Guild Wars 2

Here is some experience about several popular survival builds recently, 0/10/30/0/30, 0/0/30/10/30, 0/10/20/10/30, and 0/0/20/20/30. Tried with a ranger friend by using same gears (cleric or shaman), and surprisingly, no matter him or I who use 0/0/20/20/30 can always win other builds by a small bargain.
Some one may argue that 20 in NM trait is a waste, but in fact that’s the most important trait for ranger survival build coz it has 2 core skills of survival: Nature’s protection is used by most survival build by default so I don’t have to explain here. The reason you have to put 20 into NM trait is the real core — Nature’s bounty. You will significantly notice the healing result with VS without it. Especially in a tough fight, healing is the key to win.
If you never tried 20 in NM tree, go try it, you may have surprise.. That’s my 2 cents.

Use Runes of dwayna on armor (you keep regeneration) and leave natures bounty. Instead of it I get oakheart salve from wildernes survival to counter dmg conditions on me while not using healing spring with heal as one.

I use 0/0/30(V,VIII,XII)/20(VI,X)/20(I,VII); Enlargement + bark skin is pretty awesome combo since it boost your pet dmg and increase your and YOUR PETS Effective Hit Points by solid 7.5%

EDIT:
I use PUMA with lynx swapping them on CD and I am supporting conditions with my Short bow(power on kill) – Short bow(just because life steal on swap)/swordhorn
And I play this build in sPVP

Have tried Dwayna w/o bounty VS Flock+bounty, FLock+bounty wins by provide almost perma regen and extra spike group healing. That’s why I don’t choose oakheart since I already have enough regen when using bounty.
The biggest problem of WS tree is that all 4 skills in master level are so useful but all 6 adept level skills are mediocre. Maybe Anet should think about change it a little bit?
Enlarge + Bark skin maybe a good idea but it’s extremely focusing on 1v1 situation. While multiple players fight, I never want my HP down below 25%.

dottek.3461:

Use Runes of dwayna on armor (you keep regeneration) and leave natures bounty. Instead of it I get oakheart salve from wildernes survival to counter dmg conditions on me while not using healing spring with heal as one.

I use 0/0/30(V,VIII,XII)/20(VI,X)/20(I,VII); Enlargement + bark skin is pretty awesome combo since it boost your pet dmg and increase your and YOUR PETS Effective Hit Points by solid 7.5%

Evening Guys,
I was just about to make a new Threat with a Survival build I plan to be using in WvW. Maybe this is the right spot to ask your opinions, though.

Here is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARTjEVR2VWOWo2Bi2DOZpz/eEr03eXhRdyKaUL;T4AA1ynEOJdS9kyJKqMUJoySljKJVLCGEA

What I plan to be doing with it:
I run in a 20 man Guild Zerg most of the time. So Damage is not a primary goal of this build. It is much more about: Jumping into the thick of battle, drop the Muddy Terrain and my pets F2 abilities for CC and stay alive long enough to pick up the downstaters with quickness.
I use the drake hound for its shackle and the Wolf for its 2 sec Fear (alternatively the Wolf can be replaced with the Alpine Wolf for the Chill). Some people argue, that the F2 Abilities of especially the canine pets have a way too long cast time to be used effectively in WvW. In combination with the 2 sec Quickness from the first Minor Beastmastery trait and the low swap cooldown from the 15 point Minor Beastmastery trait I found them to be quite effective, though.

As a Ranger to be able to Jump right into a melee Battle and cast what ever CC I explained above I put a lot of emphasise on survivability. So my first weapon choice is GS with Longbow as second.
They both profit most from the 2 sources of quickness you gain in this build, being Quickening Zephyr and Pet-swapping.
Further I went for Barkskin and the Beastmastery trait granting your pet regeneration which also applies to you, even though it doesn’t say so in the tool-tip (I think its about 320 hp/3 sec).
Concerning the other choices I made:
I chose Healing Spring over Troll Unguent for the Combofield ‘Water’ which is quite nice to have on a battlefield even though I’d personally prefer the Troll Unguent for its synergy with Barkskin in any other situation.
Quickeing Zephyr I already mentioned briefly: Quickness. Very good with the third step of the GS auto-attack which grants evade and off course with the Longbow #2 and #5 abilities.
Second utility had to be Muddy Terrain for the CC.
Third was tricky now. Since this is mainly a melee build I had no trouble taking Spike Traps in even though its not traited. A cripple+bleed on my location at a 25 sec cool down seemed to go well with the general set up. The Build however lacks a stun breaker and generally abilities to deal with CC. Hence I chose Lightning reflexes instead.
The Ultimate is really up to you: I chose Rampage as one for the extra pet Buff + Stability, you could just as well pick Entangle though for extra CC. Cooldowns are the same and each one has its benefits.

I’d be glad to get some feedback from you guys, since most people consider me and my love for tanky Rangers in WvW a lost cause

Best,

Gorath.

My 2 cents:
1, you have too much HP but not enough healing power, which makes you just a fatter meat but not a solid rock. my suggestion is sacrifice some HP and get more healing power, I would say at least 1000 healing power + 20k HP will be a good balance.
2, a very important reason to use canine is their instant KD while swaping, that save kitten
3, I am not a fun of Muddy terrain since its range + cast time already put u in danger plus it’s easy to avoid, and you already have a much more lethal elite skill—entangle. I would suggest change it to some other skills.
4, from the play style you mentioned I didn’t see the reason to use LB, I would say SB or sword+x give you more options while combined with GS.

Gorath.5076:

Evening Guys,
I was just about to make a new Threat with a Survival build I plan to be using in WvW. Maybe this is the right spot to ask your opinions, though.

Here is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARTjEVR2VWOWo2Bi2DOZpz/eEr03eXhRdyKaUL;T4AA1ynEOJdS9kyJKqMUJoySljKJVLCGEA

What I plan to be doing with it:
I run in a 20 man Guild Zerg most of the time. So Damage is not a primary goal of this build. It is much more about: Jumping into the thick of battle, drop the Muddy Terrain and my pets F2 abilities for CC and stay alive long enough to pick up the downstaters with quickness.
I use the drake hound for its shackle and the Wolf for its 2 sec Fear (alternatively the Wolf can be replaced with the Alpine Wolf for the Chill). Some people argue, that the F2 Abilities of especially the canine pets have a way too long cast time to be used effectively in WvW. In combination with the 2 sec Quickness from the first Minor Beastmastery trait and the low swap cooldown from the 15 point Minor Beastmastery trait I found them to be quite effective, though.

As a Ranger to be able to Jump right into a melee Battle and cast what ever CC I explained above I put a lot of emphasise on survivability. So my first weapon choice is GS with Longbow as second.
They both profit most from the 2 sources of quickness you gain in this build, being Quickening Zephyr and Pet-swapping.
Further I went for Barkskin and the Beastmastery trait granting your pet regeneration which also applies to you, even though it doesn’t say so in the tool-tip (I think its about 320 hp/3 sec).
Concerning the other choices I made:
I chose Healing Spring over Troll Unguent for the Combofield ‘Water’ which is quite nice to have on a battlefield even though I’d personally prefer the Troll Unguent for its synergy with Barkskin in any other situation.
Quickeing Zephyr I already mentioned briefly: Quickness. Very good with the third step of the GS auto-attack which grants evade and off course with the Longbow #2 and #5 abilities.
Second utility had to be Muddy Terrain for the CC.
Third was tricky now. Since this is mainly a melee build I had no trouble taking Spike Traps in even though its not traited. A cripple+bleed on my location at a 25 sec cool down seemed to go well with the general set up. The Build however lacks a stun breaker and generally abilities to deal with CC. Hence I chose Lightning reflexes instead.
The Ultimate is really up to you: I chose Rampage as one for the extra pet Buff + Stability, you could just as well pick Entangle though for extra CC. Cooldowns are the same and each one has its benefits.

I’d be glad to get some feedback from you guys, since most people consider me and my love for tanky Rangers in WvW a lost cause

Best,

Gorath.

Hey, thanks for the Quick reply.
1, what kind of item would you recommend? I chose Power/Vit/Thoughness as my Gear set and Berserkers for jewellery, since the Build really lacks Crit …
3, concerning the range Muddy Terrain you are abselutely right. Thats actually why I figured that the only way a CC build could be played properly was with a tanky melee setup. Entangle is even worse, since its centred around you.
4, my second weapon choice was a bit trial and error:
I used Sword + horn before but the root of the auto attack really got to my nerves. LB I chose over SB since for me it had the most synergies with the rest of my build: Rapid Fire and Barrage both greatly benefit from Quickness. Plus Barrage is also a nice CC ability.

1, you want something toughness+healing involved, you will find the balance at last. Don’t be mad on losing some crit chance since at least 50% of your damage comes from your pet, so your DPS lose VS significant survivability increase is a good deal.
3, My opinion about Muddy Terrian is — its risk/effect ratio is not worthy to use. Entangle is good in my opinion, yes it put u into a more dangerous situation but it’s lethal if used correctly, the risk is high, but the benefit is also high.
4, for sword use, did you turn off the melee atk assistance/auto targeting? In fact I love sword coz it will root you on the target as good as heartseeker. Plus the super evasion Sword gives, make it the best weapon we rangers have.

Gorath.5076:

Hey, thanks for the Quick reply.
1, what kind of item would you recommend? I chose Power/Vit/Thoughness as my Gear set and Berserkers for jewellery, since the Build really lacks Crit …
3, concerning the range Muddy Terrain you are abselutely right. Thats actually why I figured that the only way a CC build could be played properly was with a tanky melee setup. Entangle is even worse, since its centred around you.
4, my second weapon choice was a bit trial and error:
I used Sword + horn before but the root of the auto attack really got to my nerves. LB I chose over SB since for me it had the most synergies with the rest of my build: Rapid Fire and Barrage both greatly benefit from Quickness. Plus Barrage is also a nice CC ability.

I’m ecstatic at the recent surge of survival Rangers, since I’ve played one for ages.

I still feel that 0/0/30/25/15 is hard to beat. 25% boon duration is massive and should not be underestimated. Bountiful Hunter and Two-Handed Training also yield a flat 10% damage increase, rather than the ~120 Power (assuming you’re in Healing Power Gear).

I run PTV Armor/Weapons with Dolyak Runes and Knight’s Accessories, along with a Greatsword primary weapon supplemented by an Axe/Horn combo.

3k attack
22k hp
3.2k armor

Most Survival builds rely heavily on Healing Spring for their durability, I prefer raw Toughness.

I’m beefier and do more damage. The difference is I don’t have Healing Spring supplemented by 1200 Healing Power, which is the main reason why Survival Rangers have become popular as of late.

In my experience (I used to run something close to your build), HP is just like a buffer pool for taking burst damage. A survival build ranger already have enough method to minimize the burst (high toughness+ evasion+ protection). It’s the healing power that makes the difference especially when you fall into a protracted war which is just what we want. So I would say sacrifice some HP for more healing power can give better result.
I always want to max BM trait coz I realized that our pet is the real weapon of ranger. Even if you go full defense gears, your burst damage is still incredible if you use it right.
For anyone who might argue with it, please try this combo:
30 in BM and 20 in NM to maxmize your pet status and get fortifying bound.
Use a cat as ur swap. Rampage as ONE. Spam sword 1 to your target, swap to cat (2s) and QZ 4s. Everytime u hit, ur pet get 1 might, everytime it hit, u get 1 might and xfer back to it again plus ur sword will give extra might every chain. With ROA, your pet will get 25 stacks of might in a few seconds. Can you imagine a 2500 power + almost 100% critical chance cat atk you under quickness(use sick em that’s another 40% damage since you might need not stun breaker if you only focus on roaming or 1v1 spvp) ? I have taken down countless warriors by that way under his hundred blades.

Vecuu.2018:

I’m ecstatic at the recent surge of survival Rangers, since I’ve played one for ages.

I still feel that 0/0/30/25/15 is hard to beat. 25% boon duration is massive and should not be underestimated. Bountiful Hunter and Two-Handed Training also yield a flat 10% damage increase, rather than the ~120 Power (assuming you’re in Healing Power Gear).

I run PTV Armor/Weapons with Dolyak Runes and Knight’s Accessories, along with a Greatsword primary weapon supplemented by an Axe/Horn combo.

3k attack
22k hp
3.2k armor

Most Survival builds rely heavily on Healing Spring for their durability, I prefer raw Toughness.

I’m beefier and do more damage. The difference is I don’t have Healing Spring supplemented by 1200 Healing Power, which is the main reason why Survival Rangers have become popular as of late.

Vecuu.2018:

I still feel that 0/0/30/25/15 is hard to beat.

I agree for this is what I have been using before changing to the more CC oriented approach in order to be more valuable in group play.
Yet I believe Healing Spring is a bit overrated in WvW. You simply move to much. I find it hard to put a spring at a strategic position where I can either stand in it or shoot through it comfortably … But maybe thats just me.

What Rabbit said concerning pets I totally agree. A good deal of Damage comes from the pet and the Weapon skills which further enhance their offence (sword 1) are grossly underrated. I will definitely try to turn of auto targeting and also started weaving in a bit of healing power.
Your point that an ‘effective health’ pool is worth much more than just pushing health is very right and is what I did with my guardian, too. High Health only helps with countering high burst damage. After that it is much more important to be able to reduce the steady incoming damage through toughness and provide some decent healing.

PS: I replaced muddy ground with Spike trap. CD is 5 secs higher but has lower casttime and no ground target, meaning less to worry about in stressfull melee struggles.

Glad to see a thread like this. I’ve been a WS ranger for a long time now, and figured I’d throw in my setup as well.

WS: 30 (VI,X,XII)
NM: 10 (V or VI or III)
BM: 30 (VI, I, XIII)

Ability Slots: Nearly always Healing Spring, and ALWAYS Signet of the Wild. Other slots and Elite are swapped depending on the situation.

Armor: Mix of Knights, Clerics, and Prec/Heal/Vit pieces (full Dwayna)
Weapons: Always a Knight’s GS (Sigil of Blood), with either main hand Axe or Sword and whatever offhand for the situation

Trinkets: Berserker Earrings, Knight Rings, Knight Necklace, Cleric Spineguard

Total states:
Attack: 2,561
Crit Chance: 33%
Armor: 2,754
Health: 17,842 (810 Healing Power)

Pets: I switch pet loadouts fairly often but in PvE I use raven or lynx with either devourer or drake (UGH PLEASE FIX DRAKES). In WvW I usually use raven or jaguar and wolf.

I’ve had this setup for a while now and for ME personally, it’s pretty well balanced for what I do and how I play. I’m attempting to raise cooking for the -40% condition duration for when I’m roaming in WvW, and I have even contemplated a Melandru rune set but still playing around with the idea.

Nice thread full of very good advices.

Beardmonger.4692:

Total states:
Attack: 2,561
Crit Chance: 33%
Armor: 2,754
Health: 17,842 (810 Healing Power)

u sure you got those stats right? here is what according to the calculator I should get with the build I posted earlier (if the link doesn’t wrk try try copy + paste):

Attack3469
Crit. chance35%
Armor2849
Health24022 (300 Healing)

I dont have all the gear inGame yet, but thats what I should turn out with. Rabbit already pointed out that my healing is too low and my HP too high. Still those stats are considerably higher than yours, only lacking the 550 healing you got, how is that possible?

Something else:

Would you mind sharing some of your combat experiences with your survival ranger? As in how you behave in combat? I am coming from playing a AH/Hammer/GS Guardian and havent found my sweet spot yet on how to behave in battle. Most of the time I find myself spamming GS #1, putting my CC + pet abilites down and use Quickness on cool down.

EDIT: Could you also point out why exactly you use Healing Spring, what benefits you see in it?

Gorath, maybe its because my stats are more spread out?

With my GS equipped:

Power: 1,724
Precision: 1,541
Toughness: 1,779
Vitality: 1,102

With that as my GS stat allocation, it comes out to 2,824 Attk, 2,843 Armor, 34% Crit.

In regards to my combat behavior, PvE is mostly whatever you want. In general I use the GS when I’m being overwhelmed or fighting 3+ mobs at once. If I’m trying to grind single to double mobs one after another I’ll use sword main hand with dps pets utilizing the fantastic burst via Zephyr’s Speed.

In WvW, if solo roaming, I have a GS and Sword/Dagger loadout. A great combo that I’ve started getting used to using effectively is Swoop-ing to a target, Hilt Bash, weapon swap + pet swap (preferably pet swapping to your DPS pet) and melting the target via Zephyr’s Speed. This is versus 1 or maybe 2 enemies. Anything more and I’ll play more defensively (coaxing them into underwater combat, making them chase me until one separates from the rest, pulling them into allied NPCs, etc.)

In small groups I switch out the dagger for the warhorn and play a more supportive role. In zergs I switch the sword out for an axe and play, again, supportive control role. And in sieges, I use the black jaguar pet, Guard, QZ, and RaO for the still hilarious way he can take out squishies on walls or drastically help take out siege/oil and harass the operators.

I should also mention that whenever I WvW, I always turn autotargetting OFF. It makes using Swoop for fleeing or travelling much easier.

As for why Healing Spring: it’s partly because I sporadically join other allies and I’m too lazy to constantly switch to another heal when going back to solo, partly because of the regen boon from it to take advantage of the Dwayna set and/or Nature’s Bounty, and probably more partly because my play style (and in my opinion, the ranger in general) lacks an efficient condition removal. I know Empathic Bond is seen as a fantastic condition remover, but because of the rather lower health of my build, I’d rather take Bark Skin for those nasty bursts when I’m not paying attention.

I hope this helps some (one way or the other)!

Let me go a little bit deeper to explain why healing power is important and why healing spring is important (it’s definitely not overrated , that’s the best ranger skill especially in wvw) :
1st, What is healing power really for? Before answer this question, look around and you will found ppl complaining about thief + D/D ele to be OP. Why they seem OP? It’s coz their ability to RESET THE FIGHT. Everyone makes mistakes(sometime also related to luck) especially in tough fight, but if you have the ability to reset fight, you can always have a fresh start to try again, and if ur opponent don’t have this ability, he will lose sooner or later. We rangers don’t have the powerful tools such as stealth or super mobility as D/D ele(in fact our mobility is pretty good), our best tool to reset fight is —- healing power.
2nd, Healing Spring is the best healing skill of all classes. It can instant heal u for a pretty decent amount(base heal+1st pulse) and also provide the longest lasting water field plus the condition removal. Why + regen duration trait(Nature bounty) or gears is important here: for healing spring, it heals u per pulse but not the real per second as regen boon, so anything + regen duration to xfer to healing amount increase. Not to mention that Water field + 2 leap finisher (GS + sword) will give you 2x extra instant healing as well.
3rd, what the sweet point of healing power VS HP. This is based on your play style, I am here just give some numbers:
Option 1: If you have 1000 healing power+Nature bounty+rune of flock: the moment you pop up healing spring, you get 6000(base heal)1200(1st pulse)1200 (flock)=8400, if you use one of leap finishers (GS or sword), you get another 1800, so totally that’s 10.2k instant heal. Then if you stay longer enough inside it, you get another 6k(another 5x pulses) and another at least 2x leaps heal (3600), so that’s totally 20k heal. — Practically you might not stay full 15 sec inside the circle but you also never pop spring when HP drop near 0(usually speaking the botom line is 20-25%), so it bring your HP back to full in most of time(assuming that you stay in circle for 1/2 of time). This is the reason why I say 20k HP+1000 healing power is a good balance.
Option 2: If you have 300 healing power and w/o nature bounty and either flock or dwayna: the instant healing number will drop to 5200+900+1500=7600 with leap. And even you stay full 15 sec with another 2 leaps, the total is only 14k heal. And same reason as above, practically you might get only ~10k healing since you might not stay in circle all the time, which is only equal to the instant healing amount of option 1.
So for 20k HP+1000 healing, you can pop spring every 15k damage taken, but 24k+300 healing, you have to pop it every 10k damage taken. So can you do 50% more damage by not using 1000 healing power? That’s why in a long fight, healing power is always the key to win.

Gorath.5076:

Vecuu.2018:

I still feel that 0/0/30/25/15 is hard to beat.

I agree for this is what I have been using before changing to the more CC oriented approach in order to be more valuable in group play.
Yet I believe Healing Spring is a bit overrated in WvW. You simply move to much. I find it hard to put a spring at a strategic position where I can either stand in it or shoot through it comfortably … But maybe thats just me.

What Rabbit said concerning pets I totally agree. A good deal of Damage comes from the pet and the Weapon skills which further enhance their offence (sword 1) are grossly underrated. I will definitely try to turn of auto targeting and also started weaving in a bit of healing power.
Your point that an ‘effective health’ pool is worth much more than just pushing health is very right and is what I did with my guardian, too. High Health only helps with countering high burst damage. After that it is much more important to be able to reduce the steady incoming damage through toughness and provide some decent healing.

PS: I replaced muddy ground with Spike trap. CD is 5 secs higher but has lower casttime and no ground target, meaning less to worry about in stressfull melee struggles.

Why use spike trap when you already have entangle? These 2 skills basically same idea but entangle = much more powerful. If I were you, I will use ROA when having spike trap or replace spike trap when having entangle.

Gorath.5076:

PS: I replaced muddy ground with Spike trap. CD is 5 secs higher but has lower casttime and no ground target, meaning less to worry about in stressfull melee struggles.

Nice to hear more ppl is getting used to this combo. I posted it weeks ago and called it ranger’s version of back-stab+heartseeker combo but not many ppl liked it.
1 more suggestion: use ROA before this combo(if you traited NM 15+ for fortify bond), it makes u+ur pet hit harder and unstoppable !

Beardmonger.4692:

In WvW, if solo roaming, I have a GS and Sword/Dagger loadout. A great combo that I’ve started getting used to using effectively is Swoop-ing to a target, Hilt Bash, weapon swap + pet swap (preferably pet swapping to your DPS pet) and melting the target via Zephyr’s Speed. This is versus 1 or maybe 2 enemies.

YOU’RE the one I read the combo from! Hahah I couldn’t remember . Thanks for posting it!

Thanks for the comprehensive Answer CRabbit
I am now playing around with all the Info you guys gave me and will hopefully be able to give you some feedback soon.