Guild Wars 2

My guildies and I hate having rangers in our dungeon parties. However, recently I did an Arah dungeon run, and a Ranger came along, and he completely shattered my concept of Rangers being awful. He kept the team up, still dealt decent damage, and was just generally useful.

So I have decided to roll up a ranger and give it a try. I prefer builds of classes with at least a little support(Shout warrior, stealth thief, wellomancer necro, etc.), and this ranger seemed to be using support, too.

So how does one build a support ranger?

Arah? Seriously?? … umm oh jeez. I’d really look for a Thief guide on it first TBH, then try to come up with your own hybrid out of that. Your #1 focus is just going to be movement/endurance & running support in general & hopefully some condition removal on top. And the more time you can spend in Melee without being downed, obviously the better (with most fights anyway, to the exception of Simin where changing ALL your Traits and even bringing a second set of gear maybe be necessary).

I can try bringing mine into some Arah EXP and let ya know how it went…. (but I’d rather not infringe like that on 4 strangers unless it was in the name of science …I’m pretty sure they’d MUCH rather only ever see my Guardian in these things).

I mean I could see it being good on Path1… but I really question its overall viability in Paths2 & 4… I think a good way to pretest it, Honestly… without getting into a team first?… y’know when Karka Queen comes up, and that big group of Wind Riders with insane ranged damage spam spawns about halfway in?… Yeah aggro as many of them as you can and see how long you can stay alive. Bonus points if you can run right through them like I’ve done and pull them AWAY from the Zerg without being completely downed then defeated… (the premise here ironically, is having your boons stripped)

Support ranger? Use Healing Spring. It helps to run Vigorous Renewal to have your spring grant vigor for a further boost. Spirits can also be run for team boosting, and I hear of many using “Guard” when traited with Nature’s Voice to grant party regen and swiftness.

Many of these skills are better done in melee, so you’d probably want to run at least one melee weapon and stay in melee as much as you can.

lulz… spirits & spring in Lupi’s Coliseum…
(only with the Mes reflect stacking cheese du jor)

ilr.9675:

lulz… spirits & spring in Lupi’s Coliseum…
(only with the Mes reflect stacking cheese du jor)

He was asking of support ranger ideas. Not of GL specific fighting. No, I would not run those against GL. That’s just a bad idea.

Kuraku.3654:

So how does one build a support ranger?

Equip Healing Spring, congratulations, you’re now support ranger.
No but seriously, all power to you if you want to try support ranger, but there are other profs suited far better for support.

Thanks for the answers so far!
@irl: I was just referencing when I saw a ranger do really well. Arah is crazy enough that I think I will stick to one of my heavies. None the less, good advice. I think I will use that karka queen/wind rider test sometime!

@SynfulChaot: Hmm… those both sound like good ideas! And don’t worry, I really like ranger melee. I was thinking of using GS and Axe/Warhorn.

SynfulChaot.3169:

ilr.9675:

lulz… spirits & spring in Lupi’s Coliseum…
(only with the Mes reflect stacking cheese du jor)

He was asking of support ranger ideas. Not of GL specific fighting. No, I would not run those against GL. That’s just a bad idea.

Aight… where WOULD you run them then? Against the wizard who’s super long lasting AOE’s are guaranteed to vaporize them? Crusher who’s guaranteed to aim in their direction eventually? the Wraith Rally where any1 who stops moving in figure 8’s eventually gets 100-hand slapped to death? Or maybe the longer paths where you’re just running 24/7? Why? As distractions that buy 1 extra second after they’re all one-shot?…if you’re running right and dodging enough you don’t even need distractions.

Details are required here… or atleast example playstyles other classes have success with

Kuraku.3654:

Thanks for the answers so far!
@irl: I was just referencing when I saw a ranger do really well. Arah is crazy enough that I think I will stick to one of my heavies. None the less, good advice. I think I will use that karka queen/wind rider test sometime!

right on, Good luck with it! I mean like I said, do your OWN experiments first. You might find something that works better than what I’ve got! …and if it can survive their crazy ranged DPS, then it can probably stand up to Lupi, Risen Mesmers, & Dead-eyes too….

ilr.9675:

Aight… where WOULD you run them then? Against the wizard who’s super long lasting AOE’s are guaranteed to vaporize them? Crusher who’s guaranteed to aim in their direction eventually? the Wraith Rally where any1 who stops moving in figure 8’s eventually gets 100-hand slapped to death? Or maybe the longer paths where you’re just running 24/7? Why? As distractions that buy 1 extra second after they’re all one-shot?…if you’re running right and dodging enough you don’t even need distractions.

Details are required here… or atleast example playstyles other classes have success with

I, personally, don’t run spirits as I find them to be too weak. But I do know some that have run them and claim success. I want to run spirits, but they are still but shades of their former splendor from GW1.

Healing Spring with Vigorous Renewal, though, I run pretty much everywhere. You need to stay too mobile in the GL fight (and Subject Alpha as well), but everywhere else it is the heal skill to take.

Melee’d Lupicus. Wilderness trait to transfer Knockbacks is really important here, otherwise you’ll just get knocked out of the Mesmer’s Feedback bubble. I think I also got a nice Whirling Blades off during one of his multi-bolt shots that also reflects quite a bit. I noticed I had his Aggro quite often too, if you can handle that aggro and not get 2-shotted, then you can usually regen fast enough to tank him well into Stage3.

Umm.. Spring actually was juuust enough group Healing which I was surprised by. B/c it’s usually never enough compared to Troll Unguent when you’re holding aggro from Champions for the Temple Runs. Reading Lupi’s telegraphs though in Melee range seems a lot harder though than it should be and I’m not sure why. So if half the team isn’t reading those telegraphs properly then your Spring probably won’t keep THEM up.

— uh pets? (for Melee) Drakes/Moas … obvious reasons should be obvious…

Sig of Stone & Wild are also pretty important for learning it IMO and also keeping your Pet up, but I don’t see any reason you couldn’t drop those later and put real support skills in there (umm, assuming we have any besides quickness for getting others back up faster once every 60 seconds :p) …with enough practice, and enough Crits, ya might even be able to drop Rampage but I don’t know why you’d want to… the extra Damage & Stability is just too good to pass up here IMO.

I just don’t think there’s any way to drop Great Sword though. I just found it way too important for this fight. You get KB’d? It gets you right back in bubble range instantly. Big hit coming and you’re somehow out of Endurance? Block FTW. DPS could be better but I see no other alternative here unless your group wants to do it ranged and then it just takes 2-3x longer :p

Hope these observations help. The main thing starting off I think is just to be able to survive and be the last one downed and to keep regenerating faster than anyone else so you can keep getting them back up and hopefully there’s a Guardian or two cycling Stability when yours is on cooldown. Support = Reviving? …right?

— Would NOT recommend all HTP gear for this. As the extra Toughness might just cause his Aggro to be locked on you full-time and you don’t want that as mostly support. Reyna’s Set is a lot better IMO b/c you need all the Vitality you can get!

— No idea yet what would be the best Rune/Orb set(s). Sorry :\