Guild Wars 2

Things to note:

• I don’t care if Ranger sucks.* Take your butthurt somewhere else. There are, literally, pages upon pages in this forum filled with threads that are more than happy to lap up your tears. Go cry there.

In HERE I would like intelligent discourse regarding ideas on how to build this type of character.

• I don’t care if GS and Sword sucks.* GS and Sword+OH is preferred. I’m well aware of GS and Swords short comings. They are well documented.

The objective is to work out a build(s) that has staying power on point or the ability to keep multiple foes tied up in transit to points. I was looking at trap builds which initially piqued my interest on the topic. Spirits just seemed too squishy for this type of role given the copious amounts of aoe in PvP.

Any advice or subject related resources you can point me to would be most appreciated.

Shared anguish, martial mastery, bark skin from wilderness survival. primal reflexes.
Nature’s protection, nature’s bounty from nature magic.
Primal reflexes from skirmishing and predator’s instinct from marksmanship.

Offhand : axe for me.

Utilities: Protect me, lightning reflexes, stone spirit.

That the build that i used for “hold the line” tank. You last long, you do no dmg.

Pets: MoA and i dont remember the other. One is with the protection buff and the other with the regen.

Curious why GS is preferred? Is it just because of the evasion on the auto?

The reason I ask is because the Ranger’s greatest tankiness comes from his ability to evade attacks completely. This means lots of dodge rolling, obviously. But ideally it also means not being in range of melee attacks at all whenever you can avoid it.

Shortbow is the better secondary weapon for this role. Not only does it do more damage, but it lets you kite damage more effectively with attacks 3 and 4. With some practice, you can kite in very small spaces with the Shortbow, even while fighting on a point.

So, general suggestions for a tank build:

• Use Spirit of Nature for them sick Spirit Rezzes.

• Use Healing Spring. Great group utility, on-demand condition removal, and the best healing available when fighting on a point.

• Use 6/6 Dwayna runes. Stacks really well with Natures Bounty (tier 1 Nature Magic). The added regen duration you get makes the regen from Healing Spring actually last longer than Healing Spring’s cooldown. This means constant regeneration while fighting on a point.

• Use Signet of Renewal and Signet of the Wild. More passive regen and passive condi removal = super good.

• Use either Protect Me or Signet of Stone for your last utility. Signet of Stone if you want to dedicate 30 points in Marks for Signet of the Beastmaster. I’m not a fan, personally, because it requires 30 points in an otherwise lackluster tree. Some builds use both Protect Me and traited Signet of Stone for a full 12 seconds of invulnerability. I’m personally not a fan for the aforementioned reason.

• Use Spider and/or Wolf pets. As a damage source pets are pretty lame, but they have good utility. Immobilizes from Spiders is very good for kiting. AoE fear from Wolf is amazing for getting people off a point, or for preventing a rez or stomp.

• In addition to Nature’s Bounty from the Nature’s Magic line, take at least 20 points in Wilderness Survival for Shared Anguish and Hide in Plain sight. These abilities are amazing passive cc countermeasures. Also take at least 10 points in Skirmishing for Primal Reflexes, because more dodging = more better.

• Amulet depends on how tanky you want to be, but in general, Cleric’s is a pretty good choice for this type of build. If you want to go the condition damage route with Shortbow bleeds and Sword / Torch poison+burning, Shaman’s is a good bet.

There’s a lot of flexibility here, but those are some general guidelines you might find useful.

1.) Evade on auto
2.) Block/Kick
3.) Interrupt
4.) GARGANTUAN gap closer (or retreat).
5.) AoE so I don’t have to worry about LoS’ing myself
6.) It’s manly.

The point is to be ON the point. Not around it. Not looking at it. ON it. I’m currently playing with a guardian and we work well together. I’m exploring options as currently I use LB as a secondary strictly for the KB but I’m trying to get a handle on sword. Using traps primarily and Hyena F2 has been clutch on so many occasions. If nothing else it creates more noise especially for tabbers.

I’m very much enjoying this role; just exploring other possibilities that players have experience with.

Rickshaw for tanky Mouse gave good advice. Not having my notes and going from memory I also had good luck ignoring toughness and going VIt/heal using crit proc heals. + spring+stacking regen as he/she suggests. Against non condition opponents troll ungent seemed to perform better switch just prior to the moment.

0/25/0/20/25(maybe those last two reversed, I’ld move 5 to endurance regen if redoing it anyways) – Cleric amulet or the power/precision/vitality I think it is. +heal doesn’t do a ton healing with crit procs worked better.

I found myself wishing the MOA’s protection really did last 10 seconds as advertized not 4. That plus the vigor buff in the pet line on summon would have been helpful in all tanky builds I messed around with.

I will play around with heal procs and see how that works out. Not sure about Ungent though. Me keeping with Spring and my buddy with Breeze is working very well. Not sure I’d want to mess with that.

You should try out a spirit build a few times too; the double hp trait helps a lot, I found big aoes from eles to be the main problem.

With a spirit based build, try using runes on your armor that boost boon duration, and don’t be scared to mix runes to really focus on boon duration.

For weapon runes in that tanky role I usually went for hydromancy for the chill, and used shortbow for the kiting (which u can do on a point like mouse pointed out).

With the traits obviously 30 in NM, if you are just fighting on a point you could try not having mobile spirits, but I’ve never done that. The rest pretty much as mouse etal have pointed out, but I try to take 30 toughness because I like the damage reduction trait.

I’ve never tried that build with greatsword, should be interesting. I think I’ll take it for a spin myself.

My take on Greatsword Rangers:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/66729-how-to-be-a-great-greatsword-ranger/

Please note that is was written with PvE in mind primarily, but I have had solid success in casual SPvP with it. Specific changes to note about SPvP is that I pair up the Greatsword with a Shortbow (instead of my Axe/Horn for PvE) and two Canines, focusing on wearing down opponents to about half health, then swapping pets, at which point the new Canine will knock them down, I pop Zepher, and proceed to Daze their much needed heal with one weapon, then swap to the other weapon and do the same. Double knockdown. Double daze.

Pretty deadly.

Vecuu.2018:

My take on Greatsword Rangers:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/66729-how-to-be-a-great-greatsword-ranger/

Please note that is was written with PvE in mind primarily, but I have had solid success in casual SPvP with it. Specific things to note is that I pair up the Greatsword with a Shortbow and two Canines, focusing on wearing down opponents to about half health, then swapping pets, at which point the new Canine will knock them down, I pop Zepher, and proceed to Daze their much needed heal with one weapon, then swap to the other weapon and do the same. Double knockdown. Double daze.

Pretty deadly.

This is one of the best GS builds I have seen though I can’t seem to get GS to work it does do really well when you are able to use pet swaps for 2sec quickness and time that burst with fire trap and using GS combo finishers.