sigils on shortbowfor cele build. I like having some kind of defensive setup, the “oh kitten” weapon, so I would go for energy.

i think that’s pretty cool. might will be nerfed anyway, so i guess investing into stacking it would be pointless. i like using cele because of the balanced stats that it offers and not because of the might stacking.

It’s still very viable now and will most definitely be more wanted later.

I’ve been running a build similar to your first. The Celestial one. Shortbow synergies well. I recommend utilizing energy sigil on both weapon sets for a more defensive tactic. Im at school and didn’t look in depth at the build. Sorry in advance.
Also, maybe think of dropping one spirit for signet of stone. It has saved me so many times coupled with our many evasive weapons. You’ll outlast a lot longer.

Domino.1359:

It’s still very viable now and will most definitely be more wanted later.

I’ve been running a build similar to your first. The Celestial one. Shortbow synergies well. I recommend utilizing energy sigil on both weapon sets for a more defensive tactic. Im at school and didn’t look in depth at the build. Sorry in advance.
Also, maybe think of dropping one spirit for signet of stone. It has saved me so many times coupled with our many evasive weapons. You’ll outlast a lot longer.

The option would be to drop stone spirit for signet of stone and probably drop primal reflexes for signet mastery. Storm and sun spirits have too much use to not consider using them. Storm spirit brings aoe burst and sun has aoe blind that helps in securing stomps.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMq0yavKOrQ0aADhq9JEslArAw9PME9QBraA-TJhHwAAeCABOJAC3fwYZAA

Personal preference I suppose.
Edited: never thought of trying storm spirit after the nerf back when but it’s actually still useful as hell. Tried a few matches. Still miss the invuln imo.

Valentin,

Since I know you have been selling Storm Spirit to people, let me add to your arguments you’ve been using for it since I feel like you left a crucial piece of info out of running Storm Spirit (or I’ve just always overlooked it and not mentioned it).

The passive proc plays “nicely” with 5+ points in Nature Magic and gives you and your pet a permanent (for all purposes) 5% damage bonus, on top of its AoE spike.

Just thought it was relevant. I personally always look at it and go “meh” to the passive until I remember all of the different bells and whistles.

Domino.1359:

Personal preference I suppose.
Edited: never thought of trying storm spirit after the nerf back when but it’s actually still useful as hell. Tried a few matches. Still miss the invuln imo.

i think if you replace stone spirit with signet of stone, the difference is not that much. stone signet gives you added toughness as passive and invulnerability through its active. If you wanna play more of a supportive role, stone spirit would be a better option but if you wanna play more of a node-defender then stone signet is better.

jcbroe.4329:

Valentin,

Since I know you have been selling Storm Spirit to people, let me add to your arguments you’ve been using for it since I feel like you left a crucial piece of info out of running Storm Spirit (or I’ve just always overlooked it and not mentioned it).

The passive proc plays “nicely” with 5+ points in Nature Magic and gives you and your pet a permanent (for all purposes) 5% damage bonus, on top of its AoE spike.

Just thought it was relevant. I personally always look at it and go “meh” to the passive until I remember all of the different bells and whistles.

Bountiful Hunter is a good bonus and storm spirit also procs swiftness that means more pet attacks to land. Before I started using traveler runes, i used signet of the hunt for my own and my pet’s mobility. Traveler runes is really good for cele spirit build because it makes it not only a team fighter and point-defender but also a really good roamer. It also helps the purpose of the build on being a team rezzer. You would have enough mobility to rez your team mates before they get stomped.

Although would be nice, I don’t think spirits is the way to go yet. The cooldowns with the passive effects are too long, having in mind that the buffs are to short. I think the spirits should have the cooldowns cut short for them to be actually usefull.

anduriell.6280:

Although would be nice, I don’t think spirits is the way to go yet. The cooldowns with the passive effects are too long, having in mind that the buffs are to short. I think the spirits should have the cooldowns cut short for them to be actually usefull.

I disagree. 10 sec cd is not to short for a 4 sec protection. This spec is cimpletely balanced compared to other builds. Buffing this build would make it completely overpowered. Thats not the way to go. The better option would ne to shave other classes’ op builds.

Nobody can argue that a spirit ranger has morr uses than othet ranger build. It can wreck any power ranger and condi survival build is too selfish to consider it over a soirit ranger.

We agree power/condi ranger is much more selfish than an spirit ranger. However 35% change of firing the skill when hit is not the same as “always”.
So first spirits depend that you are in combat. Then there is the durantion: 60 secs with 30 secs cd.

Then the cooldown of the passive effects 10 secs cooldown:
Stone spirit: 3 secs protection.
Water Spirit : 800 heal.
Sun Spirit: 2 secs burnin (600 damage)
Storm spirit: 8secs swiftness.

This cooldowns with such a short effects make the spirits less than usefull.
This way you only get 6 chances and that doesn’t mean you will get all of them, most probably you will get like 4 passive effects trigers before the spirit is gone if you are lucky.

So: or they cut down the cooldowns or extend the effects but right now i think those spirits are a waste of skills space.

anduriell.6280:

We agree power/condi ranger is much more selfish than an spirit ranger. However 35% change of firing the skill when hit is not the same as “always”.
So first spirits depend that you are in combat. Then there is the durantion: 60 secs with 30 secs cd.

Then the cooldown of the passive effects 10 secs cooldown:
Stone spirit: 3 secs protection.
Water Spirit : 800 heal.
Sun Spirit: 2 secs burnin (600 damage)
Storm spirit: 8secs swiftness.

This cooldowns with such a short effects make the spirits less than usefull.
This way you only get 6 chances and that doesn’t mean you will get all of them, most probably you will get like 4 passive effects trigers before the spirit is gone if you are lucky.

So: or they cut down the cooldowns or extend the effects but right now i think those spirits are a waste of skills space.

Spirit ranger is one of the tankiest builds on this game. It can compete vs a nunker guardian. The build was nerfed because of how versatile it was before. Getting it buffed again might result to more uncalled for nerfs. The build can buff the whole team and rez more than enough allies to secure victory at the first part of the game. The build is not meant to go completely undefeated but as something that can put up a good fight.

Valentin.2073:

Spirit ranger is one of the tankiest builds on this game. It can compete vs a nunker guardian. The build was nerfed because of how versatile it was before. Getting it buffed again might result to more uncalled for nerfs. The build can buff the whole team and rez more than enough allies to secure victory at the first part of the game. The build is not meant to go completely undefeated but as something that can put up a good fight.

Amn, that’s why our class is in the meta.
Come on, stop already all this. If you play ranger you know this class only works sometines as support class if you are very experienced player, you can’t kill a guardian unless your are very skilled payer and the guardian is a noob.

With the last buff in LB is true that now we can get notice because we do some noticeable damage from 1500 but that’s not like you are going to take out a guardian, warrior or anything else except a necro for that matters. So the only use as a ranger in PVP or WvW is to kitten enemies from afar so the rest of the players have it easier when it comes the real battle.

This class has not sustain. Does not have real DPS. Pets are a liavility for everyone no only yourself. Has no ultilies or group support.

I like ranger because of the mechanics, you have to use your very few good skills in a very smart way or even in PVE you are going to have a hard time. But that doesn’t mean the class is playable means i like to suffer.

anduriell.6280:

Valentin.2073:

Spirit ranger is one of the tankiest builds on this game. It can compete vs a nunker guardian. The build was nerfed because of how versatile it was before. Getting it buffed again might result to more uncalled for nerfs. The build can buff the whole team and rez more than enough allies to secure victory at the first part of the game. The build is not meant to go completely undefeated but as something that can put up a good fight.

Amn, that’s why our class is in the meta.
Come on, stop already all this. If you play ranger you know this class only works sometines as support class if you are very experienced player, you can’t kill a guardian unless your are very skilled payer and the guardian is a noob.

With the last buff in LB is true that now we can get notice because we do some noticeable damage from 1500 but that’s not like you are going to take out a guardian, warrior or anything else except a necro for that matters. So the only use as a ranger in PVP or WvW is to kitten enemies from afar so the rest of the players have it easier when it comes the real battle.

This class has not sustain. Does not have real DPS. Pets are a liavility for everyone no only yourself. Has no ultilies or group support.

I like ranger because of the mechanics, you have to use your very few good skills in a very smart way or even in PVE you are going to have a hard time. But that doesn’t mean the class is playable means i like to suffer.

A spirit ranger should havr no problems killing a bunker guardian. I dont think you have even played this build yourself. This build is one of the best duel builds on this game. People were jyst toi disappointed when anet nerfed it that they completely fogot its true potential.

With the upcoming nerfs to might, eles, and engi, i believe this would come out as one of the top builds in this game.

Unfortunately i used to play this build before swap to pewpew ranger. I kept using it after the nerfs for some time, you can see a couple of my post around asking why the spirits became so crappy. So i guess i lived the pain of thinking of me as a bunker when my foe is as experienced as me.
About the nerfs on might i wouldn’t be so sure it will help the spirits. The problem of this skills is that they are too nerfed, so much that they are not good at all. Mostly will help condi rangers, because less power = less damage. Although our pets will be crapier than ever when it comes to attack.

Cut down the CD for passive and nerf the healing/damage so it can triggers more times. Maybe even nerf the effect depnding in how many ppl is affected by the passive effect and put a limit in how many allies can be affected (same as other proffesions)
Make the spirits pemanent until killed and increase the CD in case of dead by trait another thing it would help.

As i said, most ppl players plays with pewpew ranger and that can’t be wrong.

anduriell.6280:

Unfortunately i used to play this build before swap to pewpew ranger. I kept using it after the nerfs for some time, you can see a couple of my post around asking why the spirits became so crappy. So i guess i lived the pain of thinking of me as a bunker when my foe is as experienced as me.
About the nerfs on might i wouldn’t be so sure it will help the spirits. The problem of this skills is that they are too nerfed, so much that they are not good at all. Mostly will help condi rangers, because less power = less damage. Although our pets will be crapier than ever when it comes to attack.

Cut down the CD for passive and nerf the healing/damage so it can triggers more times. Maybe even nerf the effect depnding in how many ppl is affected by the passive effect and put a limit in how many allies can be affected (same as other proffesions)
Make the spirits pemanent until killed and increase the CD in case of dead by trait another thing it would help.

As i said, most ppl players plays with pewpew ranger and that can’t be wrong.

Pew pew pew rangers are nowhere near as viable as spirit rangers. A spirit ranger eould have no problem killing a zerk ranger and it is the same as killing zer thieves and mesmers. This is only about 1v1 and when you add team utility, no decent 5 man team would choose a zerk ranger over a spirit ranger that can rez, buff, aoe heal, and fight inside a node. The reason zerk rangrrs have grown in numbers because it is simple to play. Most people eould choose playing a build that requires them to only use a few keys.

i also wanna add this build.

Rez bot cleric bunker spirit build

I’ve always wanted to play some sort of hybrid spirit ranger, being able to put a reasonable pressure on the opponent while supporting the team and sustain a bit.

With the foreseen buff on torch, especially it’s area-denial part, it might become strong. What would you think of that hybrid LB/S+T spirit ranger ?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8fjEq0vavKOrQ0aAMhq9A0pBArk19G8BZQJPqC-TZRAwAAuAAdeCAkLDE4gA8d/BA

Ouroboros.5076:

I’ve always wanted to play some sort of hybrid spirit ranger, being able to put a reasonable pressure on the opponent while supporting the team and sustain a bit.

With the foreseen buff on torch, especially it’s area-denial part, it might become strong. What would you think of that hybrid LB/S+T spirit ranger ?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8fjEq0vavKOrQ0aAMhq9A0pBArk19G8BZQJPqC-TZRAwAAuAAdeCAkLDE4gA8d/BA

this is a really good build. carrion amulet has good balanced condi and power damage and this build is almost immune to condis with that huge HP pool. i am just wondering why do you prefer using Troll Unguent over Healing Spring or Heal as One?

Valentin.2073:

i also wanna add this build.

Rez bot cleric bunker spirit build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARTjMq0pavKOrQ0agKhqVA8OHe1N2dIUCfwJv6RrA-TJxGABAcJAy9JAwUZAW2fAA

Works MUCH better if you’re going for a bunker + rezbot build, without giving up your spirits.

What works even better as a bunker rez bot is dropping the spirit utilties (keep elite) and take Sig of Hunt (or wild if you don’t plan on moving around the map much), + LR + Protect Me, you’ll be a thorn in your enemies side kitten blocking almost every attempt they have to stomp since rangers are THE fastest rezzers in the game, hands down, no competition.

I was thinking

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fjEq0yavKOrQ0aABhaVA0uGS2Ww9RsEfdBraA-TpxFwALuAAHOCAAeAAIOIAJ3foZZAA

Tested it yesterday, the new torch is good. Stay on point and you’ll perma burn the opponent, you just melt down anything celestial with that.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8fjEq0vavKOrQ0aABhaVA0+FS2Ww9RsEFRJXqC-TJhAwA62fYcZAAXEgNPBAA

- Rune of the Flame Legion are great as the synergy with the build is strong. On point (other than Foefire mid) you can almost 100% burn the opponents and enjoy that sweet +7% damage.
- Sigils of Smoldering are important as they are big damage boosts. Flat 650 dmg on the spirit proc and on torch#4, and helps keeping up that +7% damage from the runes.
- Overall utility of the Longbow : strong pushback, stealth, AoE pressure, pressure from a distance, stealth users tracking.

Problems :
- Mobility
- Low Toughness, so active defense is crucial against zerkers. If you can resist the first 10s with 50%+ HP, you will burn them down (especially low HP zerkers like thieves, guard or eles). This is the reason I prefer the signet of stone, but the instant condi clear + stun break from the signet of renewal is also great.
- No stability or stun breaks. Hambows can be a problem. Fully traited turret engies too.

anduriell.6280:

Valentin.2073:

Spirit ranger is one of the tankiest builds on this game. It can compete vs a nunker guardian. The build was nerfed because of how versatile it was before. Getting it buffed again might result to more uncalled for nerfs. The build can buff the whole team and rez more than enough allies to secure victory at the first part of the game. The build is not meant to go completely undefeated but as something that can put up a good fight.

Amn, that’s why our class is in the meta.
Come on, stop already all this. If you play ranger you know this class only works sometines as support class if you are very experienced player, you can’t kill a guardian unless your are very skilled payer and the guardian is a noob.

With the last buff in LB is true that now we can get notice because we do some noticeable damage from 1500 but that’s not like you are going to take out a guardian, warrior or anything else except a necro for that matters. So the only use as a ranger in PVP or WvW is to kitten enemies from afar so the rest of the players have it easier when it comes the real battle.

This class has not sustain. Does not have real DPS. Pets are a liavility for everyone no only yourself. Has no ultilies or group support.

I like ranger because of the mechanics, you have to use your very few good skills in a very smart way or even in PVE you are going to have a hard time. But that doesn’t mean the class is playable means i like to suffer.

Pretty sure you’re wrong.
Spirit ranger can handle Guardians all days with their sustainability and condition reapplication. (Guardian is good at burst cleanse but not consistent cleanse)
Biggest counter to spirit ranger is the infamous Celestial Ele and pro fear chain necro.
Also spirit ranger is good at 1 v 1, but not good holding out for 1 v 2 because the lack of stability, invulnerability, blocks, and stun break.

Added note, if you play Power ranger, on the same skill level, you cannot defeat most experienced warrior and guardians, but you can easily do so with spirit ranger.

Added note 2, pet is not a liability in PVP. Spider’s poison field, immobilize, wolf’s aoe fear, kb, cripple are all extremely useful, and is crucial in defeating/ surviving from more experienced players.

Added note 3, I can tell that you’re not a PVPer.

Aomine.5012:

Added note, if you play Power ranger, on the same skill level, you cannot defeat most experienced warrior and guardians, but you can easily do so with spirit ranger.

I’ll grant you warriors. But Guardians go down like a hot knife through butter. Especially if you have played one because it is Captain Obvious when they are queuing up their DPS rotation…

Crapgame.6519:

Aomine.5012:

Added note, if you play Power ranger, on the same skill level, you cannot defeat most experienced warrior and guardians, but you can easily do so with spirit ranger.

I’ll grant you warriors. But Guardians go down like a hot knife through butter. Especially if you have played one because it is Captain Obvious when they are queuing up their DPS rotation…

DPS Guardian actually hard counter power ranger if fight on a node because they have the ability to negate burst (LB2) with blocks, reflection, and invulnerability, while they have excellent gap closer with judgement intervention, sword 2, and can immobilize you with scepter 3.

Sword 3, focus 5, Shield 5, wall of reflection, elite skill, healing skill, can all negate Ranger ability to burst down Guardian with LB2.