Guild Wars 2

What do you think will be the best build for it after the patch? Will they still be viable after patch? Why do you think people hate it so much? So many questions. I’m sorry.

Valentin.2073:

What do you think will be the best build for it after the patch? Will they still be viable after patch? Why do you think people hate it so much? So many questions. I’m sorry.

Well if they nerf the only WvW viable build, I have no idea. It took me forever to get to Spirits and now they want to take away the only way some stay alive against huge odds…

Not happy with Anet’s choices in nerfing Ranger when we are low man on the totem regardless of map or level.

People hate it because its passive and causes screen clutter.

It will still be viable, but different. Add 10 points to Beastmaster, and have 3 stacks of might 75% of the time which will work to overcome the sun spirit nerf. Also increased pet damage so the damage will be okay.

There are other options as well.

atheria.2837:

Valentin.2073:

What do you think will be the best build for it after the patch? Will they still be viable after patch? Why do you think people hate it so much? So many questions. I’m sorry.

Well if they nerf the only WvW viable build, I have no idea. It took me forever to get to Spirits and now they want to take away the only way some stay alive against huge odds…

Not happy with Anet’s choices in nerfing Ranger when we are low man on the totem regardless of map or level.

i agree. anet always makes rangers unhappy. i wonder how many times are they going to nerf this build.

It is an adjustment but I think you may find far more rangers using spirits.
After all, you don’t have to spec 30 in nature to get the spirits to move with you.

Those 10 extra points can create whole new builds leveraging spirits.

Bombsaway.7198:

It is an adjustment but I think you may find far more rangers using spirits.
After all, you don’t have to spec 30 in nature to get the spirits to move with you.

Those 10 extra points can create whole new builds leveraging spirits.

You need 30 to get them to use their ability on death which is also critical to the build. Nothing has changed for a spirit build. The condi/regen bunker builds got some improvements.

Atherakhia.4086:

Bombsaway.7198:

It is an adjustment but I think you may find far more rangers using spirits.
After all, you don’t have to spec 30 in nature to get the spirits to move with you.

Those 10 extra points can create whole new builds leveraging spirits.

You need 30 to get them to use their ability on death which is also critical to the build. Nothing has changed for a spirit build. The condi/regen bunker builds got some improvements.

It does let people take advantage if the passive w/o having to go 30NM.

Atherakhia.4086:

Bombsaway.7198:

It is an adjustment but I think you may find far more rangers using spirits.
After all, you don’t have to spec 30 in nature to get the spirits to move with you.

Those 10 extra points can create whole new builds leveraging spirits.

You need 30 to get them to use their ability on death which is also critical to the build. Nothing has changed for a spirit build. The condi/regen bunker builds got some improvements.

i agree. nature vengeance is very critical in running a spirit build effectively. the nerf to the storm spirit is huge and quite mean, IMO.

You will see more spirits being used as supplements and passives is what I mean.
Can see people using the protection and burning ones (or damage).

They should follow suit with signet of beastmaster to open up more specs (drop it to master level)

Druidic.3146 (Lady Steamhawke is his ranger’s name) has been running a Power Longbow Greatsword build lately, got him fairly high in the PvP leader-boards.

The build looks to be even better after the Dec 10th patch, so maybe it is a potential option after the patch.

Serdoc.7261:

Druidic.3146 (Lady Steamhawke is his ranger’s name) has been running a Power Longbow Greatsword build lately, got him fairly high in the PvP leader-boards.

The build looks to be even better after the Dec 10th patch, so maybe it is a potential option after the patch.

This post is kind of useless without a spec…

Serdoc.7261:

Druidic.3146 (Lady Steamhawke is his ranger’s name) has been running a Power Longbow Greatsword build lately, got him fairly high in the PvP leader-boards.

The build looks to be even better after the Dec 10th patch, so maybe it is a potential option after the patch.

Last time I heard that name was when I used to PvP regularly on my Thief, and he played his Engi. Whenever I saw him I’d run away screaming like a little girl.

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

People hate it because its passive and causes screen clutter.

It will still be viable, but different. Add 10 points to Beastmaster, and have 3 stacks of might 75% of the time which will work to overcome the sun spirit nerf. Also increased pet damage so the damage will be okay.

There are other options as well.

People hate warrior healing passive signet because of its passive, yet no condemnation of nerfs for it..

Is that Justifiable?

Where is justice when your intention is to punish, outlaw the less capable class who’s only intention, purpose, is to survive and live a bit longer?

There was never justice

Never None

People dont like them because its not fun to fight against, like thieves or minion necros.

Any spec that gears specifically to bunker while still maintaining high burst is going to get nerfed, just like spirits, and just like BM.

Any spec that Anet nerfs you can count on to get nerfed in the wrong way. For instance, BM was nerfed by nerfing all pets across the board for all specs, rather than letting players who arent bunker keep their high damage pets. Storm spirit is being nerfed in the same way. Control warriors were too effective, so anet lowered the damage of the already-mediocre-damage control spells, rather than raise their cooldowns. I’m sure there are countless other examples (RTL nerf, etc).

The spirit ranger nerf isnt that bad even if it is hamfisted and not a bright way to do it (better would be to scale pet/spirit stats off the ranger, which prevents huge storm spirit crits from bunkers). These rangers will still be prevalent in tournaments.

Spirit ( + power ) ranger will remain one of your best options for PvE ( organised dungeons/fractals ). Berserker’s armor/weapons + Knight’s trinkets to add survivability. Traits: a wide variety of spirit builds, mine works perfectly at 20/20/0/30/0 or 20/20/5/25/0, but I prefer the first option because of the 3 selected traits for spirits, while I maintain endurance from the sigil on the weapon + sword/torch evades. It is perfectly balanced for runs in organised dungeons/fractals. With guardian, warrior + 2 other classes ( different than ranger ), it works pitch perfect. The choice of weapons depends on your preference, tbh, but you want to have a sword/torch or warhorn for your team, and shortbow ( my preference due to the fact that I love shortbow and can sustain a very decent damage thanks to the traits/berserk armor and runes without having to take a longbow ).
There are a couple of spirit/condi builds, however, they’re not as viable, imo, for organised PvE runs.

Best regards

PS Rangers rock, even though they’ve been nerfed constantly since the game’s premiere.;)

the last thing you want is to have spirits unbound for PvE runs . Nature vengance is amazing though .

0/0/30/30/10. Swap nature’s vengeance for nature’s voice and swap storm spirit for guard. You lose out on potential DPS from storm spirit and from the sharpened or keen edge but gain about 300 hp/s from regen when using settler’s amulet. Or go 0/0/30/20/20 and go BM but with sun spirit for more sustained DPS, make up for the lack of storm spirit with pet DPS, solid vigor uptime on pet swap, and still get elite spirit for team rezzes which is something some BM specs didn’t really have.

The build that scares me most is 0/0/30/30/10 as it is just as potent as current spirits but gives the build much more sustain than it has now. With nerfs incoming to other classes I believe it will be the not only the easiest/most effective ranger spec to date but also in the game with no hard counter. I hope I’m wrong though because I’m getting tired of cheezy tanky condi ranger specs.

People hate spirit rangers because they are highly effective for low risk play. Poor dodging is severely punished as is going kamikaze in for the kill because of nature’s vengeance. Understandably, this is how most players deal with things. Mainly, it’s because storm spirit is OP, but the sun spirit helps a bit and that is getting nerfed a bit so yay for that at least.

pointless change , nature vengance is extremely important for spirits

how about a 30/20/0/20/0 build?
you can combine bow traits with moving spirits.

moving spirits are not as good as nature vengance is . This trait is beyond important

Moving spirit are way better than nature’s vengeance if you want the passives. The only spirit you really WANT to get killed is storm spirit and after the -33% DPS change to it there isn’t as much of a reason to take it.

Eurantien.4632:

Moving spirit are way better than nature’s vengeance if you want the passives. The only spirit you really WANT to get killed is storm spirit and after the -33% DPS change to it there isn’t as much of a reason to take it.

That’s what I was thinking, if you’re taking spirits for their passives, ie Frost Spirit, then 20pts in the tree makes them usable giving you 10 pts to put somewhere else.

The spirits are so much more then the passives , which are kind of meh tbh

the major advantage after patch is that you can combine spirit and BM(although not full) together which make the already-strong build even much stronger.
Well, in a 1v1 situation of course.

Chokolata.1870:

The spirits are so much more then the passives , which are kind of meh tbh

PvE favors spirit passives, there that’s their major benefit. In PvP you want them for both.

Don’t underestimate that protection and fire passive in spvp

Besides the Immob/Crip from stone and “spike” from air, are the actives really useful? Then again, it’s a telegraphed 2s immo and a call lightning is getting nerfed.

As a side question, anyone know if Quicksand affects 3 or 5 people?

In PvE u want frost and maybe stone spirit . So the trait swap is pretty irrelevant for PvE . For PvP or WvW however , the actives are half the value of the spirit especially the on death proc . So in essence , spirit builds will stay the same in function but nerfed in performance and some people will try to make a silly build that will be proven to be useless .

Chokolata.1870:

In PvE u want frost and maybe stone spirit . So the trait swap is pretty irrelevant for PvE . For PvP or WvW however , the actives are half the value of the spirit especially the on death proc . So in essence , spirit builds will stay the same in function but nerfed in performance and some people will try to make a silly build that will be proven to be useless .

But doesn’t the swap let you take Unbound so you can walk your little guys around with you to fights?

Chokolata.1870:

In PvE u want frost and maybe stone spirit . So the trait swap is pretty irrelevant for PvE . For PvP or WvW however , the actives are half the value of the spirit especially the on death proc . So in essence , spirit builds will stay the same in function but nerfed in performance and some people will try to make a silly build that will be proven to be useless .

I’d actually say that isn’t entirely true.

A BM build (0/0/30/20/20) should be very usable. Just replace one of your stun breakers (I’m thinking a fairly typical LR/SoR/SotW and swapping out either LR or SoR) with Sun Spirit, and it will give BMs a lot better access to burning than they currently have, which will help the overall pressure of the build. Also, the AoE blind is always helpful.

Beyond that, as Eura mentioned, you can go with 0/0/30/30/10 and pick up Nature’s Voice over Nature’s Vengeance, and then run with Sun Spirit, Stone Spirit, and Guard and try to be the biggest boon to your team you possibly can while still outputting decent pressure. Or, my variant of that would be to be selfish and run with Apothecary’s/Settler’s and go with Sun Spirit, Guard, and SotW, and just be a near unkillable pressure machine.

Also, the current build will still be available with the same stat distribution and traits, so it isn’t like the build is getting removed. The only difference is that Storm Spirit will hit for a base of 2k instead of 3k, which is still a decent chunk of damage for potentially zero damage investment.

The biggest thing the loss of Nature’s Vengeance does to the Spirit build I would say is actually the loss of the additional active from the Elite Spirit. That extra cleanse and revive, even though semi RNG, is very valuable, and with the timer on the Spirit Elite, it could definitely see a change in effectiveness in that regard.

You aren’t wrong though; Nature’s Vengeance is extremely valuable for certain playstyles, and those builds won’t be sacrificing the trait. But the change is nice for people that maybe just wanted to pick up a Spirit for it’s passive without needing such a massive trait investment, and I’d argue that it is a first step in helping an issue that almost all ranger utilities have; needing a 30 point investment to be effective, when the effectiveness level only competes with other classes that don’t require such a hefty trait investment to get the same results.

jcbroe.4329:

Stuff

Well said. You covered everything I had in my head but couldn’t get around to putting into words.

Chokolata.1870:

In PvE u want frost and maybe stone spirit . So the trait swap is pretty irrelevant for PvE . For PvP or WvW however , the actives are half the value of the spirit especially the on death proc . So in essence , spirit builds will stay the same in function but nerfed in performance and some people will try to make a silly build that will be proven to be useless .

This . /topic.

Again , as i have said in a different topic , nature voice is a bad grandmaster trait . You do not need swiftness or regeneration because if you are playing a support/boon build you will take warhorn and HS regardless . This is where you get your regeneration and swiftness , with a long lasting fury as well .

Playing spirits in WvW or PvP just for their passive bonuses is folly . In PvE you take a Ranger for high speed clears when you already have a warrior , because the ranger offers that extra bit with spotter and frost spirit , but never because of swiftness and regeneration .
And you sure as hell will not convince me to take a useless utility that is guard just to activate a trait that gives two of the most available boons in the game . I would rather spec 20 into BM for vigorous training in an AOE since vigor is getting nerfed in availability and will give me 20% shorter swap times which was proven by Xorus to me a major fault with ranger guard/shout builds .

I am saying , you can go boon ranger , but nature voice is a waste of a trait .

As for spirits , think of them like this . A spirit is a jack of all trades sort of utility . it gives a passive and an active AOE , neither of which are good by themselves . Even a single spirit is bad by itself , because the best part of spirit builds is that spirits proc each others passives . The only solo spirit that is good in competitive play of WvW or PvP is the elite .
Now by taking nature voice you lose out on 1 spirit because you need traited Guard . If playing such a build , SoTW is a given because boon tanks are attrition builds . So you are left with a single spirit and an elite . And even on that single spirit you lose out a major component of its use , the AOE is smaller and it will not proc its effect on death , which is HUGE to lose . To top it all off , spirits will be nerfed next patch when it comes to the offensive spirits .

This is a pointless change to give a perception of choice . Remember the shortbow nerf to make the longbow more attractive ? I do , now both are kind of crap . This is the same thing

With all due respect, anyone who claims that spirits’ passives are unimportant in PvE ( dungeons/fractals; notice I’m not talking about WvW or sPvP ), simply misses their point. Nothing to add beyond this point really.

Right Choko, but if you go against another ranger 1 v 1 which is highly possible in PvP the one with troll is more likely to win so the one with nature’s voice and guard has a way better chance than the one without it. Especially since the one with HS will most likely not have perma regen (though I could see taking nature’s bounty in that GM slot…). Also, the actives (as mentioned before) are really only awesome for the elite spirit and smart players will just counter play the spirit making nature’s vengeance is worthless most of the time anyway. While fighting on a node the nature’s voice/loss of increased active radius means that you are tanky as kitten and can sit on that node and your active will cover the whole node anyway. Also, since it’s a blind and you are already super tanky it isn’t that life saving to get an extra blind when it dies.

Although, not taking nature’s vengeance would take some getting used to for the elite range.

Honestly , why would anyone run a boon duration support build for 1v1 roaming ?

As for PvP , the spirit build will remain the same but nerfed . Some people will probably try guard with NV , but will realize it is pointless and go back to cookie cutter spirits if they actually play spirits

Chokolata.1870:

Honestly , why would anyone run a boon duration support build for 1v1 roaming ?

As for PvP , the spirit build will remain the same but nerfed . Some people will probably try guard with NV , but will realize it is pointless and go back to cookie cutter spirits if they actually play spirits

I run a boon duration Natures Voice spec for 1v1 roaming.

Why?

35+sec of stability is the only counter we really have to the rediculously broken state of perplexity runes. Our cleanses dont matter so long as the runes have no cd.
Regen from Natures voice > Regen from Natural Healing.
Perma swiftness
Near perma protection (soon to be nerfed when our innate endurance gets nerfed)
Tons of might stacks, in combination with Battle Sigil or RaO (soon to be buffed with mighty swap).
35+sec of fury (or perma if you take warhorn), really helps out damage on a bunker-ish gear setup (soon to be buffed with 2h training).

The two best roaming specs right now are 30 wilderness 30 nature, or 30 wilderness 30 BM. And the nature variant outperforms BM on everything except classes that boonstrip. The nature variant benefits a lot from boon duration.

For roaming, my initial change is going to go back to my Apothecary Set, and run a 0/0/30/30/10 set and go Axe/Dagger Sword/Torch with dual canines (my preference) and pick up Guard, Sun Spirit, and SotW, with Travelers Runes (I already run almost all my builds relying on just WS III for a stun breaker and haven’t encountered any issues so far).

So, Regen will tick for 257, and SotW will tick for 123, for a total of 380 healing per second, permanently, without ever using a heal. With Trolls Unguent active, that’s 978 + 380, for a grand total of 1358 healing per second, not factoring in the Elite Spirit, which is another 480 healing per second, for a total of 1838 healing per second with the Elite up.

That’s on top of doing the same damage current BM builds do, but factoring in even more burning up time for even more damage.

If Nature’s Voice isn’t needed, drop Guard and go 0/0/30/20/20 and pick up Vigorous Training to aid in the loss of 25% of our traited endurance, and now there is an open utility slot for personal preference.

Oh, and Nature’s Voice with Guard (dropping Storm Spirit from the 3 spirit setup and leaving Sun/Stone) on a Rabid/Carrion Spirit build is going to make that build so much harder to beat 1v1.