Just wanted to highlight a subtle interaction that not a lot of people are noticing with the recent update to Ricochet.
Ricochet now gives 3s of might base with each enemy struck.
The 3 point Nature Magic trait, Fortifying Bond, works in that any time the ranger gets a buff that buff is shared to the pet. But the sharing mechanic is not 1:1 copying. Instead it triggers a buff instance off a table. That table gives 10s base might to the pet for any might the ranger receives. In other words when a ranger ricochets and hits 3 targets the pet gets 3 stacks of 10+s might. This means the pet can achieve 25 might in 7-8s of ricochet autoattacks.
This means that it becomes very easy to stack very high levels of might on a pet, which allows them to maintain decent DPS. This allows the Ranger to spec defensively to provide support for the pet/party while also maintaining some DPS. A sample build can be found here:
Offensively this build allows for cat pets which auto for over 1k, critting for almost 2k 68% of the time base, can achieve basically 95-100% with master bond stacks and warhorn 5. In addition you can activate “Sick ’Em!” with Signet of the Wild and see some 5-6k auto attacks as well as some 8k bites. It’s also worth mentioning that the cat will bleed targets constantly for 86 a tick, with nearly each swing getting 6s of bleeding bringing the auto attack up to almost 2500 a crit swing (every 1.1s or so) plus the bleeding on maul at 40 ticks of 86 for over 3.4k bleed damage. If you need AoE the drake pet brings cleave and a devastating F2. The ranger’s dps options are not terrible either, with potent bleeding and burning options due to might you can expect to keep up decent bleeds due to splitblade for 100 a tick, 500 for a point blank and burning for 600 on top of ricochets for around 300.
Defensively the build brings an incredibly resilient pet. Signet of the wild will provide over 600 hps, regeneration will also provide over 400 hps, Natural healing will add another 125 hps bringing you to 1.2k HPS. This will make it very easy for your drake to facetank even in dungeons, even if your cat can’t hang it. Remember to use guard to proc an almost permanent protection state on your pet and you’d be amazed how survivable it can be. You’ll also be able to share a lot of healing, condition removal and swiftness with your teammates.
Supportively you can generate decent might by using concentration trained jungle stalkers to give 5 might stacks with 80%+ downtime. It will also let you keep the cat pumped up to 25 stacks even if you’re fighting single targets. You can also use bonfire + warhorn 5 to generate more aoe might (remember your pet gets 6 stacks 3 from combo 3 from bond,) or use warhorn 5 + healing spring for a burst heal.
Variants:
There are a lot of good options to consider.
Carnivorous Appetite can be traded for Nature’s Voice if the player doesn’t want to go shouts.
Nature magic can be entirely rebuilt into a spirit build, and the utilities can be swapped too (I don’t recommend dropping Signet of the Wild.)
Master’s Bond can be swapped for Shout Master if you find yourself losing pets or swapping.
Natural Healing could be overkill in many situations and swapped for many options.
Signet of the Hunt is another multiplier that can be stacked. I actually saw a 11,700 damage bite from my cat pet. There may even be harder hits possible with a F2, or by combining the Greatsword’s hilt bash.
This build can also be made to work with nearly any stat set. I recommend a healing set only because of the team healing options and the need to maintain a pet for this to work well. I chose apothecary for the bonfire benefits to further solidify team support.
Monk runes are a great benefit due to the healing synergy (your pet gets the modifier) and it provides additional boon duration.
Anyone else have any ideas on how to further make this build work?
